Connecticut Technology Council

Gov. Malloy: Bioscience in Connecticut Moves Forward

(FARMINGTON, CT) – Governor Dannel P. Malloy today signed new legislation creating a $200 million Bioscience Innovation Fund during a ceremonial event at the University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC). The fund will make investments over the next 10 years in the form of grants, equity investments, loans and loan guarantees to foster innovation in smaller companies.

“Over the last two and a half years, we’ve taken great steps forward in reinventing our economy,” said Governor Malloy. “With the addition of Jackson Laboratories and the investments we are making in our flagship university, we are positioning Connecticut to be a leader in the creation of 21st Century jobs. The Bioscience Innovation Fund will allow us to build on the tremendous progress that’s being made across our state. Little by little, we are turning around years of stagnation and growing jobs for our residents.”

“This project is not only creating jobs, but is creating energy and a momentum that will put Connecticut on track to regain our legacy of economic leadership and innovation,” Lt. Governor Wyman said. “The emerging bioscience industry plays to all of Connecticut’s strengths, and these are the tools and the resources we need to take advantage of those assets for generations to come.”

“The Bioscience Innovation Fund will provide the means to support the translation and commercialization of cutting edge science in such sectors as therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices, bioinformatics and testing,” said Claire Leonardi, CEO of Connecticut Innovations, the organization that will administer the fund. “This is a very exciting time for bioscience as the cycle of discovery is ever more rapid. On behalf of CI, I’d like to thank the governor for recognizing the opportunity to build on Connecticut’s incredible bioscience assets. The industry’s future will be driven by innovation, and the fund’s investments will be a catalyst for that growth.”

Prior to the bill signing, the Governor joined legislative and University leaders on a tour of Bioscience Connecticut construction progress at UCHC.

Construction has been underway for the last year at the UConn Health Center to fulfill all aspects of Bioscience Connecticut – a forward-thinking plan championed by Governor Malloy and approved by the General Assembly in 2011 to create thousands of construction and related jobs in the short term and generate long-term, sustainable economic growth based on bioscience research, innovation, entrepreneurship, and commercialization.

“The new Bioscience Connecticut fund will build upon the significant investment the state has already made in the UConn Health Center and Jackson Labs,” said Commissioner Catherine Smith of the Department of Economic and Community Development. “The fund will promote economic development by allowing investments in translational research, emerging technologies and new companies. It is a terrific example of how Governor Malloy’s economic development strategy works: combining the resources of the state, the private sector, and our research universities to enhance our position in the bioscience sector and establish Connecticut as a global destination for leading edge medical innovation.”

In the year following its groundbreaking last June, all aspects of Bioscience Connecticut have moved forward on time and on budget. Of note, the project has created about 700 construction and related jobs on the UConn Health Center campus in its first year, including higher-than-required averages for small and minority business participation and 82 percent of all work going to Connecticut-based contractors. The number of construction jobs will rise significantly over the next three years.

“As we move forward with this exciting project, we remain enormously appreciative of the support and confidence entrusted to us from Governor Malloy and the General Assembly,” says Dr. Frank M. Torti, the Health Center’s executive vice president for health affairs and dean of the UConn School of Medicine.

UConn President Susan Herbst noted the vital connection between Bioscience Connecticut, the Bioscience Innovation Fund and Next Generation Connecticut legislation approved this past legislative session that will greatly expand educational opportunities, research, and innovation in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines at UConn over the next decade.

“The University is deeply grateful to Governor Malloy and the General Assembly for their recognition of the University’s role in economic and workforce development,” she added. “There is strong data to support that these initiatives will work. For example, by investing STEM, Next Generation Connecticut will generate $146 million per year in new research expenditures and $285 million in new business activity in Connecticut. In addition, it will create 4,050 permanent new jobs and 30,000 total construction jobs through 2024. This is a model that has worked in other states and is bound for success in Connecticut – along with many other facets of the Governor’s economic development plan.”

In addition, the Governor noted the progress of the new Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, which broke ground in January and is on schedule for occupancy in the fall of 2014. The 189,000-square-foot facility will house research laboratories, offices for scientists and administrators, conference areas to support scientific collaboration, and leading-edge genome analysis technology.

