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yeah good afternoon and welcome to the 25th annual exhibit of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies we've been here for several years and we've been joined by people from Connecticut who have a sincere interest in furthering the goals of reaching a clean renewable energy economy it's so important to everyone but Connecticut particularly is dedicated to that goal and they even have a department of economic and Community Development with people dedicated to the fuel cell in hydrogen industry to developing those resources and getting companies anchored in that region so I'm thrilled that the director George Norfleet is here next to me on my left Aaron Knight who's doing business development in the region is their next and then last but not least Paul arrestor whose manager of energy initiative all from the state of Connecticut welcome - thank you thank you so we'll start with the general I suppose can you tell us about Connecticut and the business climate there for advanced manufacturing companies George okay yeah so we have what I think is an outstanding climate for not just advanced manufacturing but many different industry sectors advanced manufacturing happens to be one that in particular that we have targeted and thus that's part of the reason that we're here we I guess should start with the fact that where we are located geography geographically speaking we are situated on the eastern seaboard most people may not have actually ever been to the state of Connecticut we would love for you to come but it is right next to New York City which most people have come to and we are situated between New York City and Boston within a 500-mile radius of where we are located you will find approximately a third of the gross domestic product of the United States of America as well as a third of our population so as far as a market we have an outstanding market there going back to advanced manufacturing we have a history of advantage the best manufacturing in the state dating back being a supplier to the military that is manifested itself today as we still have some manufacturers in the state that are major contributors with Department of Defense contracts such as United Technologies Pratt & Whitney making jet engines we have electric boat which manufactures nuclear submarines and Sikorsky which manufactures helicopters so we have a thriving advanced manufacturing industry in the state and we think that you can't go wrong if that's what you're looking for a precision manufacturing and that's what many people are looking for people like to rank things air and so how does Connecticut rank compared to other areas in the United States Connecticut actually ranks very highly when compared to other states in the u.s. we have a very highly educated and productive workforce we ranked third most and educated population based under advanced degrees we ranked fourth most in productivity for the workforce we have as George said in advanced manufacturing a highly skilled workforce that's able to deliver high-end products we also have or one of the top states in the US when it comes to fuel cells and that's why we're here we have fuel cell patents and that technology that's being developed and continue to be advanced within the state of Connecticut that industry continues to thrive and is growing but we're also an innovative state we have co-working spaces innovation places we have startup hubs we have various different locations within our major cities that are have a culture and a climate to continue advancing and creating innovative technology Stanley Black & Decker is a company within the state of Connecticut that's created their Stanly technology center that Center is in our capital in Hartford Connecticut and that group is doing currently taking applications for their second year or their second round of 3d manufacturing startup innovation opportunity so that application is open until I believe June 7th I'm sorry that application is open is open until April 7th we also have Connecticut innovations which is the equity arm of the state of Connecticut that group is currently taking applications for their innovation opportunity and competition there's the 500 as a five million dollar competition to develop and create come in and work with them to have access to people who are interested in developing technology within the state of Connecticut that application again is open until April 7 so we're definitely an innovative place in innovative State and there's lots of opportunities to continue advancing technology within our state and of course there's already several fuel cell manufacturers in the state can you describe the number and type and what they do there sure can yes there's large OMS within our state of Connecticut we have fuel cell energy which is in Danbury Connecticut we have proton on-site which is an L company and they're situated right over there they're in Wallingford Connecticut we also have Doosan fuel cell which is located north of Hartford air based in Connecticut so those are the top tier one om manufacturers on the you know in our state which is on the East Coast but we also have 600 companies within the supply chain that are working on developing parts developing technology further advancing the technology doing Rd they're here now they've come and exhibited at Hanover they work to partner with different companies and advance the technology those companies actually work together collectively with the Connecticut hydrogen fuel cell coalition which is run by my colleague over here and his and his colleagues Paul at the Connecticut Center for advanced technology so that are our companies work together they try to advance the technology we have stationary power applications we have hydrogen generation and hydrogen fueling applications we also have transportation applications as well so that yeah that question then to you Paul there's a significant number of projects already up and running a total capacity of an astonishing 106 megawatts so why is Connecticut recognized and continues to be recognized as an industry leader for fuel cell applications well as Erin mentioned you know first and foremost the state of Connecticut has provided support for the industry through the coalition through my colleagues here at the department economic and Community Development but in addition to that they've established the state of Connecticut several policies which have been very supportive in in getting projects built some of those policies include net metering production incentives they have a micro grid program they provide financing through the Connecticut Green Bank and other resources and they also have renewable portfolio standards so with renewable portfolio standards they are looking to have about 20 approximately 20% of all the electricity that sold in Connecticut come from renewable energy and in Connecticut fuel cells are classified as a class-one renewable energy source