News

Rochester company gets boost from DEC

Apr. 26, 2012 - Written by JON CAMPBELL Albany bureau - Source

ALBANY — A Rochester-based company will be the first to participate in a state-funded program meant to boost energy sustainable businesses and products, the state Department of Environmental Conservation announced Thursday.

Complemar Partners will team up with the state Pollution Prevention Institute at the Rochester Institute of Technology to research CiderSure, the company’s product that uses ultraviolet light to pasteurize cider.

The study, which will seek to quantify the environmental benefits of the product compared to traditional heat pasteurization, will be the first conducted through the institute’s new Green Initiative. The program was launched Thursday and backed with $1.6 million from the DEC-administered Environmental Protection Fund.

“P2I (the Pollution Prevention Institute) is going to help businesses document and develop the metrics for those products and supply chains so they can convince people that they … are green, they do save energy, and that they are more environmentally benign,” DEC Commissioner Joe Martens said.

In all, the Green Initiative’s Green Technology Accelerator Center — which Complemar will work with — is looking for three to six New York-based companies to partner with.

“The bottom line is we’re going to be able to quantify the energy benefits of their new technology so they can market that to their providers,” said Anahita Williamson, the institute’s director.

Ann Wood, vice president of operation and client solutions for Complemar, said the partnership will allow the company to expand.

“The (Green Technology Accelerator Center) project fast tracks our products into larger markets creating new opportunities for employment in the Rochester community,” Wood said in a statement.

Also on Thursday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled that the state Energy Research Development Authority would provide a $4.2 million grant to Intertek, a London-based company. The grant will go toward the building of a solar energy testing facility in Cortland and a wind turbine laboratory at Clarkson University in St. Lawrence County.

The New York Power Authority, meanwhile, will pay for $450 million in energy-saving projects over four years, with a goal of reducing consumption in state-owned facilities by 20 percent. An additional $350 million will be earmarked for similar projects in local governments and schools, according to the Cuomo administration.

“The initiatives announced today will save businesses, homeowners, and taxpayers money and help ensure that our state remains a leader in clean energy production and environmental protection,” Cuomo said.