There”™s something in the wind in Newburgh.
When the Ulster Development Corp. and Hudson Valley Technology Development Corp. developed the Hudson Valley Center for Innovation (HVCFI) in 2005, the goal was to create an incubator where start-ups could be mentored by a team of professionals, then spread their wings and fly out into the Hudson Valley, open offices and create jobs. Despite its best efforts, the HVCFI never quite got off the ground.
Fast forward to mid-2011, and the Center for Innovation, which was headquartered in a space near Tech City, is no longer at its original location but has moved to the 721 Media Center, where it holds monthly breakfasts and skypes with another business incubator in Greece on a regular basis to keep abreast of foreign innovation.
Now, Les Neumann, managing director of HVCFI, has an ambitious plan, backed by both New York U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand:Â open an incubator in the city of Newburgh. This one, however, will focus solely on the light wind industry.
“The goal of the incubator would focus exclusively on that technology,” said Neumann, who applied for a $1.4 million grant to develop the innovation cluster in an underserved community. “We”™ve been deeply involved in the energy cluster and we”™re focusing on the light wind sector in particular.”
Neumann says light wind power is a “brand new emerging industry. At this point, there is no price competition from overseas. We would have a physical location where we would embark on training the unemployed or underemployed people in the region to help the 150 manufacturers we”™ve identified to build and commercialize these systems. They would be built to specification for the Northeast corridor throughout the country.”
The new incubator, if it comes to fruition, would not be connected with Orange County Business Accelerator, created by the county”™s Industrial Development Agency and which currently has nearly 20 different businesses in various stages of production working out of its New Windsor location.
Neumann said there has been a lot of wind turbine power put to use in commercial enterprises, as well as residential. “There are thousands of them in use. Part of what we would do is test them, validate the technology that they do what they say they will do and then to certify them. The size of the wind turbine would be determined by the height of the building, its size and the wind speed. Yes, it”™s a developing industry and all the standards are in its infancy. We”™d like to be on the front end, rather than on the back.”
Neumann says two significant partners ”“”“ Gateway to Entrepreneurial Tomorrow (GET) and Rennselear Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy are involved in the planned incubator. “GET would supply the employees; RPI would do the testing and validation,” he said.
Hudson Valley Center for Innovation has another partner, that it also is a member of, iClean (Incubators for Collaborating & Leveraging Energy and Nanotechnology), which has been up and running since 2010 and is supported by NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research & Development Authority) and the Saratoga Technology and Energy Park outside of Albany
Neumann says 16 different agencies are involved in the grant, which was submitted July 7. “We don”™t have a timetable as to when we will hear anything,” said Neumann. “We”™re not going to try to predict what Washington is going to do.
Neumann says Dr. William Richards, president of SUNY Orange, “has been very supportive and helpful.” Neumann would like to see the work of the wind power incubator tied in with the SUNY Orange curriculum.
“If we have 10 companies included in this incubator within five years, and each hired a few people in that time, it would be a step in the right direction. We need to take a lot of baby steps before we take giant steps ”“”“ it”™s better to under promise and over deliver.”
HVFCI will be conducting a technology symposium Monday, Sept. 21, attended by the Deputy Chancellor of SUNY Johanna Duncan-Portier and several senior executives who will speak on the role of technology-based economic development. The symposium begins at 8 a.m. at the SUNY Orange Newburgh campus and will be globally webcast.
To learn more, contact Les Neumann at lneumann@hvcfI.com or call 943-5660.
