News Archive Item
Roundtable Discussion with Clean Tech LA and ARPA-E
Description:
Last week members of Clean-Tech Los Angeles and the undersectretary of the DOE and head of ARPA-E Arun Majumdar gathered in Los Angeles City Hall for a roundtable discussion. The topic was how to more effectively build a clean-tech ecosystem in Los Angeles. Better and more abundant financing was a clearly articulated demand, but several other interesting ideas surfaced as well. Entrepreneurs are dealing with the difficult task of how to find customers willing to take a risk on a new, potentially disruptive, technology. This sentiment was voiced by founders of companies developing novel fuel-injection systems, building automation systems built on swarm intelligence, and selling LED lighting. Dr. Majumdar described one of the roles of DOE as providing a map of the landscape. To this end, DOE can do more to connect inventors with interested customers and also provide low cost validation and verification of new technology. More information is available at http://cleantechla.org/
