NCET

Nevada lawmakers voted Thursday to endorse a new state renewable energy agency after asking numerous questions about the agency’s staffing and initial $250,000-a-year funding.

The lawmakers’ Interim Finance Committee supported the new Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Authority, along with a $117,030-a-year salary for a commissioner and a $56,265-a-year salary for an executive assistant. The initial source of funds for the authority will come from a small tax collected by the state Public Utilities Commission.

The commissioner’s job is to suggest ways to cut energy use and to attract wind, solar and geothermal projects to Nevada by offering tax breaks, technological data and financing options to renewable energy companies. Read full story:

Technorati Tags: BRENDAN RILEY, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Authority, Public Utilities Commission, Hatice Gecol, Joe Hardy, Pete Goicoechea, Andrew Clinger, Barbara Buckley, Debbie Smith, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

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Rudi Wiedemann has seen a lot of entrepreneurs lose out on funding, not because their ideas were no good, but because they weren’t quite ready for market — so close, yet so far.

Tired of watching so many near misses, Wiedemann a couple of months ago launched StartupWiz, a Web-based entrepreneurial training program that went live last week.

The program provides a forum for people to develop and test their ideas, and features a sequence of 14 modules – from “the entrepreneurial mindset” to “post-funding business building.” It’s self-paced, and students pay for each module as they go. Cost for the entire program is $2,900 and includes the opportunity to give a live presentation to investors. Read full story:

Technorati Tags: Northern Nevada Business Weekly, Barbara Marquand, Rudi Wiedemann, entrepreneurs, StartupWiz, BioDiesel Solutions Inc. Sparks, Rick Normington, Sierra Nevada College, University of Nevada Reno, Greg Mosier, University of Nevada Las Vegas Center for Entrepreneurship, Janet Runge, C4Cube Business Accelerator, Norman Smith. NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

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The California Clean Tech Open, often regarded as one of the top business plan competitions in the world, announced the semi-finalists for its 2009 competition. 50 early-stage startups were chosen to compete in the categories of Water & Waste, Energy Efficiency, Green Building, Renewable Energy, Smart Power and Transportation. Winners receive $50,000 in cash, $50,000 for business services and a chance for funding–along with the benefit of the Clean Tech Open’s track record for selecting successful companies like Cool Earth Solar (2006 runner up) and BuildFast (2007 winner). The top five finalists in each category won’t be announced until the fall, but FastCompany has culled a list of its favorites from the semi-finalist group. Click here to read more.

Technorati Tags: FastCompany, Ariel Schwartz, The California Clean Tech Open, Cool Earth Solar, BuildFast, Armageddon Energy, Parco Homes, Velkess, Presidio School of Management, NanoBrane, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

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Along with resentment about billions in government bailouts to large corporations deemed too big to fail, the issues most commonly mentioned as troubling for small business owners as they contemplate life under the new Obama Administration are the persistent credit crunch, the Administration’s plans for health-care reform, and the possibility of tax increases on top-tier income brackets, experts say.

While many entrepreneurs give President Barack Obama credit for a policy initiative that dropped fees on U.S. Small Business Administration-backed loans and increased the agency’s loan guarantees, they worry that the incentives are not working. “All this recovery money is going out and yet nobody’s lending and we don’t know when they ever will be,” says Margo Dorfman, CEO of the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce. “The businesses we deal with have been around for decades, they’ve been paying their lines of credit as they’re supposed to, but now they’re getting cut off left and right. Our members are saying, ‘Hey, I could grow my business but I can’t get access to capital.’” Read more:

Technorati Tags: BusinessWeek, Karen E. Klein, Obama Administration, SBA, Margo Dorfman, George Isaacs, JEDA Polymers, Dennis J. Ceru, Babson College, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

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Why do Americans need to attach creation myths to everything, including the origins of our most visible business ventures? We idealize the lone inventor over the company man, the garage over the office space. We tell the story of Apple Computer not as that of two former Atari and Hewlett-Packard employees launching their own product, but two starry-eyed inventors in a garage, building a dream from scratch. This American Life host Ira Glass put the question to Fast Company columnist Dan Heath, and his answer reveals a lot about our business culture. Read more:

Technorati Tags: Clay Dillow, FastCompany, This American Life, Ira Glass, Dan Heath, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, YouTube, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

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