Witching Hour , a hard tech startup and member of Cohort 2025 of Innovation Crossroads , is wielding the support of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop technology that reduces wildfire risk by retrofitting powerlines with insulation in fire-prone areas. ORNL is the site of the Powerline Conductor Accelerated Testing Facility , one of the only facilities in the country where companies can try out new transmission line technologies for long time periods in a real-world environment.
In 2025, wildfires across the United States cost hundreds of billions of dollars in damage to homes, businesses, highways and other infrastructure, while disrupting the lives of millions of people. "I wanted to do something that could help people," said Witching Hour founder Lance Adler. "Overhead wires, which are often uninsulated, are a huge fire risk when they touch vegetation or foreign objects. If we could cover the wire and insulate it more efficiently, we can solve this problem for utility companies and local communities."
Current mitigation methods, such as undergrounding, or burying powerlines, or installing covered conductors, can cost millions per mile and take years to implement. Witching Hour's technology offers a faster, more affordable approach to improving the reliability of energy distribution for utilities, while lowering costs that often balloon after a disaster.
Robots, deployed by drones, would crawl powerlines and add a special coating to avoid sparking. The technology can be installed while powerlines remain live, operates independently of terrain and provides rapid grid hardening to protect communities from wildfires.
From idea to implementation
Adler has a long history of entrepreneurship, founding his first business as a high school student and continuing to work in startups through college. While working as an engineering contractor with PG&E, a utility company that provides service to approximately 16 million people throughout California, he began to consider how to build his idea from possibility to product.
Innovation Crossroads, a Department of Energy Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program node at ORNL, is designed to position hard tech entrepreneurs like Adler for success. Innovation Crossroads Fellows are connected to ORNL's world-leading researchers and scientific resources, along with entrepreneurship training through pitch sessions and marketing development.
The two-year fellowship program is managed and funded by DOE's Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation's (CMEI), including the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office, as well as DOE's Office of Electricity. Innovation Crossroads receives additional support from the Tennessee Valley Authority.
"Knoxville is the best place to build Witching Hour," said Adler. "I could immediately plug into the community and make the connections that I needed. I have access to local utility companies like the Knoxville Utilities Board, who have enabled us to use their facilities to complete critical testing and who can give feedback on our ideas, making this iterative process quicker."
Witching Hour is among many hard tech companies that take advantage of area resources and expertise to quickly establish and advance their businesses. "The connections fostered by the East Tennessee entrepreneurship community help Innovation Crossroads start-ups develop the roots that keep them here after graduation and continuing to drive local growth," said Kelly Wampler, Innovation Crossroads program manager. "Tennessee Valley Authority, one of our sponsors, encourages startups to test their technology with local utility companies like KUB. Startups that have successful demonstrations with smaller or local utilities are more likely to work with TVA down the road."
As part of the Innovation Crossroads program, Adler receives a substantial grant to use on collaborative R&D at ORNL. "Access to Oak Ridge is critical to further develop our existing technology," said Adler. "I don't think there's anything that ORNL can't do in the powerline or power testing space, so it's a great place to look at how can we expand what we're offering to the market. Access to resources like the Powerline Conductor Accelerated Testing Facility will enable us to do the kind of technology development that we can't do anywhere else or work on anywhere else."
As Witching Hour prepares for its first commercial appointment on the West Coast Adler is poised to transform wildfire mitigation with the support of Innovation Crossroads and ORNL.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science . - Brynn Downing
