John Rebchook is a former Rocky Mountain News reporter with more than 30 years of experience in writing and communications... Clean-energy jobs have the promise to help jump-start the Denver-area economy, helping to give a long-term boost to the housing market.
Golden-based NREL, or the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, this week is hosting a three-day forum focusing on “game-changers:” in the industry. Advanced registration is closed, but you can register during the conference at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, 1750 Welton St.
The program begin at 7 a.m. each day with events running into the evening. It ends at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday.
This link provides more information about the wide-range of speakers and topics.
The conference already is sowing the seeds to more green jobs in the Denver area, as I describe in another blog post.
The 22nd Industry Growth Forum,will feature 34 inventive clean energy companies. They were hand-picked by a seasoned panel of more than 120 investors and industry experts. These companies will pitch their business case to an expert investor panel and compete to win the 2009 NREL-Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors Venture Awards totaling more than $30,000 in cash and in-kind commercialization support from NREL.
More than $2.5 billion has been raised by companies presenting at the forum since 2003.
The companies presenting at this Forum are Alphabet Energy, Amprius, Anzode, Banyan Energy, Beacon Power, Cool Earth Solar, Coolerado, Ecovative Design, Ener-G-Rotors, Evolutionary Genomics, exro technologies, Green Pacific Biologicals, HOMErgent, Hydrovolts, Illumitex, InnoSepra, ION Engineering, Ioxus, Lightwave Photonics, Lumiette, Nano-C, New Sky Energy, Nilar, NovaTorque, Paraclete Corporation, Rivertop Renewables, GridON, SkyFuel, Solexant, Stellaris, TerraLUX, Versa Power Systems, Widetronix, and WindPole Ventures.
Speakers, ranging from companies such as Toyota and Cisco to Ampulse and Makani Power, will discuss strategies for obtaining financing, global investment trends, how to do business with NREL, and understanding the drivers behind the surge of utility-scale renewable projects.
In addition, NREL is introducing its first Clean Energy Opportunity Forum on Thursday, to showcase the latest clean energy opportunities in Colorado and across the country . This event brings together personnel from the U.S. Department of Energy, NREL, DOE Golden Field Office, the Governor’s Energy Office, and a broad range of other Colorado organizations and industry insiders.
The forum received a record number of applications with the highest number of companies selected to present from California (10) and Colorado (7), respectively. For more on clean-energy jobs in Colorado, go to this blog entry.
Area companies presenting at the forum include:
* ION Engineering, Boulder – Carbon Capture & Sequestration
* New Sky Energy, Boulder – Carbon Capture & Sequestration
* Evolutionary Genomics, Lafayette – Bioenergy Technology
* Nilar, Centennial – Energy Storage
* Coolerado, Denver – Cooling & Refrigeration
* TerraLUX, Boulder – Illumination
* Versa Power Systems, Littleton – Fuel Cells
“The clean energy industry is clearly a winner for the Colorado economy, a ‘silver lining’ in what has been a challenging economic cycle,” said Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., sponsor of the NREL Industry Growth Forum.
“Recent company announcements in clean energy are literally filling our job pipeline and expanding our economy,” Clark continued. “Plus with the creation of the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association, we definitely have a unique set of assets to further expand this industry.”
Hosting this prestigious conference in Colorado for the third consecutive year is a big “coup” according to Clark.
“In addition to the seven Colorado companies presenting, there are several other presenting companies with ties to NREL,” he said. “Bringing top venture capital investors to see first-hand our innovative companies plus the partnerships happening with NREL and our research universities illustrates our high entrepreneurial pulse and positions the state as the center for clean energy growth both nationally and internationally.”
Realtor Jim Smith, owner of Golden Real Estate Inc., said he agrees with Clark’s assessment.
“Absolutely,” Smith said. “These jobs are going to help the housing market and the economy emerge from our downturn. That is especially true in Golden and Jeffco.”
NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy.
Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.
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