“We are proud to be here and proud to be helping Connecticut build a stronger life sciences industry,” said Mike Hyde, Vice President for External Affairs and Strategic Partnerships as the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine’s. “Meaningful partnerships with institutions of higher learning will allow us to tap into the best minds in the state, so that we can make the medical advancements that will have a direct impact on people’s lives.”

Scientists at JAX Genomic Medicine are building collaborations among doctors, researchers and the biomedical industry to bring research findings into the clinical setting. Their goal is to discover precise genomic solutions to disease, improving care, lowering costs and increasing life span and health span.

The Laboratory has awarded bid packages totaling $108 million for the construction of the new facility. Of that figure, 87 percent – more than $94 million – has been awarded to companies headquartered or with regional offices in Connecticut. JAX has awarded nearly $30 million in contracts to small businesses and minority-owned companies.

Within 10 years, JAX Genomic Medicine will employ at least 300 people. Already, the number of employees has reached 46, including more than 30 principal investigators and scientific staff, all working in temporary space on the UConn Health Center campus. More than two dozen additional employment applications and contracts are in process. About 16 scientific and administrative positions have been filled by residents of Connecticut.

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For Immediate Release: September 4, 2013

Contact: Andrew Doba
[email protected]
860-524-7308 (office)
860-770-8090 (cell)

Twitter: @GovMalloyOffice
Facebook: Office of Governor Dannel P. Malloy

State's Quest To Be 'On The Bioscience Map' Progresses

FARMINGTON — Walking through the University of Connecticut Health Center campus Tuesday, George Karsanow, the health center's director of construction, pointed out markers of progress.

The 307,000-square-foot ambulatory care building is scheduled to be completed by fall 2014. The new tower for the hospital — which will include more than 160 new beds, a new emergency department and a new operating room — is on schedule to be done by 2016.

And nearby, the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, under construction and more than a year from completion, already has hired about 70 people.

That all these projects are on pace is important: The state has put a lot of money into them. The various UConn Health Center construction projects are part of the state's $864 million Bioscience Connecticut Initiative. To entice the Maine-based Jackson Laboratory to build a genetics research facility at the UConn Health Center campus, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy pushed the state to lend Jackson $291 million.

"We are on the bioscience map in a big way," Malloy said Tuesday, citing the work going on at UConn, the progress Jackson is making, as well as research at Yale, Wesleyan and various independent startup companies.

The next challenge, Malloy said, is to make sure that the state can take advantage of the innovations that come out of all this research. The Bioscience Innovation Act, which Malloy is scheduled to sign Wednesday, is designed to help in that regard. It will fund $200 million to various bioscience projects over the next 10 years, beginning next year.

"What we're trying to do is capitalize on existing strength in bioscience in Connecticut and build on that," he said.

There will be a lot of great ideas coming out of the universities and private sector in the next several years, he said. The trick will be bringing them to market.

"If you're at MIT, Harvard or any major academic institution, there are going to be people knocking on your door, trying to get your idea into a bottle," Malloy said. "And that's what we're trying to do."

An advisory committee will choose the projects that the Bioscience Innovation Act will fund — awarding $10 million the first two years, $15 million for the third and fourth years, and $25 million for years five through 10, to projects that show commercial promise.

Anyone, from individuals and small independent companies to universities in Connecticut, will be able to compete for the funds. It's the kind of commitment, said Michael Hyde, vice president of Jackson, that has helped Jackson recruit some of the top scientists from around the world. About 50 of the people the company has hired are already doing research in temporary space on the UConn Health Center campus. The company has also leased some lab space from the university.

In July, UConn and Jackson Laboratory made their first joint academic appointment: Dr. Reinhard Laubenbacher was hired as the co-director of the health center's new Center for Quantitative Medicine. Over the next several years, the two institutions expect to bring in nine more joint recruits.

Frank Torti, the health center's vice president of health affairs, said Tuesday that the new facilities and renovations will also help attract some of the best research talent to UConn. Physical space can affect how scientists work together, he said.

Torti said several floors of laboratories on the campus are being renovated and redesigned to cut down on closed spaces. That, he said, will encourage more conversations among the scientists. Chance encounters and casual conversations, he said, are often more conducive to innovations than formal meetings.

"We think these informal settings are where the creativity happens," Torti said.

 

Follow this link to read William Weir's original article and view a slideshow of related pictures at the Hartford Courant.

