Waterford Today

State and federal officials are bullish on the ability of industry in the United States in general, and Michigan in particular, to meet the challenges of “decarbonizing” the economy to combat climate change and clean up the environment.

And plenty of companies are lining up to meet that challenge, in everything from destructing toxic PFAS chemicals from the environment, to building better energy storage, to increasing recycling, to making boating green with electric drive systems.

That was the inspiring message from Thursday’s second annual C3 Summit, convened by the C3 Accelerator, an initiative of the Centrepolis Accelerator at Lawrence Technological University and funded by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. More than 250 people attended the meeting at The Mint conference center in Lathrup Village, and more watched online.

The C3 Accelerator aims to assist product development in cleantech, climatech, and the circular economy, meaning businesses with products or services that improve operational performance, productivity, or efficiency, while reducing costs, inputs, energy consumption, waste, and pollution.

David Howell, acting director and principal deputy director of the federal Department of Energy’s Office of Manufacturing of Supply Chain and Office of Vehicle Technologies, was featured in a keynote discussion sharing the commitments being made by the federal government to strengthen critical material and component supply chains for clean energy products such as electric vehicles.

Ashley Grosh, vice president of Breakthrough Energy Fellows—an initiative founded by Bill Gates to make the world economy carbon neutral by 2050—described her program that provides living stipends and research funding for those pursuing green energy advances.

A panel discussion moderated by David Terry, executive director of the National Association of State Energy Officials, quizzed Zach Kolodin, chief infrastructure officer in the Office of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Richard Ramirez, head of innovation and technology corporate social responsibility at DTE Energy, and Brandon Hofmeister, senior vice president of governmental, regulatory, and public affairs at Consumers Energy, about the future of Michigan’s green energy infrastructure.

Ramirez said DTE is managing the process of going to renewables “without killing ratepayers.” Hofmeister said Consumers has broad goals of decarbonizing its electric and gas business, phasing out coal generation by 2025 and installing 8,000 megawatts of solar capacity over the next decade, and improving energy efficiency and grid management to avoid the need for new power plants. Both utilities are also working on initiatives for fleets and residential customers to enable the purchase of more electric vehicles. And Kolodin said such efforts would result in improved health for economically challenged neighborhoods that bear the brunt of activities such as transportation and energy production.

“Imagine communities near major trucking routes where the trucks are powered by hydrogen or batteries,” Kolodin said. “Those will be cleaner and healthier communities with lower rates of asthma.”

All three men said efforts need to be increased to help small business and local units of government make use of the many federal energy grant programs now available. And they said all green initiatives will require investment in workforce development.

Dan Radomski, executive director of the Centrepolis Accelerator, noted that the event couldn’t be more timely, given the recent passage of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal climate change reduction funding.

“More money is being invested in cleantech than ever before,” Radomski said. “We’re electrifying our communities and it’s not just electric vehicles. It’s transportation, buildings, and the manufacturing sector.”

The event also featured a “fireside chat” with Radomski and Liesl Clark, director of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. She described the development of the MI Healthy Climate plan, released in April after input from a wide variety of stakeholders in a Council for Climate Solutions. The plan’s recommendations fall into six categories: commit to environmental justice; clean the electric grid; electrify vehicles and increase public transit; decarbonize homes and businesses; drive clean innovation in industry; and protect Michigan’s land and water.

“I think that because all Michiganders love our Great Lakes, all Michiganders are environmentalists,” Clark said. “Sometimes our environmental policies can get mired in this bickering. There’s a really important balance between economic development and the environment, and we know how to do that here in Michigan.”

The C3 Summit featured exhibits from more than 30 cleantech companies developing and manufacturing their products in Michigan. The event also hosted a pitch competition that was judged by representatives with prominent cleantech investment firms. Ten companies competed for $75,000 in prizes in a pitch competition. Winners of awards sponsored by Centrepolis and EGLE were:

Best C3 Growth Stage Company Award: $25,000 investment: Hercules Electric Mobility, a Farmington Hills-bsaed company developing a novel modular electric propulsion system that can be integrated across multiple recreational mobility applications such as marine or automotive. 

Runner up C3 Growth Stage Company Award, $10,000 investment: Dunamis Charge, a Detroit-based company developing electric vehicle charging technology.

Best C3 Early Stage Company Award, $25,000 investment: Great Lakes Crystal Technologies, an East Lansing company commercializing crystalline diamond manufacturing technology developed for advanced applications in electronics,  photonics, and quantum technologies. 

Runner up C3 Early Stage Company Award: $10,000 investment, sponsored by EGLE and the Centrepolis Acceleartor: Enspired Solutions, an East Lansing company developing an innovative water treatment solution to permanently destroy toxic PFAS molecules by turning them into non-toxic byproducts on site.

People’s Choice Award, selected by the audience, $5,000 grant sponsored by Ward Law: Pivot Materials, a Detroit company manufacturing sustainable, eco-friendly, and cost-competitive biomaterials by upcycling agricultural waste.

Original source can be found here.