This week, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker toured Greentown Labs and led a roundtable discussion on manufacturing and clean technology innovation. As the largest cleantech incubator in the nation, “Greentown Labs is a unique model in the country,” Secretary Pritzker commented, continuing to state that “…we should be thinking of replicating what is successful here…the strength of our manufacturing sector is heavily tied to innovation, and vice versa.” The Department of Commerce has embraced its role in supporting startups, acknowledging that a third of economic growth stems from innovation.
CEO’s of manufacturing businesses, startup founders of Greentown member companies, public officials and political advisors participated in the roundtable discussion that explored how early-stage companies are working to scale their operations and bring their products to market using American resources. To get the conversation rolling, Secretary Pritzker asked, “What more can we be doing to support new businesses? What are the specific challenges you are facing in cleantech and cleantech manufacturing? How can organizations such as the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Program (MassMEP) and MassDevelopment, as well as government agencies, be more supportive?”
Sarah Haig, Co-founder and COO of Silverside Detectors Inc, a Greentown member company, commented that “bringing technology out of the lab typically happens in two ways: you either build it yourself, or you outsource it to China. There’s a huge gap there. What incentive structures exist, or need to be built, for startups to reach out to and work with the manufacturing resources around us?”
Sarah tied this back to the learning process involved in starting a company, and the need to develop vocabulary with various stakeholders. “we have not been introduced to the vocabulary of manufacturing in any setting other than at Greentown Labs.” The primary goal of the Manufacturing Initiative at Greentown Labs, in partnership with MassMEP, is to create a common dialogue between startups and manufacturers so they may better understand, plan for, and respond to each other’s needs.
Peter Russo of MassMEP, who works directly with Greentown Labs member companies to connect them with appropriate manufacturing resources, added, “There are different levels of incubators. You have scale up facilities, and you have think tanks. This is not a think tank, it’s a scale up facility. It’s very difficult at the scale up point, particularly with hardware startups, because this is the point of delivery.”
Neil Scanlon, President of Worthington Assembly, Inc, explained how he worked with Ryan Wright, CEO and Founder of WrightGrid, to deliver on a relatively small order of solar panels. Understanding that the company is a startup working on urgent and immovable deadlines, he commented that, “we know how important it is to him, we’re gonna be more responsive than with an established customer who has 30 units in stock and who can afford to wait another day for their delivery.”
Following the roundtable, Secretary Pritzker, Mayor of Somerville Joe Curtatone, and State Representative Denise Provost toured the prototyping lab at Greentown Labs to see the cutting-edge innovations coming out of the community. During the tour, the group visited with Open Water Power, WrightGrid, Silverside Detectors, and Autonomous Marine Systems.
The first stop on the tour was Open Water Power. Cofounder and CEO Tom Milnes, who had participated in the roundtable, demonstrated his company’s underwater fuel cell for the Secretary, and explained how the technology can generate 10X more energy than competing lithium-ion batteries and has recently completed tests which prove it is the safest underwater battery technology available.
Turning the corner of the 20,000 square feet of prototyping space and following the bright yellow safety lane, the Secretary met with Ryan Wright, founder and CEO, WrightGrid. Ryan described the solar-powered, untethered mobile device charging platform and the Secretary asked questions about his business model and next prototype.
Next, the Secretary spoke with Sarah Haig of Silverside Detectors, the company she co-founded in 2013. The technology detects neutrons, using alternative materials and and innovative, manufacturing-friendly design to reduce the market cost of neutron detectors by a factor of 40.
With more questions to ask than time to answer them, the Secretary continued through the lab, past the Machine Shop and stopped to speak with T.J. Edwards, Co-founder and CEO of Autonomous Marine Systems. The company is developing a solar and wind-powered autonomous catamaran (or ‘datamaran’) to deploy in oceans to collect and monitor environmental data.. Just last week, AMS tested their latest prototype on the Charles River.
Upon exiting the prototyping space doors and dropping safety goggles in yellow buckets, the tour was complete. Passing by a turbine and propeller of an old Altaeros Energies prototype, the Secretary thanked CEO Emily Reichert profusely for the opportunity to visit Greentown Labs and meet with company founders. organization.
As the visit came to a close, the Secretary thanked everyone for participating and giving their insights. She concluded that, “There is a shortage of places in the country where this kind of cooperation is occurring.” The collaborative spirit of the day’s discussion on manufacturing and clean technology innovation reinforced the mission of Greentown Labs: to help entrepreneurs invent and build solutions to the world’s biggest energy challenges.