Thursday, November 10, 2011

NECEC joins newly created Advanced Energy Economy

By Michelle Lang

The New England Clean Energy Council announced earlier this week that it joined forces with other regional organizations to become the initial members of Advanced Energy Economy (AEE), a network aimed at supporting U.S. companies as global energy technology suppliers.

AEE will support the state and regional chapters with funding, communications, policy, research and expertise, the NECEC news release indicated. To date, the organization is made up of chapters in New England, Ohio, Colorado and Illinois.

General Catalyst partner Hemant Taneja, who co-founded and co-chairs NECEC, co-founded and co-chairs AEE as well. “AEE will provide a unified business voice that can develop meaningful public-private partnerships at the state, regional and national levels,” he said in a statement.

In addition to Taneja, the AEE board of directors includes fellow AEE co-founder Tom Steyer, senior managing member of Farallon Capital Management LLC and managing director and member of the Investment Committee of Hellman & Friedman LLC; EnerNOC co-founder, chairman and CEO Tim Healy, also a board member of the NECEC; Bill Ritter, former Colorado governor; George P. Schultz, former secretary of Labor, Treasury and State and Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution; former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt; Phil Giudice, managing director at Rhumb Line Energy LLC; Sunil Paul, founding partner at Spring Ventures; Martin Lagod, managing director and co-founder of Firelake Capital Management; and Samir Kaul, founding general partner of Khosla Ventures.

AEE has partnered with the Clean Economy Network, an organization focused on building an economy around cleantech innovation. As part of the collaboration, the Boston CEN chapter will be rolled into the NECEC.