CalCEF has ongoing relationships with principal clean energy research, commercialization and finance entities in California and nationally, enabling access to potentially groundbreaking technical solutions and fresh strategic thinking from some of the leading experts in the field.
The American Council on Renewable Energy
CalCEF is proud to partner with the Washington, D.C.–based American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), the leading U.S. organization working to bring all forms of renewable energy into the mainstream of America's economy and lifestyle. CalCEF collaborates with ACORE on a range of issues, principally including strategies to increase the financing of renewable energy at a massively increased scale and the development of business models and policy strategies to guide energy utilities into a renewable energy future.
The mission of the Cleantech Open (CTO) is to find, fund and foster the big ideas that address today’s most urgent energy, environmental and economic challenges. CalCEF is proud to support the overall efforts of the CTO and to sponsor the CTO Alumni Program, which creates networks of support and accelerates the promising young businesses that participate in the CTO competition.
The program helps CTO Alumni produce clean technology solutions, commercialize their product offerings, mature into fully functioning business enterprises, thrive as sustainable companies and add cleantech jobs to the economy. The Alumni Program also maintains relationships between all past CTO Finalists with the goal of creating a community that fosters connection, innovation, mentorship and funding opportunities.
UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center
CalCEF is proud to be the founding sponsor of the Energy Efficiency Center (EEC) at the University of California, Davis, the first academic center of excellence for energy efficiency in the United States. Established via a $1.0 million challenge grant from CalCEF in 2006, the EEC identifies promising energy-efficient technologies, develops viable business ventures around those technologies and connects those ventures to the financial, physical, intellectual and social capital that will be critical to their success. Its mission is to accelerate development and commercialization of energy-efficient technologies and to train the energy efficiency leaders of the future.
Through the EEC, CalCEF is affiliated with the faculty, staff and advisors at similar clean energy–related technology, business and policy centers at UC Davis, such as the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), the California Biomass Collaborative (CBC), the California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC), the Western Cooling Efficiency Center’s (WCEC), the Center for Entrepreneurship (C4E) and the UC Office of Research’s Technology and Industry Alliances. The center also partners with private sector companies and public agencies.