CT NEXT Experiment Casts Entrepreneurial Web Across State

With the state lagging behind in job recovery, Connecticut officials in the months following the 2008 recession weren't bullish on the state's entrepreneurial prospects.

Urged by business groups like the Connecticut Technology Council and Connecticut Innovations, which needed only to look north or south to start-up hotbeds like Cambridge or New York City, policymakers decided the state needed a new approach to develop an innovation economy.

In the 2011 Jobs Bill, the legislature set aside $5 million to fund a network of business consultants, incubators and a pool of innovation vouchers, that is just now starting to gain traction, although its effectiveness is yet to be decided.

The "CTNext" experiment — the moniker that encompasses the effort — focuses on fostering startups and somewhat further along stage-two companies. It has given rise to state-subsidized incubators in Hartford, Storrs, Stamford, Westport and New Haven.

A team of growth advisors tied to each location was hired to work with companies that seemed particularly promising.

The centers can walk an entrepreneur through the application process for vouchers — which can be used for prototyping, market research and intellectual property services — that top out at $10,000.

That network of providers has now worked with, in some capacity, more than 600 startups and granted $307,000 worth of vouchers, according to the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD).

As both providers and entrepreneurs tell it, CTNext has been a positive step in building a start-up industry. But it's still difficult to assess any return on investment for the public dollars funding it.

Some have also raised concerns that the effort lacks a centralized focus. Opening incubators across disparate parts of the state, critics warn, separates entrepreneurs who should be sharing ideas.

Regardless, CTNext has helped entrepreneurs like advertising executive Carissa Ganelli, founder of software startup LightningBuy, which makes it quicker and easier for consumers to make online purchases using their mobile phones.

Through a chance encounter in Manhattan with Patty Meagher, entrepreneur and founder of the Stamford Innovation Center, Ganelli found CTNext.

LightningBuy, which launched its product in February, is now housed at the Stamford center, paying a reduced rent of $500 a month thanks to state money the center gets through a CTNext provider contract. Five facilities around the state have similar contracts.

Ganelli's company has also received some free legal and accounting services.

That's all been vital to keeping LightningBuy's operations running lean. But what's been most important, Ganelli says, is tapping into a pool of knowledge about other state grants through DECD.

LightningBuy, for example, was awarded $30,000 from the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technologies, and later got another grant from DECD.

Ganelli said Stamford center officials put in a good word for her at the state level, which she believes led to her company getting an award.

"We were really lucky," she said. "It helped us pay bills, develop our alpha and refine our beta."

Ganelli wouldn't disclose if her company is profitable, but she said the free and discounted services she's gotten from CTNext has made her feel more loyal to her home state. She says she'll likely stick around if, or when, LightningBuy, with its six full-time employees, grows.

A growing network of connections

CTNext hopes its website and any buzz it creates will help spread the word to entrepreneurs like Ganelli about its services. Networking has been just as vital.

Like Ganelli, Jason Maloney, co-founder of Fairfield iPhone case maker diffr3nt, stumbled upon CTNext through a chance encounter.

Last September, Maloney was waiting in line at an Apple store to purchase the iPhone 5, which he and his business partner Mark Donne needed as quickly as possible to build a prototype case that fit its dimensions.

Maloney bumped into [Derek] Koch, CEO of Independent Software and a growth advisor in New Haven's CTNext network.

Koch introduced the differ3nt founders to CTNext's programs and services, including a CEO bootcamp, which helped sharpen the entrepreneur's leadership and management skills.

Diffr3nt is also applying for an innovation voucher.

Maloney didn't disclose how many cases diffr3nt produces, but he said the company's sales are funding its operations.

He recently left his job at a major tech company to pursue diffr3nt's future full time.

"As an entrepreneur in Connecticut, there are so many resources out there," Maloney said. "Instead of going to 27 different doors and asking for help, CTNext is the one door I go to, and they know everyone behind those 27 doors."

Serial entrepreneur sees value

Eric Knight has been building companies for years. The UConn alum founded Fairfield's UP Aerospace, which in 2007 launched Star Trek actor James "Scotty" Doohan's ashes into space on a private rocket.

Knight is now entrepreneur in chief of Innovation East, the CTNext region that includes incubator space in Storrs and Groton, and is affiliated with UConn. Knight and his team have worked with more than 100 companies so far, he said.

