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October 28, 2024

Updated: ClimateHaven plans to expand its prototyping space in New Haven

HBJ PHOTO | DAVID KRECHEVSKY Sen. Chris Murphy, left, talks with Dylan Judd, co-founder of Windloop, during a tour of ClimateHaven in New Haven on Friday. Windloop is developing a way to recycle wind turbine blades.

Less than a year after celebrating its grand opening, climate technology incubator ClimateHaven plans to add prototyping space to its facility in New Haven.

While providing a tour of its facilities at 770 Chapel St. on Friday to U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and his son, Owen, ClimateHaven CEO Justine Lee said the plan is to expand into the rest of the space on the building’s third floor.

Lee, who was named CEO in September to replace Ryan Dings, said the organization is currently located in 10,000 square feet that “was supposed to be for teams meeting and doing desk work.” 

The expansion will add space for startups to do more of the labor-intensive building and testing of prototypes. 

Lee said the planned expansion will occur in the second half of 2025 by adding 6,000 square feet, while also utilizing about 1,600 square feet of common space.

In addition to adding space for developing and building prototypes, ClimateHaven is also exploring the addition of green chemistry hoods. 

Casey R. Pickett, managing director-incubator for ClimateHaven, said details for including the green chemistry hoods still have to be finalized, including finding and installing an HVAC system sophisticated enough to handle it.

“Chemistry is often easier in some ways than biology, but the molecules are smaller, so we can’t use the same (vent) hoods,” he said. “So we have to figure out how to make that work. These startups don’t generally need the most intense, expensive kind of lab; we just need a safe way to vent this thing.”

Lee told Murphy that ClimateHaven is developing areas of focus and expertise for the organization, and that it is also exploring ways to develop off-site chemistry lab and manufacturing space to assist startups. 

“We need to build some areas of expertise where we can really differentiate our offering from other incubators and accelerators that are out there, and that’s building on our competitive advantages,” Lee said. “For example, Yale’s strength in green chemistry has led to a number of companies that are getting traction in that space, and we can start to build that virtuous cycle where we pull in stakeholders and other partners that are interested in that and then the investor community. From there people will know that this is a destination for green chemistry companies.”

Pickett cited the example of Oxylus Energy, a startup that is already a member of the ClimateHaven incubator. Founded by CEO Perry Bakas, COO Harrison Meyer and CTO Conor Rooney, Oxylus is developing a more efficient way to synthesize methanol.

“They’ve turned a three-step process into a one-step process,” Pickett said. “So they are taking captured carbon and turning it into methanol using electrolysis.”

According to its website, Oxylus converts carbon dioxide “directly into carbon-neutral fuels & chemical feedstocks.”

ClimateHaven is a nonprofit innovation hub, offering entrepreneurs support that includes physical incubation space, workshops, programming, and access to resources and networks to scale their endeavors. 

Pickett added the expansion of its New Haven facilities has already been funded through a grant from the state Community Investment Fund (CIF) administered by the state Department of Economic and Community Development. In March, the CIF board approved a $910,000 grant for the organization.

Correction: This article has been updated to clarify how ClimateHaven intends to use its expanded space.
 

 

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