July 18, 2012

UAlbany NanoCollege & New Energy New York Highlight ‘Green’ Technologies at Seventh Annual New Energy Symposium

By: Steve Janack, CNSE Vice President for Marketing and Communications

Source: College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering

Albany, NY – Building on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s NY-SUN initiative and energy superhighway blueprint, innovative clean energy companies from across New York and throughout the country are presenting their “green” technologies and competing for major injections of funding from the investment community as the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering’s (CNSE) Energy and Environmental Technology Applications Center (E2TAC) and New Energy New York (NENY) present the seventh annual New Energy Symposium at the New York Academy of Sciences in New York City on July 18 and 19.

Tom Birdsey, President and CEO of EYP Architecture & Engineering and Chairman of NENY, said, “The excitement continues to build as the New Energy Symposium, in its seventh year, once again provides unparalleled opportunities for cleantech startup companies to advance their innovations and move us all toward a cleaner, greener future. And it’s happening right here in New York.”

Dr. Pradeep Haldar, CNSE Vice President for Clean Energy Programs and CNSE Professor and Head of Nanoeconomics, said, “In line with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s vision and leadership in building a new New York, the New Energy Symposium offers a prime opportunity to showcase the state as a home for innovative cleantech companies and organizations that are positioning New York as a leader in the growing green economy. Through partnerships between government, academia, and high-tech companies, such as the U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium headquartered at CNSE, the Empire State is pushing the boundaries of developing next-generation clean energy, and setting the pace for the nation in green innovation and economic outreach.”

Fifteen cleantech companies, more than half of which are located in New York, have been chosen to compete for investment, with technologies that range from innovative energy storage solutions, state-of-the-art LED light fixtures and vacuum energy to a thermodynamic heat pump, ultracapacitor sheet storage and a fuel-borne catalyst for improved combustion of heating oil.

Each company will present their business plans to a panel of regional and national venture capitalists (VCs), corporate VCs, private equity and angel investors, investment bankers, and government executives. Since its inception, the New Energy Symposium has showcased 58 early-stage cleantech companies that have raised more than $160 million in venture capital and government funding.

In addition to the Investment Pitch competition, the symposium will also feature presentations by leading investors and successful cleantech company executives, as well as the Senior Advisor for Commercialization & Program Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), Ilan Gur.

The event is being presented in partnership with iCLEAN, E2TAC’s clean energy incubator at CNSE; the New York Academy of Sciences; Clean Energy Alliance; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; and Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

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About CNSE. The UAlbany CNSE is the first college in the world dedicated to education, research, development and deployment in the emerging disciplines of nanoscience, nanoengineering, nanobioscience and nanoeconomics. With more than $14 billion in high-tech investments, CNSE represents the world’s most advanced university-driven research enterprise, offering students a one-of-a-kind academic experience and providing over 300 corporate partners with access to an unmatched ecosystem for leading-edge R&D and commercialization of nanoelectronics and nanotechnology innovations. CNSE’s footprint spans upstate New York, including its Albany NanoTech Complex, an 800,000-square-foot megaplex with the only fully-integrated, 300mm wafer, computer chip pilot prototyping and demonstration line within 85,000 square feet of Class 1 capable cleanrooms. More than 2,600 scientists, researchers, engineers, students and faculty work here, from companies including IBM, Intel, GlobalFoundries, SEMATECH, Samsung, TSMC, Toshiba, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, ASML and Novellus Systems. An expansion now underway, part of which will house the world’s first Global 450mm Consortium, will add nearly 500,000 square feet of next-generation infrastructure, an additional 50,000 square feet of Class 1 capable cleanrooms, and more than 1,000 scientists, researchers and engineers from CNSE and global corporations. In addition, CNSE’s Solar Energy Development Center in Halfmoon provides a prototyping and demonstration line for next-generation CIGS thin-film solar cells. CNSE’s Smart System Technology and Commercialization Center of Excellence (STC) in Rochester offers state-of-the-art capabilities for MEMS fabrication and packaging. CNSE also co-founded and manages operations at the Computer Chip Commercialization Center at SUNYIT in Utica and is a co-founder of the Nanotechnology Innovation and Commercialization Excelerator in Syracuse. For information, visit www.cnse.albany.edu.

About NENY. New Energy New York is a consortium of New York energy-related technology organizations convened to expand and promote energy technology excellence in New York State, with a focus on promoting interaction between the state’s high-tech companies to address energy-related technology issues. The idea behind creating a formal consortium of companies to pursue common technology initiatives is to bring attention to the state’s leadership on clean-energy resources, and to provide benefits to each of the members through cooperation and coordination of marketing initiatives. For more information, visit http://www.neny.org/.

About E2TAC. The Energy and Environmental Technology Applications Center (E2TAC) was created in 1998 as an active expansion of the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) to work with companies in the rapidly emerging energy and environmental industries. E2TAC offers a critical platform for CNSE to leverage its intellectual power base and state-of-the-art infrastructure to provide an applications-targeted resource supporting technology development, leading to the integration of nanoelectronics and nanotechnology in advanced energy and environmental applications. For more information, visit http://www.e2tac.org/.

Contact: Steve Janack, Vice President for Marketing and Communications, CNSE
(518) 956-7322 | sjanack@albany.edu