The theme of “think globally, act locally” is gathering force as the state’s top research institutions join forces in a drive to make Colorado the nation’s renewable-energy capital.
Leaders from the Colorado School of Mines, the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado State University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory last week formed a “Collaboratory” that will focus on moving renewable-energy technology from the laboratory to the marketplace, creating new jobs in the process.
The state has approved $2 million annually for three years to seed the project. This relatively modest sum is designed to provide matching funds to enable the consortium to attract federal and private research grants. The collaboratory will repay the money to the state if and when it earns income from technologies it helps develop and transfer to private industry.
Originally suggested by Sen. Ken Salazar, the collaboratory is patterned after a program that funneled $2 million to the University of Northern Colorado, CU, CSU, the University of Denver, Bonfils Blood Center and National Jewish Hospital to channel academic research in the biological sciences into practical medical advances. This year, that program’s sponsor, Rep. Jim Riesberg, R-Greeley, won House approval of an additional $500,000 to promote research and development in biofuels.
The Post welcomes these practical efforts to prove, in Rep. Mark Udall’s words, “You can be green and you can make a lot of green.” Eventual shortfalls in fossil fuels and mounting worries about global warming are serious problems. But if we address them in the right spirit, and with adequate capital, they are also major opportunities.
