A Case for Clean Technology in New York

Examining the state’s clearest strengths and most promising prospects for commercializing the technology today that will create tomorrow’s cleantech economy.

Published May 30, 2009

By Academy Contributor

Over the past two years, in collaboration with the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), The New York Academy of Sciences (the Academy) has been leading an effort to identify areas of science and technology that hold the most economic promise for New York State. Specifically, the initiative has identified clean technology as an emerging area of research in which the state holds significant assets and resources in specific areas.

Over the past year, the Academy has been conducting extensive interviews with key cleantech stakeholders in industry, academia, and government, as well as independent research on cleantech R&D assets and appropriate innovation/public private partnership models. On May 18, 2009, representatives of the Academy presented their findings to key stakeholders, and then moderated breakout sessions to discuss and refine their recommendations.

The breakout sessions focused on ways to foster innovation and to define clean technology priorities. Ultimately, the event revealed that New York has a broad set of assets that could assist in its economic development, including the necessary R&D base, strong programs, and an emerging vision and set of policies capable of optimizing a cleantech innovation system and creating a competitive cleantech industry.

Significant Potential for Economic Impact

In particular, the initiative has identified the following set of clean technology areas as having significant potential for economic impact:

• Photovoltaics
• Energy Storage
• Fuel Cells
• Biomass
• Buildings
• Smart Grid

During both interviews and the breakout sessions, systems integration was also identified as a discrete set of activities that constitute a core strength of New York State and could, itself, provide significant opportunity for economic development. In general, a systems approach could enable the diverse but interconnected set of clean technology areas to be unified into a cleantech “ecosystem.” It could also facilitate the incorporation of technologies not identified in the Academy’s initial findings that were identified as being important in the breakout sessions. These include nuclear energy, wind energy, electric transportation, water systems, and hydrogen produced from electricity, coal, and natural gas.

Four Goals for Commercializing Technology

In addition to identifying promising technology areas, the event also focused on how to foster a productive innovation system that allows researchers in all fields to commercialize their technologies. New York State has already demonstrated strong support for innovation, and the initiative has identified four key goals as being particularly important:

• Incorporating innovation assets
• Connecting assets through a robust network
• Aligning resources and stakeholders by setting a challenge
• Investing in a well rounded technology portfolio

As with the technology areas, these components hold the potential to provide their most significant outputs when treated as complementary and co-dependent components of an innovation economy. The meeting focused on strategies for generating interest among venture capitalists and entrepreneurs; fostering public-private partnerships that connect researchers, investors, and government agencies; and setting challenges through better coordinated RFP’s that address state cleantech priorities.

A New Cleantech Economy

During the event, there was wide appreciation of current initiatives already undertaken by the State, particularly by NYSTAR, NYSERDA, and the Governor’s Office, to improve New York’s already competitive innovation system. Their efforts, combined with supportive administrations at the local and national levels, create a window of opportunity that participants in the workshop agreed should not be missed.

There is clearly momentum toward developing an optimized cleantech innovation system in New York State. Building on its existing strengths, the State is well positioned to create significant economic impact through an impressive portfolio of cleantech assets and policies. With continued leadership from the Governor’s Office and organizations such as NYSTAR and NYSERDA, the gathering indicated that New York could become home to a new cleantech economy.

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