The Clean Tech Open (CTO), a business plan competition that will provide more than $1 million in prizes for early-stage clean technology startups, recently announced the semifinalists in the Pacific Northwest region of its 2009 competition (covering Washington, Oregon and Idaho). The semifinalists are:
- Clarian Technologies (Seattle, WA) – Smart-grid enabled wind and solar appliances
- Extreme Caps (Olympia, WA) – Energy storage
- GoNano (Moscow, ID) – High surface area nanomaterials for energy storage
- Green Lite Motors (Portland, OR) – 100 mpg commuter car/motorcycle vehicle
- Hydrovolts (Seattle, WA) – In-stream hydro turbines
- InnovaTek (Richland, WA) – Renewable hydrogen fuel cell technology
- LivinGreen Materials (Seattle, WA) - Advanced solar technology
- NHThree (Richland, WA) – Green anhydrous ammonia production
- Pangreen (Kirkland, WA) – Mobile and web-based platforms enabling green living
- Shorepower Technologies (Portland, OR) – Electric charging stations
- Soluxra (Seattle, WA) – Low-cost organic solar cells
- Veranda Solar (Portland, OR) – Plug and play solar appliances
This year the Clean Tech Open is holding competitions in California (semifinalists announced), the Pacific Northwest, and in the Rocky Mountain region (semifinalists announced).
Entrants will initially compete for regional prizes: $100,000 in cash and services to each of six winners (one for each category) in California; cash and services worth $50,000 to each of the three winners in both the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain regions. These 12 regional winners will then be placed in a national competition, with a Grand Prize winner to receive $250,000 in cash and services.
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