From the American Wind Energy Association:

 “Shattering all its previous records, the

What will a new presidential administration mean for NASA and the space program?  More parochially, what will the impact be on NASA Glenn Research Center?

www.SpaceRef.com reports that “Some of the most influential leaders of the space community are quietly working to offer the next U.S. president an alternative to President Bush’s ‘vision for space exploration’–one that would delete a lunar base and move instead toward manned missions to asteroids along with a renewed emphasis on Earth environmental spacecraft…

“There would be some different ‘winners and losers’ compared with the Bush vision. If the lunar base is deleted, the Kennedy Space Center could lose additional personnel because there would be fewer Ares V launches and no lunar base infrastructure work that had been assigned to KSC. On the other hand, the Goddard Space Flight Center and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration near Washington, along with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, would gain with the increased space environmental-monitoring goal.”

NASA Glenn does have a role in the current Bush vision, but the Center’s history has focused on aeronautics, “spaceflight systems, propulsion, power, communication, microgravity science and human research.”  The Center has also played a pivotal role in the development of fuel cells and in icing studies.  A shift in focus away from the current vision will inevitably impact NASA Glenn–the question is, how can we best adapt to that shift outside the NASA gates? 

A renewed emphasis on space-environmental monitoring could open up new opportunities for NASA Glenn to interact more closely with community efforts to develop a sustainability roadmap, establish a fresh water institute, and other environmental R&D and technology development efforts.

It’s far too early to say with any certainty–the election is still months away–but clearly there will be changes coming down the road (yet again) for NASA Glenn.  Those involved in sustainablity and environmental technology impacts should pay close attention to opportunites  that might emerge for closer ties with NASA in 2009.

The print edition of this week’s Crain’s Cleveland Business features a cover story on wind component companies in Ohio.  The article is only available to subscribers, but the header hints at what’s inside: “Despite Ohio’s inertia, makers of advanced energy equipment see fortunes rise as interest in sustainable power picks up elsewhere.”

This is a real double-edged sword…Ohio has lots of companies making components that go into wind turbines, but most of these products are sold to other companies and operations outside the state–include companies in Britain, which yesterday announced ambitous plans for offshore wind development . 

On the one hand, that’s great news for our net exports in general and for companies like Avon Bearings in particular, which makes the 9′ in diameter bearings that go into many of the current turbine manufacturer’s products. 

On the other hand, it highlights the importance of quickly adopting Governor Strickland’s Advanced Energy Portfolio Standard AND the need to accelerate and develop more projects like the Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force’s offshore feasibility study.  (Full disclosure:  I am a task force member.)

A quick glance around the globe reveals Ohio–and Northeast Ohio in particular–has an incredible opportunity before it, not just as a manufacturer of components for wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources, but also as an end product manufacturer and distributor (especially for freshwater offshore turbines) AND as a consumer of advanced energy resources.  Our geographic location and embedded manufacturing skill base makes us an ideal place for both solar and wind manufacturing. 

Some argue that wind and other renewables don’t have enough of a history for reliable future forecasts.  Then again, markets that don’t exist can’t be forecast–just ask the IBM executives (if you can find any of them) who let Bill Gates own the operating system because there was ‘no reliable market forecast’ for operating system sales.

Perhaps there are no ‘reliable’ forecasts yet, but companies like Avon Bearings serve as remarkable indicators of what the future holds: the market for wind power–and especially for offshore wind–is growing rapidly, but as a state our utilization of advanced energy technologies is lagging behind other states almost as much as our country is lagging behind other countries.  If we don’t act quickly, the global market which is emerging before our eyes will be ours to lose. 

Today’s New York Times highlights a form of pollution related to our automobile-centric culture that is often overlooked:  storm water runoff from roadways and parking lots. 

While oil prices and carbon-related pollution get most of the attention these days, water quality and availability may soon eclipse both in terms of their impact on human society.  Alternatives to gasoline and oil-based fuels and products are growing; there is no alternative to good, clean water, however, and while images of factories dumping chemicals into rivers and streams dominate our consciousness when it comes to water pollution, the damage caused by storm water runoff from our roads and parking lots causes far more long term damage.  Rainwater that otherwise might filter through the earth back into aquifers instead flows into our rivers and streams through the storm sewer system, taking with it oil, gasoline, and other pollutants that collect on asphalt and concrete pavement.  

