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At Ponderosa High School in Coconino County, Arizona, students are determined to overcome obstacles on their path to graduation. Some arrive behind on credits, while others are returning to the classroom after time away. The alternative school offers more than a second chance—it is an opportunity for transformation.
That is just one reason why Coconino County Schools selected Ponderosa as the focus of an advanced energy initiative through the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2), managed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
“Our goal at Ponderosa is to create opportunities that shift perspectives—helping students see a hopeful future and discover industries they may not have considered,” Ponderosa High Principal Les Hauer said. “The energy future is full of possibility, and this initiative helps us show students what’s possible while preparing them to succeed.”
Coconino County is one of 10 members of IN2’s latest cohort, which marked a significant milestone for the program. For the first time in its 10-year history, IN2 shifted its focus from supporting startups to implementing energy technologies within established organizations.
Before pitching their projects in December 2024, participants engaged in months of preparation and education, including technology selection and impact analyses. The pitch session culminated in the cohort presenting their plans to install and use a tool or system within six months, with winners receiving a share of $750,000 in Wells Fargo funding to bring their projects to life.
“This is a monumental new direction for IN2,” said IN2 Program Manager Sarah Derdowski. “IN2 continues to help startups move forward over the ‘valleys of death,’ but now we also get to support the implementation of innovative technologies and make real progress in building a resilient, adaptable future.”
The participants in the cohort are:
- Avangrid
- Coconino County
- CBRE
- Digital Realty
- Galvanize Real Estate (GRE)
- Intermountain Health
- Prime Data Centers
- Schneider Electric
- Southern Company
- University of Colorado Boulder.
Although some cohort members are large companies, they face unique barriers where IN2’s support is invaluable. During pitch day, one of the presenters made the problem plain: Even large, well-funded organizations may find resistance to innovative technologies if they might compromise profitability.
“Pursuing new technologies is often seen as a cost and business risk for any size organization,” said Howard Branz, director of science and impact for Galvanize Climate Solutions. “At GRE, our scientists and investors work together to mitigate these risks by piloting technologies in real-world settings where we can test and prove their performance, ensuring that increasing profitability and meeting our metrics go hand-in-hand. The IN2 award allows us to further accelerate the deployment of cutting-edge building technology solutions, advancing our goals.”
Coconino County’s Teaching Moment
Coconino County’s ambitious vision stood out among the pitches in early December with its goal of reducing the district’s energy consumption by 40% while creating a replicable school model for the region.
“We hope to transform our local schools by serving as a demonstration site for retrofitting and energy practices,” Superintendent Cheryl Mango-Paget said.
Ponderosa High School, located near the Grand Canyon, has about 70 students. The district identified heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) as the best opportunity because it could have the greatest impact. The district’s aging air conditioning units are due for replacement, and the hope is that Ponderosa can serve as a blueprint for surrounding schools.
To achieve that, Coconino County would integrate three technologies in one building. Blue Frontier, a company that graduated from IN2 several years ago, will install a new AC unit that uses liquid desiccant technology developed by NREL. Rensair will improve air quality. And Komfort will address energy through lighting. The single Blue Frontier unit could replace up to 18 AC units already on the building. Estimates done during IN2 show the new systems, at minimum, could cut utility costs by 50%.
“This partnership with NREL and IN2 is a powerful teaching tool,” Hauer said. “We’re giving students a hands-on experience beyond the classroom by letting them observe the installation process.”
While the students will not install the systems themselves, they will learn from the process and gain insight into future job opportunities in the HVAC and advanced energy industries.
CBRE’s AC Pivot
When Jeff Dunbar, senior sustainability director for CBRE, first got involved with IN2, he thought their project would focus on advanced cement. Then he realized they only had six months to implement, so he pivoted to a faster solution: rooftop HVAC units.
“We replace thousands of rooftop units every year in the U.S.,” Dunbar said. “This became an easy lever for us to pull.”
CBRE manages more than 7 billion square feet of property around the world and spent more than $33 billion with suppliers last year globally. Once CBRE identified the HVAC direction, NREL helped pinpoint where to go next.
“I stood in a room at NREL and stared at Blue Frontier’s mockup of this technology while an NREL engineer explained how it works,” Dunbar said. “Together, we found our ‘Goldilocks’ site that matches the necessary specs on a building in Delaware.”
The pilot project will install and test Blue Frontier’s unit on this building in Delaware, with the potential of replicating it at other sites nationwide. The system is designed as a drop-in replacement—it integrates seamlessly with existing infrastructure and eliminates the need for costly modifications.
