Evansville Energy Nucleus working to attract clean energy tech manufacturers
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Evansville-based not-for-profit Circular Venture Lab and the University of Evansville’s Center for Innovation and Change are accelerating their efforts to attract manufacturers of clean-energy technology.
Their collaboration called Evansville Energy Nucleus was one of 13 winners in the first phase of the Manufacture of Advanced Key Energy Infrastructure Technologies Prize strategies track in November. The group is using the $50,000 prize from the U.S. Department of Energy to engage the community and begin drafting a roadmap to attract clean-energy manufacturers.
If successful, the Nucleus could win $100,000 in the second phase and $250,000 in the third phase of the prize competition, also known as MAKE IT. In all, the group could receive $400,000 over 18 months.
Erin Lewis, executive director for UE’s Center for Innovation and Change, said the group’s mission is to make the Evansville area attractive for businesses focused on clean energy.
“These companies, they can start their businesses wherever they want to, and they want to start them in places that have a high quality of life for their workers,” she said. “These are things that companies will look at before making a decision to go somewhere.”
Logan Jenkins, executive director at Circular Venture Lab, told Inside INdiana Business he expects the project to impact areas beyond southwest Indiana.
“This program could benefit not just the Evansville region, but it’s going to have some attraction for people that maybe are looking at Evansville and they decide Owensboro is a better place for them or that even Henderson is a better place. It’s still a win for the tri-state,” he said.
The MAKE IT Prize
The MAKE IT prize aims to serve as a catalyst for the domestic manufacturing of critical clean energy technology components. It’s funded through the federal infrastructure law.
Rebecca Szymkowicz, commercialization program manager within the DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions, said the agency anticipates a growing demand for clean energy technologies in the coming years.
“But there are a lot of weaknesses and risks in the current supply chain that could potentially inhibit these important technologies from scaling and reaching market,” she said. “We worked closely with offices across the department—including the Offices of Clean Energy Demonstrations and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy—to develop this prize in the hopes that it can help speed up the development of manufacturing capacity for critical clean energy technology components.”
The Nucleus is competing in the strategies track, which aims to spark interest and excitement about creating clean energy technologies and increase the possibility of creating more jobs and economic opportunities in the sector.
A separate facilities track is intended to “move manufacturing plants for individual clean energy technology components identified as critical to the point of being ready for construction,” said Szymkowicz. Competitors can win up to $5 million across two phases.
“Our hope is that by the end of the prize, there are many companies ready to break ground on new manufacturing facilities,” Szymkowicz said. “And for strategies, we’re really hoping to make sure that as we’re speeding up, as all of this domestic manufacturing is starting to take place, that happens in a way that works for different regions and communities.”
A collaboration of interests
Circular Venture Lab is an organization that contributes to developing and testing new items, systems and services within the circular economy, which keeps products, materials and services in circulation for as long as possible. The not-for-profit’s efforts decrease the demand for new materials, save energy and water and minimize waste generation.
UE’s Center for Innovation and Change has a similar focus as a place for the campus and community to generate new ideas for a fairer, wealthier and eco-friendly world. The center’s ChangeLab students develop innovative solutions or provide services for businesses, nonprofits and the community.
Lewis, director for UE’s innovation center, said the university and not-for-profit collaboration began through a mutual connection at Evansville Regional Economic Partnership.
“[Logan and I] just started talking, and he mentioned the Department of Energy had these [prizes] where they were giving them out on a tiered system. If you get the first one, then you can try for the much larger second and third,” Lewis said. ”They’re trying to encourage communities to develop innovative ways to create energy ecosystems that are better for the planet. He said he would love to work with students on that.”
“The Center for Innovation and Change is so open to new ideas because they know it benefits the students at the school, and it benefits the community,” added Jenkins. “And they’ve rolled out some really good projects in the past that have benefited the community.”
