November 23rd, 2009

Cleantech Open: And the award goes to ... EcoFactor

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 3:27 pm

Categories: conservation, energy, environmental health, green tech, venture capital

Tags: Clean Technology, EcoFactor, Adura, Heather Clancy

The business plan for a home energy management system from EcoFactor won the $250,000 grand prize at last weeks Cleantech Open, a business competition supporting start-up activity in clean technology.

Having interviewed several companies in this sector over the past few months, I can say with authority that the home technologies attached to the smart grid are what fascinate me most right now. As I glance over at my own woefully out-of-date thermostat — one that I doubt I will convince my husband we must replace anytime soon — I find myself wondering how we’re going to get that final piece of the puzzle to fall into place. This Green Inc. blog by The New York Times outlines where the Ecofactor technology fits and why its subscription pricing model might be the kick-in-the-butt that consumers need to adopt this stuff. AND my fellow blogger Harry Fuller has also blogged about the technology, as he just reminded me. Here’s his post from early November.

EcoFactor gets $250,000, including $100,000 in seed capital. (It already won $100,000 in the regional competition.)

Cleantech also organized a Global Ideas Competition, encouraging communities to submit information about project they’re working on at a grassroots level. The prize coffer was $100,000 in marketing services, legal advice and so on. The winner (selected by text message by the Cleantech Open Expo audience was Replenish Energy out of Puerto Rico, which is working on process to convert microalgae from saltwater ponds into biofuel. (The leftover stuff can be used in humus or feedstock.)

Here’s the video that helped win Replenish Energy the Global Ideas Competition.

Interestingly enough, a former Cleantech “alumni” company, Adura Technologies, won an award for the best progress made over the past year. Adura is featured in this video over at our Smart Planet sister blog network.

November 19th, 2009

Alcohol and fuel cells in our future?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 11:21 am

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, fossil fuel, green tech, renewable energy, research, venture capital

Tags: Fuel Cell, Neah Power, Navy, D'Couto, Methaol, Fuel Cells, Emerging Technologies, Harry Fuller

Neah Power, a Seattle-based company, is finding widespread interest in its portable fuel cells. Some of the company’s past research and development was paid for by the Pentagon. The Navy has been especially eager to see Neah’s technology developed. The Neah fuel cells can operate in anaerobic conditions. No air. Can’t do that with gasoline, diesel or even traditional fuel cells.

Other early money for Neah came from Novellus and Intel. The power for portable gear is very attractive to corporations making all manner of remote or portable equipment.

I recently spoke with Neah’s CEO, Chris D’Couto, who’s got a PhD in chemical engineering and an MBA. Right combo, because Neah has a number of chemical processes they intend to patent. And they’re building and selling fuel cells that use methanol for fuel. No Kevlar-reinforced cylinders full of liquid hydrogen. Just simple plastic cartridges with methanol inside. For portable uses, no expensive and heavy lithium-ion batteries with their concomitant ability of exploding on a ship or plane. Just plastic cylinders of methanol. Neah’s goal: better power through chemistry.

D’Couto sees Neah’s tech becoming common across many parts of the economy. The military needs to get those heavy batteries out of the foot soldier’s backpack, and out of ships at sea or airplanes overhead. Neah fuel cells can help run digital technology in remote areas where there’s no electrical grid. Campers, hikers, boaters will use it for many purposes. Already Neah and Hobie are teamed making electrically-powered kayaks. The parts needed for Neah fuel cell on board a kayak.
The Torqueedo. Images courtesy Neah and Hobie.

D’Couto sees easy acceptance of the Neah fuel cells. Methanol is already widely produced and available in the U.S. It is much easier to handle and safer than liquified hydrogen. The chemistry: methanol is CH3OH. When it burns in the fuel cell it produces water, carbon dioxide and a spare electron. That’s the electricity. Neah has developed super-efficient fuel cells, says D’Couto. Neah claims efficiency as much as 2.5 times as great as the traditional fuel cells using pure hydrogen and requiring an constant air supply.

The Neah fuel cells use only miniscule amounts of gold or platinum, the necessary catalysts for breaking down the methane and freeing the hydrogen which gets burned in the fuel cell. D’Couto says they can get down to sub-micron thickness of gold and platinum in their fuel cell design. Important because those metals are expensive. That’s why they are classed as “precious.”

