West Gate Cohort 1 (Text Version)

This is the text version of the video West Gate Cohort 1.

Joe Cresco, Program Manager, Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program: The National Renewable Energy Lab is a jewel in the Department of Energy's national lab innovation ecosystem. NREL provides a perfect home to launch the fourth node of the Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program. We are thrilled to welcome this first cohort to West Gate.

Rachelle Ihly, West Gate Managing Direcctor: West Gate supports these innovators with funding, resources, and mentorship. Each innovator will be provided access to testing and facilities at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, as well as West Gate's program partner, the Colorado School of Mines.

Andrew Gabor, Cohort 1 West Gate Innovator: The problem is the degradation rate and lifetime of solar panels. What's needed is better metrology tools, testing tools to see the problems in the solar panels. And West Gate's going to help me develop a better testing tool to improve our understanding of the degradation modes in solar panels.

Mikhail Konev, Cohort 1 West Gate Innovator: And our company is tackling the global issue of textile pollution and textile wastes. And we're going to be breaking down these end of life clothing, and carpets, and hard to recycle packaging back into the chemical monomers instead of taking that material from crude oil.

Grant Gunnison, Cohort 1 West Gate Innovator: The problem we have in the US today is we need to decarbonize 100 million buildings because they're responsible for 40% of all the emissions in the US. Today, it's really difficult to deploy solutions on homes or procure them as a building owner. So we're lowering the barrier, making it more accessible to get that information by being able to procure it right through your phone as opposed to having to meet with dozens of folks and get more intelligent solutions than you would otherwise.

Stefan Streckfus, Cohort 1 West Gate Innovator: There are more than two million inactive oil and gas wells across North America today. And there's also a desperate need for low cost energy storage to support renewables' future. What we are going to do at Renewell Energy is we are going to take these inactive oil and gas wells and convert them into that low cost energy storage that the grid needs.

Paul Syers, Project Leader, Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program: We are happy to welcome West Gate into the LEEP family. West Gate expands the opportunities for new entrepreneurs to access world leading resources to help them develop their exciting, disruptive, clean energy technologies and rapidly develop their businesses to make a positive impact.

Rachelle Ihly: There are many pressing energy challenges right now and we're very excited to welcome this new class of innovators that aims to solve some of those critical gaps.

Logo and tagline on screen: West Gate—Unlocking Innovation, Inspiring Entrepreneurs.