Advanced Energy Award Pilot Program

Advanced Energy Award Pilot Program is sponsored by New Mexico Economic Development Department's Technology and Innovation Office. Supports New Mexico companies developing and commercializing advanced energy technologies.

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Creative Industries Division (CID) Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Office Technology and Innovation Office (TIO) Food, Hunger, and Agriculture Program New Mexico MainStreet Program (NMMS) Office of International Trade (OIT) Outdoor Recreation Division (ORD) Technology and Innovation Office Helping you grow your technology-based business in New Mexico.

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Technology and Innovation Office (TIO) New Mexico Advanced Energy Award New Mexico Advanced Energy Award The New Mexico Advanced Energy Award (NMAEA) is a competitive state-funded grant that awards non-dilutive funds to small businesses engaged in research and development or pilot demonstrations with a focus on advanced energy innovation and commercialization.

TIO defines advanced energy as technology and innovation that makes energy use cleaner, safer, more secure, and more reliable. The funds seek to assist early-stage companies developing a unique product with strong growth potential.

Through this award, the New Mexico Economic Development Department (EDD) ultimately seeks to support the retention, expansion, or relocation of economic-base businesses, the creation of jobs in economic-base businesses, the development of the tax base, and business development. Applicants may request any amount up to $1,000,000 but should only request what is needed to successfully complete the proposed work.

Awards will be made dependent on application evaluation scoring and funding availability. The NMAEA may not be first money in. Companies will be required to provide documentation of previously secured funding from additional sources.

The NMAEA is split into two award classes: Research and Development (R&D) and Pilot Projects. Applicants can only apply for one of the two award classes below, not both. Igniting new discoveries, fostering groundbreaking scientific inquiry, and developing novel technologies from concept to early-stage prototypes.

This award class supports companies engaged in foundational R&D, proof-of-concept, product development, aiming to translate scientific and technical advancements into tangible, market-ready solutions. Only companies headquartered in New Mexico are eligible for this award class. Bringing promising innovations to life through real-world application, testing, and scaled demonstrations.

This award class supports transitioning research into practical, market-ready solutions. Ideal for projects ready to prove their viability, gather critical data, and showcase their impact through pilot demonstrations or initial deployments.

Companies headquartered in or outside New Mexico are eligible for this awards class; out-of-state companies must be authorized to do business in New Mexico, establish and maintain an in-state presence, and use awarded funds to support New Mexico activities. Applications are now closed.

GridFlow delivers energy storage at the edge of the grid using vanadium flow batteries — a fire-proof technology built for 4+ hour discharge durations that helps utilities make fuller use of variable-generation assets like wind and solar. GridFlow is developing a new method of electrolyte manufacturing in New Mexico, with a long-term goal of sourcing vanadium mined in the Four Corners region.

GridFlow was a previous AEA awardee in 2024 and will use this funding to build upon the work previously enabled by the state. Halo Materials, Inc . $1,000,000 Halo Materials is onshoring production of high-purity graphite, a critical mineral for the battery, nuclear, and defense industries.

Using domestic hydrocarbon feedstocks and proprietary technology, Halo produces premium-grade graphite at a fraction of the typical cost — closing the price gap with overseas producers who currently control nearly all of the global supply and securing a domestic source for the battery and nuclear industries.

Liberty Fusion Inc. $625,000 Liberty Fusion is developing a modular fusion energy system based on Plasma-Jet Driven Magneto-Inertial Fusion (PJMIF) technology pioneered at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Using modular plasma gun architecture, standard industrial materials, and rapid hardware iteration, the company aims to deliver a lower-cost path to commercial fusion.

Its first system, a flexible high-energy-density plasma platform, will support fusion development, extreme environment testing, and long-duration clean power generation. Molten Salt Solutions Inc. $900,000 Molten Salt Solutions is an isotope enrichment company producing enriched lithium for advanced energy applications.

Building on Los Alamos National Laboratory technology, its proprietary dual flow counter-current chromatography and solvent extraction process is roughly 100 times more efficient than legacy methods. The company is now scaling industrial production of enriched lithium, a critical material for next-generation fusion and carbon-free energy systems.

Surface Transfer, Inc. $650,000 Surface Transfer, Inc. (operating as HeatFlow) is developing a new generation of geothermal power plants that convert the Earth’s heat into clean, 24/7 electricity more efficiently and affordably.

By replacing the costly Organic Rankine Cycle turbines that dominate the industry with its Trilateral Flash Cycle two-phase turbine, HeatFlow aims to generate up to 20% more electricity from each geothermal well at roughly half the equipment cost of conventional systems.

Airloom Energy Inc. $925,000 Airloom Energy has rethought traditional wind turbine architecture, building track-based, low-profile, modular wind generators that use standard installation equipment to reach sites conventional turbines can’t. The design brings lower-cost, utility-scale wind power online in months rather than years.