And there’ll be no need for building large, new infrastructure to build the cartridges or other components. Neah will hire existing computer chip fabrication plants to create the necessary catalyst parts for its fuel cells. No capital expenditure, no ramp up.

November 9th, 2009

Attention renewable energy developers: Grant fund seeks applications

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 8:59 am

Categories: green tech, ocean, renewable energy, venture capital, water

Tags: Developer, Alternative Energy, Car, Renewable Energy, R&D, Research & Development, Supply Chain, Telecom & Utilities, Business Operations, Heather Clancy

If you have an alternative energy technology idea that involves the ocean or another maritime scheme, you might be able to squeeze some research and development money out of The Orcelle Fund.

The fund is a project supported since 2007 by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, which is a global logistics and transportation company. It is REALLY big in ocean transport, shipping more than 2 million cars around to various ports of call each year. The fund is named for the E/S Orcelle, which is the company’s prototype for a hypothetical zero emissions car carrier, powered solely by renewable energy sources.

The deadline for the next round of grants is Dec. 15, 2009.

October 28th, 2009

Bright ideas for smart grid?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 3:34 pm

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, green tech, research, venture capital

Tags: Nominee, Grid, Harry Fuller

There’s a contest going on for the best, new idea to make tomorrow’s smart grid ever more clever. The contest is open until November 4 and it’s being sponsored by VentureBeat. They’re accepting nominations for the “First Innovation Competition” at GreenBeat 2009.
Innovation Competition entries must be submitted online by November 4. Nominees, which will be selected according to how much they are likely to drive the way to an efficient, carbon-reduced super grid, will be announced as winners at the GreenBeat 2009 conference in San Mateo, California, November 18-19.

Nominees will pitch in front of a world class group of industry influencers. Also attending GreenBeat 2009 are luminaries such as Nobel Prize winner and former Vice President Al Gore, as well as Venture Capitalist John Doerr and leading executives from companies such as PG and E, Oracle, IBM, Cisco and General Electric.

The Innovation Competition is looking for companies and ideas that will help the smart grid to achieve its primary goals, such as decarbonizing the grid, transmitting data alongside power, and driving increased efficiency and conservation of power.

Here’s the contest entry form.

October 26th, 2009

There's still VC juice out there for greentech firms

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 4:36 pm

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, building, cars & traffic, energy, engineering, green tech, housing, renewable energy, solar, venture capital

Tags: Solar Energy, Infinia Website, Telecom & Utilities, Harry Fuller

A Washington State solar power company just got over three million dollars in additional funding. Earlier Infinia had investments from both Vinod Khosla and Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. That’s another little tech company based in Washington State.

Infinia uses parabolic dishes to focus solar energy on a Stirling engine. That in turn takes the heat and turns it into electricity. Here’s the wikipedia piece on how Stirling engines take heat, convert it to mechanical energy, and then we all know how turning wheels or shifting pistons become electricity. Seems so obvious. Eliminates the need to cover huge areas with fixed solar panels. The Infinia website has videos on their system. They even propose their system be used for autos.

Here are some of Infinia’s tech specs. They use helium as the working fluid. Insert gas. They claim very few moving parts and minimal maintenance.

October 19th, 2009

Could you green the world brick by brick?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 3:43 pm

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, building, conservation, energy, environmental health, fossil fuel, green tech, housing, recycling, research, venture capital

Tags: Brick, CalStar Products, Construction, Harry Fuller

One California-based company is going to try. And they’re going to make those “green” bricks in Wisconsin, not ship them in from China.
The new-fangled brick has been pioneered by CalStar Products. A basic ingredient of the CalStar brick is coal ash, residue from burning coal. There are huge mounds, huge ponds, huge heaps of it all over coal-burning states in the U.S.
I recently spoke with CalStar’s CEO, Michael Kane, a veteran of decades in the building supply industry. As I’ve heard from innovators in wallboard and windows and other materials: the new, green product has to look and act and handle just like the energy-sucker it replaces.
Photo courtesy CalStar.

