Cities have taken an active role in promoting entrepreneurship through incubators and other programs, with New York City being a particularly active player. New York Energy Week itself is to some degree a child of the New York City startup incubator community.

From energy efficiency to demand management, solar power, renewable energy project finance and energy data analytics, these companies and the leadership behind them give us a glimpse into our collective energy future. As energy bills increase and environmental impacts associated with large-scale power generation are better understood, people appear to be recognizing the true cost and value of electricity. Using power more efficiently all the time and scheduling energy-intensive tasks during off-peak time periods when electricity is cheaper is becoming cool and so are technologies and services helping to make that happen.

Various Disclaimers: The Top Ten lists compiled as part of Breaking Energy’s media partnership with New York Energy Week were based on an open nomination process and final selections were made by the senior Breaking Energy editorial team. Breaking Energy applied our editorial judgement and decades of experience to highlight leaders we thought deserved recognition during New York Energy Week. This is not a ranking, names are listed alphabetically. Please tell us how right or wrong we were in the comments. 

New York City photo courtesy of Shutterstock.