The reNEWable Technology Expo is an event focused on innovative clean energy alternatives, ready for licensing, marketing or other forms of collaboration.

The high cost of gas at the pump has once again exposed a deeper problem of energy insecurity in the United States, where decades of warning have reached a new crisis.

Meanwhile, scientists and engineers at the national laboratories have seen a set of national economic security tasks added to their standard national security portfolio.

Recognizing a timely moment and an issue very much in the public eye, the three laboratories, with University of California ties, are taking a coordinated approach to getting some of their ideas out into the world.

Duncan McBranch, Tech Transfer division leader at LANL, said the expo grew out of a realization that each of the labs had some good technologies.

"Together we could be really great," he said.

A new strategy under development by the laboratories recognizes that a set of seemingly unrelated patents can be bundled into a valuable package of intellectual properties and capabilities.

For LANL the meeting will afford an opportunity to get better visibility in one of the best investment communities in the country, he said.

"Los Alamos is strong in fuel cells and hydrogen storage," said McBranch. "We are already partnering with other labs and have industry partnerships with Chevron and AES."

The meeting has been coordinated by John "Grizz" Deal, one of LANL's "visiting entrepreneurs," working in the tech transfer division.

In a telephone conversation this morning, Deal listed areas the lab wants to spotlight: hydrogen storage, NOX (nitrogen oxide) reduction in vehicles), carbon sequestration and planning, software that reduces power consumption in computing, and the lab's entire fuel cell and conductivity portfolio.

"And a thing that's really cool," he added, "is aligned crystallized silicon for solar cells," a new invention at Los Alamos that would replace the most expensive component in solar cells for a fraction of the current costs.

Last month, the global energy corporation AES announced that it was setting up a separate alternative energy business group with a $1 billion investment over three years.

Included in the plans is a strategic partnership with LANL "to identify, evaluate and bring to market new technologies in the alternative energy area."

Deal said the AES relationship, along with a similar arrangement with Chevron, are good examples of how to work with a national laboratory.

"It's not somebody walking in and saying, 'Give me all your patents,'" he said, but rather long-term in-depth collaborations.

"We provide solutions to their problems and we invent cool stuff for them."

The expo is an outgrowth of previous work by the University of California Tech Transfer Advisory Committee.

Technology Ventures Corporation, the Albuquerque-based company that facilitates commercialization at DOE laboratories in New Mexico, Nevada and California is a co-host.

The sponsors of the annual New Mexico Equity Capital Symposium, TVC is also contributing one of their specialties by helping the expo get in touch with the venture capital network.

The meeting takes place June 13, 8:30-11 a.m. in SRI International Auditorium, 333 Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park, Calif.

More information: On the web, www.threelabs.com or call 505-843-4221.