Airloom will work with Kit Carson Electric Cooperative to select a New Mexico site for a 5 MW pilot demonstration. Circularity Fuels, Inc. $1,000,000 Circularity Fuels is developing modular technology that converts dairy biogas into clean, drop-in liquid fuels, including sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel.

Its farm-scale system pairs the Ouro reformer, which converts raw biogas into synthesis gas, with the Aion Fischer-Tropsch reactor, which turns that gas into finished hydrocarbon fuels — converting a local agricultural waste stream into high-value biofuel. Circularity Fuels will work with MAAS Energy Works to deploy and validate a skid-mounted pilot unit at MAAS’s dairy biogas facility in Lovington.

Convective Technology Company $960,000 Convective is an early-stage company working with national laboratories, university researchers, and state regulators to use ground-based heat sources to create the atmospheric conditions needed for rain cloud formation. Through controlled field testing, the company is developing a new tool for unlocking water and energy abundance from the atmosphere.

Convective will partner with Spaceport America, the Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research at New Mexico Tech, and the National Wind Technology Center at the National Laboratory of the Rockies for its first full-power demonstration at Elephant Butte Lake in Sierra County. Firescape is developing GridWatch™, a wildfire risk and mitigation software-as-a-service for utilities.

The platform combines satellite-based vegetation imagery, weather forecasting, and AI to recommend mitigation actions — such as when to disable automatic reclosing to reduce ignition risk — helping utilities balance safety and reliability for the communities they serve.

Firescape will work with PNM on a full-scale deployment of its GridWatch wildfire situational awareness platform on PNM’s operational systems across its New Mexico service territory. Firescape was a previous AEA awardee in 2025 and will use this funding to build upon the work previously enabled by the state.

Carbogenics USA (Santa Fe) $440,000 The company upcycles liability biomass, like fire-devastated forest woodlands, into a novel biochar called CreChar that can be used as a bio-additive to enhance the production volume and quality of biogas, and prevent carbon emissions.

Firescape Inc. (Albuquerque) $500,000 Firescape delivers the most advanced suite of wildfire management tools to assist electric utility companies in confronting increasing wildfire risk. KiloNewton LLC (Albuquerque) $550,000 They provide full-scope solar design engineering services and engineering consulting services to solar tracker manufacturers worldwide to make renewable energy more competitive.

Spiritus Technologies PBC (White Rock) $925,000 Spiritus offers high-quality direct-air capture (DAC) carbon removal that captures and isolates megaton-scale CO2 from the atmosphere.

VastVision Technologies, Inc. (Albuquerque) $925,000 The company is developing a new class of wireless and passive magnetoelastic sensor systems and integrated software, including MagTag, which enables real-time, interference-immune sensing of hydrogen gas leaks, ground faults, and environmental conditions.

As finalists at the pitch event, Dash2 Labs in Albuquerque and The Trollworks in Silver City, were also awarded $10,000 each to support further growth. Flow Aluminum is developing safe, low-cost, high-performance aluminum batteries for electric vehicles, grid storage, and other energy-storage applications to accelerate the transition to electrification.

Flow Aluminum’s technology is based on research developed in collaboration with the University of New Mexico. GridFlow is developing a novel battery formulation and design to deliver cost-effective and safe long duration energy storage products. GridFlow’s technology was developed at Sandia National Laboratories.

Hydrosonics is developing a novel electrolyzer architecture that will produce the most accessible and affordable clean hydrogen. The company is implementing acoustic technology into proven liquid alkaline electrolyzers to directly integrate with intermittent renewable energy – creating a system that dramatically reduces both capital and operational costs to produce the fuel of the future.

Pajarito Powder, LLC $766,000 Pajarito Powder is the only domestic innovator and manufacturer of advanced catalysts for hydrogen fuel cells and electrolyzers. The company currently has an immediate and growing demand for their product and is in the process of accelerating commercial production.

Sigma Advanced Technologies $300,500 Sigma Advanced Technologies has developed dual technologies that use ozone to remove contaminants from produced water and capture and neutralize PFAS. Elements of Sigma’s PFAS-treatment technology were originally developed at Sandia National Laboratories.

TS-Nano manufactures nano-modified polymer sealants to address the complex challenges of methane leakage from operating, abandoned, and orphaned oil and gas wells. TS-Nano’s technology was originally developed at the University of New Mexico. UbiQD is a global leader in quantum dot manufacturing and technology.

They focus on large-area applications involving sunlight spectrum optimization, specifically for enhanced solar energy and crop production. UbiQD’s technology was originally developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. UbiQD’s award includes $50,000 for the best company pitch at the award finalist pitch event.

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