DuBois

Denis Du Bois: "Excitement...fear. Opportunity...risk. Urgency... indifference." Pacific Northwest Clean Tech Open Co-chair Byron McCann opened last night's regional awards ceremony with a dramatized series of opposites.

It fit, because the theme of the evening was contrast and anachronism. The region's hottest new technologies were showcased in Seattle's second-oldest theater. Our governor headlined the ceremony for a cleantech business plan competition that blossomed with no state financial support.

"We must all make these choices," McCann continued. "Urgency is critical. The one commodity we don't have a lot of is time."

The Clean Tech Open is about accelerating innovation to address climate, economic, and security issues, he said.

About 200 people crammed into the ACT Theatre to see which three startups were selected as finalists. There was as much excitement in the air during the cocktail reception as during the ceremony itself.

Entrepreneurs and investors crowded around the semifinalists' exhibits to see prototypes. Everyone engaged in energetic networking.

The finalists are Green Lite Motors, Hydrovolts Inc., and LivinGreen Materials.

I saw their 20-minute pitches at an investor forum before the gala, and all three are richly deserving of their prizes.

Winning teams each receive $15,000 in cash and $35,000 in pro-bono services, and will compete for $250,000 in prizes in the National Clean Tech Open in San Francisco next month.

Governor Christine Gregoire previewed the technologies and talked with each of the ten hopeful entrepreneurs. "It's so exciting for me to see what these companies are doing," Governor Gregoire remarked. "It's the amazing, entrepreneurial, innovative spirit that we need to capture if we're going to take these things beyond prototype and make them happen."

"It’s great to see the Clean Tech Open come to Washington State," added Rogers Weed, Director of the Washington State Department of Commerce. "Governor Gregoire has been a policy leader on climate change and the clean energy transition and this event shows that our entrepreneurial community is also stepping up to the opportunity. It's one of the most powerful trends we can tap into to achieve our mission of growing and improving jobs in the state."

Gov. Chris Gregoire, left, chats with Dr. Cao of LivinGreen.

The Governor's appearance lent an atmosphere of importance to the event.

"This is a showcase of the best of the new technologies and will keep Washington at the forefront of the energy industry," said Jimmy Jia, founder of Seattle-based Distributed Energy Management, an energy efficiency startup. "It's great that the governor sees the importance of the event and supports it."

Everyone seemed excited to see the Northwest giving cleantech the attention it deserves.

"The contestants' cleantech innovations are interesting," said Rebecca Anderson, a cleantech attorney with Graham & Dunn. "It's just what the investment community needs to get excited about Pacific Northwest companies in this sector."

"What resonated with me was the diversity of approaches," said Matt Price of cleantech venture capital firm Nth Power. "It's not just batteries, or solar, it's a variety of technologies. Every concept here is a different way of solving a different problem. We'll need them all -- there are no silver bullets."

This was a competition not of ideas, but of viable business plans. Semifinalists with innovative and useful new inventions watched the prizes go to entrepreneurs whose products are more incremental than revolutionary.

But the six-month coaching and culling process has been as valuable to each of the contestants as the prizes that went to the winners.

"The mentoring that we have gotten has been simply unbelievable," said Burt Hamner, CEO of Hydrovolts. "The Open offers anyone the opportunity to work with incredible talent in something that no other angel or venture capital forum is doing."

Gov. Chris Gregoire, left, listens to Burt Hamner of Hydrovolts

Hydrovolts developed a fish-safe, in-stream hydropower turbine with a clever "Flipwing" design. Placed in irrigation canals, the turbines can produce renewable energy at about two cents per kilowatt-hour, much less than utility rates.

"The Clean Tech Open has been intense, but really valuable," said Tim Miller, President and CEO of Green Lite Motors. "If you can commit the effort to it, you get back out of it exactly what you put into it. I can tell you our plan is way stronger having gone through this process."

Green Lite Motors has prototyped a cool, three-wheeled hybrid electric vehicle that combines the enclosed comfort of a car with the fuel efficiency of a motorcycle. Because it's legally a motorcycle, it's permitted in the HOV lane with a single occupant.

"We had no idea what we were getting into when we entered," said Chris Tagge, CEO of LivinGreen Materials. His startup doesn't make thin-film solar cells, but they want make them more efficient.

The company is perfecting a part of the manufacturing process for a relatively new type of photovoltaics called dye-sensitized solar cells.

When LivinGreen's technology is used in production, the company hopes the cells will be 50 percent more efficient and therefore considerably cheaper to make.

"The support we've received from the Clean Tech Open has been overwhelming. They gave us a great toolkit," Tagge added. "The cash will help, too."

Denis Du Bois is CEO of P5 Group, a cleantech marketing advisory firm in Seattle. He is the founder of Energy Priorities Magazine and a frequent writer on cleantech topics. Guest posts are the opinions of their authors and don't necessarily reflect those of TechFlash or its staff.