One of the energy startups speaking at
Reboot: Energy at 1776 is
Hilltop Energy Partners, a startup in the energy world that is positioning itself as a turnkey provider of distributed energy generation via hydrogen fuel cells. Founded by David Gomez, Art Lokerson and Angel Prado Gonzalez, all graduates of Georgetown's MBA program, Hilltop launched in D.C. in September and will pilot its first project in November.
"I'm going to talk about resiliency tonight," says Gomez. "With the frequency and intensity of weather events, I see the energy industry moving toward distributive generation."
Distributive generation means generating power for a building at the building's location, rather than relying on a power grid, which can be knocked out during storms or other natural or man-made disasters. According to Gomez, fuel cell technology, which is powered by hydrogen extracted from natural gas, has been in existence for at least 30 years and was developed by NASA for the space shuttle program.
Hilltop is working on creating strategic partnerships to offer clients a full suite of services, including energy audits, recommendations and installation of whichever distributive generation technology they choose (a solar company is already on board, and he is working on deals with other renewable energy suppliers). "The market is very fragmented right now," he explains. "It's an arduous process, so we're creating a single-source solution."
Gomez says the company is focusing on the municipal and private sectors in D.C. and New York City as it rolls out its services because "grid capacity is not keeping up with demand" in the densely populated East Coast locations, and other renewable energy alternatives, such as wind power, simply are not viable in the Northeast.
"You don't have a wide open space here, like you do in the Nevada desert, to create a wind farm," Gomez says. "And rooftop space is at a premium.
"One project won't have much of an impact, but as we scale over time, we hope to make a dent in greenhouse gas emissions," Gomez says.
Hilltop is opening a New York office in January.