Green tech talent flocks to Navy Yard’s ‘Energy Hub’

A year after being announced as one of three national Energy Innovation Hubs by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Navy Yard continues to attract top green-technology talent.

“The decision of the federal government to locate this facility and research in Philadelphia has started to put Philadelphia and the Navy Yard on the map in a large national and even international discussion about energy efficiency that we couldn’t be in on our own,” said John Grady of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation.

British energy giant Mark Group was drawn stateside by the Navy Yard’s climate of collaborative research, where multiple federal agencies pooled funds for a massive $129 million grant to enable the city to create the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings.

“The Navy Yard is really becoming, as the Department of Energy envisioned it, an energy hub,” said Mark Group Chief Commercial Officer Jeff Bladen. “[Being] there gives us access to talent and experience we might not have [otherwise].”

”We’ve started to see companies that aren’t necessarily part of the GPIC network hear about our activity and call us to be close to the research,” said Grady, citing Pace Controls, a York-based building systems company that relocated to the Navy Yard earlier this month.