Economic Development Strategy Leverages Knoxville Oak Ridge Innovation Valley Assets
Knoxville/Oak Ridge, Tenn., Oct. 15, 2009 – Already a hotbed of research, the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley has a new roadmap for turning those technological and human assets into a prosperous future. The strategy identifies four promising industry sectors:
• instrumentation
• nuclear energy
• bioenergy
• energy-related materials.
Developed by Innovation Valley officials and consultants from the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, these four high tech areas utilize the high tech resources of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Y-12 National Security Complex, the University of Tennessee, and partnerships and initiatives across the Innovation Valley, and reflect current national business trends.
“Our focus at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is to deliver the kind of science that will be the foundation for economic growth in the years ahead,” said ORNL Director Thom Mason, who also chairs Innovation Valley. “This roadmap will allow our region to benefit from the technology assets we have and further strengthens the linkage between economic development priorities and the research direction for ORNL”
State of the art laboratories, modern facilities, a growing number of research staff, and a broad and diverse research portfolio are among the ORNL and Innovation Valley resources available to enhance scientific discovery and accelerate the advance of technological growth.
“We inventoried Innovation Valley resources – specifically those that really set our region apart -- and have built a recruiting strategy around those,” says Jesse Smith, director of technology for the Innovation Valley consortium. “We have tools, the human capital, infrastructure and collaboration between organizations that other areas can only dream about.”
The goals are not only to attract new industries and jobs, but also to help existing industries improve – especially in the areas of information technology, materials and instruments that support biosciences, energy and the environment.
Instrumentation
Instrumentation, the branch of engineering that deals with measurement and control, Smith said, “is a big part of the Innovation Valley’s history – stemming from the Manhattan Project and TVA, and carrying on today with such innovative companies as NucSafe and Siemens (formerly CTI).”
Especially promising new fields for instrumentation exist in energy, environment, biosciences and homeland security.
Innovation Valley assets in this sector include business space at ORNL’s Science and Technology Park, prototyping capabilities at the National Prototype Center at the Y-12 facility and the national lab’s decades-long expertise in instrumentation.
Nuclear energy
“There’s a lot of talk about the ‘nuclear renaissance’,” Smith said, “We have the engineering, testing and measurement capabilities and extensive education and training programs in place to be a major player.”
The Innovation Valley, he says, can design, test and build replacement parts for the nation’s aging fleet of nuclear reactors.
“And if more plants are built, we are in an even stronger position,” Smith said.
Most major nuclear consulting companies, he said, already have a presence here. The nuclear energy sector creates high-paying, high tech jobs, Smith said, not only for engineers but also for trained technicians.
Key strengths of ORNL and B&W Y-12 are in nuclear-related materials, fuel cycle and next-generation reactor systems. UT possesses primary strength in instruments and controls, plus fuel cell management and radiation detection.
Nuclear-related companies identified in the region are involved in engineering services (Bechtel, SAIC, CH2M HILL), instrumentation (Ametek, NucSafe, Canberra) and materials and engineering testing (Southern Technologies, Analysis & Measurement, Inc.). Direct material suppliers already here include Millennium Materials, which produces ceramic materials and components for use as neutron absorbers and B&W Clinch River that manufactures nuclear components for centrifuges.
Bioenergy
Bioenergy, which now ranks second only to hydropower in renewable U.S. primary energy production, is big news in the Innovation Valley. Construction is well underway on a major cellulosic ethanol pilot production facility in nearby Vonore that will convert switchgrass into “grassoline.” The facility, part of Governor Phil Bredesen’s Tennessee Biofuels Initiative, will be run by Genera Energy, a non-profit arm of the University of Tennessee. Biofuels from non-food crops such as switchgrass represent a growth area at the Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center at ORNL.
UT Institute of Agriculture economists believe that a Tennessee biofuels industry with multiple commercial facilities supplied by locally grown feedstock eventually could supplement 30% of the state’s petroleum consumption.
Research assets in this industry are UT’s agricultural focus, ORNL’s strengths in microbiology and the region’s chemical engineering expertise.
Energy-related materials
The Innovation Valley is heavily involved in the development of next-generation batteries, lightweight materials, thin film and silicon for solar panels. Many of these materials increase energy efficiencies and reduce costs involved in solar electricity.
Materials research resources at ORNL include the Department of Energy’s Spallation Neutron Source -- the world’s most powerful neutron source for materials research -- and the new UT-Battelle Joint Institute for Advanced Materials Science.
“Advances are also being made here with incredible new lightweight materials that can reduce weight in cars, trucks and airplanes,” Smith said. “Reducing our dependency upon imported fuel is a national priority.”
Key regional assets include ORNL’s strength in advanced materials from catalysis, high-temperature materials and carbon-based materials, and management of the state’s solar farm by UT’s Genera Energy.
Recent announcements such as the Tennessee Solar Initiative, and $1 billion investments in Tennessee by chemical giants Wacker Chemie and Hemlock Semiconductor, show further progress. Both plants will produce polycrystalline silicon for solar panels.
Volkswagen’s new mega facility near Chattanooga also creates opportunities in next-generation automotive materials.
More than 75% of the nation’s electric grid network transformers, transmission lines and control equipment must be replaced over the next decade at a cost of $50 billion, creating an opportunity for the Innovation Valley. New high-temperature materials developed here could play a critical role in improving the transmission and distribution of electricity along the grid.
The Battelle strategy was funded by a grant from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce Economic Development Administration. Innovation Valley Inc. is an initiative of six partner agencies formed to implement a five-year regional economic development blueprint to capitalize on the region’s world-class resources in science, technology and business.
For information about the Innovation Valley, visit the award-winning website, www.knoxvilleoakridge.com or contact Jesse Smith at 865-220-2029 or at jsmith@innovationvalleyinc.org.
