Tackling the Einstein conundrum

 

 

While it might be too sweeping to say that ingenuity without entrepreneurial savvy equals bankruptcy, certainly lots of good ideas fail on the market because their inventors are not as good at business as they are at science. To remedy the situation, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) wants to help inventors attend business school.

“Planting seeds and growing companies is really where we have to focus,” said Jeff Peterson of NYSERDA, addressing the Hudson Valley Center for Innovation in Lake Katrine Jan. 21.

Peterson said that the economic situation is problematic but that renewable resources and innovation are a growth area at a down time. He noted that in the entire year of 2003, when NYSERDA first began the program to disburse grants to energy entrepreneurs, only 67 grant applications were received. But in just the first nine days of 2009, 45 applications were received.

“People are not buying cars, but they are showing willingness to spend $20,000 to $30,000 investing in photovoltaic systems for their homes and businesses,” said Peterson. “In terms of green business, we are starting to turn a corner.”

 

But he said that institutional investor-owned utilities are not showing real interest in alternative energy ideas. “Bringing the utilities into the fold has been a struggle,” said Peterson. “You are asking a monolith to move into the future and they don”™t like it.” Thus, he said, the green energy revolution needs to be fostered from the bottom up.

 

And for that to happen successfully, he said, the inventors of good products need to have sufficient business savvy to bring their ingenuity into the marketplace. Thus, NYSERDA is introducing Clean Energy Business Incubators, spending some $6 million to establish four clean energy incubators throughout the state. No sites have been announced, although they have reportedly been selected.

Peterson said the funding is “Just hitting the street now,” and the incubators should be up and running within about a year.

 

It is a departure from NYSERDA”™s past mission. “It is our attempt to move away from only product development into business development,” Peterson said.

 

The Web site is www.nyserda.org.