Mr. Kane tells me they’ve got the process locked down now at CalStar and much of the research work involved chemistry. What it doesn’t involve is a huge waste of energy. Kane explained current bricks are made with a three thousand year old technology that means firing each brick for a day or longer at around 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s how the energy gets sucked up. CalStar’s building materials are produced with a chemical process that takes place at temperatures below that of boiling water (that would be about 212 degrees at sea level). Kane is very proud of the fact that his will be the first standard-strength, meet-all-requirements, building brick in America to NOT go through a super-hot kiln. His energy costs will be a fraction of what competitors must pay.
BUILDING THE BUSINESS
CalStar has numerous distributors lined up. In January they expect to begin moving bricks out of their production plant in Caledonia, near Racine, Wisconsin. The early rounds of financing came from Foundation Capital and other VCs. Kane’s hopeful the new push from Washington for less greenhouse gas emission will help his firm. It could lead to much higher production costs for traditional brick makers and their super-hot drying kilns.
(Courtesy CalStar) HOw do CalSTar bricks stack up against the competition? Kane says each of his bricks has a carbon footprint of 0.2 pounds while a standard kiln-fired brick produces 1.3 pounds.
He points out that production of builidng materials like bricks, cement, nails, paint, roofing, windows and lumber account for over 10% of America’s total carbon footprint, far more than all our highway vehicles combined. So drastically reducing that carbon footprint for a major construction component is significant.
COAL ASH?
I had to ask, coal ash? Bad stuff, isn’t it? Dumped into rivers, leaching into the soil, not good. Kane says his firm has done considerable work on the handling of coal ash. Their final products, he says, are inert with no leaching of any chemicals from the coal ash that is locked into the products chemically and permanently. CalStar, Kane says, is the answer to the coal industry coal ash pollution problems.
The CalStar facory in Wisconsin will get its coal ash from the nearby low-sulphur coal-burner at operated Oak Creek. That’s operated by Wisconsin Energy.
Kane says his bricks are up to 40% recycled coal ash. Many bricks use only fresh raw materials, the average recycled content is below 10% in the American brick biz. And the result of all this innovation? Well, the mainstream bricks boys do not like CalStar and want to prevent from the use of the very word “brick.” Maybe something like Recycled Coal Fly Ash Unkilned Contruction Module? RCFAUCM? Sorry, bricksters, after 3000 years, it’s probably time for a little change. But if it looks like a brick, and acts like a brick…?
Here is the reply from BIA, Brick Industry Association. CalStar is practicing piracy and I am follisht o think these coal ash products will hold up, unti lthere’s significant field testing.

October 13th, 2009

Investors won't venture to gamble

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 5:15 pm

Categories: Blogroll, federal government, green tech, venture capital

Tags: Investor, Venture Capital, Investment, Financial Accounting, Finance, Financing Startups, Harry Fuller

The quarter recently ended was not a happy one for venture capital firms. Investments were down by 80% in Q3, compared to a year earlier. Apparently the lowest level since the nasty days of 2003 when the tech bubbled had burst in investors’ faces. Investment was so weak, VCs raised less money in Q3 than they had in a miserable Q2 of this year.

“Forbes” sums it up tersely, “Venture Stall.” They foresee unhappy times for “the Sand Hill Road crowd.” “Forbes” points out the number of deals done in Q3 was lowest number in fifteen years. For you kids that was BEFORE the Internet had become a commercial venture.

This is happening simultaneously with a run-up on Wall Street and amidst reports that one major private equity firm is about to collect cash through a series of IPOs.

This capital drought will make green tech start-ups even hungrier for money via a climate change bill, or push green tech innovation offshore to cash-rich places like China.

October 4th, 2009

Why on ZDnet?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 1:31 pm

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, building, cars & traffic, climate change, energy, engineering, environmental health, federal government, green tech, law & politics, petroleum, renewable energy, research, venture capital

