Founded nearly four years ago, the Clean Technology and Sustainable Industries (CTSI) is a national cleantech cluster organization with offices in Austin, Texas, Cambridge, Massachusetts, San Francisco, California, Detroit, Michigan, Geneva, Switzerland, and Washington, D.C.
According to Laura Benold, Membership & Marketing Manager of CTSI, a presence in these locations allows CTSI a foot in the door in places that cleantech is a common industry for people to be a part.
With these offices, CTSI is no stranger to other GCCA cleantech members...
"We have a partnership agreement that we will support each other and that we'll talk quarterly to discuss what kinds of technologies we see emerging, what kinds of programs each other are running, and see if we can enrich those for one another," Benold explains.
With approximately 200 member organizations and a global network of over 50,000 professionals working in research, government, and industry, CTSI helps bring clean technologies to the market more quickly, helps technology developers find commercialization partners, identifies and evaluates new technologies, and promotes reduced footprint strategies in traditional industries.
Membership with CTSI falls within two primary categories:
Community Support and Development — for individuals and organizations interested in participating in a network of clean technology professionals, promoting new technologies, and delivering needed services and expertise to organizations developing and implementing clean technologies.
Technology Innovation and Discovery — for organizations that are active in developing or implementing clean technologies and need strategic partnerships (finance, research, commercialization, testing), government relations assistance, and technology identification and filtering services.
For those companies in the early stages of the clean technology industry, CTSI offers the cleanConnect Start-up Program, dedicated to assisting these companies in essential survival and growth areas — including partnership building, policy advocacy, resources and information, and navigating finance opportunities.
Each year, graduated companies from the program will receive recognition at the Clean Technology Conference and Expo, a division of TechConnect World.
A few of CTSI's members, including one that is part of the cleanConnect program, are nominated for the GCCA Later Stage award.
In the category of energy efficiency is GridManager, located in Denmark. GridManager's vision is to be the first choice for industrial and commercial consumers when choosing tools for reducing energy consumption and cost. Based on existing technologies, GridManager provides user-friendly solutions for energy optimization, better use of renewable energy, smart grid implementation, and reduction of the CO2 footprint.
Also in the energy efficiency category is QM Power.
Missouri-based QM Power is the developer of a new magnetic circuit technology that revolutionizes the way manufacturers and customers design and use electric motors, generators, and actuators. The company is the first to simultaneously address the four major factors affecting electromagnetic device performance:
- Highest Power Out at Highest Efficiency;
- Broadest Range of High Power and Efficiency;
- Highest reliability; and
- Lowest Cost Design/Manufacture
Prism Solar Technologies, nominated in the solar power category and a cleanConnect member, aims to develop solar as a real-life replacement of fossil fuels; in the process, the process helps grow the solar energy industry through partnerships and cooperation.
The company manufactures products such as holographic film and solar modules. Its new advanced photovoltaic module, called a Holographic Planar Concentrator (HPC), incorporates inexpensive holographic films into solar panel construction, enabling it to generate higher yields from less photovoltaic material. Prism Solar Technologies was a winner last year in one of CTSI's main programs.
"Two of the big programs that we run, Utility Technology Challenge (UTC) and the Defense Energy Technology Challenge, are basically set up to a vetting, matchmaking process for very specific technologies and very specific types of integrators," said Benold.
UTC is an annual program designed to address a critical gap in the clean technology commercialization process: helping companies with commercial-ready products find test partners and early adoption customers.
With initial support from the U.S. Department of Energy, CTSI launched the UTC program in 2009. This year's committee partners include Austin Energy, Lockheed Martin, Northeast Utilities, National Grid, and the City of Anaheim.
The Defense Energy Technology Challenge is a new program this year that will aid the U.S. Department of Defense in finding innovative energy solutions to increase the safety of its troops, lower energy costs, and reduce its reliance on foreign energy supplies.
The program will be held in conjunction with the Asia Pacific Clean Energy Summit in September, and is designed to pair companies developing defense targeted energy solutions with partners, including: the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.
"We've seen a shocking, overwhelming interest in this," said Benold.
"The opportunity to interact with the government is a big thing that people might feel is a little difficult to figure out on their own... This type of program really enables that type of work and helps the DOD get into something they don't play with as much — that being the cleantech industry."
For more information on the Challenge and the Asia Pacific Clean Energy Summit, click here.
Until Next Time,
Angela Guss
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