Sustainable Westchester

Hampshire Council of Governments (HCG) is a government entity. It offers a suite of programs and services that combine the practices of government and the private sector in support of municipalities, residents, nonprofits, and local businesses. It was founded in 1999 and is based in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Wind Energy Corporation is a company that designs and manufactures Vertical Spiral Wind Turbine.

Lunar Energy produces new technological and environmental solutions to the problem of clean, carbon free electricity provision for the 21st century. Tidal Stream Energy - a renewable source of power which is created by harnessing the energy built up in the oceans currents by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun.

Vortex Hydro Energy is a company that received a STTR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Havesting Hydrokinetic Energy Using Vortex Induced Vibration and Fish Biomimetics. Their project will transition an innovative 1-5 kW energy generating system from the University of Michigan (UM) Marine Renewable Energy Laboratory (MRELab) towards the commercial market place. The system is based on a system of cylinders that are made to oscillate by water currents at velocities as low as 1-2 knots (water turbines require 5-7 knots). It is through this mechanism that the converter harvests the hydrokinetic energy. This project, if successful, will yield a new means of harvesting energy from low velocity currents. Additionally, this system is believed to have fewer impacts on aquatic wildlife than turbine based systems.

Peregrine Power is a company that received a SBIR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Universal Utility/Customer Interface. Their research project will lead to an electrical panel with modules that provide interfaces between the electrical grid and the residential customer's on-site loads and other energy systems. Through the use of interactive solid state meters, the utility will be able to intelligently regulate loads and dispatch on-site energy systems. The on-site energy systems include, but are not limited to, controlled loads (e.g., water heating), pluggable EVs, generation systems (e.g., PV panels), and energy storage (e.g., spent EV batteries). The panel and modules represent the most integrated and economic system attempted so far to enable more intelligent energy management and will encourage renewable energy and conservation. In addition, new grid stabilization opportunities will be created for the utility. The proposed approach will use advanced power electronics, along with state-of-the-art communications techniques. The broader impacts of this research are (1) to enable utilities and over 50,000,000 residential customers to implement safe, convenient and economic energy management techniques, (2) to encourage renewable energy, and (3) to provide distributed generation and storage systems that assist the utility in stabilizing the grid. This would lead to more reliable and less costly energy for the customer, along with reduced greenhouse gas.

Garbrook Knowledge Resources is a company that received a SBIR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Targeted Information Products Built from a Curated Knowledge Base. Their project addresses the problem of integrating advanced computational and curation techniques. Curated knowledge resources are important in fields like genomics, but have not yet made a significant impact in other fields like renewable energy. The purpose of a curated knowledge product is to provide comprehensive, non-redundant, concise, and unbiased information in a field where information is otherwise scattered and hard for users to gather objectively. Garbrook has built an encyclopedic knowledge base, the Advanced Biofuels Resource, to organize scientific, commercial, and policy-related information for the Biofuels community. This proposal will develop automated methods to produce multiple targeted information products from such a resource. For many users of technical, commercial, and policy information, the information landscape is cluttered and confusing. The Internet now contains a wide variety of newsletters, trade association sites, blogs, and other media reports, in addition to scholarly publications, consulting reports, white papers from policy organizations, and government sites. The solution to this problem is not more sites, but a new standard for curated knowledge resources to reduce the clutter. Garbrook proposes to build technology to automatically segment curated matter to establish a comprehensive resource into targeted knowledge products suitable for various sectors of the community. Combining its computational technology and its ability to train agent curators, Garbrook is positioned to build additional knowledge products in the future for topics related to energy and the environment.