PowerAmerica Celebrates National Manufacturing Day
From L to R, John Nicholson (NCDEQ), Jason Massey (industrial.io), Dr. Raoul Farer (Freudenberg Performance Materials), Dr. Dave Grider (Wolfspeed).
PowerAmerica and the Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster (RTCC) joined together Thursday, Oct. 5 to host a National Manufacturing Day “Smart Speaker Series” at the PowerAmerica offices in Raleigh.
The panel featured John Nicholson, Chief Deputy Secretary of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ); as well as industry representatives Jason Massey of industrial.io, Raoul Farer of Freudenberg Performance Materials, and Dave Grider from Wolfspeed – a Cree Company. They spoke to a crowd of about 50 people. Moderating the panel was Nick Justice, Executive Director of PowerAmerica.
The combination of state government and representation from the advanced manufacturing industry made for an interesting and varied discussion. Collaboration was a key topic, as NCDEQ expressed a desire to forge stronger relationships with regional cleantech startups and the State Energy Office.
Another topic of discussion centered around the fact that many advanced manufacturing technologies (such as electric vehicles) are at a tipping point of being adopted on a wider scale. Dave Grider of Wolfspeed gave the example of silicon carbide being on the verge of rapidly replacing silicon in power electronics products.
All in all, it was a fantastic National Manufacturing Day event highlighting exciting industry advances, particularly those surrounding the theme of energy efficiency.
Panel presentations can be accessed here.
