February 21, 2014
PDC recognizes the clean technology cluster as one of four key areas of opportunity to grow traded sector jobs in Portland. Our support ranges from identifying new markets and building supply chain connections for established regional manufacturers to showcasing and providing resources to new clean technologies developed by our young startup companies. PDC updated its Clean Tech Strategy in 2013 to acknowledge the potential of new market segments in energy efficiency, environmental technologies and renewable energy services. The strategy provides a framework to integrate cluster support with our work to nurture Portland’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem.
In the next few months, such activities will be on display not only locally but coast-to-coast. Three early-stage Oregon companies, including Portland firm Applied Xergy, will join PDC and Oregon BEST at the ARPA-Energy Innovation Summit in Washington, D.C. February 24-26. Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy was created by the U.S. Dept. of Energy to advance high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment.
PDC and Oregon BEST will team up again in mid-March to showcase new technologies from early-stage companies including Columbia Green (green roofs) and Honeycomb (drone technology), this time at the Clean Tech Forum in San Francisco, March 11-13. The Forum draws corporate venture capitalists and venture investors looking for innovative investments, and presents a promising environment for entrepreneurs to pitch build relationships with investors and corporate leaders. Large corporate firms are looking for technology partners to complement their solutions or drive innovation within their firms, providing opportunities for local firms to demonstrate their products and improve their chances to partner and deploy technologies.
More established companies are also targeted for support to scale up or enter new markets Forging stronger connections between the electric vehicle and manufacturing supply chain is the focus of a workshop in April, led by Drive Oregon; a later workshop in May will look at potential links for local manufacturing in defense contracting. And once again, PDC will showcase regional companies at the annual mega-show Windpower in Las Vegas May 4-8, where past efforts have resulted in new contracts and business opportunities for participating firms.
