Lynn Abramson, Andy Barnes, & Zainab Mirza | Clean Energy Business Network
Updated Jan. 1, 2021 with links to recently enacted legislation.
There’s no easy way around it: 2020 has been a challenging year. While COVID-19 has brought a barrage of difficulties, one lesson has become clear: we are stronger together. People have stepped up across their communities to help family, friends, neighbors, and complete strangers. In light of this spirit, we would like to thank those in our network who have worked to help make the CEBN stronger and wish our members and partners across our network a happy and safe holiday season.
We are incredibly thankful to each and every one of you for enabling the CEBN to serve as the small business voice of the clean energy economy. After three years of partnering with the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, we are excited to celebrate an exciting milestone: 5,000 members!
Not only have you helped grow our network but your voice has also made a difference: in the waning days of 2020, Congress enacted legislation to continue funding the federal government, authorize and strengthen a number of energy innovation programs, and extend or enact several key clean energy tax incentives.
This end-of-year legislation is certainly a high-point for clean energy, but our network has other achievements to look back on this year. When Congress began debating how to support the economy through an economic stimulus package, more than 250 clean energy business leaders signed on to show support for the cleantech economy, receiving press and helping to position our sector when a stimulus package hopefully materializes.
We also partnered with the Business Council for Sustainable Energy on Powering Forward, a successful webinar series that attracted over 1,500 participants and covered COVID-19 impacts on the industry, strengthening racial inclusivity and equity in the energy industry, and the outlook for the incoming Congress and Administration, among other topics. CEBN also launched a project in partnership with BCSE highlighting in-depth data on how each state across the country is leading in the clean energy economy in its own way.
CEBN also became a much more powerful ally to the cleantech innovation community. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory awarded a subcontract to CEBN to serve as a “Power Connector” to support federal energy innovation programs like the Solar Energy Technologies Office’s SBIR opportunities, (for those interested, letters of intent are due Jan. 4, 2021). We will continue to push for policy developments on energy innovation and financing for clean energy as we enter 2021.
As clean energy entrepreneurs across our network worked towards commercializing clean energy innovations, CEBN staff worked towards helping them navigate the funding landscape. Our cleantech funding database surpassed 1,500 users and over $1 billion in funding opportunities highlighted since launching in 2018. Here are a few opportunities over the next few weeks we are excited to feature:
We look forward to working with you in 2021 and beyond to grow the clean energy economy.
Stay safe, stay warm, and stay engaged. Thank you!