But what, as the Times article asks, can be done about it?  Quite a bit it turns out:

“Chicago has decided to retrofit its alleys with environmentally sustainable road-building materials under its Green Alley initiative, something experts say is among the most ambitious public street makeover plans in the country. In a larger sense, the city is rethinking the way it paves things.

“In a green alley, water is allowed to penetrate the soil through the pavement itself, which consists of the relatively new but little-used technology of permeable concrete or porous asphalt. Then the water, filtered through stone beds under the permeable surface layer, recharges the underground water table instead of ending up as polluted runoff in rivers and streams.

“Some of that water may even end up back in Lake Michigan, from which Chicago takes a billion gallons a year.

“The question is, if you’ve got to resurface an alley anyway, can you make it do more for you?” said Janet Attarian, the project’s director.

“The new pavements are also designed to reflect heat from the sun instead of absorbing it, helping the city stay cool on hot days. They also stay warmer on cold days. The green alleys are given new kinds of lighting that conserve energy and reduce glare, city officials said, and are made with recycled materials.”

 Click here for the rest of the NY Times article.

NorTech, Northeast Ohio’s leading technology-based economic development organization, recognized winners of the 2007 Innovation Awards yesterday during the NorTech Summit at LaCentre in Westlake, Ohio. NorTech hosts the annual Innovation Awards to honor individuals, companies and organizations producing innovative products and processes in Northeast Ohio. The Summit was keynoted by Dr. Stanley Gryskiewicz, a consultant and an international authority with over thirty- five years of experience in leadership, creativity, innovation and change management.

The 2007 Innovation Award winners were selected based on the theme “breakthrough innovation”–technologies that have the potential to dramatically impact a specific industry or market sector. A distinguished panel of judges chose seven companies/organizations in Northeast Ohio with inventions in a variety of technical fields including: nanotechnology, robotics, cancer diagnostics, medical imaging, air filtration, electronic sensory technology, and advanced energy (fuel cells).

“At the turn of the century Northeast Ohio was a primary location for entrepreneurs, industrialists, and inventors. So it’s important for our region to continue that legacy of innovation to remain globally competitive in today’s marketplace,” said Dorothy C. Baunach, President and CEO of NorTech. Baunach continued, “That’s why NorTech celebrates our region’s innovators and their accomplishments–to encourage and foster a ripe environment for technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.”

Below is a complete list of 2007 NorTech Innovation Awards winners and a brief description of their innovation.

AnalizaDx is a Cleveland-based cancer diagnostics company. The company has developed a proprietary platform technology that is capable of distinguishing changes in the structure of proteins in common biological fluids such as blood, urine, etc. These changes, when connected to an underlying disease process, could then serve as sensitive detection method for cancer. AnalizaDx’s technology offers important advantages compared to other biomarker approaches, in particular, its inherent insensitivity to the natural biological variation in the amount of protein that can complicate reproducibility and interpretation of most conventional technologies.  Furthermore, the technology platform is performed in a highly cost-effective, high-throughput manner, affording an economic basis for early diagnosis and screening. AnalizaDx has already demonstrated a clear feasibility to identify promising biomarker candidates for ovarian and breast cancer in preliminary clinical studies, and is also performing advanced studies with prostate cancer. The Company has formed multiple clinical collaborations with leading institutions, including the National Cancer Institute, University Hospitals of Cleveland, and The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. 

EyePlusPlus‘ lightweight, fully functional system provides rich, dynamic information to individuals with blindness or impaired sight. The Forehead Sensory Recognition System (FSRS) is an electronic travel aid that is for use by appropriately trained individuals to supplement existing travel aids (e.g., white cane, guide dog, etc.) by providing additional sensory information via electrical stimulation regarding the user’s physical environment.  The FSRS converts video images captured by a miniature sunglasses-mounted camera into electro-tactile stimulation patterns applied to the user’s forehead through an array of stimulation electrodes, which allows the user to perceive objects.

