It must be Clean Energy Week in Boston, judging from all of the trophies, plaques, and award checks being handed out to the region’s energy and cleantech innovation leaders. We wanted to tell you about the winners in two of this week’s biggest events: the MIT Enterprise Forum’s Ignite Clean Energy Prize business plan competition finals, held at the State House on November 10, and the New England Clean Energy Council‘s Green Tie Gala, held at the John F. Kennedy Library last night.
The big winners in the Ignite Clean Energy Prize competition—the fifth annual iteration of the event, sponsored this year by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center—were the following:
Grand Prize: IntAct Labs of Cambridge, MA, which is developing microbial fuel cells and protein-based biosensors and photovoltaic devices. IntAct walked away with $150,000 in cash and in-kind prizes from Mintz Levin, CHT Group, the UMass Dartmouth Applied Technology and Manufacturing Center, and T3 Advisors.
Second Place: InnoSepra Coal, which is developing lower-cost ways to capture the carbon dioxide emitted by coal combustion at power plants, and using the captured CO2 in oil and gas exploration.
Third Place: EGG Energy, which is building rental “solar stations” for recharging batteries in poor, rural regions of Africa.
“Each year, we see a variety of technologies and people participate in ICE – each team beginning the competition with brilliant ideas and completing the process with real market impact,” said Clark Waterfall, chair of the competition and managing director at Boston Based BSG Team Ventures, in a press statement about the awards. “This year is no different and I congratulate the IntAct team on their victory and I congratulate all of the teams for playing a role in strengthening the clean tech industry.”
I was all dressed up last night and ready to go to NECEC’s Green Tie Gala, but was stopped in my tracks by car trouble, of all things. Guess it’s time to get a Prius! Here’s a rundown of the awards that I didn’t get to see handed out:
Breakout Company of the Year: EnerNOC, for “achieving an inflection point in revenue growth and establishing itself as both an industry leader and a market-maker.” (2008 winner: A123Systems)
Emerging Company of the Year: QD Vision, for “exiting its development phase with tremendous momentum.” (2008 winner: Aspen Aerogels)
Employer of the Year: American Superconductor, for “growing its workforce by a substantial margin, and providing good, high-paying jobs to its community.” (2008 winner: GT Solar)
Corporate Citizen of the Year: Millipore, for “its adoption of clean energy technology and energy efficiency measures in order to reduce its carbon footprint.” (2008 winner: Staples)
Clean Energy Hall of Fame Inductee: Steve Cowell, CEO of Conservation Services Group, for “his dedication to clean energy, and truly setting an example for others to follow.” (2008 winner: Mark Farber)
Council Leadership Awards: Kevin Doyle from GreenEconomy and Wanda Reindorf from Conservation Services Group—the co-chairs of NECEC’s Workforce Development Group—for “their outstanding leadership in the support of Council activities.”