For Knight, one of the most important things CTNext has accomplished is creating a tighter network of entrepreneurs like himself.

Getting better acquainted with people around the state has helped Knight have a better sense of which combination of advisers might be best to help entrepreneurs.

"This is a really remarkable team across Connecticut," he said.

And it's a fledgling team. In describing CTNext to a newcomer, Knight often calls it "a startup helping startups."

Matthew Nemerson, president and CEO of the technology council, said the idea all along was to try different things and go with what works.

He said the tech council, Connecticut Innovations, and the innovation centers have been comparing notes about results so far, and talking about what seems to be most effective.

One thing that Knight said is working better is his center's process for vetting voucher recipients. A board of reviewers hears entrepreneur pitches at a monthly gathering.

The board can grant a voucher on the spot if the pitch passes muster.

"We really hit our stride with the processing," Knight said.

Knight said developing those types of standards is vital, especially as the program approaches its second round of contracts. CI sent out a request for proposals last month for service providers to represent the second year of the CTNext program.

About $5 million is expected to be up for grabs.

Nemerson hopes the results will build on what's been done so far.

"We need to maintain the statewide relationships that have been created, build on the actual experiences of helping companies, and be very analytical about what happened and why," he said.

DECD will have an open mind to proposals and ideas as the second round of RFPs roll in, said Commissioner Catherine Smith.

Smith said the number of companies formed, and the number that survive, will be key metrics to measure as the program continues.

"It still feels like it's pretty fledgling," Smith said. "The first year has barely moved the needle, but we're moving in the right direction."

Though CTNext will receive another round of state funding in its second year the idea in the long run is for the effort to sustain itself, Smith said. That's something that has been communicated to the various players involved in the effort.

"We have large companies that are interested in innovation and they can help participate," she said.

 

This article is a product of the Hartford Business Journal.

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Connecticut's Total Effective Business Tax Rate

Connecticut is often accused of having tax rates that are too high and thus unfriendly to business.  You'll hear this criticism from all kinds of sources- newscasters on tv, angry contributors to internet forums, and occasionally even Texas Governor Rick Perry as he strolls through the State trying to lure Connecticutians away from the Northeast.

But we work with hundreds of businesses in Connecticut, on a regular basis, and the outlook is not so grim and taxophobic in our community.  Yes, the national economy is still in a period of recovery, and of course, everyone would prefer to have their taxes lowered, but Connecticut companies continue to thrive in the state and are as happy as ever to set up shop in the Constitution State.

The accounting firm Ernst & Young recently conducted a study in conjunction with the Council on State Taxation (COST) to take an objective look at the dense and dynamic world of state and local taxation across the United States.  Their results confirm and quantify something we've long understood: Connecticut's infrastructure, benefits, and potential for profitability drastically lower the explicit tax rate to a substantially lower effective tax rate.

How low?  Connecticut businesses pay the second lowest percentage of their gross state product back to the state in taxes.  We rank behind only North Carolina, and by only a fraction of a percentage point.

This image, from the review's Total State and Local Business Taxes findings, shows the nation in terms of the total effective tax rate that businesses are charged on a state and local level.  Connecticut is in the very lowest category.

Image via EY and COST.

East Haven Firm Links Crime Data To Connecticut Cops On The Road

Most police departments in the state could have iPads in the hands of at least a few officers out on the street in six to eight months — the next phase in public safety software technology.

Five police departments are now employing the electronic tablets using software from East Haven based NexGen Public Safety Solutions. The officers have access to the same information they would see in the station or in a patrol car.

NexGen, which started out in a small, 1,400-square-foot office on High Street in East Haven to a 5,800-square-foot Main Street office, has grown to serve 114 out of 169 police departments throughout the state, along with the University of Connecticut's Storrs campus, Central Connecticut University Police and Connecticut's Department of Public Safety, Mental Health and Addiction Services and the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The software helps address public safety officers' need to do more with less money, said John Travisano, chief development officer with NexGen. But more than that, it's made everything electronic, drastically curtailing paperwork and duplicate processes, and automating the way documents are submitted to state courts and judicial agencies.

