Dominion Energy Innovation Center program underway at the incubator’s Ashland office in Spring 2022. (Credit: Dominion Energy Innovation Center)
The Dominion Energy Innovation Center, an Ashland-based startup incubator, adds a pitch competition focused on the nuclear and hydrogen energy sector to its program lineup.
DEIC will host the first session of its new Spark Virginia program in late February in Richmond. This program is for budding Virginia startup founders who have ideas for new nuclear and hydrogen energy technologies developed independently or in university labs.
“We believe there is a large amount of commercial (intellectual property) in the state’s universities,” says DEIC Director Adam Sledd. “The idea behind Spark was to start setting up pipeline programs to bring these people in.”
Spark attendees participate in 24-hour sessions and eventually participate in pitch contests with cash prizes. Attendees will be able to meet and collaborate with each other, learn from industry insiders, and workshop their ideas towards commercialization.
Adam Thread
Sledd describes the concept of the program as follows:
The program will begin in Richmond, with similar sessions planned for Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia in April. Richmond’s sessions are scheduled for February 23-24 at the Shift Retail Lab at 1235 W. Broad St., run by VCU’s Da Vinci Center.
A $8,500 pot is expected for each of the three scheduled Spark sessions, from which prize money will be split, Sledd said.
Sledd said the program was designed to encourage more Virginians to embark on founding energy startups and to expand the audience for DEIC’s programming. The center offers accelerator programs, among other resources.
“Accelerator programs tend to be late-stage companies,” he said. “One of the questions we’ve always had, he said, is why aren’t there more companies in Virginia? Our accelerators tend to be primarily out-of-state companies.”
Sledd said future Spark sessions may focus on additional climate-friendly energy technologies, such as electric vehicles.
Sledd said the program’s initial focus on nuclear and hydrogen sources was chosen because of those sectors that exist in Virginia and the recent momentum in developing those energy sources in Old Dominion.
“These are two emerging cleantech areas where Virginia is already doing a lot, and there is a lot of interest in Virginia leading the way,” he said.
The Ashland Startup Incubator is funding the program through a $50,000 grant recently awarded through the Department of Energy’s EPIC Prize challenge. Sledd said the initial funding is expected to run the program through about four regional sessions. The center plans to apply for additional funding from its federal program to further expand Spark, he said.
Beyond the creation of the prize pool, remaining federal grants are expected to be used to cover costs associated with running the program, Sledd said.
About a year ago, DEIC doubled its office space to double the size of its office. The office is headquartered and rents out office space to companies.
