Clean technology is a big draw for potential investors. Several hundred people gathered at the
Academy of Natural Sciences on March 31 for the
3rd Annual Mid-Atlantic Cleantech Investment Forum. Sponsored by
Blank Rome Counselors at Law, the Academy and
Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, investor panels discussing the future of renewable energy, clean water, recycling and waste disposal were followed by presentations from area entrepreneurs.
On hand were members of the
Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings. Williams J. Agate leads the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, developing and managing the Philadelphia Navy Yard, which is now in the process of creating a smart grid energy master plan.
The Fostering Cleantech Investment Panel included Kevin Brophy, of
Meidlinger Partners, who talked about the future of clean water investment, and said that while innovation in the field came from the middle cap, the greatest opportunity for future investments is in the huge lower cap market. Also on the panel were Gary Golding, from
Edison Ventures, who addressed rapidly improving awareness of water issues, Arun Kapoor of
SJF Ventures, who mentioned 100 percent Pennsylvania wind provider
Community Energy, and Josh Wolfe, the founding partner of
Lux Capital. Wolfe described Lux as an early stage high risk venture fund valued at $100 million, and had a different take on the market than his fellow panelists, explaining that Lux focuses on companies that are long on human ingenuity and short on government rationality. Passing on biofuel, nuclear and natural gas investments, Lux is instead investing in nuclear waste management, calling it the energy industry's biggest unsolved problem.
The only presenting entrepreneur based in the immediate Philadelphia area is solar power conversion company
Alencon Systems, Inc. Now in the research and development stage, Alencon addresses the problem of energy efficiency with large scale photovoltaic systems, which are currently created by aggregating multiple small systems. Alencon, which was borne of research at Rowan University, aims to simplify solar and wind power systems from distributed harvesting to centralized conversion. With a prototype already built and tested, Alencon slates projected sales of its streamlined systems at $45 million by 2014.
Source: 3rd Annual Mid-Atlantic Cleantech Investment Forum
Writer: Sue Spolan