Renewable Energy Trust Moves to Clean Energy Center

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed legislation this week that gives the Renewable Energy Trust, formerly a unit of the quasi-public Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a new home: the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. The Renewable Energy Trust—an investment fund that comes from surcharge on Massachusetts electrical consumers of about $6 per ratepayer per year—supports a range of alternative energy projects, while the Clean Energy Center, the energy sector’s complement to the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, is charged with supporting R&D, entrepreneurship, and workforce training in the cleantech industries. The bill that created the center in 2008 specified that it would be funded in party by reallocating Renewable Energy Trust revenues, as Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs explained in an interview with Xconomy this week. “This legislation merges the work of two quasi-public state entities with complementary missions, consolidating staff and resources while establishing the Clean Energy Center as the primary agency responsible for growing the Massachusetts clean energy industry,” Governor Patrick said in a statement released today.

Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/