Innovation
The heart of a growing clean energy cluster is innovation. It is the fuel that drives young, new ventures and sector growth. Through the Council’s Innovation Task Force, the Council seeks to develop and execute programs which accelerate clean energy research and start-up activity within the region.
Fellowship Program
The Clean Energy Fellowship Program, piloted during Summer, 2008 under the umbrella of the Council, is designed to increase the number of clean energy entrepreneurs and accelerate the migration of top talent into the energy sector. In 2009, the New England Clean Energy Foundation, the Council's charitable, 501c3 supporting entity, again offered the program.
The Foundation, in partnership with the New England Clean Energy Council, is planning for and is committed to a 2010 Clean Energy Fellowship Program. We are in the midst of fund-raising and forming partnerships to enable the Fellowship Program to be offered on a more sustainable basis, and we anticipate announcing details and a 2010 program schedule shortly after the 1st of the year.
The Clean Energy Innovation Consortia Project
The Clean Energy Innovation Consortia is a proposed framework for accelerating clean energy research, commercialization and regional clusters - critical goals to develop, prove and bring to market new innovations to address the U.S. and the world's energy and climate problems. The Clean Energy Innovation Consortia proposal has been included within the Waxman-Markey bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The research and commercialization partnerships formed through the consortia are intended to leverage the nation’s under-utilized, world-class research university sector, involve the venture and entrepreneurial private sector for market insight and commercialization mentoring, and include public-private partnerships to build and leverage clean energy clusters and drive economic impact.
Field Trips to National Laboratories
In 2008, in order to better connect the venture capital community to federal clean energy research, The Council organized a field trip to the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado. In 2009, more than 40 investors and researchers from both East and West coasts attended the Council's field trip to Lawrence Berkley National Lab (NBNL).