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After what seemed like a bit of a slow news cycle a couple of months ago, the past two months have been active in the local technology community — there have even been a few investments and M&A events, which could be harbingers of things to come.
But as those events unfolded, others may have been overlooked. As we do occasionally here at The Ef Word, we present a sampling of quick-hit, though interesting, news items that may have slipped past people over the last few months.
Ocean wind power state
Deepwater Wind LLC, a New Jersey-based offshore wind farm developer has launched a new operations center in Rhode Island as part of that state’s offshore wind program. The state of Rhode Island chose Deepwater Wind last fall for a proposed offshore wind farm that could eventually include 100 turbines located 15-20 miles offshore, and capable of producing approximately 15 percent of the state’s energy needs, according to reports from the state and Deepwater Wind.
Deepwater Wind is also working on projects in New Jersey and New York.
To run the local office, Deepwater Wind Rhode Island LLC, the parent Deepwater chose Paul Rich as chief development officer. A Maine native, Rich is well-known on the power transmission side of the energy business, having spent two years at Cross Hudson Cable LLC, overseeing the electrical transmission project under the Hudson River between New Jersey and Manhattan.
Rhode Island seems very optimistic about the state’s potential to be a model for offshore wind in the U.S. In January, Gov. Donald Carcieri announced the details of the proposal, including the $1.5 billion expected price tag, as well as the potential of the project to provide 1.3 million megawatt hours of power. Construction on the project is expected to begin in late 2010.
In Russia, VoIP calls you!
Derry, N.H.-based Cedar Point Inc., which makes multimedia switching gear for cable companies, recently received certification for its Safari C3 product line in Russia, through the Ministry of Communications.
While a successful maker of equipment — Cedar Point has shipped more than five million lines of equipment to the Americas, Europe and the Caribbean — the certification opens a new region to the company.
It is interesting to note that while reliable market numbers out of the region are difficult to find, what is available points to a growing market in the deployment of new communications services, such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), a specialty of Cedar Point.
According to a complicated national rating system developed by the International Telecommunication Union, Eastern Europe ranks as the highest growth area between 2002 and 2007, raising its overall ICT Development Index — a measure of communications infrastructure development — by 48.2 percent. That ranks it at the top of the 16 regions measured, with Western Europe ranked in the middle of the pack with a 34.7 percent increase and North America ranked last with a 20.8 percent jump.
The upshot is that Eastern Europe has a ways to go in terms of communications infrastructure to catch up with the rest of the world, but presents a significant growth opportunity for companies like Cedar Point, that can gain some acceptance there.
Extending TALONs
Waltham-based robotics company Foster-Miller Inc. has been working with Southborough-based fuel cell maker Protonex Inc. on more effective power sources for unmanned ground vehicles. Last week, the two companies announced a breakthrough in the research, with Foster-Miller replacing its traditional battery system with a hybridized fuel cell-battery system from Protonex.
The results have Foster-Miller’s TALON military robot getting a three-fold increase in operational range and a two-fold increase in energy density. This translates into a range increase for the midsize (80 lbs. to 180 lbs.) robots to approximately 45 kilometers, up from 15 kilometers with the traditional battery system.
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