Lofty CREED make Colorado the center of the cleantech universe: Colorado Center for Renewable Energy Economic Development unites stakeholders.

Besides a cure for cancer and world peace, developing clean technologies and finding a renewable energy source are the scientific world's Holy Grail and a primary preoccupation of a great many smart people.

But developing clean technology is a relatively new and wildly diverse field. Many great ideas backed by startup companies and enthusiastic employees are searching for the missing pieces to take their products and ideas to the next level. Bringing these pieces together is the purpose of CREED.

The Colorado Center for Renewable Energy Economic Development was created to bring together new companies, established research operations and large corporations, and house them in one location where the players in this growing field can learn from each other and capitalize on the individual talents and skills that are so difficult to harness in one company.

"What this is about is supporting an ecosystem in Colorado for cleantech businesses," said Casey Porto, vice president for Commercialization and Deployment at the National Renewable Energy Labs in Golden. "We want to make Colorado the center of the universe for cleantech."

NREL is a relatively small portion of the Department of Energy and is part of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, funding for all of EERE is only about 5 percent of the DOE budget. Working on a fixed budget with little chance of more money from the DOE, Porto knew that to do her job and get NREL technology to market, she needed private sector help - a lot of it.

What she and NREL did have was a lot of extra office space on its Golden campus, so she worked with the Office of Economic Development and GEO and secured a $1.23 million grant from former Gov. Bill Ritter's administration. The funds were used to remodel the facility into offices that would accommodate a wide range of businesses that could be open to the public and not. subject to NREL's security protocols. The funds were also used to help get CREED off the ground and attract the first incubators. This nearly four-year-long effort came to a head in March when CREED opened its doors--already the facility is full.

"More than anything, it is quickly becoming THE center of cleantech and renewable energy in Colorado; a catalyst that will not only help Colorado maintain its leadership role in the tech world, but expand it," said Stephen Miller, president and CEO of CleanLaunch, a Golden-based innovative technology incubator. "At Clean Launch we consider it...