Mainebiz

V O L . X X I I N O. I X M AY 2 , 2 0 1 6 8 B U S I N E S S M A I N E B U S I N E S S M A I N E B U S I N E S S N E W S F RO M A RO U N D T H E S TAT E U.S. Sen. Susan Collins announced the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a total of $74.9 million in funding to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery for the consolida- tion of unaccompanied housing, utility improvements for nuclear platforms and to construct a replacement medi- cal/dental clinic and $6.9 million in funding for the Community-Based Outpatient Clinic in Portland to lease a new facility and improve veterans' access to primary care, mental health care and specialty care services. The committee also approved a two-year extension of the Access Received Closer to Home program. Tilson, an information technology pro- fessional services and network con- struction company in Portland, was awarded a contract by Walsh Global LLC of Chicago to provide construction management, commissioning and pro- gram support for a new U.S. embassy in Oslo, Norway. Manomet's Grocery Stewardship Certification program in Brunswick announced that it reached 500 stores enrolled in its grocery sustainability certification program. Food retailers in the program are responsible for saving 648,000 tons of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere and diverting 33,000 tons of waste from landfills. The 500th store enrolled is part of the Giant Eagle retail chain, headquartered in Pittsburgh. Grain Surfboards in York opened a location in Amagansett, N.Y. Oakland business park looks to spur global interest e 285-acre Oakland-based business campus, FirstPark, has announced a partnership with the Portland- based commercial real estate com- pany, SVN e Urbanek Group, to spur development. FirstPark is owned and operated by the Kennebec Regional Development Authority and includes tenants like T-Mobile and MaineGeneral Imaging Services. "Business is moving at FirstPark and developers have a tremendous opportunity for return," said Brad Jackson, executive director of KRDA, in a prepared statement. "We will be working strategically with SVN e Urbanek Group to make sure those opportunities are realized, leveraging key relationships and offering devel- opers flexibility." e partnership Startups continue to garner interest from funding contests A new competition led by MIT has cast a worldwide net, but its Maine-based executive producer says its focus on raising economic prospects for middle- and base- level earners makes it a natural for businesses here. The MIT Inclusive Innovation Competition will focus on both for-profit and not-for-profit companies that already have solutions focused on using modern technology to raise economic prospects among work- ers at the middle and base of the economy, said Devin Cook, executive producer of the Inclusive Innovation Competition. The contest is being overseen by a leader- ship team from the MIT Sloan School of Management's MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, which launched the competition with the MIT Innovation Initiative. Cook works from an office near Augusta and col- laborates with a team in Cambridge, Mass. The competition will award 30 prizes totaling $1 mil- lion, with four grand prizes in four categories awarding $125,000 each. Another 16 companies, four in each category, will get $25,000 awards. Plus, the judges will give out a handful of "Judges' Choice" awards to "uniquely inventive organizations." "The $100K competition is for business plans and startups," Cook said. "We want to target organizations focusing on making the economy more sustainable for the middle and base level. We also want organi- zational progress, not just ideas. And we want a track record, someone with success." She said any size of organization can apply, and the judges will be looking for many things, including unique, innovative ideas and ones that focus on underrepresented populations like immigrants and rural dwellers. Applicants must register by June 1. The application deadline is June 15. First-phase judges include Jess Knox, head of Maine Accelerates Growth and a founder of Maine Startup and Create Week. He and other judges will review all applications from June 22 to July 20. Then the second "champion" committee judges will select the grand prize winners from Aug. 10 through Sept. 16. Judging is on four criteria: economic impact, scal- ability, vision and performance/track record of the applicant, Cook said. Cook said she expects about 300 applications in this first year of the competition. Awards will be presented in Cambridge on Sept. 27. The competition is being funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and Joyce Foundation. The aim, said con- ference managers, is to focus entrepreneurial and innovative energy on improving economic prospects for all workers. The competition was announced along with MIT's new Solve cross-disciplinary program to address the world's most pressing challenges. — M a i n e b i z S t a f f Owner of wind farms in Maine files for Chapter 11 SunEdison Inc. (NYSE: SUNE) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York, a widely anticipated step following recent reports of financial difficulties stemming from at least $10 billion in debt. The company, which owns six operating wind farms in Maine worth more than $900 million, has two mas- sive wind farm proposals in the pipeline in Maine — the proposed 600-megawatt King Pine wind farm located in Aroostook and Penobscot counties and the 86-mega- watt Somerset Wind proposal near Moosehead Lake. According to StreetInsider.com, SunEdison has secured commitments for new capital totaling up to $300 million in debtor-in-possession financing from a consortium of first- and second-lien lenders. "Subject to cour t approval, these financial resources will be made available to the company to support its continuing business operations, mini- mize disruption to its worldwide projects and partner- ships and make necessary operational changes," StreetInsider reported. The Wall Street Journal reported that SunEdison's publicly traded "yieldcos," TerraForm Power Inc. and TerraForm Global Inc., aren't part of the Chapter 11 filing. A yieldco is defined by the National Renewable Energy Association as "a dividend growth-oriented public company, created by a parent company (e.g., SunEdison), that bundles renewable and/or conven- tional long-term contracted operating assets in order to generate predictable cash flows." As reported by Mainebiz in its April 18 print edi- tion, SunEdison's proposed wind farms figure promi- nently in two pending proposals now being reviewed by Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut in their New England Clean Energy RFP — namely, the Maine Renewable Energy Interconnect joint proposal in north- ern Maine submitted by transmission utilities Central Maine Power and Emera Maine and CMP's separate Clean Power Connection proposal in western Maine. John Carroll, spokesman for AVANGRID, the New Gloucester-based parent company of CMP, earlier this month acknowledged the uncertainties about SunEdison's finances are an unexpected complica- tion, but stated both projects have significant benefits and value to the three southern New England states derived from clean power that would be generated by other wind farm developers tied to both projects. — M a i n e b i z S t a f f Devin Cook, executive producer of MIT Sloan School's global Inclusive Innovation Competition, encourages Maine companies to apply to win up to $125,000. P H O T O / L O R I VA L I G R A C E N T R A L & W E S T E R N

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