Newlab anchors two Department of Energy awards in
Louisiana to accelerate the
scale-up of innovative climate-tech startups
NEW
ORLEANS, Aug. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Newlab has
partnered with Greater New
Orleans, Inc., along with strategic regional and industry
stakeholders including Shell, Battelle, Carbonvert, and
Louisiana State University, to
launch two Department of Energy-funded programs focused on
commercializing carbon management and clean hydrogen technologies.
By creating a strong coalition of government, industry, and
startups players, these programs will also lay the groundwork for
Newlab to expand into the Gulf South Region.
The Newlab applied innovation programs in Louisiana are being launched through two U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) funding opportunities that Newlab was
awarded to help carbon management and clean hydrogen startups
accelerate and de-risk their commercialization efforts.
"We're not going to solve climate change with one breakthrough
technology. It's going to take hundreds of founders with amazing
ideas to create the sea change we need," said CEO of Newlab,
Cam Lawrence. "Greater New Orleans
Inc. shares that vision, and I can't think of a better place than
the state of Louisiana for our
work supporting startups developing industrial decarbonization and
carbon management technologies."
Called the Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC),
participating startups will receive valuable assistance by
developing first-of-a-kind pilot project concepts with regional
partners in south Louisiana.
Through this work, founders will have facilitated access to
technical and commercial insights, regional government and industry
partners, and relevant subject matter experts to enable more
efficient in-field pilot development and scale-up in Louisiana.
"By aligning and activating infrastructure, industry programs,
and venture capital investment, Newlab Louisiana stands to bolster
the state's competitiveness in creating and attracting startups
across strategic energy growth sectors," said Michael Hecht, President & CEO of
Greater New Orleans, Inc. (GNO,
Inc.) "We and our public-private partners across the
H2theFuture initiative are firm believers that
Louisiana is best-positioned to
extend its energy leadership while supporting the commercialization
of climate technologies such as those participating in the EPIC
program."
To seize this moment, GNO Inc.has strategically partnered with
Newlab to support their development of a deep-tech venture platform
in Louisiana focused on driving
strategic investment and startup ecosystem development across
integrated energy value chains in the state.
The initiative kicked off with a two-day event that brought the
participating companies to Louisiana, where they interacted with the U.S.
Economic Development Administration, Louisiana Economic
Development, National Science Foundation, Worley, Louisiana State University, Climeworks, The Idea
Village, WSP, and other regional stakeholders. The event included
panel discussions on how climate tech innovation can drive
Louisiana's energy transition and
building community benefit plans in Louisiana, as well as an innovation showcase
and a pitch competition.
Startup Selection
Chosen in partnership with the
program's industry partners, the startups represent a range of
technologies across the carbon management and clean hydrogen value
chains. The nine (9) startups selected for the program are:
- Airhive: Direct air capture through
fluidisation
- Arculus Solutions: Natural gas transmission
retrofitting for hydrogen
- Banyu Carbon: Seawater carbon removal
- Encore CO2: Carbon utilization
- Mantel Capture: Carbon capture using molten
borate technology
- Molten Industries: Carbon-negative hydrogen and
graphite
- Parallel Carbon: Direct air carbon capture and clean
hydrogen
- RepAir Carbon: Gigaton-scale carbon removal
- Vaulted: Biomass carbon removal and storage
Why Louisiana
Louisiana has a generational opportunity to
harness its energy legacy and existing industrial base,
infrastructure, and workforce to be the national epi-center of
future energy technologies. To date, Louisiana has been awarded $10.2 billion in
federal funding for energy transition initiatives in renewable
energy, carbon capture, synthetic fuels, and clean hydrogen.
One of the first grant recipients was the GNO, Inc.-led
H2theFuture project, composed of 26 partners from across
south Louisiana in a shared
mission to build a clean hydrogen energy cluster through the
execution of projects across five interrelated workstreams.
Louisiana also leads the Gulf
Coast in energy transition project announcements, with over
$47 billion of commercial project
investments announced as of 2023. This past year, the National
Science Foundation awarded the Future Use of Energy in Louisiana (FUEL) collaborative $160 million, the largest and most competitive
grant ever awarded in the agency's history.
With the launch of these strategic programs, Newlab is building
on the regional momentum to advance the energy transition and
create a unique ecosystem of next generation climate technologies
in Louisiana that will decarbonize
industry.
Participate in the Program
Alongside the program
partners, Newlab is working closely with each technology company to
design projects that will de-risk their next technical and
commercial milestones, through deployment opportunities in
Louisiana. If you are part of the
Louisiana or broader Gulf South
ecosystem and are interested in engaging with the program startups
by informing and/or co-developing their first-of-a-kind pilot
projects, please contact us here.
About NewLab
Newlab creates the conditions for
world-changing ideas to become real-world solutions. Through its
community of startups, applied innovation programming, physical
infrastructure, and direct investment, Newlab helps commercialize
and scale the critical technologies needed to decarbonize the
economy. Today, Newlab includes more than 1000 entrepreneurs,
partnerships with forward-thinking corporate and civic entities,
and a network of active investors—all working together to scale
deep tech. To date, Newlab has supported its 300+ member companies
in raising over $2B in capital from
260 venture capital firms, with over $1.8B of successful exits and a collective
valuation of over $8.5B. Visit
www.newlab.com to learn more.
About Greater New Orleans Inc.
Greater New Orleans, Inc. is the regional
economic development nonprofit organization serving the 10-parish
region of Southeast Louisiana that
includes Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St.
Bernard, St. Charles,
St. James, St. John the
Baptist, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington parishes. GNO, Inc. works together
with the business community; local, state, and federal governments;
and other regional stakeholders to coordinate, consolidate, and
catalyze action on key issues and opportunities that maximize job
and wealth creation and retention, are relevant to the region as a
whole, and create systematic impact.
Contact:
Kate Laursen
2036105879
381827@email4pr.com
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SOURCE Greater New Orleans,
Inc.