Small business owners statewide have heard a lot about alternative energy, but it can be difficult to figure out how they might best be able to use it.
Enter the Clean Technology Resource Center, run out of the Penn State Small Business Development Center. The center, which opened last April, helps businesses across the state that want to use alternative energy sources like geothermal or wind power. The center’s director, Heather Fennessey, says it’s able to point business owners toward government subsidies for alternative energy use and provide guidance on the best sources of clean power. Businesses benefit from working with an organization that isn’t interested in selling a product, Fennessey says.
“If you call a vendor and say, ‘I want solar panels,’ and they’re a solar vendor, of course they’re going to say ‘OK,’ ” she says.
Since the center opened it has helped about 45 business owners, including a Snyder County turkey farmer who is now able to generate heat from the birds’ bedding.
The center also works with Pennsylvania companies that want to introduce new clean energy technologies to the marketplace, although Fennessey says she can’t give any examples.
Next month the resource center is hosting an educational event called the Pennsylvania Clean Technology Forum in Harrisburg. It’s also planning informational webinars in the future, Fennessey says.
Source: Heather Fennessey, Clean Technology Resource Center
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen