Boston: The CleanTech Hub of the Universe (At Least for Next Week)
Copenhagen will be the place to be next month for the world's policy-makers, when the United Nations convenes its Climate Change Conference.
But for the doers who're developing new technologies to combat climate change, Boston will be the center of the action next week.
On Tuesday, the nation-wide Ignite Clean Energy Competition comes to the Massachusetts State House, with ten teams of entrepreneurs presenting their business plans and angling for a $35,000 top prize.
On Wednesday night, the New England Clean Energy Council holds its second annual Green Tie Gala at the JFK Library, with tickets priced at $325 a head. Congressman Ed Markey, who'll be traveling to Denmark next month for the UN conference, will be the featured speaker.
And on Wednesday and Thursday during the day, you've got the Conference on Clean Energy at the Hynes Convention Center, which will touch on new research coming out of universities, funding trends for energy businesses, and the latest breakthroughs in solar and wind. Steven Koonin, an under-secretary at the Department of Energy, will give a keynote, as will Gov. Deval Patrick.
There's also, on Sunday, this event at Harvard's Kennedy School that'll focus on the Massachusetts-Israel cleantech connection, with speakers including Rep. Markey, Michael Granoff of Better Place, and Ric Fulop from A123 Systems.
I spoke last week with Elizabeth Redmond, a University of Michigan alum who is part of one of the teams competing in the finals of the Ignite Clean Energy Competition. Her start-up, Powerleap, is developing a new kind of flooring product "that generates electricity from human and vehicular traffic," she explains. The company is exploring walkways in airports that generate enough power to run the flight delay displays, or "Saturday Night Fever"-style dance floors illuminated by fancy footwork. The flooring uses piezoelectric material that converts the kinetic energy of foot stomps or tire movement into electricity to be used on-site; pilot tests are happening over the next twelve months, and a commercial product could be on the market as soon as late 2010.
"We're giving a ten-minute presentation next week at the State House, and we'll have a demo there," says Redmond. "We're excited about competing, and we like our chances to win."
Here's a fun Forbes video featuring Powerleap's technology:
Comment
Permalink
E-mail
- Oneforty The "app store for Twitter" gets $1.6 million, mainly from Flybridge Capital.
- Helen Greiner iRobot co-founder snaring gov't grants to build her new company.
- Aveo Pharma Another unprofitable Cambridge biotech prepping for an IPO.
- Progress Software Regressing? Global workforce to shrink by at least 12 percent.
- GamerDNA Community site for videogamers off-loaded to NY start-up.
- Sempre Management Investors still wary of unproven funds.
Scott Kirsner on Twitter
Waiting for twitter.com to feed in the latest...
Subscribe via e-mail
More from Scott
about the blogger
About Scott Kirsner Scott Kirsner was part of the team that launched Boston.com in 1995, and has been writing a column for the Globe since 2000. His work has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Newsweek, and Variety. Scott is also the author of the books "Fans, Friends & Followers" and "Inventing the Movies," was the editor of "The Convergence Guide: Life Sciences in New England," and was a contributor to "The Good City: Writers Explore 21st Century Boston." Scott also helps organize several local events on entrepreneurship, including the Nantucket Conference and Future Forward. Here's some background on how Scott decides what to cover, and how to pitch him a story idea.
Events
January 13: Mass. Innovation Nights
Demos and schmoozing at IBM's Waltham outpost.
January 19: Understanding the Angel Financing Process
In Waltham, organized by Northeastern University's School of Technological Entrepreneurship.
January 30: HBS Healthcare Conference
Student-run conference on how policy reform will affect the healthcare landscape.
The climate change conference in Kopenhagen will be extremely important in my eyes. Information about it you can read at http://www.cleanthinking.de/en/
Elizabeth Redmond is an incredibly talented "designtrepreneur!" Check out more cool videos and pictures from her here: http://changents.com/powerleaper