Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) today announced $2.5 million in funding for 18 clean energy and climatetech companies and researchers. The funding, which comes from the MassCEC’s Catalyst, Diversity in Cleantech – Early Stage (DICES), and InnovateMass programs, will support clean energy and climatetech innovators in 11 cities and towns throughout Massachusetts, including Somerville, Cambridge, Boston, Brookline, Stow, Billerica, Springfield, Worcester, Boxford, New Bedford, and Canton.

“These grants will infuse early-stage companies and researchers with the funding they need to develop their climate technologies and attract further investment,” said Massachusetts Clean Energy Center CEO Dr. Emily Reichert. “Our goal is to make Massachusetts the climate innovation lab for the world, and that means creating an environment where climatetech businesses can start, stay and scale. Our tech-to-market grants, administered in partnership with MassVentures, are designed to help innovators test and demonstrate their climate solutions. Governor Healey’s Mass Leads Act would build on this success and help these companies thrive, creating good-paying jobs for our residents.”

“The selected deep technology projects continue to demonstrate that Massachusetts leads the nation in translating basic research to the market,” said MassVentures President and CEO Charlie Hipwood. “These awards are critical for these organizations to develop and demonstrate technical viability of their inventions and to accelerating them to funded, sustainable businesses.”

MassCEC’s Catalyst, DICES, and InnovateMass Programs are jointly administered by MassCEC and MassVentures. Catalyst and DICES support the earliest stage innovators who are looking to develop initial prototypes of their climate technologies, often still in the lab. Since launching in 2010, Catalyst has awarded $10.8 million to 185 new companies and research teams. Past awardees have raised over $852 million in follow-on funding. InnovateMass awards early demonstration projects to startups seeking to accelerate commercialization of innovative climate technologies in the field for the first time. Including this latest round, InnovateMass has awarded over $14 million in funding for demonstration projects across Massachusetts since its launch in 2013, leveraging over $19 million in other private and public investment. Past awardees have raised over $120 million in follow-on fundraising.

As a complement to the grants and support for technology developers, MassCEC also recently awarded $513,500 to six Massachusetts-based accelerator programs focused on supporting climatetech innovators – Activate Boston (Cambridge), Berkshire Innovation Center’s Stage2 Program (Pittsfield), Cleantech Open Northeast (Somerville), Lever’s Berkshire Sustainability Challenge (North Adams), FORGE (Somerville), and Y Innovation Studios (Lynnfield).

Three of these recently MassCEC-awarded Catalyst/DICES grantees have also been supported by sponsored accelerators Activate Boston and Cleantech Open Northeast, demonstrating the impact an accelerator program can have on the success of a startup. Cleantech Open Northeast has supported ActiveSurfaces and Activate Boston has invested in both Dottir Labs and ThermoBionics.

Awardees:

Sublime Systems, Inc. (Somerville, MA) - $124,887 to test its emission-free cement production technology with Boston Sand and Gravel.

Aloft Systems, Inc. (Boston, MA) - $350,000 to demonstrate its robotic wind propulsion systems to help reduce the fuel emissions associated with ships with TST Management, a dry bulk vessel owner.

BootBox Labs, Inc. (Boxford, MA) - $350,000 to demonstrate its refrigerant-free, low-energy usage air conditioners and heat pumps at apartments in MA in collaboration with RentAnAC.com.

Stec Technology, Inc. (New Bedford, MA) - $220,00 to demonstrate its technology with Shannon Boat Company that can be fitted on to exhaust systems of diesel marine engines to reduce toxic pollutants.

MetalMark Innovations, PBC (Cambridge, MA) - $136,262 to demonstrate its commercial air purification system to improve indoor air quality and to reduce HVAC energy with the Chariho Regional School District in Rhode Island.

StepWise Electric Inc. (Somerville, MA) - $341,600 to test its energy management technology for homes and to accelerate the adoption of residential EV charging at various Massachusetts residential homes.

Smart Solar Electric Heating, LLC (Canton, MA) - $200,000 to demonstrate its solar assisted heat pump water heater at several low-to moderate-income homes in Massachusetts.

Deep Anchor Solutions (College Station, TX) - $59,620 to demonstrate its innovative offshore wind anchor technology with the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Active Surfaces (Somerville, MA) - $75,000 to develop its light weight and flexible solar panels to be used on more difficult to install building surfaces, like bumpy rooftops.

Adhesion Technologies (Cambridge, MA) - $75,000 to develop its sustainable and cost-competitive wood adhesive made from corn ethanol waste.

ThermoBionics (Boston, MA) - $75,000 to develop a cooling system that can be worn by factory workers that will reduce the cooling energy needed in large warehouse spaces.

MacroCycle Technologies (Cambridge, MA) - $75,000 to use plastic bottles and clothing waste as a resource to produce high quality and energy efficient sustainable plastic.

Blaze Power (Billerica, MA) - $75,000 to develop safer and more efficient electric vehicle batteries.

Western New England University, (Dr. Mahyar Pourghasemi) (Springfield, MA) - $75,000 – to develop an energy-efficient and compact system to increase safety and prevent overheating in battery packs in electric vehicles.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, (Dr. Yan Wang) (Worcester, MA) - $75,000 to develop a recycling process for recovering valuable chemicals and metals from discarded solar panels.

River Otter Renewables, Inc. (Stow, MA) - $75,000 to develop its technology to transform sewage waste into renewable crude oil that can be used for things such as sustainable fuels for airplanes (SAFs), while reducing the creation of sludge and destroying harmful forever chemicals (PFAS).

Dottir Labs (Brookline, MA) - $75,000 to develop a technology that uses an advanced sensor network to provide immediate and actionable information about river, stream, and industrial water quality for uses such as in agriculture and wastewater treatment.

Benchmark Labs, Inc. (Somerville, MA) - $75,000 to develop its solution that uses a combination of sensors, advanced software technology, and weather information to deliver forecasts, recommendations and alerts, customized to a specific location to save costs when installing and maintaining offshore wind farms.

About MassCEC

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) is a state economic development agency dedicated to accelerating the growth of the clean energy and climatetech sector across the Commonwealth to spur job creation, deliver statewide environmental benefits, and secure long-term economic opportunities for the people of Massachusetts.

About the Mass Leads Act’s Climatetech Investments

As a part of her Mass Leads Act economic development bill, Governor Healey proposed a $1 billion, 10-year climatetech initiative to make Massachusetts the climate innovation lab for the world. The initiative includes:

• Capital Funding: The bill provides significant capital resources to MassCEC for the first time. Bond authorizations can support research and development, innovation, manufacturing, commercialization, and the deployment of climatetech technologies, including offshore wind, across Massachusetts.
• Tax Incentives: The bill authorizes funding for tax incentives, which will help ensure the state is competitive in attracting and retaining these businesses. The initiative proposes to establish a new Climatetech Tax Incentive Program to enable the state to invest in climatetech companies, expand employment opportunities and support research and development. The bill also seeks to continue implementation of the newly-created Offshore Wind Tax Credit and proposes some strategic changes to further grow the program.

Operating Funding: This ten-year strategy underscores the critical importance of annual operating support through the state budget process for MassCEC, which is instrumental in fostering the climatetech industry and training a clean energy workforce. Operating funds will enable MassCEC to deploy stable programming and initiatives to reach areas that capital programs and tax incentives aren’t able to reach. This includes workforce development initiatives, internships, strategic partnerships, and operations.