Renewable energy pioneers and startups, listen up! For nearly 25 years, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has hosted the annual Industry Growth Forum to help investors interested in solar and other renewable energy companies and innovators find each other. This year, the forum will be held at Denver’s Marriott City Center in October.

The clean energy forum is where the science and technology of renewables meets the market, and where investors can help new and existing companies expand with venture-capital funds. The forum helps NREL accomplish one of its most important goals; fostering new, renewable energy technologies and preparing them for the consumer market. By helping bring new technologies to the market, NREL takes the technology as far as it can go, then lets the market determine which new innovations will be the most successful in meeting consumer needs.

If you’re not a company or innovator, the forum still offers you valuable insight into the near future of renewable energy. Plus it offers exposure to industry insiders and investment markets.

Since 2003, the forum has helped photovoltaic startups and other renewable energy companies find $3.4 billion in capital to start or expand operations. The deadline for companies to apply for being included in the 2010 forum is July 16, so if you need startup cash or cash to expand your PV or solar thermal company, get your information together and get it in to the forum ASAP.

The benefits to presenting a company or prototype at the forum can be great. For instance, Alphabet Energy attended the forum last year. The company is a start-up that developed a method for recovering waste-heat and converting it to electricity; it has since gained more than $1 million in investment funds.

NREL selects the forum participants from all the applicants based on how comprehensive their applications are and what they propose bringing to market. And NREL helps selected companies refine their strategies for gaining financing.

Even if a company isn’t chosen as part of the forum, during the review and selection process, companies and products are exposed to more than 120 potential investors. And each application receives feedback from investment reviewers, which is a valuable tool for helping move products forward.