As we are getting in the fall season, the Renewable Energy Venture Development Academy (REVDA) is keeping us busier than ever.  We held a mini REVDA session in Biloxi, Mississippi at the annual meeting of the Air and Waste Management Association's southern section.  The session was attended by almost 25 people from three states with lots of great feedback from the attendees.  The next full session (day-long) REVDA event will be held in Washington, DC October 15, 2012 as a pre-conference workshop for RETECH 2012.  

Our goal for developing the REVDA content has always been to draw from real life examples and experiences of companies and investors we work with on a regular basis while leveraging the appropriate public resources.  This month we caught up Nick Walters, the former state director of the US Department of Agriculture's Rural Development, and currently works with small and large communities around the country.  Nick has a wealth of practical knowledge and puts it down in really simple, down-to-earth terms that just make a lot of common sense.  Nick shared some of his wisdom in this exclusive interview with Strategic Biomass Solutions.

I had the honor of serving as a keynote panelist at the  MegaWatt Ventures competition's final event at Florida's  Cleantech to Spacetech event in Orlando, Florida September 21, 2012.  The University of Central Florida is one of six entities around the country that won an award from the US Department of Energy to promote entrepreneurship in the renewable energy sector.  The top award of $100,000 to the student led company was won by Trash2Cash Energy, who is integrating the tri-reforming and Fischer-Tropsch processes together and hopes to build a pilot scale unit in the near future.  This is a unique competition for startup companies in the cleantech sector that featured a wide array of companies from hybrid PV and thermal panels to intelligent wireless sensor networks and new battery technologies.  It is easy to get excited when you see the creativity of the younger generation being applied to the energy sector, which is traditionally not know for innovation.  

I would like to welcome our new intern, Owen Phillips, who is working on his undergraduate degree in economics at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.  Owen has had wide experience already that includes working as an intern for Mississippi Public Broadcasting and MuniStrategies LLC, a firm that specializes in new markets tax credits.  

I hope you find these newsletters useful and interesting and welcome your comments via email (sarora@mta.ms) or phone (601-960-3659).  Please think of us a resource for help in commercializing emerging renewable energy technologies.  Thank you and enjoy the rest of the newsletter.

 

Sumesh Arora, Ph.D.

Director, Strategic Biomass Solutions  

The Renewable Energy Venture Development Academy will be held in conjunction with two upcoming conferences:

• RETECH 2012, October 15, Washington, D.C.
• REWNA, December 9, Orlando, Florida

Click here to learn more about RETECH 2012, and here to learn more about REWNA. 

 

Monthly Featured Interview: Catching up with Nick Walters 
 
Strategic Biomass Solutions analyst Joseph Linton recently talked with Nick Walters, director of economic development for Choctaw County, Mississippi, and founder of Stone-Adams Financial Partners. Click here  for more information.

Save the date for the Mississippi Biomass & Renewable Energy Council quarterly meeting November 8, 2012.  To register for the meeting, please click here, type your name, check the box and click "Save."   

Thanks for reading our e-newsletter.  Please forward this to other interested parties and contact us if you have any questions.

Strategic Biomass Solutions is dedicated to connecting entrepreneurs, investors and economic developers in order to drive renewable energy technologies to market.  SBS is funded in part by the United States Department of Energy.