Technology Verticals

Energy, transportation, and industry are the building blocks of modern existence. Accelerating the energy transition means decarbonizing these three major systems.

Alaska is the perfect place to start. This state provides all the right conditions for climate tech deployment: strong community connections, vast local knowledge, abundant renewable resources, environmental extremes, and infrastructural challenges create opportunities for companies to maximize their positive impact.

Are you building a game-changing technological solution to major problems affecting energy, transportation, or industrial sustainability? We want to hear from you. Browse the menu for specific tech examples, set up a one-on-one call with program staff, or apply for Tech Deployment Track today.

  • Alaska’s assets and opportunities in energy are tremendous. We are a leader in microgrids and have vast undeveloped renewable energy resources. At the same time, Alaska’s high costs of energy further improve the case for new technologies that move us toward a decarbonized future. Here are a few examples of the energy technologies we’d love to help support.

    • Battery/solar panel recycling

    • Biofuels, especially drop-in fuels for aviation and shipping

    • Clean energy generation solutions: solar, nuclear, wind, thermal, ocean and hydro, waste-to-energy

    • Demand-side management and energy efficiency

    • Grid management and resiliency

    • Hydrogen

    • Long-duration energy storage

    • Microgrid technologies

  • We focus on the following transportation modes: road, maritime, rail, and aviation. Alaska is an air crossroads of the world, strategically located less than 9.5 hours by air from 90 percent of the industrial world and is ideal for cold weather testing for all modes of transportation. But it also is remote, with extreme distances between populations, and a lack of resilience in critical infrastructure that is ripe for innovation. Launch Alaska is seeking technology and business model solutions to decarbonize the transportation sector while improving service and driving down costs to communities in Alaska and its connected markets. Here are a few examples:

    • Alternative fuels

    • Autonomous vehicles

    • Aviation

    • Electric transportation

    • Last-mile transport

    • Maritime

    • Mobility

    • Shipping and logistics

    • Unmanned aerial vehicles

  • We define industry broadly, including Alaska’s legacy sectors of oil and gas, seafood processing, timber and forest products, and mining. We also include chemicals, industrial processes/improvements, mariculture, water/wastewater, carbon tech, and manufacturing. The industrial sector is both a large economic driver and the biggest source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in the state — and all of the major industrial players in Alaska are actively looking for ways to decarbonize their operations. 

    • 3D modeling

    • Augmented and virtual reality

    • Carbon tech

    • Hydrogen production

    • Industrial internet of things (IIoT)

    • Low-carbon environmental remediation

    • Low-carbon fuels, feedstocks, and energy sources (LCFFES)

    • Low-footprint industrial processes

    • Permafrost management and ice engineering

    • Predictive maintenance

    • Robotics and automation

    • Water/wastewater sanitation