New England Training Entrepreneurs to Capitalize on Clean Energy Sector

The announcement from the New England Clean Energy Council follows a recent report identifying strategies for the region to capitalize on $1 billion in incremental investment over the next four years in clean energy and prevail as a nationally recognized cleantech cluster. Through interviews with area venture capitalists, the report finds that of the three factors that go into creating a cluster, lack of entrepreneurial talent in the field is the most significant barrier in New England.

Currently, New England holds the number two spot nationally for venture-backed cleantech companies. However, increasing competition from Silicon Valley and the Midwest threaten this position, the report suggests. New England’s share of venture-backed cleantech companies is far lower than its share of overall venture capital backed-companies -- 9.7 percent to 11.6 percent, respectively.

The Clean Energy Fellowship Program is the council’s answer to populating the region with highly qualified serial entrepreneurs, and, as the report indicates, it is not necessary or even desirable for the future leaders of these companies to have a background in clean energy. The report states that while 60 percent of cleantech companies overall are led by non-founders (outside management), the number of companies receiving their first round of investment who are led by non-founders was only slightly less (56 percent). What this means, according to the authors, is there is a powerful need to bring in outside executives at the earliest stages to get cleantech companies off the ground. A local cleantech investor advises in the report that it is more important for the executive leadership to have been successful with the entrepreneurial process than to be imbedded in the industry.

The fellowship program is being piloted this summer with funding from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s John Adams Innovation Institute and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The curriculum is divided among three areas, including seminars and lectures on the range of energy technology categories, market forces across fuels, power and transportation, and sessions on the structure, impact and status of key policy, tax and regulation factors and how they may evolve in the coming years.

Fellows also will visit laboratories at area universities and are involved in a collaborative relationship with the U.S. Department of Energy to gain exposure on research initiatives and national market perspectives. During the latter part of the program, the fellows will work on business planning projects related to research initiatives or early-stage ventures in conjunction with area venture capital firms.

To continue operating the program two times each year for at least five years, the council is relying on the passage of the Green Jobs Act of 2008 introduced in Massachusetts earlier this year by House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi. The bill directs $50 million over five years for clean energy research and business development and establishes the Massachusetts Clean Energy Technology Center and a Massachusetts Alternative and Clean Energy Investment Trust Fund to finance the activities of the center. The legislation allocates $2.5 million for the Clean Energy Fellowship program.

More information on the Clean Energy Fellowship Program is available at: http://www.necec.org/fellowship