Manufacturing Business Development

Renewable Energy Technology Development & Commercialization

The NYSERDA research and development program has fostered the development of new energy technologies for over 25 years and a number of companies have gone on to develop successful businesses. NYSERDA technical staff generally provides informal support to help companies enter our competitive process and then to ultimately attract commercial partners. The realignment of the product development efforts in the Energy Resources Group will provide a formal structure to identify and commercialize renewable energy technologies. In particular, a new focus is being placed at the beginning of the product development life cycle to attract entrepreneurs into the renewable energy technology field and at the end of the process through a formal mechanism to develop business partnerships. The new program is designed to use the expertise of NYSERDA research and economic development staff to attract and support the most commercially viable renewable energy technologies.

ATTRACTING ENTREPRENEURS TO RENEWABLE ENERGY:

The pool of companies pursuing the development of new energy technologies is small relative to the population of manufacturing firms in the state. New York is currently home to over 50 incubator facilities. Business incubators are important to New York State because they encourage the development of new businesses and foster local economic development. In addition, the Centers of Excellence at universities across New York, support high technology ventures through a collaboration among the State, academia, private venture capital companies, and other private and public sector entities. With a new emphasis on economic development at NYSERDA, there is an opportunity to attract a larger number of technology developers to the renewable energy technology field and ultimately help businesses move to and grow in New York.

ASSISTING IN COMMERCIALIZATION:

The primary fuel for fast growing companies is equity capital to fund research or attract the talent that is necessary to move past the start-up stage. Unfortunately, these companies rarely know where to start looking for funding or lack the necessary business relationships. NYSERDA has effectively forged technical relationships with such companies and often the result is a technical success. Unfortunately, technical success does not guarantee commercial success. The challenge is to bring companies with a potential to succeed to the point where they can make a strong bid to the financial market.

A NEW ENERGY RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM:

In order to fully introduce an options approach, the Energy Resources Program’s product development efforts have been redesigned to make NYSERDA a bridge from the initiation of an idea to the funding of a commercial venture. The design is not a radical change from the way we have done business in the past. As opposed to promoting specific technologies (PV, wind, biomass), the program will support individuals and companies that have the highest potential to succeed. The goal is to encourage creative thinking and innovation on the part of New York State companies as opposed to preselecting the specific area of innovation. The program will be restructured into several components:

(1) Entrepreneurial Networks for Renewable Energy Technology – encourage the development of incubator and business networks around renewable and clean energy technologies. The primary output will be a network of companies with an interest in new ideas and concepts that are ready for further development; NYSERDA is supporting programs in every region of New York that can assist startup companies.
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(2) Renewable Energy Technology Options Program – share the risk of technology development, prototype construction, testing, demonstration and manufacturing improvement of new products and applications that will lead to commercial validation using a two stage options approach;

(3) Energy and Environmental Technology Business Partnerships – a focused commercialization approach to link NYSERDA-developed technology to private sector capital.

(4) Manufacturing Incentive Program - performance-based financial support to expand the manufacturing of renewable energy technology in New York State.

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