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Friday, February 13, 2009
Inside Clean Technology
Mitch Tyson tackles alternative energy tech, policy
By James M. Connolly
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Mitch Tyson was into clean tech before they called it that. Now, a couple of decades after he took a successful side trip into the semiconductor business, Tyson is back in the field of his first love — energy — and is one of a handful of experts in New England who can compare the world of energy following the 1973 OPEC oil embargo with today’s age of energy challenges.
He also has thoughts on what it will take for alternative energy solutions and related resource-saving initiatives to work this time around. Those thoughts center largely on the need for price signals — the price points that drive consumers, business or government to take action (see related article by Bruce Anderson on page 8).
Tyson, CEO of Advanced Electron Beams Inc. in Wilmington and a co-founder of the New England Clean Energy Council, dove into energy in the early 1970s when he was at MIT, earning master’s of science degrees in nuclear engineering and political science. It’s not a popular combination, he notes. He then served as an adviser on science and energy to U.S. Rep., and later U.S. Sen., Paul Tsongas of Lowell.
“There was a lot of fear in Washington over oil dependency, and you can see what we’ve done since,” he said with a laugh. “When I worked for Paul it was intensively about energy. In the middle of Paul’s term, Reagan came into power and he basically decimated the Department of Energy. Oil prices dropped, and the issue became unimportant, even in Washington.”
Tyson, named a Mass High Tech All-Star in 2008, moved into the world of semiconductor equipment with GCA Corp. and PRI Automation Inc., which, as CEO, he brought through an IPO and eventual acquisition by Brooks Automation Inc. In 2005, after a few years of consulting and board work, Tyson joined AEB, which uses electron beams instead of heat or chemicals for processes such as sterilizing beverage bottles, curing coatings and cleaning up pollution, using 80 percent to 90 percent less energy or water. AEB’s focus is on energy efficiency in the industrial space, which, in the U.S., accounts for one third of energy used, he said.
“What we need to do is help mature companies and mature industries to innovate, and that takes time. So, in some ways, we are in the industrial innovation business, but that’s not too different from the energy field as a whole,” he said, noting that innovation doesn’t happen without price signals.
“What (big oil and utility companies) have done is commoditize energy, and make it pretty cheap but unsustainable. When you make something a commodity and very cheap, it doesn’t attract the innovators,” he said.
Today, the price of oil has dropped sharply, but that’s a temporary thing, according to Tyson. “Global recession as a way to keep energy prices down is killing the patient to cure the disease. It’s a bad solution,” he said. “When economic growth returns, the pressure on scarce resources is going to increase, and prices will go back up. I think it clearly will go over $100 a barrel, and probably over $150 a barrel.”
Additional price signals should apply in areas beyond the cost of oil, gas or electricity, Tyson argues. “If sustainability is important to us, then we have to make sure the market signals are there. If we think CO2 is bad for us, then we have to put a price on CO2. If pollution is bad for us, you have to put a price on sulfur,“ he said.
Tyson argues that subsidies in markets such as oil, coal and nuclear power have to be eliminated or matched in alternative energy fields. He also advocates replacing the cumbersome cap-and-trade system of carbon credits with a simple carbon tax, one that is revenue neutral, so that income taxes are cut to reflect carbon tax revenue.
Overcoming today’s energy crisis according to Tyson, it requires use of multiple energy sources, including sustainable sources such as solar, wind and biofuels, as well as nuclear power and energy efficiency. Consumer -oriented companies may be leading the way. “A lot of big companies have set some very aggressive sustainability goals, and I think they are serious about pursuing them,” he said.
When asked what is exciting about energy today, Tyson said, “Maybe one of the things that’s exciting is that it is important. It’s important to my kids, and it will be important to my grandkids. There is something about working on something that my grandchildren will be glad that I did. I know that it’s important, even if my grandkids never know that I did it.”
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