Mainebiz

V O L . X X X N O. X I X I N N OVAT I O N / R & D 68 Fact Book / Doing Business in Maine he invitation came after he won the national EnergyTech University Prize competition, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Technology Transitions, for his idea for an innovative, hybrid climate and clean energy incubator and accelerator e win led to a second phase of competition, which garnered second place and an invitation to share his plan with senior staff from the White House, DOE, the National Science Foundation, universities, venture capi- tal firms and law firms. e award allows Walton to match existing clean energy plans and pat- ents from DOE-affiliated research facilities with emerging businesses or tech clusters to commercialize the research while also implementing educational activities to engage more students in energy technology com- mercialization and entrepreneurship on Husson's campus. Walton, an investment strategist, also chairs the Maine Venture Fund's board of directors. "My expertise is in business devel- opment, so I bring fresh eyes to the problem of climate change technology and an emphasis on sustainable busi- ness planning," Walton said. We asked Walton about the status of climate change technology. Here's an edited transcript. Mainebiz: What is climate change technology? Brien Walton: Climate change technol- ogy, or climate tech, encompasses a wide range of technologies and innovations to address the challenges posed by climate change. Essentially, it involves devel- oping and implementing solutions to mitigate the impacts of climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the changing climate. Examples would be renewable energy such as solar, wind, hydroelectric and geother- mal power; electric vehicles and battery storage; energy efficiency efforts such as LEDs, smart cities and automated sen- sors to track the efficiency of solutions; and carbon capture and storage. Other items worth mentioning include climate adaptation technolo- gies, which include flood-resistant infrastructure, drought-tolerant crops and early warning systems for extreme weather events; and climate data and monitoring technologies, which provide accurate monitoring and data collection that are essential for under- standing the impacts of climate change and evaluating the effectiveness of mitigation and adaptation measures. MB: How do you commercialize the research? BW: ink of me as a 'technol- ogy matchmaker.' I go through the proprietary intellectual property the Department of Energy has compiled, which the public cannot access. For example, the Department of Energy has thousands of patents in its reposi- tories and coming out of its 17 national labs. Still, they need someone external to the organization who understands intellectual property law, understands industry market dynamics, is will- ing to help DOE forge public-private partnerships with compatible entre- preneurs, and, quite frankly, someone they can trust to take the lead in New England and see it through. By 'seeing it though,' I am referring to the fact that once the technology and the entrepreneur have been identi- fied, they will need help in adopting the technology in growing their busi- ness, and that is where my business planning background comes into play, because I will be incubating and accelerating the companies regardless of their stage, facilitating professional advisory services, providing investment and financing support, establishing metrics for performance, and develop- ing a customized, management consul- tant-level type of experience. In effect, I create an individual incubator around each innovation or entrepreneur and help get them from idea to market or from market to exit, depending on their respective growth stage. is is part of what makes my approach unique, because most incu- bators do not customize programming or allow entrepreneurs to receive sup- port for up to three years. Combined with engaging multimedia program- ming and unprecedented access to industry resources, this is truly an innovative approach. MB: Could you provide an example of this work? BW: I have worked with large green- houses like Vertical Harvest, a company that has relocated to Maine and built an $80 million facility in Westbrook that sequesters carbon with the energy-effi- cient combined heat and power plant. I help companies like Vertical Harvest navigate the challenges of relocating and securing funding sources so they can provide food to eliminate the fresh pro- duce challenges along the East Coast. One project I am particularly excited about is a group called Agricultural Conversion Systems in Ohio. ey are very interested in moving to Maine due to the abundant industrial space, relative ease of doing business in Maine, and the fact that I advised the CEO on a differ- ent professional matter several years ago. MB: What's on the horizon? BW: ree core technologies that I have heard Mainers discuss are: Solar photovoltaic technology: e future includes advancements in effi- ciency, durability, and integration with energy storage solutions. Innovations such as perovskite [a family of high- performance and low-cost materials] solar cells, building-integrated photo- voltaic, and solar tracking systems are expected to reduce costs further and increase adoption. Carbon capture and storage tech- nologies: e future involves inno- vations in capture efficiency, cost reduction, and utilization of captured CO2 for industrial applications. Advancements in direct air capture and carbon utilization technologies offer promising pathways for scaling up car- bon capture and storage deployment and achieving carbon neutrality. Smart grids: e future includes grid resilience, modernization, and flexibility advancements. Innovations such as advanced grid analytics, dis- tributed energy resources, and block- chain-based energy trading platforms are expected to transform the electric- ity grid and enable greater integration of renewable energy sources. Brien Walton, associate professor of entrepreneurship and director of the Richard E. Dyke Center for Family Business at Husson University in Bangor, recently participated in a White House roundtable focused on tackling the climate crisis through development of clean energy and climate technologies. Maine's Husson University steps onto national stage in clean energy technology B y L a u r i e S c h r e i b e r T F I L E P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F H U S S O N U N I V E R S I T Y Brien Walton, director of the Richard E. Dyke Center for Family Business at Husson University, recently participated in a White House roundtable on tackling the climate crisis through development of clean energy and climate technologies.

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