Page 104 - Innovation Delaware 2019

Georgetown site is supposed to begin this year, “but the [exact] date is to be determined as we’re working to finalize permits.”
Energy innovation also takes place at the academic level, at the University of Delaware Energy Institute. Although its energy research goes across the board in finding clean and efficient energy processes, it has a major role in leading research projects under the new Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment (RAPID) Manufacturing Institute, led by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). The U.S. Department of Energy made RAPID a member of its national network of Manufacturing USA Institutes.
“We have received major funding from the federal government, especially in catalysis research for energy innovation,” says Allie Sethman, the institute’s deputy director. Sethman says this research has led to four spinoff companies in energy research.
One of them is RiKarbon, founded by Basudeb Saha, which is making renewable carbon-based products to serve the specialty and performance chemicals market. RiKarbon is a finalist at the University of Delaware’s 2019 Hen Hatch competition, whose winner receives $100,000 in cash and in-kind services.
“Our mission and vision are to use
the abundant supply of renewable carbon to make high-value and cost- competitive specialty products that are currently operating on petroleum,”
Saha says. “Our bio-lubricant products from plant matters and natural oils have multiple high-performance applications in hydropower production, marine equipment, nuclear power production, aircrafts, agriculture equipment, cars, and consumer and industrial machinery.”
Sethman adds that in addition to being a source of energy startups, UD’s Energy Institute also collaborates on research projects with established companies like DowDuPont and ExxonMobil.
BASUDEB SAHA
RESEARCH LAUNCHES
CLEAN-ENERGY STARTUPS
ALLIE SETHMAN
In 2007, the state of Delaware created the Delaware Sustainable Energy Utility (DESEU), a nonprofit organization whose goal is to foster a better energy future for the First State. At its founding, DESEU was the first organization of its kind in the U.S., according to DESEU’s website.
Through its Energize Delaware initiative, DESEU offers home energy audits, energy savings programs for businesses and services that include helping non-profits acquire financing for energy upgrades to their buildings. To date, DESEU has granted more than $1 million in loans to help Delaware homeowners purchase and install solar panels.
In February, DESEU reported it had successfully sold tax-exempt Energy Efficiency Revenue Bonds to fund $19.1 million in energy-saving improvements for the Indian River and Colonial school districts, as well as the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services.
Delmarva Power, a subsidiary of Exelon that delivers power to more than 500,000 electric customers in Delaware and Maryland, also is betting on alternative energy. Through its Green Power Connection program, the utility helps customers get started on generating their own electricity with solar panels. ID
DELAWARE LEADS THE WAY ON
CLEAN ENERGY
by the Numbers
87%
Amount of Delaware’s energy that is manufactured by natural gas, a five-fold increase from a decade ago.
680
Number of megawatts to be generated by planned Delaware offshore wind farm.
SB 113
Name of a bill that became
law in 2018 and will enable Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing in Delaware. The PACE program can cover up to 100 percent of the cost of commercial energy-efficiency projects.
SOURCE: DELAWARE SUSTAINABLE ENERGY UTILITY, U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION
102 DelawareBusinessTimes.com
SUSTAINABILITY