MemPro Ceramics has combined polymer processing with ceramic production to make a new filtration technology using ceramic nanofibers to capture/filter undesirable particles while removing gaseous pollutants from the environment. The innovation will dramatically reduce the costs of using catalysts in the production of pharmaceutical and biotech products, fine and bulk chemicals, as well as food and beverages. Recently, a working prototype was built in partnership with the University of Akron to demonstrate the efficacy of the filters and the benefits of employing ceramic nanofibers to take advantage of large surface/volume ratio these nanostructures offer. 

Nanomimetics Inc. is focused on the development and commercialization of its unique nanocoatings for a variety of medical and industrial applications. Founded in 2004, Nanomimetics has demonstrated that its patented technology can improve medical device efficacy by increasing compatibility with the human body. In addition, the company is actively developing coatings that will prevent biological fouling in aqueous environments.

SpineMatrix®, Inc. (SMI) is an Akron, Ohio-based spinal imaging company that has developed the CERSR® (Computerized Electrophysiological Reconstruction of Spinal Regions) device for evaluating low back physiology related to the origin of low back pain (LBP) and injury.  CERSR® aids the neuro or orthopedic surgeon in accurately diagnosing the true source of LBP non-invasively with the real potential to significantly reduce total healthcare cost by directing the LBP patient to the appropriate diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical procedures.  CERSR is the first and only FDA cleared device to do this.  SMI has completed clinical efficacy studies at the Texas Back Institute, The Cleveland Clinic, Ohio State University College of Medicine and others.  Two thousand, nine hundred patients were studied, with 581 under blinded protocols.  There have been 10 published, peer-reviewed clinical effectiveness of the CERSR system.  The system utilizes 4 CPT reimbursement codes.  The system currently has 10 US and 5 foreign patents and 2 registered trademarks.  The Company is led by Ben Shappley, a twenty-five-year veteran of the orthopedic and spine industries.

TeamCASE has partnered with both local and national corporations such as Goodyear, National Instruments, Roadway, ENSCO, Inc., Argon ST, Bendix, Innovative Engineering & Consulting and has been supported with donations from the Gund Foundation, Case Alumni, and others to produce a world-class autonomous robot capable of bringing high-technology recognition to Cleveland. DEXTER, a full-size robotic, self-driving vehicle is the creation of Case Western Reserve University engineering students, faculty, and corporate sponsors.  DEXTER is short for Deployable Extreme Environment Robot.   DEXTER has not only caught the eyes of young, aspiring engineers at the 2007 Cleveland Auto Show, but DEXTER and TeamCASE will compete in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, a 60 mile race on city streets without any human intervention and will also be featured in documentary about the Urban Challenge to be aired in February 2008 on the The Discovery Science Channel. 

Technology Management, Inc. (TMI), Ohio’s oldest independent fuel cell systems developer, was organized in 1990 for the sole purpose of commercializing a modular, multi-fuel Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) system into mobile, rural and remote markets using multiple strategic alliances.  Today, with over $25MM invested, TMI is among less than a dozen companies in the world to have publicly demonstrated a kilowatt class fuel cell system operating on ordinary fuel.  TMI is now engineering systems for initial field tests and pre-commercial manufacture.  Early funding by the U.S. Department of Defense for mobile military applications provided the basis for TMI’s current systems, which can be shipped overnight by common carrier, field maintainable by one person without special tools or equipment, and operate on a wide range of common fuels.  These include natural gas, propane, military JP-8 kerosene, diesel and renewable fuels such as ethanol, biodiesel, digester biogas, and (soy) vegetable oil. 

If you haven’t visted Sarah Taylor’s Windustrious Cleveland site, you really should.  As Sarah says herself:

“Cleveland faces a unique opportunity: to become, not only the first city in the U.S. to install an off-shore wind farm, but the first city in the world to install a wind turbine farm in fresh water. Wind turbines will eventually be constructed in lakes, including Lake Erie. The branding and marketing potential of being able to boast that we have created the first one on the planet, with the associated international recognition, would surely be enormous. It would translate into a powerful image of Cleveland as a progressive, productive, jobs-creating city, with a bubbling business climate, a place where young professionals will want to come and stay, and a very interesting tourist destination.”

I agree with Sarah.  What got me writing about her words today is the tenor of a number of conversations I’ve been having with people from different industries and perspectives–both old and new–about Ohio’s lack of a renewable portfolio standard.  It turns out a number of manufacturers *want* an RPS in Ohio, and not just those in the wind industry.  We have an opportunity to leapfrog other states here–to actually get out ahead of the curve.  And we have a workforce than can very quickly get trained in new techniques while still retaining the tacit knowledge acquired from years of so-called “traditional” manufacturing.

