Clean Energy and the Austin Roadmap

January 11th, 2008

Clean Energy and the Austin Roadmap

Freshtech Friday by Steve Guengerich

Ok everyone, for prior readers of this blog, you’ll notice a couple of things:

- First, that was a really long “week” since the last Cleantech Friday post, where we left you hanging about promising a further peek into the Austin Chamber’s Clean Energy Council (or CEC)

- Second, by the slight change in title of this post – “Freshtech Friday” – you can tell that we’ve decided to expand the content beyond the area of cleantech. We will still write about cleantech, when we run across something we hope is interesting to share. But, we’ll also be writing about other subject areas catching our fancy, some of which we’ll talk about on February 13 at Austin’s Metropolitan Breakfast Club

But, to finish out the thread of our last “Cleantech Friday” post, we wanted to share a little of the CEC’s vision for a Austin/Central Texas cleantech roadmap. The table illustrates some of the major components of the roadmap, as of two months ago. Now remember: that’s long enough ago that Heliovolt’s announcement that it would build its first plant in Austin has long since come and gone.

Roadmap Projects and Descriptions

Clean Energy Park / Lab Clean Energy Park is in formation and will build a facility including space for researchers from throughout Texas and provide office space, clean rooms, and wet lab space for start-ups (explore possible national lab expansion opportunity)
Cleantech EcoDev Zone Examining the feasibility of providing incentives and abatements for cleantech company development in a zone around the airport
TXAN/SEMATECH State nanotechnology laboratory located in Austin leveraging existing ATDF and other assets will provide key clean technologies
Super Clean Energy Incubator Expanding Clean Energy Incubator’s reach to the super region of research universities and national labs
Data Center Energy Efficiency Lab Developing a lab that addresses multiple levels of architecture from building, HVAC, server design, to chip-level electronics for increased energy efficiency in data centers
Smart Grid Test Center Building a smart grid test facility that proves emerging and existing technology efficacy on a live power grid
CTSI Expanding the Clean Technologies and Sustainable Industries trade organization in Austin to provide a pipeline of innovation from many of the world’s leading research universities and national labs
PHEV Fleet Test Center Providing a platform for testing the grid-benefits of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on a live power grid
Carbon ROI Project Providing tools for utilities, corporations, and policy makers to make appropriate national decisions on carbon policies

So, pieces of the roadmap are still being finalized, with new pieces being considered and others perhaps being removed. But, nonetheless, the draft implies a big vision and sense of pushing the envelope that are necessary to keep Austin at the front of what remains arguably the hottest area of innovation and growth, worldwide.

By the time the Chamber and its clean energy economic development director, Jose’ Beceiro, get all the way through the calendar to the 2^nd Annual Clean Energy Venture Summit (scheduled for October), hopefully the cleantech roadmap will be a part of the agenda of everyone that has a stake in working to make Austin one of the pre-eminent centers for cleantech innovation and industry.

With that, join me next week (promise ) for the first edition of “Freshtech Friday.”