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ACORE Accelerate Academy Day One: Connecting Innovation, Policy, and Industry

Meeting the growing demand for affordable, reliable, and secure energy will require the next generation of clean energy innovators to successfully scale their businesses. Over the past five years, we’ve seen that even the best ideas need the right ecosystem to succeed. Founders need opportunities to connect with customers, investors, policymakers, and industry leaders, but those opportunities can be hard to come by when you’re focused on building a business.

Good news for clean energy entrepreneurs: the ACORE Accelerate Program is here to help! 

During the week of July 8, we convened 10 clean energy founders from six states in Washington, D.C., for a week of advocacy, technical capacity building, and business development designed to help entrepreneurs scale their businesses by expanding access to customers, capital, policymakers, and strategic partners.

Bringing Entrepreneur Voices to Policymakers

After our group of 10 entrepreneurs arrived in Washington, D.C., we headed straight to Capitol Hill for meetings with the offices of Rep. Greg Steube, Rep. Christian Menefee, Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Rep. Sarah Elfreth, and Rep. Maxine Dexter.

These meetings connected policymakers with Accelerate entrepreneurs on the front lines of deploying the next generation of clean energy solutions. Congressional staff consistently emphasized the value of hearing directly from emerging companies about the realities of project deployment, financing, permitting, workforce development, and the barriers to bringing innovative technologies to market. Our founders weren’t just advocating for their businesses; they were helping inform the policies that will shape the future of the clean energy economy.

The conversations also gave our cohort valuable insight into the legislative process and the challenges facing clean energy policy in Congress. It was a full day of meetings, but one that left everyone energized by the thoughtful dialogue and shared commitment to advancing the industry. We even had the opportunity to meet Oregon Rep. Maxine Dexter, who stopped to share her insights with the cohort.

From Innovation to Deployment

After our Hill visits, we toured a rooftop solar installation at Sycamore and Oak, where Jordan Taylor, founder of SynergyGrid and an ACORE Accelerate alumnus, shared how he transformed an innovative idea into a project delivering tangible benefits for the surrounding community. 

Jordan’s journey reflects what Accelerate is designed to support: helping entrepreneurs turn innovative ideas into projects that deliver tangible community impact. The Sycamore and Oak development has strengthened local energy resilience, created jobs, and transformed an underutilized space into a vibrant community destination.

Standing alongside Jordan on the rooftop, surrounded by rows of solar panels overlooking downtown Washington, our founders saw firsthand what successful project deployment looks like. The conversation that followed offered valuable lessons on navigating the path from concept to commercialization.  

Connecting Founders to the Clean Energy Ecosystem 

The day concluded with an industry mixer, where our founders connected with ACORE members and industry leaders to exchange ideas, explore partnerships, and build relationships that can help accelerate commercialization. 

This is what makes Accelerate unique. Great ideas alone aren’t enough to grow a clean energy company. Through ACORE’s membership network, Accelerate convenes the ecosystem around entrepreneurs, creating connections that help transform promising innovations into commercially viable businesses.

The impact speaks for itself. Since 2020, 67% of Accelerate founders have developed potential deals through the ACORE network, and 92% have conducted business within the network. These outcomes demonstrate the power of convening innovators, industry leaders, investors, and policymakers around emerging companies. 

Learn more about ACORE Accelerate and how you can partner with us to advance commercialization and strengthen America’s clean energy economy.

Check out the video recap of our Hill Fly-in day below!