In the final installment of a three-part blog series
on the market outlook for 2012, recruiter and entrepreneur Dave Mayer offers an
glimpse into the growing Colorado cleantech community.
Another truly prominent and successful example of
Colorado’s ongoing leadership in the renewable energy space is Tendril, (which happens to be in Access Venture Partner’s
investment portfolio). Tendril has raised more than $70 million dollars over
the past six years, and is at the forefront of smart grid deployment by
enabling consumers to manage energy usage and costs through their proprietary
cloud-based platform.
According to Sheila O’Neil, Director of Corporate
Communications at Tendril, the organization signed their first major
international customer in 2011 — Origin Energy, based in Australia., Since
then, they have developed several new industry partners including Siemens
Energy and Whirlpool Corporation. As a result, the company has doubled in
size. Sheila notes that “as the smart grid industry moves from pilots to full
scale deployments and as our cloud-based platform continues to become the
platform of choice for utilities as well as energy ecosystem partners looking
to connect more closely to consumers and transform the way they use energy, we
see this growth trend continuing. We're excited by the prospects for 2012,
not just for Tendril, but for the entire Colorado cleantech industry as
the state cements its position as a global cleantech industry hub."
Another exciting example of how the state continues
to produce successful renewable energy businesses is Boulder Wind Power.
Based in Boulder, the company has a unique global focus and entered the highly
competitive $40 billion dollar wind industry with an eye on changing the
paradigm through technology.
Their edge in the market is their innovative
generator and power conversion system that enables turbine vendors to deliver
products that are cost competitive, produce more power, and have higher
reliability with lower unscheduled maintenance costs. Tim Connor, BWP’s VP of
Business Strategy and CFO helped close a $35 million dollar Series B funding
initiative recently.
According to Tim, “Boulder Wind Power’s technology is
powerful because of its ability to reduce wind power costs to truly compete
with fossil fuels.”
Tim acknowledges that, like many other renewable
energy technologies, the correct incentives and portfolio standards need to be
in place, but he’s certain that 2012 is going to be a great year for Boulder
Wind Power and for Colorado’s cleantech industry.
The examples we’ve highlighted cover a fraction of
the exciting clean energy developments going on in Colorado. There are myriad
organizations focused on improving technology transfer, incubating and
fostering the growth of companies with great ideas and funding those
organizations with the most promise.
These organizations are only successful as a result
of the time, energy and commitment of the visionaries behind them.
Every quarter in 2012, we will examine the growth and
pitfalls that the cleantech sector in Colorado is facing. We’ll talk about
hiring trends, growth trajectories and what’s really happening out there.
Colorado’s Cleantech industry has a bright future. We
hope you’ll join the growing Colorado Cleantech movement and take an active
role in making it even brighter.
Dave
Mayer is a Colorado Cleantech Industry Association member and serial entrepreneur
based in Denver. He is one of three co-chairs of the Colorado Clean Economy
Network, which focuses on creating awareness of issues that will affect the
future of this country's energy policy. Currently, Mayer is CEO and founder of
Technical Integrity, a cleantech recruiting firm. For more information, visit
his website at http://technicalintegrity.com/
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