For as sincerely as the University of South Carolina intends to become a leader in hydrogen fuel-cell research and production, its inability to complete work on manufacturing space in Innovista on schedule has led the state’s first hydrogen fuel-cell manufacturer to locate at Midlands Technical College’s Enterprise Campus in Northeast Columbia.

Addressing a group of business, civic and education leaders on the morning of Dec. 2, Trulite Inc. chief operating officer Ken Pearson said his company was ready to locate in USC’s research campus but Innovista wasn’t ready for Trulite.

“I came down here in March or April to look at sites,” Pearson said. “At that point Chad Hardaway of USC was showing me some of the facilities that were available around Columbia. The Innovista site was attractive but it was behind schedule, so we kept looking.

“We wanted to be close to the university because of the fuel-cell and hydrogen programs there, but the facility just wasn’t ready and so we came out here to Midlands Tech to meet with the leadership here. They started talking about their vision here for their business accelerator and it just made a lot of sense and got us excited. It takes vision and commitment to make things like this happen, and we’re happy to be out here.”

Trulite Inc., a hydrogen fuel-cell manufacturer, is the first company to locate at Midlands Technical College’s new business incubator, located on the college’s Enterprise Campus in northeast Columbia. Photo by Matt Alsup

On Powell Road, Midlands Tech’s 150-acre Enterprise Campus is part learning institution, part regional economic development tool. It is designed to attract companies whose needs fit the college’s programs so that graduates can step from the classroom right into the workplace.

Trulite’s first two hires, for instance — officials expect to hire two more in the next 60 days and 12 more in the next 90 days — are Midlands Tech products.

Benefits of the Enterprise Campus to potential businesses are multiple: proximity to transportation infrastructure and research institutions; use of Midlands Tech’s technology resources; and access to students training specifically for jobs companies need to fill.

“That’s what’s so great about this campus,” said Sonny White, president of Midlands Technical College. “It used to be that we were very reactive. A company would come in, tell us what their training needs are and we’d work with them to develop courses and programs.

“But this campus is proactive in the sense that we’re looking into the future at what the technologies will be and positioning ourselves to be prepared for that demand for innovation when it comes. We can’t depend on drums of oil forever, especially when they come from people who don’t like us very much.”

For Pearson, aggressively moving to become a player in emerging energy markets is what is so promising about locating at the Enterprise Campus.

“Trulite is committed to a vision also,” he said. “We’re committed to a vision of putting hydrogen and fuel-cell technology into everyone’s hands with usable products in areas like recreation and construction and emergency backup and we want to take that vision and make it a reality.”

For White, landing Trulite in one of Enterprise’s four 4,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art manufacturing bays is vindication that tapping regional resources works.

“It’s all about the ability to have entrepreneurship that comes out of the University of South Carolina, Clemson and [the Medical University of South Carolina] and take that entrepreneurship, that invention, and find a way to incubate it through companies and then make sure that when you commercialize it, you keep it home,” White said.

“Through the tremendous draw that we have there at USC and the vision there, it’s amazing what impact that has on other businesses. By having this kind of facility here for businesses to come either from [USC’s] incubator or parachute in here from other parts of the world to accelerate their business and then locate here in the region, it helps us all.

“As you travel around the country, you don’t see the kind of connection between the University of South Carolina and the incubator there with a two-year technical college as a vision to put it all together. At the end of the day, it’s all about creating jobs.”