Advanced Energy

The challenges that our nation faces in solving energy issues for generations to come has fueled a great deal of activity in Advanced Energy solutions across the U.S. It is a particularly promising opportunity area for Northeast Ohio, due to a number of factors.

The State of Ohio’s Third Frontier Program has made significant investments in fuel cell technology via the Wright Fuel Cell Group. Efforts between that group and the Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition have driven Ohio to be among the top five states in the nation in fuel cell research and commercialization, with clusters of entrepreneurial companies springing up in Northeast Ohio. One company, Contained Energy, has received JumpStart financing and support. We are relevant competitors and potential leaders for this enormous global market (estimated at $2 billion by 2007). Fuel cell technology represents an intersection of Advanced Energy, Advanced Materials and Electronics, drawing strength in Northeast Ohio from our large industrial base of polymers, instrumentation, and controls and manufacturing.

Northeast Ohio has opportunities in other sectors of Advanced Energy as well. The region is considering many alternatives to participate in the growth of wind power, solar photovoltaic and solar thermal, geothermal, and other advanced energy solutions. Organizations like the Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force, EcoCityCleveland and the Cleveland Green Building Coalition are helping lead these efforts.

The combination of Ohio’s agricultural, chemical and industrial heritage has created new opportunities in biofuels, biomass solutions renewable specialty chemicals, and renewable polymers/plastics, centered through the Third Frontier funded Ohio BioProducts Innovation Center at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster.

Power and propulsion are included in this sector and NASA Glenn’s prowess in this and related areas has the potential to drive many commercialization endeavors. Additionally, a significant advanced energy cluster beyond fuel cells has also sprung up in Northeast Ohio, with interest in green building technologies, wind power, alternative battery technologies and others.

Clearly, Advanced Energy represents a tremendous opportunity for Northeast Ohio and a potential breeding ground for entrepreneurial activity. Northeast Ohio’s many institutions in the energy space, combined with our rich history of providing real solutions to real problems make us a nearly ideal region for it.

TechLift’s Role

Although we have the ingredients for entrepreneurial success in Advanced Energy, we do not yet have the right number of entrepreneurs and small companies to take advantage of our opportunities. TechLift will work with the various supporting advanced energy solutions, along with early stage entrepreneurs to help our region be one of the U.S.’s leaders in energy entrepreneurism.

We are focused on Northeast Ohio's signature technologies:

Advanced Materials, BioSciences, Electronics, Information Technology, Advanced Energy