Tags: Global Warming, Blogging, Strategy, Internet, Management, Harry Fuller

I think most of the folks who read this section of ZDnet understand how digital tech and the future of energy, mineral and water and air resource use are so closely interconnected. But occasionally somebody who really doesn’t want global warming written about, or hates the very idea that gasoline in America might cost as much as it does in Europe, will gripe about the topic of this blog. So I answered one frequent critic with a fairly calm repsonse to his request that I vanish into the blogosphere, never to write again. To wit, I wrote:
[I'm here] “Because any future energy system , even if coal-powered, will make great use of IT, software and digital technologies. As will any affort to convert energy systems to solar, wind, tidal, etc. Even the digital and nano-tech being used in cars now and in future will come from firms employing materials and IT professionals. Sorry, but it is way too simplistic to think that only 1985’s definition of technology can be applied to the world of 2009. The Internet and digital technology have penetrated nearly all sophisticaed industries. I believe most pigs and chickens still live without microchips, but even that may end soon.
“And do you really think there is any business manager today who does not consider energy costs, pollution taxes, regulatory moves and water use in planning for future capital or operational changes? Most managers now understand that everything is connected, electricity and paper and hard drives and styrofoam packing material do not drop perfectly from the sky. If all this is too complicated for you, or upsets your simplistic world view, or jostles your unitary political prejudices, go read the comics.”
I should add that IT and engineering will be crucial in future decades even if global warming is proven to be the latest flat earth theory, even if all that happens is that China re-orders the world enerrgy markets, even if electrical grids are only made less dumb, not truly smart. And almost none of the major tech companies from Google to IBM to Cisco will be outside the economic sector that deals with energy, water, air, pollution and other resource use and abuse.

October 1st, 2009

What powers the richest Americans?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 8:14 am

Categories: Blogroll, biofuel, fossil fuel, green tech, law & politics, petroleum, renewable energy, venture capital

Tags: Billionaire, Fossil Fuel, Harry Fuller

Right now there are no greentech billionaires on Forbes’ list of the 400 richest Americans. That could change. But there are over two dozen billionaires who depend directly on the fossil fuel industry for their wealth. That is just one reason it’ll be very hard to reform America’s energy industry.
One man who made billions in traditional BEFORE he converted to greentech disciple and VC, Vinod Khosla, is #347 on the list. Just ahead of Khosla is oilman turned windman, T. Boone Pickens. He’s #341 on the list.
For tech watchers it may be interesting to note that Bill Gates reigns as #1 richest American, putting the software genius monopolist ahead of his pal, Warren Buffett, the investment genius.

September 30th, 2009

Cleantech draws more investments in Q3

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 5:39 pm

Categories: Blogroll, China, Europe, India, biofuel, cars & traffic, energy, engineering, federal government, green tech, law & politics, mass transit, renewable energy, solar, venture capital

Tags: Clean Technology, Cleantech Group, Investment, Finance, Harry Fuller

Investment globally were again for the cleantech sector, markking further rebound from the beginning of this year which began glumly. Cleantech Group says total Q3 investments were nearly $1.6 billion. Overall investments in cleantech were up 10% from Q2 but still lagging compared to Q3 in 2008, just before the big drop-off in Q4, 2008.
The leading sector: solar with a total prize of $451 million. That sector was led by money pouring into California-based thin film company Solyndra. It raised $198 million.
Ranking second in Q3 capital capture: Transportation (including Vehicles, Advanced Batteries, Biofuels) with $383 million. Electric carmaker Tesla, based also in California, was the sector leader with over $80 million raised. That does not include any of the money it got from government programs.
Cleantech focuses solely on private financing and investment, not government funding.
CLEANTECH GEOGRAPHY
The U.S. continues to dominate private investment in cleantech. Of course that mlo ey can quickly be dwarfed when a government like China or the U.S. starts throwing money arround. North America had two-thirds of the global cleantech investments, whle California had 60% of the U.S. total or 30% of ALL investments globally. Could it be that California’s greentech sector is on a role?
Europe and Israel got 29% of the total capital and China only 3%. Again, this does NOT count any of the money put into firms by the Chinese government which Has the most capital rich “fund” on earth right now. And they don’t have to support a military fighting two wars and manning bases in dozens of countries.

CLEANTECH IPOs
In the leading cleantech IPO of the quarter, and one of the most significant cleantech exits to date, A123Systems made its long awaited debut on the NASDAQ Global Market, in which the company raised $380 million at a company valuation of $1.3 billion (which rose to $1.9 billion by the close of day one trading). Other clean technology IPOs recorded in 3Q09 were wind farm developer Indian Energy, which began trading on London’s AIM, raising $16.2 million, and India-based Euro Multivision, which raised $13.5 million on the Bombay Stock Exchange for the company’s photovoltaic solar cell manufacturing unit.
At the end of trading in September, A123 (aone) was trading over $21 per shrae, having launched its IPO at $13.50. Clearly there is appetitie in the public market for greentech firms.