• Transmission & Power Markets
• Blog

Connecting Innovation to Opportunity: ACORE Accelerate at the WRISE Leadership Forum

Clean energy innovation takes shape in response to real needs: a community seeking more affordable power, a state working to modernize its grid, or a customer looking for a more resilient energy solution. Bringing those ideas into practice requires entrepreneurs, industry partners, and institutions that understand the markets they serve.  

That connection was central to “What’s Next for Renewable Energy? Inside the Innovation Ecosystem,” moderated by Yejide Olutosin, Director of ACORE Accelerate, at the 2026 WRISE Leadership Forum in Chicago, IL.  

Building on ACORE’s longstanding partnership with WRISE, the session featured Tetyana Rabczak of NextGen Energy Partners, alongside Angela Adduci of BMO Climate Institute, Heidi Gorrill of Slipstream, and Lauren Haller of Pattern Energy. Together, they explored how entrepreneurs and industry partners can advance clean energy innovation in local and state markets.  

Local Needs Shape Innovation  

The discussion explored how clean energy solutions respond to the conditions in which they must operate. State policies, utility practices, community priorities, and customer needs all influence whether a promising idea can gain traction.  

Surging electricity demand, grid modernization, and community-based energy solutions provided a backdrop for examining those differences. A solution’s value depends not only on its technical capabilities, but also on its ability to address a specific need at a cost customers and communities can support.  

For emerging companies, understanding that local context is essential to identifying customers, building partnerships, and developing a credible path to deployment.  

“We’re seeing founders get much sharper about commercialization. They’re not only asking, ‘Does the technology work?’ They’re asking, ‘Who needs it, what problem does it solve today, and what will it take to get it deployed at scale?’ That shift from innovation to market adoption is significant,” Olutosin said.  

The Value of a Connected Ecosystem  

Helping entrepreneurs navigate those questions is central to ACORE Accelerate. The program connects emerging clean energy companies with industry expertise, strategic relationships, executive mentorship, and market and policy insights that can inform business decisions and open pathways to growth. 

The panel brought that ecosystem into the room. Rabczak, a member of ACORE Accelerate’s 2026 cohort, contributed a founder’s perspective alongside leaders working across finance, research, and development. That exchange connected the challenges emerging companies face with the experience of organizations shaping clean energy markets. 

“Innovation doesn’t happen in isolation,” Olutosin said. “The strongest ideas move forward when technologists, investors, corporations, policymakers and other industry partners are working across the same ecosystem. That came through clearly in our conversation.” 

A Partnership That Creates Connections  

ACORE’s longstanding partnership with WRISE creates opportunities to bring these perspectives together and connect Accelerate entrepreneurs with a broader community of clean energy professionals.  

At the Leadership Forum, that partnership supported a discussion spanning both industry-wide challenges and the local and state conditions that shape practical solutions. It also gave an emerging company a platform to contribute its experience to the conversation.  

For ACORE Accelerate, these opportunities are part of the program’s value: helping founders build relationships, sharpen their understanding of the market, and share their expertise with potential collaborators.  

“They’re building the market we need next, but they’re grounded in the problems the industry is facing right now. That combination of ambition and practicality gives me a lot of optimism,” Olutosin said of emerging clean energy founders.  

Applications for ACORE Accelerate’s seventh cohort are open through November 30, 2026. Learn more about the two-year, no-cost program and apply.  

---