The Paso del Norte Clean Energy Incubator (CEI) is a partnership of the University of Texas at El Paso and The Hub of Human Innovation, funded through support from the Texas State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) and UT Austin’s Austin Technology Incubator (ATI).
The Paso del Norte Clean Energy Incubator enables the region to knit together many assets in the Clean Technology Sector:
- Massive regional research programs in clean tech
- Current entrepreneurial support infrastructure
- The maquiladora program in Juarez MX, eager and able to provide advanced manufacturing expertise and capacity (more than 340 manufacturing institutions).
- Enormous global Department of Defense opportunity-pull demand represented by the military’s renewable energy initiative centered at Fort Bliss in El Paso, providing a local demand-pull for.
- Climate and workforce suited to the development of new Clean Energy technologies
The Clean Energy Incubator is working to develop relationships with two major regional sources of market-pull. At Fort Bliss and White Sands Missile Range (WMSR), the military is beginning to test and evaluate alternative energy and efficiency technologies to achieve their goal to operate at Net Zero energy use by the year 2015 to be followed by Net Zero Water and Waste by 2018. The CEI is working to interface with both Fort Bliss and the WSMR for identification and support of early-stage clean energy technologies that address clearly identifiable needs.
CEI also looks to accelerate the commercialization of technologies developed by regional universities and National Labs including UTEP, NMSU, Sandia and Los Alamos National Labs, WSMR, Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua (UACH), and Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ). The Clean Energy Incubator will source technology from these institutions, help identify entrepreneurs to build the businesses, and aid with access to funding.
The Clean Energy Partners Program is a key component of the Clean Energy Incubator. The City of El Paso and other partners have committed to work closely with the Clean Energy Incubator. Some of the commercial business partners will take the lead in commercializing new technologies; others will test and evaluate the performance of products and services developed by companies associated with the Incubator, helping to accelerate both product approvals and sales.
For more information on these programs contact Ernesto Gamboa, The Hub Business Director, Clean Energy, at Ernesto@hubofhumaninnovation.org
