By Abbey Lerner
What: The Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council is a member-driven organization that champions advanced energy as a job creation and economic development strategy.
TAEBC educates public officials and business leaders about Tennessee’s advanced energy assets, establishes strategic partnerships to connect assets with opportunities and informs policy that expands and strengthens the industry.
Established: 2013
Location: Tennessee
TAEBC’s work:
- In partnership with Launch Tennessee, TAEBC’s Energy Network assists Tennessee advanced energy startups and entrepreneurs with strategic business, marketing and financial guidance from experienced mentors. The Energy Network currently has over 40 mentors and serves over twenty companies.
- TAEBC has a podcast, Energizing Tennessee, powered by the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council and FirstBank, that explores the latest news and insights about the advanced energy sector. Season two will debut this fall!
- TAEBC is proud to be a core partner in TEAMTN, a partnership with the National Science Foundation and an alliance of academics, industry, and technical societies, led by The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The coalition’s special focus on innovation and workforce development in Tennessee will bring new transportation systems and technologies, new businesses and new jobs to the state.
The latest from the team:
- This fall, TAEBC’s Energy Network will be supporting Cohort Two of University of Tennessee Research Park’s Spark Cleantech Accelerator through mentorship and program support.
- The Spark Cleantech Accelerator will kick-off on August 21st and will culminate in a Demo Day on November 15th as part of the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council Opportunities in Energy event.
- Mark your calendars and join TAEBC in Knoxville at Opportunities in Energy on Nov. 15.
- TAEBC and the UT Spark Innovation Center have partnered with the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) to provide Tennessee cleantech startups with additional sources of debt capital to support their growth. LACI’s Cleantech Debt Fund is a first-of-its-kind green loan program to grow early-stage cleantech startups to accelerate equitable climate action.
Failing Forward
Failing Forward with TAEBC, as told by Anca Timofte, CEO and Co-Founder of Holocene, a company that TAEBC works with:
In August 2022, Holocene ended its lease at a laboratory near Stanford, where we did our first tests of a direct air capture technology. We were in need of a new home.
After trips to Toronto, Pittsburgh, and New York, we finally got invited to an interview for the Spark Accelerator at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville with the help of an introduction from our mentors at Innovation Crossroads.
During our pitch to Spark, we confessed we didn’t have a clear vision for where Holocene will get set up – but our mission to remove significant amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere was set in stone.
We must have done a good enough job, because Spark offered us a well-equipped chemistry laboratory that we now use for the development of our materials and processes.
In October, after a few months of roaming aimlessly, Holocene found its home in Knoxville. Today, we’re lucky to be part of a supportive ecosystem that includes LaunchTN, the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council, and others.
To hear more of our story, join us at the 3686 festival this September, where I’ll get to speak alongside other founders, investors, and others!