everyone always sees the cars first don't they the transportation applications are always the sexiest things on the street so in the transportation sector you need the fuel cell cars and the fueling stations how is Connecticut doing there Aaron Connecticut continues to work on you know moving that moving that meter forward we currently have we will have two stations up and running commercial available for hydrogen fueling stations within our state there is a commercially available fueling station that proton on Titan L establishment in Longford and there's going to be another fueling station available on the next few couple of months in the Hartford area so we're on our way towards having that infrastructure set up so that the hydrogen fuel cars are able to be rolled out and provided to our population the work to move that forward to move the needle forward there is being done by CCAT they're partnering at a federal level and a state level and at a regional level secant works with h2 USA initiative to develop and kind of work on roadmaps to establish how many fueling stations we're gonna need to support how many cars within the state of Connecticut but also in the Northeast region so on the west coast there are feel the the the infrastructure is there but we're in a prime position now for that infrastructure to kind of move forward through our partnerships with the state and with Seacat and with the companies and we're also partnering with the car manufacturers they understand that the next step in that and the rollout for their cars and for the vehicles it's going to be in the state of Connecticut hopefully and then also been Northeast region generally so we're definitely seeing that coming down on the line very soon how does Connecticut actually attract green technologies to the region is there some strategy you have to get them to come and set foot in the territory and anchor themselves there Paul well I think I think generally it goes to the support of policies in the direction that the state of Connecticut has set for itself those goals as I mentioned earlier include a higher percentage of renewables that are able to provide electricity in addition Connecticut is one of the nine states that signed an MoU in the United States to increase the number of zero emission vehicles that are you know used in basically in the state of Connecticut so so it's a combination of establishing goals with you know increasing quantities of renewable energy as well as participating on a regional scale to help develop the infrastructure as Erin pointed out and of course it's also potentially possible to offer resources to companies seeking to establish themselves in Connecticut our resources available to what's what's on offer in Connecticut George well yeah we have a plethora of resources available in Connecticut we kind of like to get involved in the beginning with people that's why we are set up the Department of economic and Community Development to actually partner with folks from the beginning and take them through the end when you come to us and begin a discussion about what your needs are we deal with you in your specifications we have a concierge program that we can specifically use to help you locate insight where you might want to begin your production or set up your your-your-your your company we also have workforce assistance that we provide in terms of making certain that our colleges and universities are providing the type of skilled labor that you need specifically if there is type of training that you're you're you you anticipate that your workers will need we can interface with the with the educational system to have them provide that training we also have technical assistance that we can provide that some of it is provided through Seacat and con step to help companies before become more efficient in what they're doing and lastly we have incentives that could be either tax incentives that are based on the amount of capital expenditure that your company is making in terms of the equipment that it purchases or the building that it either purchases or has a capital lease for along with the expenditure that you put out for your workforce if that is significant enough that could earn you tax incentives that you could utilize to lessen your tax exposure in the state of Connecticut there are also R&D tax credits if because this is a technological sort of industry that we're talking about that you could utilize dependent upon what you might be researching that could also lessen your cost to develop products in our in our in our state and lastly I think the most important resource and most important thing to be aware of is the fact that we just had our new governor elected this past November and renewables and renewable energy is something that's a big big thing on his agenda so we're a target is out there for companies like yours that are potentially bringing this type of technology to our state so those are the kinds of things that we can provide you mentioned Aaron a number of applications available any other strategies to support specifically manufacturing in the state sure as we talked about earlier with the state of Connecticut we have a history in manufacturing so we're continuing to want to develop and drive that industry forward based on our and our company's needs and you know feedback from me from industry it's understanding that you know additional investments in manufacturing continue continuing are continually needed to be made so recently we've had the investment of seventy five million dollars in the manufacturing innovation fund that fund is provides access to resources to help companies continue developing their manufacturing capability some of those funds are used in a matching matching grant sort of fashion where companies can receive 50 percent of their investment in up to $100,000 so a $50,000 grant from the state $50,000 from the company to invest in a piece of equipment so whether it's test beds whether it's you know new machinery whether it's you know bringing in a you know bigger presses or you know especially welding materials that we can make those investments and partner with the state with companies can partner with the state to make those investments those funds are also used for what we call incumbent worker training if your state if your employees need additional training and you need to you know increase their capabilities there's some funding from the state where you're able to make investments in that additionally we've currently in a 10-year development of our STEM capabilities within the state of Connecticut so investments have been made it in our public university to increase the number of faculty increase the number of students were coming in and getting that training there is a tech park at our University of Connecticut which is there has an 80 to 80 million dollars that has been invested from private industry to again continue working and partnering together doing the R&D having partnerships between