Berken Energy relocating to Carson City area with promise of at least 50 jobs

Within 90 days, Mound House should have a new resident: Green technology manufacturer Berken Energy.

The firm, which makes technologies to convert wasted heat into energy, will be moving its headquarters from Roswell, N.M., and creating between 50 and 75 jobs for the area in the process, CEO Ken Newman said.

The company is in the process of inking a deal to move into space owned by Elite Energy Systems - a relationship and location that Newman said helped cement his decision to move and get started very quickly. In fact, he said, it might even make them "over aggressive."

"We're proud to be Nevadans now," he said.

Newman described Nevada and the Carson City area with nothing but superlatives and said the move will bring Berken closer to potential clients such as power and geothermal plants. On Wednesday, he named everyone who helped Nevada defeat nine other states competing for his business. That list included the governor's office, universities and the Northern Nevada Development Authority.

Newman described the courtship as a series of conversations going, "Oh, you make geothermal more efficient? Let's walk over to a geothermal plant. Oh, you make power plants more efficient? Let me introduce you to NV Energy."

Patty Wade, of the advocacy and business consulting firm Wade Consulting Group, LLC, also worked to lure Berken, saying it will act as a magnet for other companies as well as help Nevada establish itself in a growing field.

"Berken is exactly (the type of business) the state is targeting," said Wade, who also sits on the Nevada Commission on Economic Development. "They are just absolutely right up our alley."

She used data centers - high-heat, high-energy businesses - as an example of an industry that might find the area more appealing with Berken nearby. Its technology could help convert enough of the potentially wasted heat to offset 20 to 30 percent of their energy costs, Newman said.

NNDA Executive Director Rob Hooper went as far as to call the technology "globe changing."