Greentown Labs, the largest cleantech incubator in North America, and Vineyard Wind, developer of the first utility-scale offshore wind energy generation facility in the Northeast U.S., say they have entered a partnership to run a Greentown Launch accelerator program focused on offshore wind innovations.
The Greentown Labs and Vineyard Wind Launch program will identify and deploy innovations that enhance offshore monitoring technologies focused on protecting marine mammals. To do so, the organizations will collaborate on a 10-month Greentown Launch program, Greentown Labs’s flagship accelerator program designed to advance new venture creation and corporate partnerships with the industry’s most promising cleantech entrepreneurs.
Together, Greentown Labs and Vineyard Wind will support early-stage startups developing technologies to improve the offshore wind energy and marine life value chains by providing the resources, training and mentorship they need to advance their innovations.
The Launch program will aim to forge strategic relationships between selected entrepreneurs, Vineyard Wind and Vineyard Wind’s partners. Greentown Labs and Vineyard Wind will announce a detailed request for proposals in the near future.
“Vineyard Wind is excited to partner with Greentown Labs on this initiative to support and drive innovation to the emerging American offshore wind industry. Our company and dozens of others are poised to invest billions of dollars in construction and technology on projects that will only be improved by new marine data monitoring technologies,” says Lars Pedersen, CEO of Vineyard Wind.
“We look forward to working with Greentown to engage talented cleantech entrepreneurs and startups to develop technologies that will make offshore wind projects safer and more efficient,” he adds.
Over the past five years, Greentown Labs has successfully conducted Greentown Launch programs across a variety of clean energy areas including solar, hydrogen, digital energy, the circular economy and more. Each program features unique partners and topic areas, a customized application and acceptance process, and three intensive two-day workshops to facilitate connections among the startups and supporting partners, notes the company.
Greentown Labs and Vineyard Wind will release the request for proposals in March 2020 and aim to announce selected startup participants at a public kickoff event in July 2020. The organizations will also host a final showcase to celebrate the completion of a successful program in February 2021.
Photo: Technicians working on the Vineyard Wind Project
