TBEIC grant will facilitate September clean-tech conference

Staff report

WARREN

Thanks to a $90,000 Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator grant, the Tech Belt Energy Innovation Center will have a conference downtown Sept. 13 and 14 that reaches out to Appalachian clean-technology startups.

The event will be large enough, attracting 300 to 500 organizations, that TBEIC expects to use several downtown locations to accommodate everyone, said TBEIC Chief Operating Officer Rick Stockburger.

TBEIC, Ohio’s only energy incubator, is located on West Market Street on Courthouse Square.

“It’s a great win for us,” Stockburger said of the grant.

The project will take TBEIC farther out into the Appalachian region in order to try to draw clean-technology organizations to Ohio, he said.

The grant, called a Channel Partner Award, will help TBEIC bring technology startups together with manufacturing firms and utilities focused on energy storage and building efficiency.

The grant recognizes TBEIC for its work in addressing gaps in the development and commercialization of clean energy and agriculture technology, according to a news release.

It is also recognition of TBEIC’s efforts to advance sustainable technology solutions that can improve energy efficiency.

TBEIC is one of 13 facilities nationally to receive the grant this year.

Stockburger said a bonus of the opportunity is to work in partnership with the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator and National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Ramsay Huntley, Clean Technology and Innovation Philanthropy program officer with Wells Fargo, said TBEIC is “driving innovation.”

Trish Cozart, Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator program manager, said the purpose of the funding is to help organizations like TBEIC “continue their support of early-stage entrepreneurs and support of each other as they create partnerships and share knowledge.”