“Our hope is that by the end of the first summer season, the results will give us the confidence to move forward with other sites,” Dunbar said during the pitch.
Additionally, CBRE is not giving up on the idea of an advanced cement project.
“As an offshoot, NREL pulled us into conversations with several advanced concrete partners about a potential project in 2025,” Dunbar said. “We can continue to pursue the concrete challenge outside of the IN2 program.”
Intermountain Health’s Strive for Change
Glen Garrick, system sustainability director for Intermountain Health, is also working with NREL on a project separate from the IN2 pitch he presented. The company has 16 traditional shuttles, and it wants to change that and incorporate advanced technologies.
Initially, the employee responsible for managing the fleet resisted the idea, uncertain about its feasibility. But the project gained momentum after a visit to NREL.
“We flew out to NREL and sat in a room talking with 10 experts,” Garrick said. “Some on our team had a healthy skepticism about the shuttles. But after candid discussions with subject matter experts and experienced professionals from NREL, those individuals on our team completely changed their mindset.”
With approximately 400 clinics and 34 hospitals across the Intermountain West, Intermountain Health plans to order the first set of shuttles in 2025 and begin using them in 2026.
In addition to the shuttles, Garrick presented a pilot project at one location that would include a solar canopy with panels that move with the sun and battery storage for advanced energy.
“We tried to find projects that have a long payback because those wouldn’t get approved without IN2,” Garrick said. “It’s not meant to be a huge sexy project—it’s a demonstration project that helps us start to shift toward more on-campus renewables.”
The driving force is to avoid taking money away from patient care.
“Every dollar that goes to energy or waste is one less for patient funding,” he said. “Whenever I can bring in external funding, that’s money saved for patient care.”
NREL’s Assistance
This IN2 cohort did not have to figure out the solutions to their challenges on their own. With guidance from NREL experts and support from consulting firm Overlay Build, participants overcame technical and strategic hurdles unique to their companies to move their projects forward.
For Coconino County, narrowing down a daunting list of 168 potential HVAC technologies was a critical first step.
“When I saw the list, first I cried,” Mango-Paget said. “But IN2 and NREL helped us discover the best bang for our buck, and that led us to three companies that could make the biggest impact.”
NREL’s support did not stop at the planning phase. For CBRE, NREL’s direct involvement in monitoring the Delaware pilot will ensure a smooth transition from concept to implementation.
“The scientists who helped birth this liquid desiccant technology are going to come help monitor the site in Delaware,” Dunbar said. “That helps de-risk it for us. We’re trying to do this at scale; it’s exciting to be at the front end of that curve.”
The value of NREL’s expertise also extends beyond IN2’s formal structure. Garrick believes Intermountain’s partnership with NREL will continue independently of the IN2 project.
“I could see a new project evolving in the next six months,” he said. “We have all the contacts, and I think it’s entirely possible we’ll reach out directly for support.”
By providing both education now and actionable solutions down the road, NREL and IN2 have empowered these organizations to overcome barriers, adopt innovative technologies, and make measurable progress.
Winners
Five of the 10 participants in this first-of-its-kind cohort earned monetary awards.
- CBRE received $150,000 for its project, which will cover the engineering, design, and construction costs for the pilot and a scalability study.
- Coconino County received $55,000 for the Rensair and Komfort parts of its project.
- Digital Realty received $125,000 to partner with Hayzel and improve chilling in its data centers in Santa Clara, California.
- Galvanize Real Estate received $200,000 to work with EnKoat, an IN2 portfolio company, and Alpen for a pilot on a building in Pedricktown, New Jersey.
- The University of Colorado Boulder received $220,000 to work with INOVUES to retrofit existing windows in aging buildings with hermetically sealed high-performance glass.
All the pilot projects must be completed within six months. NREL will keep track of their progress and post updates in the future.
And the participants—including the five teams that did not earn funding—are walking away with tailored technology adoption playbooks and access to expertise in digitization and change management.
“Alongside the new relationships formed with NREL, the program itself is an award,” Derdowski said. “We’re already seeing renewed efforts to change the culture at all of these organizations.”
“I’m really glad we went through the process because we saved one project because of it,” Garrick said. “If it wasn’t for that contact with NREL, that project would have died.”
Updates on how the installations proceed will be found on www.in2ecosystem.com later this year.
Originally published on NREL website.
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