The accelerator will advance five startups’ climatetech solutions while preparing them for partnership and commercialization in the offshore wind industry
Somerville, Mass. and Houston, Texas, June 28, 2023 — Greentown Labs, the largest climatetech incubator in North America, and Vineyard Wind, developer of the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in the United States, today announce five startup participants for Greentown Go Energize 2023. This Greentown Go program, which is supported by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), is dedicated to advancing technologies for responsible offshore wind development.
A total of 40 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity is set to come online in the United States in the next decade. Harnessing this abundant resource will increase grid reliability and diversity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With only 42 megawatts of offshore wind capacity currently operational, the U.S. offshore wind industry is poised for significant growth and ripe for innovation—but given the industry’s complexity, it can be uniquely challenging for startups to enter this space.
Go Energize 2023 embodies a powerful vision: to remove barriers hindering the commercialization of innovative technologies within the offshore wind industry by providing education and fostering robust relationships across networks.
Go Energize 2023 set out to find startups with solutions for offshore turbine monitoring and ecological data collection and digital solutions to improve turbine efficiency and longevity. After a highly competitive selection and deliberation process that saw more than 60 applicants from a dozen countries, a cohort of five cutting-edge startup participants was selected:
- Blue Atlas Robotics (Odense, Denmark): Blue Atlas Robotics has developed and commercialized a robot platform that removes operational and data limitations present today when using available methods for underwater inspections.
- FutureOn (Oslo, Norway): FutureOn’s FieldTwin creates a dynamic and 3D geospatial common data environment across surface, subsea, and subsurface domains, with open API connectivity into third-party tools and existing customer workflows.
- HyperKelp (Encinitas, Calif., United States): HyperKelp produces the Kelp Smart Buoy—a hosted payload platform capable of carrying hundreds of sensors—that collects and transmits marine-level data for wind farmers, climate scientists, and military intelligence officials.
- Lobster Robotics (Delft, Netherlands): Lobster Robotics develops lightweight, low-cost, fast robots for visual surveying to lower the cost of surveying in offshore wind farms.
- SeaDeep (Somerville, Mass., United States): SeaDeep revolutionizes underwater assessments with AI-powered subsea vision for inspecting marine environments and substructures in real-time and with high-fidelity using low-cost, off-the-shelf cameras.
The startup cohort will work closely with Vineyard Wind and MassCEC over six months to advance commercialization efforts while connecting with offshore wind developers, NGOs, scientists, and other key players and prepare for partnerships in the burgeoning U.S. offshore wind industry. The startups will also benefit from mentorship, networking opportunities, educational workshops, and partnership-focused programming; gain desk space and membership at Greentown for the duration of the accelerator; and receive $70,000 each in non-dilutive stipend funding.
Vineyard Wind is developing the first utility-scale offshore wind project in the United States—which will eliminate 1.68 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, the equivalent of taking 325,000 cars off the road annually—with construction of the landmark 800-megawatt project already underway.
“The offshore wind industry is as much about harnessing innovation as it is about delivering projects that create clean, renewable energy,” said Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus S. Moeller. “The startups selected in this round have the potential to elevate what’s currently possible when it comes to data collection and turbine monitoring. We’re excited to continue our partnership with Greentown Labs and look forward to seeing the progress of the participants in the coming months.”
Technology and process innovation are vital for the offshore wind sector to grow and operate in an environmentally responsible manner while delivering clean, economical electricity to consumers. Vineyard Wind’s role as the preeminent grid-scale offshore wind project in the U.S. will set the standard for responsible development of future projects. Massachusetts is a leader in offshore wind, and its long-term growth depends on accelerating promising enabling technologies.
“Congratulations to this dynamic group of offshore wind innovators and to Vineyard Wind and Greentown Labs for advancing the Greentown Go initiative,” said MassCEC CEO Jennifer Daloisio. “Partnerships like this are instrumental in driving Massachusetts toward its ambitious climate goals. The pace of growth and innovation in offshore wind brings exciting opportunities, and MassCEC looks forward to working with these startups to realize successful commercialization.”
Go Energize 2023 follows a successful Greentown Go program focused on offshore wind that Greentown, Vineyard Wind, and MassCEC ran together in 2020. That program advanced innovations in marine-mammal monitoring through data collection, real-time transmission, and analysis; see detailed results here.
“Offshore wind is a critical tool in the energy transition, and it’s imperative that we advance innovations that will not only maximize offshore wind’s potential, but ensure its responsible development,” said Jason Hanna, Interim CEO at Greentown. “We are proud to collaborate with Vineyard Wind and MassCEC, which are at the forefront of these efforts, on Go Energize 2023 and look forward to working with this exceptional startup cohort.”
Greentown runs Greentown Go programs across five tracks: Go Make (manufacturing), Go Move (transportation), Go Energize (energy and electricity), Go Build (buildings), and Go Grow (food and agriculture). These startup-corporate partnerships programs challenge the status quo within each key greenhouse-gas sector as they accelerate partnerships between industry giants and innovators.
The Go Energize 2023 cohort will participate in continuous mentoring and three workshops with Vineyard Wind and MassCEC, culminating in a showcase event on Nov. 16, 2023, at Greentown’s Boston location. To learn more, visit the Go Energize 2023 website.
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About Greentown Labs
Greentown Labs is a community of climate action pioneers working to design a more sustainable world. As the largest climatetech startup incubator in North America, Greentown Labs brings together startups, corporates, investors, policymakers, and many others with a focus on scaling climate solutions. Driven by the mission of providing startups the resources, knowledge, connections, and equipment they need to thrive, Greentown Labs offers lab space, shared office space, a machine shop, an electronics lab, software and business resources, and a large network of corporate customers, investors, and more. With incubators in Somerville, Mass. and Houston, Texas, Greentown Labs is home to more than 200 startups and has supported more than 500 since the incubator’s founding in 2011. These startups have collectively created more than 24,000 jobs, raised more than $4 billion in funding, and generated more than $9.8 billion in regional economic impact. For more information, please visit www.greentownlabs.com or Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Greentown Media Contact:
Julia Travaglini
Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications
julia@greentownlabs.com
888.954.6836 ext. 1
About Vineyard Wind
Vineyard Wind LLC is an offshore wind development company seeking to build the first large-scale offshore wind energy project in the U.S., to be located 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. Vineyard Wind, based in New Bedford, Mass., is 50 percent owned by funds of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and 50 percent by Avangrid Renewables. For more information, visit www.vineyardwind.com.
Vineyard Wind Media Contact:
Andrew Doba
Communications Director
adoba@vineyardwind.com
203-850-7400
About MassCEC
MassCEC is a state economic development agency dedicated to accelerating the growth of the clean energy sector across the Commonwealth to spur job creation, deliver statewide environmental benefits and to secure long-term economic growth for the people of Massachusetts. MassCEC works to increase the adoption of clean energy while driving down costs and delivering financial, environmental, and economic development benefits to energy users and utility customers across the state.
MassCEC Media Contact:
Kathryn Niforos
Director of Communications
617-315-9303