ThisWeek UA 05/11/2011
TechColumbus community sponsors joined with advanced energy industry leaders last week at the kickoff of the new Central Ohio Energy Manufacturing Solutions Hub.
The hub, which is designed to reduce operational costs for advanced energy manufacturing companies, is intended to increase the success rate of energy start-ups and encourage energy manufacturing companies to locate in central Ohio. It is a partnership of TechColumbus, Columbus2020, Edison Welding Institute (EWI), Battelle, the Ohio State University Institute for Energy and the Environment and Center for Automotive Research (CAR).
A $250,000 grant was awarded to TechColumbus in 2010 by the State of Ohio to develop an advanced energy industry in central Ohio. According to EWI Energy Center director Kim Gibson, the new hub is one of several around the state with a similar mission.
Franklin County, Columbus, Dublin, Gahanna, New Albany, Upper Arlington and Westerville all provide investment funds and other resources to TechColumbus. TechColumbus uses these resources to attract larger investments.
The kick-off took place at TechColumbus last Thursday, May 5, with 130 people attending.
“I am excited about the opportunities and concepts this hub project provides our community,” said Dana McDaniel, Dublin’s director of economic development. “Central Ohio has a long history of manufacturing, especially automotive, and we’ve got CAR doing great things here. This project will focus those talents in our region and people will migrate to it.”
Matt Shad, Upper Arlington’s economic development director, shared McDaniel’s excitement.
“We’re committed to this cause,” Shad said. “Having the nucleus of this hub project right on Upper Arlington’s border means access to the businesses and their workforce, which is great for our community. I expect that this hub will enhance what is already a potential industry of strength in [central Ohio].”
According to Shad, between 2008 and 2010, Upper Arlington invested $150,000 in TechColumbus. From that, TechColumbus reinvested $1.5 million of its combined resources in Upper Arlington businesses. That investment was then leveraged by the businesses to result in outside investments totaling $4.3 million.
Upper Arlington is not prime for manufacturing, Shad said, but is home to technology companies that are developing systems to support these energy solutions, and he hopes this project will produce similar results.
“We don’t make small plans,” EWI director Gibson said. “We expect this hub to create a global center for energy storage manufacturing here.”
“OSU CAR is at the forefront of designing batteries for transportation, and we’re at the forefront of manufacturing processes for them,” Gibson said. “There are hundreds of tiny welds in these batteries that have to withstand much greater demand than in the old battery your gas powered car uses. That drastically increases manufacturing costs. We want to solve that problem.”
Battery technology for transportation is the hardest type of energy storage, Gibson said, because of all the requirements associated with it. But it translates directly to power-grid based storage. Battelle, according to Gibson, is a current leader in smart-grid technology, and they have partnered with EWI to develop manufacturing processes for these power grid components.
“Every hub is reliant on an institutional anchor,” said Frank Scardena, Energy Manufacturing Solutions Hub director. “For us, it’s the OSU CAR program. They are making advances over there that are creating new technologies ripe for commercialization and are helping attract new businesses to the region that will only continue to advance our standing in this market.”
Two of those businesses attracted to the region, according to TechColumbus, are Venturi NA, manufacturers of electric vehicles, and Plug Smart, developers of smart-grid technologies.
“We are excited to be part of the hub,” Venturi CEO John Pohill said. “We’re looking forward to sharing technologies with people in the hub and to learning from others. This will create value-added solutions that are critical to doing business.”
Plug Smart CEO Rich Housh agrees.
“I’ve had the opportunity to meet people who are working on things that I want to collaborate on,” Housh said at the event. “I’m looking forward to following up with them to see what we might be able to do together.”
For more information about the hub project and TechColumbus investments, visit www.techcolumbus.org.