Skidmore, NYSERDA Launch Clean Energy Program

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Skidmore College is amongst a group of partners who have teamed up with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop a statewide program aimed to help business executives create new opportunities in clean energy business. Skidmore President Philip A. Glotzbach was part of Monday’s press conference that announced the program funding and details at Skidmore College’s Tang Museum, along with NYSERDA President and CEO John B. Rhodes, Center for Economic Growth President and CEO Michael Tucker, and NYPA Chief of Staff and Director of Energy Policy Jill Anderson. The name of the new educational opportunity under NYSERDA’s Clean Tech Executive program is the New York Executive Clean Energy Leadership Institute. NYEXCEL is funded by $400,000 from NYSERDA. Along with Brookhaven National Laboratory, the New York Battery and Energy Storage Consortium, the Pace Energy and Climate Center and the Syracuse Center of Excellence, Skidmore College will help look to develop content and oversee NY EXCEL. NY EXCEL will seek to show business owners, investors and entrepreneurs how to start and run successful energy-efficient and clean-energy companies and educate them on business investment opportunities in the cleantech sector. Set to start next August with a 30-hour classroom summer residency at Skidmore College, NY EXCEL attendees will also get the chance to tour the state’s most import clean-technology tools, such as wind farms, solar installations and manufacturers of clean-technology products. Participants are expected to make a business plan for a New York state clean-tech venture, which in turn would be presented to investors at a final workshop. Along with the type of prospective business a participant will be starting, there will also be a mentor assigned to every NY EXCEL entrepreneur. Professor Cathy Hill, who teaches business administration at Skidmore College, started the idea for the program. Hill, who is also involved with the New York Battery and Energy Storage Consortium, is expecting between 15 and 25 participants next year.