 

Here is the entire Hartford Courant article by Sameea Kamal.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Visits Wallingford Firm

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker joined Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on a tour Tuesday of the headquarters of APS Technology, which makes products for the oil and gas drilling industry.

The company specializes in measurement-while-drilling, rotary steerable, and vibration management products. Pritzker and Malloy viewed some of the latest technology from APS, geared toward lowering the cost and time involved in oil drilling.

"This kind of precision manufacturing is really what America needs to be doing more," Pritzker said.

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Read the rest of Sameea Kamal's article from the Hartford Courant.

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This is an excerpt from Secretary Pritzker's blog, posted this morning:

Secretary Pritzker ended the day in Connecticut, where she participated in a tour and roundtable discussion at APS Technology. APS Technology is a long time client and partner with the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration. Since 1993, the company has expanded from consulting services to developing, producing, and supplying proprietary tools for drilling operations. The company began exporting in 2003, and now exports account for more than 75 percent of its business. Earlier this year, the company earned the President’s “E” Award for exports, the highest recognition any U.S. entity may receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of U.S. exports.

Secretary Pritzker believes it’s particularly important to connect with business and thought leaders early and often, both to hear their ideas on how government and the private sector can partner on strategic initiatives to grow business, and to promote the tremendous work the Department of Commerce does on behalf of U.S. companies. This trip and subsequent stops is part of Secretary Pritzker’s commitment to serve as a bridge to the business community–both domestically and abroad– so that the public and private sectors can work together to create jobs and opportunities for all Americans.

Connecticut’s Entrepreneurial Community Wants Your Ideas

      


The following is a press release from Connecticut Innovations, the Department of Economic and Community Development, and CTNEXT:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Connecticut Innovations (CI) and the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) are seeking creative ideas to improve and strengthen the state’s effort to build a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in Connecticut. The organizations have issued a Request for Proposals to help Connecticut further engage in innovation. The RFP is open to individuals, large and small companies, non-profits and consortia—from within and outside the state—with a proven record of success and creative ideas to develop the infrastructure and community necessary to support entrepreneurs. The state will invest up to $5 million over the next year in this initiative, called CTNEXT.

A winning proposal will include ideas to:

• Create pathways for entrepreneurs through which events, ideas, technology, industry expertise, services, skill development, talent and capital are easy to find

• Help innovative companies grow faster

• Improve entrepreneur connections with universities, economic development organizations and other private and public resources

• Engage Connecticut’s larger innovative corporations with the entrepreneurial community

• Help Connecticut increase the volume of the success stories it can celebrate and share

CTNEXT, a public-private partnership, has already established great momentum. To date, it has helped fund 11 entities and engaged dozens more to enhance local networks of support for entrepreneurs and connect those networks strategically statewide. And excitement and activity in the entrepreneurial community has reached new heights. In the past eight months alone, over 5,000 people attended more than 150 entrepreneurial community events, and several new co-working spaces were established or expanded.

Still, CI and DECD recognize that there are great ideas that they haven’t heard about which could strengthen the state’s culture of innovation while supporting a platform for addressing today’s toughest challenges.

“Connecticut is rich with innovative individuals, researchers, inventors, entrepreneurs, companies, investors and the organizations that support them.  We are looking for ways to help this talented population be part of a world-class entrepreneurial community,” said Claire Leonardi, CEO of CI.

“If you have ideas, experience and the commitment to develop the infrastructure and community to support entrepreneurs, we want to hear from you,” said Catherine Smith, Commissioner of Economic and Community Development.

For more information or to submit a proposal, visit build.CTNext.com.

Contact:

Casey Pickett Director of Innovation   Connecticut Department of Economic & Community Development   860-729-2210 [email protected]

Chris Penner Director, Investments   Connecticut Innovations     860-257-2163 [email protected]

Transportation Secretary Visits New Haven to Talk Trains

"Connecticut’s infrastructure is our oxygen. We can’t live as a state without investment in our roads and our bridges and our rails,” spoke Senator Chris Murphy yesterday afternoon in New Haven's Union Station, alongside his senior Senatorial colleague Richard Blumenthal, Governor Dannel Malloy, and all five of the State's federal representatives, including first term Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty, Connecticut's only delegate to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.  Murphy is keenly aware of the importance of a healthy transportation system in our state, and it is both exciting and relieving to hear the entire suite of our elected officials acknowledging this reality.

