The pre-holiday Fourth Conference on Clean Energy at the Hynes Convention Center is long since over, but the event has traditionally proven to be a litmus test for the local clean energy industry.
Surprisingly, the event maintained at least a slight feeling of optimism for the long-term prospects of the local clean technology community, despite the plunging stock market, tightening financial environment and plummeting price of oil. If nothing else, its success bolstered the industry’s position among the region’s traditional industry heavyweights such as telecom, biotech and finance, and left attendees feeling that the industry has a future beyond next year’s event.
Some notes:
• Stealthy portable battery maker Lilliputian Systems Inc. of Wilmington made an appearance at the conference, with new vice president of business development and marketing Mouli Ramani walking the halls. Though the company had a small presence at the show, its big announcement came from its Wilmington facility, where Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick attended an event and helped the company announce the addition of 100 new “green collar” jobs through a planned expansion of its manufacturing plant.
The expansion comes as the company finally put a target date — 2009 — on the release of its portable fuel cell for wireless devices.
For the uninitiated, Lilliputian was founded out of MIT on research developed by Samuel Schaevitz and Aleks Franz, Lilliputian’s co-founders. In 2003 they added CEO Ken Lazarus, and despite raising more than $60 million in funding, the company has remained fairly quiet about its technology.
Over the past few months, a slow stream of information coming out of the company seems to indicate that it has solved the technology issues, and units could be forthcoming as soon as next year.
While such miniature, portable fuel cells have been researched both here and in Asia for years, they have always been “some time away.” If Lilliputian has indeed solved the technology issues, and has a device that can penetrate the $50 billion portable power market, it is no surprise the governor turned out for its expansion announcement.
When you consider the applicability of such power sources on everything from cell phones and music players to GPS units and laptops, 100 new jobs to get them out the door may be just the beginning.
• Two local companies used the conference to announce new funding. Cellulosic ethanol microbe developer SunEthanol Inc. announced its name change to Qteros Inc. and brought in $25 million, while alternative engine technology maker ReGen Power Systems LLC added $5 million to its coffers.
What’s interesting about the two deals is that despite the Chicken Little syndrome that has many in the industry saying no “new money” is coming out of the VC community, both deals included new investors. Qteros’ new investors include Cambridge-based Venrock, New York-based Soros Fund Management LLC and energy giant BP PLC, joining previous investors Battery Ventures,Long River Ventures and Camros Capital.
For ReGen Power Systems, the investment represents the firm’s first private funding, though it previously received $500,000 from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. It’s new investors are New York-based 21Ventures LLC and the Quercus Trust.
Despite being held during the heart of one of the worst financial weeks in recent history, the economic outlook of the clean energy sector was positive among attendees of the conference. The financial sections of the event, including the annual “investor pitch” sessions, where budding entrepreneurs pitch their company to potential investors, were among the most-attended sessions of the event.
• The atmosphere was likewise positive at the conference’s job fair, where a handful of companies still hiring people (rather than laying them off) fielded questions from a room packed with potential employees. According to Matthew Richards, the founder and managing director of renewable energy recruiting firm DanePartners, which sponsored the job fair, the abundance of job seekers wasn’t all that surprising, given the economy. The number of companies hiring, however, including Conservation Services Group of Westborough, Satcon Technologies Corp. of Boston, Konarka Technologies Inc. of Lowell, Evergreen Solar Inc. of Marlborough and Second Wind Inc. of Somerville, was encouraging.
Among the areas that were most active, said Richards, were green-collar jobs, those that require hands-on knowledge of technologies, both new and traditional. Sectors most active on the recruitment side included energy efficiency and demand-response companies, as opposed to core technology research companies in the wind, solar or biomass sectors.
