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 finalists for its 2011 competition in three of its regional competitions. The finalists are listed below by region. You can also view a list of all semifinalists here.
These regional finalist teams received a “Startup in a Box” prize package that includes combined cash and in-kind services worth up to $20,000. They will now be competing at the national competition, which will be awarding a grand prize of $250,000 in investment and services on November 16, 2011 as part of the Cleantech Open 2011 Global Forum.
California Region
Six category winners and Regional Sustainability Award winner:
- Air, Water and Waste. This category covers technologies that handle anything from air purification to water filtration to new recycling methods. Kiverdi (San Francisco, CA) won with its high-yield gas-consuming microbes that turn waste gas into oil-based products.
- Energy Efficiency. This category deals with anything that saves Watts, or deals in “nega-Watts.” LoadIQ (Reno, NV) won with its energy-management software that determines how energy is used in buildings, and itemizes energy bills to help ratepayers reduce costs.
- Green Building. This category includes technologies that enable commercial and residential buildings to be built and function in a sustainable manner. EnFocus Engineering (Sunnyvale, CA) won with its enhanced zero-carbon light that energizes buildings with sunlight.
- Renewable Energy. This category includes energy solutions derived from the sun, wind, geothermal sources, ocean waves, and more. B2U Solar (San Jose, CA) won with its innovative non-imaging concentrator collector that uses the sun to heat fluids, without the need for mechanical tracking or direct sunlight.
- Smart Power. This category includes technologies that encompass the smart grid, energy control, and battery storage. ECO Catalytics (Davis, CA) won with a process to develop a catalyst material deposition process that reduces fuel-cell platinum costs by 95 percent.
- Transportation. This category includes covers anything that deals with new fuels or new forms/methods of transport. Gridtest Systems (Calabasas, CA) won with electric-vehicle infrastructure test tools that provide automated testing of EV charging stations.
- May-Ruben Technologies (Minden, NV) won the Regional Sustainability Award, an honor given to the team that most effectively incorporated a triple-bottom-line approach to scaling its business. The company has developed a thermally driven heat pump that can increase the energy efficiency of industrial processes such as process heating and cooling, drying, evaporation and distillation.
- Regional Finalist: Atmosphere Recovery
Gas analysis/control systems enabling sustainable manufacturing and renewable energy conversion. - Regional Finalist: FORTECO
Sustainable, lightweight composite framing materials for commercial buildings that saves costs. - Regional Finalist: Whole Trees Structures
Green building systems from abundant forest waste and a competitive option to steel and concrete. - Sustainability Winner: Sheerwind (Invelox)
Safe, silent, low-cost and high-efficiency wind power generation technologies.
- Arbsource
Phoenix-based ARBSource is on a mission to transform wastewater treatment from a costly liability into a valuable resource. Breweries, confectioners, and many other food and beverage processors are burdened with large electricity expenses to manage their wastewater, often totaling six figures per year. For half the cost, we can offer these companies identical treatment speed and quality with our patent-pending and licensed ARBCell biotechnology. - GeoTree Technologies
Lafayette, Colo.-based GeoTree manufactures high performance materials for rehabilitation of infrastructure such as pipes and roads. Using biomimicry, nanotechnology and systems design, the firm has created “green” specialized geopolymer-based solutions. - US e-Chromic
Boulder-based US e-Chromic LLC uses an electric field to change the tint of a window, allowing users to control the transparency based on the time of day, temperature, or exposure to sunlight. Today, the current supply of electrochromic windows turn darker in color when activated, consequently absorbing heat. In contrast, the technology being developed by US e-Chromic LLC reflects sunlight, keeping buildings cooler. They can be retrofitted to existing windows, potentially reducing cooling costs by 25 – 30 percent for commercial buildings during air conditioning months. - Dragonfly
Dragonfily, the regional sustainability winner, is a Utah custom manufacturer of patent-pending systems that improve the efficiency of electrical systems in homes and businesses.