Despite the relatively small size of our state, we're home to a string of important centers and hubs from the New York adjacent panhandle, to New Haven and the seaboard, north through Middletown, Hartford, and the entire river valley.  The ability to transition smoothly from town to town, city to city, is a vital and often daily necessity for most businesses in Connecticut, as well as noncommercial necessities.

The need for fast, reliable, safe, and affordable transportation in Connecticut swells when its realized that our State does not function in a vacuum and that so much of our lives here are interconnected with the operations of New York, Providence, Western Massachusetts, and the greater Boston area.

With this in mind, Senator Blumenthal asked former Charlotte, NC mayor Anthony Foxx in May to visit Connecticut promptly after his confirmation as Secretary of Transportation (where he was unanimously approved by the Senate) on June 27th.  Foxx kept his promise and made New Haven his first visit as Secretary.

While some of the rail infrastructure in the Northeast more than a century old, an a train collision on the Metro North line just a few months past, the time for federal acknowledgement of what we in Connecticut have known for quite some time fell on appreciative ears.

Secretary Foxx articulated the importance of the Northeast corridor rail line, "the busiest railroad in America," but was not specific about his exact plans to make improvements, additions, or updates.  He established safety as a primary concern, but left anyone hoping to leave his speech with hard facts and figures a little empty.

Nevertheless, State officials are optimistic.  They see the Secretary's visit, only a month into his term, as a strong indication of his commitment to improving Connecticut's rail system.  Governor Malloy voiced plans to remain a "squeaky wheel" in Washington to ensure federal funding comes through to assist in the revitalization project, the plans for which can be found here at the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield Rail Program's official website.

This visit follows closely on Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner James Redeker's appointment to Chairman of the Northeast Corridor Commission in June, for a two year term. 

Hopefully, the NEC Commission, a recent Congressional creation, working closely with the State and Federal officials, will lead to a safe, efficient, reliable, convenient, and sustainable system of public railways in our corner of the world.  Until then, it would be wise to follow the Governor's advice, and remain a squeaky wheel.

Map of proposed line.

New Bill Looks to Boost CT Exports

Since its creation last spring, the Department of Economic and Community Development has been pleasantly overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response to their Small Business Express program. The program, outlined on the department’s website, provides expedited loans (in amounts between $10,000 and $250,000) and grants (up to $100,000) to Connecticut businesses who maintain fewer than 100 employees and are seeking to grow.

The abundance of applications, anticipated in the original legislation, necessitated a variety of criteria upon which the DECD will give priority to one aspirant organization over another. The program’s charter called for prevenience to go to companies creating new jobs and/or operating under a few “economic base industries,” such as “precision manufacturing, business services, green and sustainable technology, bioscience, and information technology sectors,” according to the program’s website.

On Monday, Governor Dannel Malloy signed into law a new bill that will add an additional criterion for prioritizing a business’ push for loans and grants from the DECD’s program: “businesses attempting to export their products or services to foreign markets.”

The program’s change demonstrates cognizance of the state’s strength in fields such as advanced manufacturing, bioscience, IT, and more, as well as Connecticut’s growing role as an exporter of goods. Last year, $16,000,000,000 worth of goods left the state for foreign markets. Connecticut is currently tenth in the nation in exports per capita, according to the Governor, and is looking to climb the ranks even higher.

An official release can be read on the Governor's website, and companies looking to apply for the Small Business Express programs can do so online, in person, or by mail.

Green Madison Landscaping Firm Harnesses Solar Power

In May, [Bob Blundon, president of Madison Earth Care] replaced his landscaping company's gas-powered weed trimmers and blowers with electric ones. He had the 327-watt solar panels installed atop the work trailer, and he bought a propane, zero-turn mower.

"We're trying to put together a green trailer," he said. "Instead of going twice a week to the gas station, we are going once every two weeks."

A shift to renewable power, like Blundon's, has been increasingly common for homes and businesses across the state. But harnessing the sun for work tools, instead of a grid-connected building, is a rare application.

"Solar ticked all the boxes," Blundon said. "Lower maintenance costs, greater reliability, reduced energy bills, less downtime for broken equipment, it all adds up to savings."

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To read Brian Dowling's complete Hartford Courant article, as well as view some related images, please follow this link.

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