NEWS
Ascent Virginia co-founder explains battery initiative at
North American Battery Show
October 7, 2021
CarTalk with Wally
Ascent Virginia co-founder Vivek Patil explains the Southwest Virginia Energy Storage and Electrification Manufacturing Jobs Project while attending the North American Battery Show.
Region hopes for jolt from batteries, electrification
June 30, 2021
Virginia Business
Adam Wells is charged up about a plan to create a “battery and electrification economy” in Southwest Virginia.
“This is the most exciting thing that I’m working on,” says Wells, Appalachian Voices’ Norton-based regional director of community and economic development. The environmental nonprofit led the effort that persuaded GO Virginia, the state-funded economic development initiative, to commit $486,000 toward attracting energy storage and electrification manufacturing jobs in the region. The Thompson Charitable Foundation is contributing $160,000 to the initiative, and local industry will contribute $40,000….
…An economic impact study by Appalachian Voices and Ascent Virginia, a nonprofit promoting clean technology jobs and economic development in Virginia, estimates the project will generate 206 local jobs….Read More
Conservancy charts a solar showcase on the coalfields of Central Appalachia
May 12, 2021
Energy News Network
When Danny Van Clief chose a career in solar energy, he wasn’t seeking a turbulence-free glide path.
Instead, the CEO of Sun Tribe Development wanted the freedom to jump with both feet into formidable challenges — ones that might spook other developers.
That pluck has landed his Charlottesville company the opportunity to be the first to generate large-scale renewable power on the coalfields of Central Appalachia. If the bold venture announced this week comes to fruition, roughly 550 acres of deforested minelands sprinkled across an expansive Nature Conservancy preserve will generate up to 75 megawatts of solar energy within two to three years…
…In mid-March, The Virginia Growth and Opportunity (GO) Board green-lighted close to $500,000 in state matching grants sought by Wells and Vivek Shinde Patil, another go-getter at the nonprofit Ascent Virginia….Read More
Southwest Virginia group wins grant to help companies move beyond coal
May 12, 2021
Energy News Network
Renewable energy jobs could well be on the rise in Southwest Virginia now that the region is on the receiving end of close to $500,000 sought by a couple of nonprofit go-getters.
Appalachian Voices announced Tuesday that its ambitious proposal to help four companies move beyond their coal-centric beginnings was green-lighted by the Virginia Growth and Opportunity (GO) Board in mid-March.
Adam Wells of Appalachian Voices paired with Vivek Shinde Patil of Ascent Virginia to apply for $486,366 in state matching grants to help local companies pivot to exporting advanced batteries and other components that fuel cars in Asia, light homes in California or store energy generated by wind farms in Europe….Read More
Major grant awarded for Appalachian Voices’ jobs, economic project
in Southwest Virginia
April 7, 2021
Appalachian Voices (Press Release)
The GO Virginia State Board has approved a Per Capita application for the Appalachian Voices “Energy Storage and Electrification Manufacturing Jobs” project. Approved at $486,366, the project will create jobs in GO Virginia Region One in the energy storage and electrification manufacturing field while attracting investments and expanding the local tax base.
In 2019, Appalachian Voices received a GO Virginia Enhanced Capacity Building grant to support the Solar Playbook project that examined how solar-related manufacturing and utility-scale solar development could contribute to job creation in Region One. This project is a direct continuation of that effort.
This project will catalyze a vibrant energy storage and electrification economy in Region One through an accelerated project approach that provides data-based, targeted technical assistance to existing manufacturers in the region who have already taken steps to diversify their businesses into energy storage and electrification markets….
…“The project team has spent the last two years in a due diligence process to develop this concept,” said Vivek Shinde Patil, PhD, co-founder of Ascent Virginia and project co-lead. “That process has included discussions with global energy storage, utility and battery company executives, which yielded valuable insights into the possibility of creating an energy storage and electrification production cluster in Southwest Virginia.”…Read More