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Print Edition StoriesFriday, January 29, 2010
Following the second-year N.E. Clean Energy Council Fellows
By Jackie Noblett
Following the Clean Energy Council Fellows
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Sitting around a large conference room, netbooks and legal pads in hand, members of the second New England Clean Energy Council Fellowship Program discuss one of the fellow’s projects: how to erect a wind turbine without using a crane.
Peter Vicars, a 30-year tech veteran and former CEO of three different companies, is exploring a business that uses, of all things, tethered balloons to lift turbines weighing several tons 300 feet in the air or higher.
“How big does the balloon have to be to lift all that weight?” asked Paul Sereiko, another fellow.
Vicars explained the size of an average hot air balloon should be sufficient to lift several tons, and then he went into a quick explanation of the physics of lifting objects using levers or other simple machines.
Light, yet supportive, hot air jokes commenced.
Such is an average day at the Clean Energy Fusion Center in Waltham, a co-working space shared by the fellows incubating cleantech startups. Since graduating from the program last year, this cohort has been busy building smart grid software, scouting out sites for renewable energy projects and developing new solar energy systems. Even for seasoned tech execs like the fellows, having a space where they can share both ideas and office supplies makes the difficult part of hatching a new venture more bearable.
“We’re at different points in our careers compared to most people in incubators. We have what I like to call third-stage entrepreneurs that have had a little bit of success in our businesses,” said Doug Levin, founder and former CEO of Black Duck Software Inc. and a year two fellowship graduate. “But what everyone is looking for here is a different experience, one where we can all learn from each other.”
Indeed, even within the fellows, there is a wide variation between the types of technology businesses being pursued and the stage of the ventures themselves. Maureen Ellenberger, founder of technology systems integration firm Eggrock Partners and web auction company auctionPAL, is working on a community-based approach to energy efficiency services, while former ON Semiconductor executive Mike O’Neill is working on renewable energy manufacturing process technologies.
Some fellows are even ready to branch out and leave the comfortable confines of the center. Peter Vandermeulen, founder of BlueShift Technologies, is taking his latest venture, a combined solar photovoltaic and hot water system company 7Solar Technologies Inc., to Woburn where he and his business partner, former Evergreen Solar Inc. co-founder and CTO Jack Hanoka, plan to start protoyping the systems and raise venture capital.
With state and federal government support and stimulus funding abound, it may be one of the best times to start a cleantech company. But the fellows say they have approached the financial support aspect with caution.
“You have to spend a lot of time on these grants, and you may not get them, but at the same time you can’t ignore them,” said Lorraine Wheeler. The mobile software entrepreneur’s latest venture, Qado Energy Inc., develops software to integrate renewable generation into the smart grid.
One fellow described applying for programs like the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy like playing the lottery — you hope to get lucky but can’t build your business expecting it to come through.
Sereiko and Imran Qidwai’s renewable energy development company, Totten Energy, will likely benefit from recent changes in the clean energy financing market — including market-based incentives for solar generation and net metering rules that allow companies to sell excess clean power into the grid — to make their projects more financially viable.
One thing the fellows can rely on, however, is the relationships they have built over many months. They, and other fellows from past programs, get together on Fridays for a brown bag lunch to talk about topics ranging from fundraising to real estate. Vandermeulen, the entrepreneur leaving the center for Woburn, said he will continue to make the trip down Route 128 on occasion to see his friends — and check in on the projector he’s leaving behind.
| Follow the inaugural Clean Energy Fellows |
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