faculty stood and the industry to continue developing manufacturing capabilities within the state and so these investments are being made to continue to meet the workforce needs of our industry we partner with our industry we hear their feedback we understand that these investments are needed we still have a few minutes so I like to sort of sink tank this whole thing here because it's kind of interesting people talk about critical mass that is you need a certain quantity of human capital knowledge for the fuel cell industry which is high-tech it's great to have cooperating institutions universities a density of University and intellectual think power is important people already within the field who are working perhaps developing things and the interaction is so fundamental do you get phone calls from universities or companies saying we are looking for a doctor in physical science who does ceramics do you negotiate the nitty-gritty in developing these things do they approach you for support literally on the communications level well when companies do come into the state they they obviously come to us and make it known what their workforce needs are and as Aaron was saying earlier we do have relationships with with the various universities specifically the vocational universities in order to provide that resource for them I was speaking with Ron Angelo who is the CEO of Seacat who told me that they are putting together a matrix literally of the students that are graduated from the various universities and colleges in the state of Connecticut with specific backgrounds in this area so that they will be able to tell employers exactly what the skill sets are the people that are graduated from colleges so that isn't a very important thing I was just add I think what's most interesting is that when companies take the opportunity to reach out and work directly with the universities they can have the universities try to provide the additional skills the specific skill sets that's needed to meet their needs for a workforce so if a student goes to one of our technical colleges and receives a degree the companies are working directly with those technical colleges to say I need them here they're here but I need them you know to have some additional skills and they can tailor their the r education options around that and it's really great when you have our companies work with our universities to have a tailor-made program where our companies are then specifically drawing their workforce from recent graduates knowing that they're going to come out with the skill set that that's needed for them to be successful when they start working and isn't that a feedback loop high-tech it's like kinetic energy isn't it you have high paid jobs and all of a sudden the universities think oh we should be catering to this market not simply because they have the expertise but because the students want to be part of this goal reaching renewable energy and emissions free transportation for example so it must go in both directions and I'll just add we haven't said it yet a third of all jobs in the u.s. are based in the field so and in the fields an industry based in Connecticut so they're like you said the density of our education our technology our capability are based in Connecticut and are the center of the region and the Northeast that are really developing this technology our University of Connecticut has our clean energy engineering initiative so we have professors faculty staff working together with the students providing training continuing to do the Rd continuing to further advancements in the technology so the reason that fuel cells are so strong in Connecticut's because we have the density the technology developed from UTC which is a Connecticut you know company and have spawned additional advancements in additional companies that spawned off from that you mentioned a number of jobs that's incredibly important because in practical math this is a job creator isn't it and it really is important to recognize a third of the jobs in the field are in your reach and we have trouble getting recognition for this also in regions in Germany for instance Saxony is known for a lot of things but people don't know that there's this vibrant new tech development region it's it gets elided into other discussions and I think the real attractions are always mobile applications because once you get those things on the road people see them on a day to day basis when you look forward to what may happen in the coming years you mentioned that there is a new government they have emission standards in view and one has to recognize that a lot of regions in the United States hacks actually have stricter emission standards than we do in Germany so that's always it's we should remind people of that but when you look towards the future at what point are local populations and international people going to recognize that this is a motor for the economy as well as a service to the environment I'll just say first that we currently have these applications out there we have station you know fuel cells are in our large apartment buildings fuel cells are in our shopping centers our stationary power applications are currently out there and as Paul likes to point out it's not a future technology it's a technology of now so the fuel cells are out there educating the the regular you know population as to what the the benefits of a fuel cell application may be backup power generation smart grids storage these are all options that are available and like you said the cars might be that that that intro in but I think Paul you'll read that the technology has been developed and advanced and is continuing to be applied currently in our state yeah that's absolutely correct Aaron and I'll just add one other thing and that there's also opportunities for hydrogen as an energy storage medium with the with the increasing development of wind both in you know offshore and in solar solar projects there's going to be excess renewable capacity that hopefully we'll be able to utilize hydrogenous for energy storage as well that's a wonderful way to end and pick up next year because of course electrolysis is the booming industry here you need to store renewable energy you have to put it into hydrogen and all of a sudden the potential for grids for really green hydrogen as opposed to gray hydrogen it's all on the map there this has been so informative I'm I have to visit Connecticut I've been there before but I have to go back because I know of the intellectual capital there the university systems in the region are fantastic I've been talking to George Norfleet who is the director of the department of economic and Community Development in Connecticut erinite who does the business development and Palo Resta who is manager at energy initiatives and it's all about the state of Connecticut if you have fuel cell manufacturing in your sights there's the go-to place to do it thank you so much for being here thank you thank you Ryan