‘Identifying a manufacturing base’
Part of the Nucleus’ plan is to focus on census tracts in underserved areas. One community is the Evansville Promise Neighborhood, which includes Delaware Elementary School, Evans Elementary School, Lodge Community School, Lincoln School, Glenwood Leadership Academy and Bosse High School. The Promise Neighborhoods program aims to improve educational and social outcomes from cradle to career.
“Our hope is these employers will tell us what kind of training they need employees to have, and then we can give that to the residents of the Promise Neighborhood so they can get those jobs and hopefully get closer to breaking the cycle of generational poverty,” Lewis said.
“We’re showcasing to people who relocate their company here and are looking for a workforce in a community that the community cares about its residents,” added Jenkins.
In Phase 2, the Nucleus will submit a concept roadmap with community engagement results and the names of potential manufacturers it plans to recruit.
“A big part of it is the community engagement. Talking to residents, convening at meetings or workshops, to discuss some of the biggest energy challenges that people in the area face,” Jenkins said. “We’d like to do some initial targeting and identifying a manufacturing base that we can potentially market to. We’ll look for complementary businesses to our own manufacturing base, which is advanced manufacturing.”
In Phase 3, the Nucleus will turn in its final roadmap, demonstrating commitment from at least one clean energy manufacturer interested in bringing a facility to the region. Jenkins said he’s been speaking with a company in Florida that works in calcium carbonate and wants to operate in Evansville.
“We’re also looking at a physical hub in the Promise Neighborhood where the community can gather, students can work, young entrepreneurial teams can start working on their companies and have access to subject matter experts, mentors and potentially investors to talk through their businesses,” Jenkins said. “That physical hub could also be a temporary workspace for companies that are moving here, and they need a place to call their home for six months.”
Future opportunities
Lewis believes attracting clean energy manufacturers to the Evansville region will improve its industrial reputation. While many states have at least one “super polluter,” southwestern Indiana had four as of 2016, according to a study by the Center for Public Integrity. They included three electric power plants and Alcoa’s Warrick operations.
“There’s this increasing sense of the threat of climate change, and we need to do something about it. Add into that manufacturers like Toyota that are already embracing clean energy for the future, moving in that direction, and others, the hospitals, the universities coming together, students with a passion, and there’s more of a focus,” said Lewis.
Jenkins said the Evansville area is ideal for clean energy manufacturers because of its history, amenities and proximity to other cities.
“We are the heart of a blue-collar region, the Midwest,” said Jenkins. “If you look at the history of our manufacturers and who we have here now, we have some very large companies that are in Evansville, and they’re a collaborative group,” said Jenkins. “A new company of ten, 50 or 200 people, if they were to come here, they’d find a welcome environment.”
Lewis said the incentives for clean-energy manufacturers to come to the Evansville region go beyond typical criteria such as housing.
“That’s important. But it’s more, what are my employees going to get to do when they’re not at the office?” she said. “Are there enough trails that are interconnected through the greenway? Are there enough safe playgrounds for their kids? How’s the walkability of the city? How’s the public transportation access?”
Lewis thinks UE’s Center for Innovation and Change will be most helpful to the Nucleus by ensuring work to attract clean energy manufacturers is done with human-centered design.
“These potential companies that we’re trying to recruit…let’s say they all agree the thing that’s going to make the biggest difference is more green space,” said Lewis. “We can field a team of [ChangeLab] students—urban planning, political science, sociology, engineering, landscape architecture—to work on that challenge.”
As the Nucleus works through the phases of the MAKE IT prize, the partnering entities are already planning future collaborations.
“We’ll be looking to build regional partnerships, including mentors, investors and other community colleges and universities. And we’ll be looking to focus on new business creation and introducing a program that uses tech to strategically solve problems,” Jenkins said.
“This is a unique opportunity for southern Indiana to really turn the tide on how things can be done, how you can take the DNA of a community and harness it for future good. And so if somebody’s got an idea, we’d love to hear it,” Lewis said.