A very kind note I received from John Colm of WIRE-net the other day reminded me about what is really important to Cleveland when it comes to advanced and renewable energy technologies like wind or solar:  Higher value manufacturing jobs.  Ultimately it doesn’t matter how much of our own power we generate her from wind or solar per se as it does how many high value jobs we can create here in Northeast Ohio meeting the global demand for wind and solar products.  I don’t think John will mind me excerpting this one piece from his note:

“I appreciated your comment about how our economy has always been about knowledge, but how the value for certain kinds of knowledge has changed (ie, how to make lots of identical parts has decreased in value; but how to make other things, or analyze information, has increased in value).  I’ve always had this uneasy feeling when people start talking about a shift from mfg to knowledge economy, as if knowledge isn’t part of today’s mfg (take a look at what the steelworkers at Mittal’s galvanealing line do in that facility…they are all working with data from their computer controls).”

John is right too, of course.  We are already an advanced manufacturing center.  This is the real value in efforts like that to bring off-shore wind to Lake Erie or to attract certification companies to the Greater Cleveland area.  All signs point to increasing value in the coming decades for those cities able to serve the needs of the wind and solar industries.  And given our logistical advantages in terms of both land and fresh water access, our strong manufacturing base, our regional expertise in polymers and advanced materials,  Why not here?

Yesterday was Cleantech day at the NanoApps conference in

While both nanotechnology and cleantech are still somewhat amorphous beasts when it comes to tangible products and markets, it was clear from the presentations made that both are making themselves felt in new product development efforts across a number of industries.

What struck me most was Peter Buca’s keynote in which he quoted Peter Senge:

“Today’s problems are yesterday’s solutions.”  

An amazingly trenchant observation—the problems we face today with water and air quality, for example, are all the result of technology solutions to other problems we faced 25, 50, even 100 or more years ago.  

Pete is Vice President of Innovation and Technology for Parker Hannifin.  Even if you don’t know that company by name, the things they make are no doubt in many of the products you use today.  (If you doubt me, just click on the link above and see for yourself). 

Pete works mostly with the Fluid Connectors Group, one of Parker’s oldest lines of business.  Hoses, seals, and other fluid connectors may seem boring to some people, but as Pete reminded the audience, more often than not, the fluids those hoses carry would be extremely harmful if they were to leak out into the environment, and so both the hoses and the seals are critically important. 

He also pointed out that today, hoses and seals do leak.  While others work on less toxic fluids to help lubricate and move our hydraulic systems, we still have “yesterday’s solutions” to deal with, and so companies like Parker are very interested in nanotechnology’s potential to help make better hoses, seals and filtration systems.

Pete also noted in his talk the UN Millennium Project study, which highlighted the fact that access to clean, potable water is the number one problem we face globally, something several of the presenting companies, including local start-up MemPro, are working to address.  

Does nanotechnology hold the key to filtration systems that can make clean water more accessible around the globe?  It’s too early to say.  But it is exciting to see the work that is being done and gratifying that so many are working on tomorrow’s solutions today.

How appropriate that on the first day of the NanoApp Summit here in Cleveland that MIT’s Technology Review would come out with an article about nano solar cells.  Cleantech Day at the Summit is this Wednesday.  Whether you make it to the summit or not, you definitely should check this out.

Coming up October 22-25:

The Nano-Network and NanoBusiness Alliance have assembled top nanotechnology experts and experienced executives at the forefront of nanotechnology development and commercialization. Speakers will explore a broad range of issues relating to nanotechnology and its many applications in automotive, clean tech, and defense sectors. Major manufacturers, leading nanotechnology product developers, and industry experts will share product enhancements, insight on current market demands, commercialization and investment opportunities, and much more. Attendees will leave the Nano App Summit with a better understanding of nanotechnology commercialization opportunities that exist within the automotive, clean tech and defense sectors and the business contacts to move their company to the next level. It’s all about nanotechnology applications today — not years into the future.

For more details, go to http://www.nanoappsummit.com/

Sign up now and you can still get a discount: