Vicky Janowski

When Hurricane Fran hit the Wilmington area in 1996, Paul Dent lost power at his home. The event started the path to eventually work with Stephen Burnett and others at Koolbridge Energy on an energy management system for homes to better switch between power sources on both good and bad weather days. “The Smart Load Center (SLC) is a very intelligent residential energy management system,” Burnett, chairman of locally based Koolbridge Energy, said about the company’s product.

Who would you invest $1 million in? That’s one of the pieces of advice we give our Coastal Entrepreneur Award judges each year when they’re faced with the task of making their picks. Who shows high-growth potential? Who is making a name for themselves and cutting through the noise? Who, out of these stacks and stacks of nominations, do you see as entrepreneurial? Our panel of outside judges deliberated and picked the 11 category winners in this year’s CEA process.

As part of Cape Fear Museum of History & Science’s move to Project Grace, workers recently installed the seats and equipment for a new digital dome theater. Wilmington-based nCino pledged $160,000 over 10 years for the theater, one portion of the $77 million, 95,000-square-foot new museum, which is slated to open this summer. Similar to a planetarium, the 60- seat theater’s content will expand beyond celestial objects to also project shows on history and science, museum officials said.