Oct. 2--SHAMOKIN -- A national entrepreneur of the year award winner, an executive from an international wind energy company, a professor from Temple University and a representative from perhaps the most recognized anthracite coal company are among those named to the newly formed Northumberland County Energy Council.

The council will act as an advisory board to guide the county's new FUTURES (Fossil Underwriting Technology to Utilize Renewable Energy Sources) program, which was announced Wednesday.

In addition to the council, an energy technology incubator is planned in the county to help develop alternative energies and boost the start-up companies who are trying to develop them. The incubator will be one of the first steps in the implementation of the FUTURES program.

The incubator, to possibly be located in either downtown Mount Carmel of Shamokin, would house offices available at low rent for new and already established energy companies.

This may be the first incubator to ever be dedicated to energy, said Randy S. McKillop, president of McKillop and Associates Inc., a consulting firm that's working with the Northumberland County.

The incubator will become an economic driver and will attract university and private industry professionals to act as advisers for energy technology development and manufacturing, McKillop said.

Among the technologies the county hopes to use at the incubator is "inteleconferencing," which would allow companies to interact with interested parties via video. For example, said Steve Bartos, director of the Northumberland County Planning Department, an investor from China would be able to initially discuss potential business without the expense and time of coming here.

Both Bartos and McKillop said the incubator may be up and running within six months.

Highly accomplished

Each of the people chosen for the energy council brings a specialty to the group, Bartos said.

"They bring credentials and more to the table," Bartos said. "They bring the commitment and also bring the credibility to the program, and those are two pieces that are very important."

The council will most likely meet once a quarter, Bartos said.

One of those chosen for the council is Dr. Richard Caruso, whose financial backing was primarily responsible for establishing the Coal Township-SEEDCO Industrial Park off Route 61 in Coal Township that houses the Reinhart FoodService distribution center.

Caruso was compared by Bartos to John P. Morgan, a turn-of-the-century American financier and banker who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation, and injected private money into the coal industry when it needed it most.

Caruso founded Integra LifeSciences Corp. in 1989, and currently serves as its chairman. The company created what's now known as regenerative medicine, where the body can be enabled to re-create its own parts.

Caruso, who attended Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, which became his link to the coal region decades later with the SEEDCO project, also founded The Provco Group, which organizes and provides funding for a variety of entrepreneurs and complex business activities.