🎉 PRODUCT LAUNCH: Menasha, Wisconsin-based EnTech Solutions revealed Xcape, a microgrid technology that scales to serve a variety of commercial business sizes. The energy resilience and storage product serves as a back-up power supply. It runs on solar power and stores excess energy in its battery system.

***SPONSORED LINK: The Cleanie Awards — the #1 awards program in clean technology — is now accepting applications! Submit to win, or contact us with any questions. Applications close July 30.***

💰 FUNDING:

• The U.S. Department of Energy granted a team of scientists — including some from Ames Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — $12.8 million to pursue new concepts for plastic upcycling.
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is providing up to $6 billion in funding for water infrastructure improvement projects, which could include innovations such as water recycling or improved energy efficiency at treatment facilities.

🌱 AGRICULTURE:

• Pilot programs are underway in rural parts of Wisconsin to reduce food insecurity, including a program in Rusk County through which indoor hydroponic farming technologies are placed in community spaces and are accompanied by education on innovation, sustainability, and healthy eating, according to the Brookings Institution.
• A three-year study underway in Detroit is examining ways to improve soil to support urban agriculture that is cost effective, produces nutritious food, and might mitigate climate change by capturing carbon, reports Civil Eats.
• Wilder Fields will repurpose a 135,000-square-foot former Target building in Calumet City, Illinois, to create an indoor vertical farm that will produce greens for the Chicago area, according to the Chicago Tribune. Investors are funding the first phase of the repurposing project. The greenhouse facility will integrate robotics and artificial intelligence software.

🏆 HONORS: Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago is the first U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory to receive the distinction of being a best place to work for disability inclusion by Disability:IN, a disability advocacy group.

Contact me with information about other businesses and organizations advancing tech in the Midwest. Send news tips, press releases, and feedback to katie@centered.tech or connect on LinkedIn and Twitter @centereddottech.