The US has launched a $20 million (£13.6m) fund to help take energy technologies from the labs to the market.

The money from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) will boost the development of technologies with commercial potential and help strengthen links between labs and private sector companies.

Laboratories can apply for a share of the Technology Commercialisation Fund (TFC) until this spring.

The strongest proposals that show a promising energy technology as well as a proposed funding match will be selected to be part of the programme.

National labs have historically laid the research and development foundation for many technologies in the marketplace today, including the batteries powering electric vehicles, DOE stated.

Jetta Wong, Director of the OTT: “Every day our national labs are developing innovative new technologies that have the potential to revolutionise the way we generate, store and transmit energy. But in order to accelerate the use of clean energy technologies, we need to get more of these breakthroughs out of our labs and into our marketplace.”