In a ceremony attended by the state secretary of energy and environmental affairs, the director of energy initiatives at Google, and the CEO of NSTAR, the state’s largest utility, the $200,000 MIT Clean Energy Prize was awarded yesterday to a Michigan startup, Husk Insulation, whose innovations could help make refrigerators far more efficient—and roomier to boot.

Funded by NSTAR and the U.S. Department of Energy, the grand prize honors the student team with the most convincing and promising business plan for a successful energy or clean technology startup. It was part of over $500,000 in cash and in-kind prizes handed out to five student-led startups yesterday, including Husk and the winners in four subcategories of this year’s competition.

The Obama Administration has made the push for higher efficiency standards for household appliances, including refrigerators, a key part of its energy policy. In a three-minute “rocket pitch” for Husk before the prize announcement yesterday, Husk vice president of sales and marketing Erica Graham said the company’s patented technology—in which rice husk ash is converted into the core material for vacuum-sealed insulating panels—could increase refrigerator efficiency by up to 50 percent. Moreover, the superior thermal properties of this agricultural byproduct mean that a 1-inch-thick panel containing rice husk ash provides as much insulation as a 4-inch-thick panel filled with polystyrene. So refrigerators made with the new material could have 20 percent more interior space on the same footprint.

If every refrigerator in the United States were replaced with a model containing Husk Insulation’s material, the country could reduce its annual electricity consumption by 57 billion kilowatt hours—the equivalent of closing 31 coal-fired power plants, Graham said. Such a reduction would cut the nation’s overall carbon-dioxide emissions by 1.5 percent. And that’s not even counting the reductions in petroleum consumption that would come from avoiding polystyrene.

Walking away from the competition with a $200,000 check was “exhilarating,” Graham told Xconomy after the announcement. “There were so many teams that were very qualified. We’re very excited.”

Graham said the money would be a key part of the seed round for Husk, which advanced to the finals of the clean energy competition by winning in the biomass category—an achievement that itself carried a $10,000 prize, sponsored by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Renewable Energy Trust. The money “will help us get to a market-ready prototype,” Graham said.

Husk has been making the rounds of the cleantech business-plan competitions. In March, the startup won second prize in the Cleantech Venture Challenge hosted by the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Leeds School of Business. The same month, it won the $21,000 second-place award in a clean energy prize competition in Ann Arbor, MI, sponsored by Detroit-based utility DTE Energy.

The other finalists competing for the $200,000 grand prize included three startups led by MIT students and one led by students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY. Bob talked with students from several of the teams at last Friday’s reception for MIT-affiliated finalists in the Clean Energy Prize Competition and the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition.

Levant Power, as winner of the transportation category, collected a $10,000 prize sponsored by Sandia National Laboratory’s Combustion Research Facilities. The company is developing an energy-recovering shock absorber for military vehicles, large trucks, and hybrid gas-electric cars. Founder Shakeel Avadhany, an MIT undergraduate, says the device can increase vehicle fuel economy by …Next Page »

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Aspen Aerogels, the maker of nanotechnology-based insulation products, has snagged $37 million in venture capital, according to a statement on the company’s website. The privately-held company, based in Northborough, MA, received the investment from Arcapita Ventures, Lehman Brothers Venture Partners, Reservoir Capital Group, and RockPort Capital Partners.

The company says its aerogel-based insulation products are as much as eight times more effective at conserving heat and energy than existing materials. That enables customers to save money in various industries like oil and gas production, airplane manufacturing, and even outdoor clothing.

“Aspen’s proprietary aerogel technologies and manufacturing processes have the potential to redefine large portions of the $30 billion global insulation market,” said Ramsey Battin, director of Arcapita Ventures, in a company statement.

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