RockeTruck receives Department of Energy funding
for advanced power converters
August 8, 2023
RockeTruck, Inc., a designer and manufacturer of advanced clean power systems, today announced that it has secured approximately $396,000 in new funding commitments from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to support development of advanced power converters. RockeTruck was selected for this funding after submitting two winning proposals through the DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
For the DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office, RockeTruck will develop an “Advanced Multiport Solar Converter” to address the need for solar inverters, DC/DC converters/optimizers, and multi-port devices to integrate and optimize distributed energy resources – in particular, solar generation – with energy storage capabilities and infrastructure for electric vehicle charging.
For the DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, RockeTruck will develop a “Fuel Cell Integrated Power Electronics Module” to promote standardization and manufacturing of power electronics for heavy-duty fuel cell applications.
Both projects are expected to result in development of new power converter products that complement RockeTruck’s existing business, which is to manufacture compact, portable power generators and energy storage systems using advanced hydrogen fuel cells and battery technologies.
"These new DOE awards recognize the innovation and potential benefits of RockeTruck’s new power electronics concepts, and move us one step closer to producing power converters that will help accelerate adoption of clean hydrogen, battery, and solar-based power systems” according to RockeTruck CEO Michael Simon, a serial entrepreneur whose companies have been developing clean energy and transportation products for the past three decades.
Both new DOE awards are Phase I SBIR contracts that continue until April 2024, after which RockeTruck is eligible to compete for significantly larger Phase II SBIR awards. These new awards come a year after RockeTruck received DOE funding to support development of its “Mobile Fuel Cell Generator” (MFCG), a portable generator that will benefit from the development of advanced power converters under RockeTruck’s new contracts. The MFCG is also being supported by the California Energy Commission (CEC), which awarded a $3 million grant to RockeTruck in 2022 to develop a mobile emergency backup power system to address the growing problem of grid power outages caused by wildfires.
RockeTruck is also establishing industry partnerships to enable the Company to manufacture advanced, high-energy battery cells and to integrate them into compact, highly safe battery modules. Development of advanced power converters complements these battery energy storage products as well as RockeTruck’s fuel cell generators. RockeTruck’s products can be combined in numerous ways to make renewable energy more accessible and affordable for an expanding array of sustainable power applications that will help combat global warming.