Posts Tagged ‘Calif.’
Monday, September 28th, 2009
‘A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster’ by Rebecca Solnit
The bad news is that more disasters are coming, arising from any number of sources: climate change, widespread infrastructural vulnerabilities, toxic threats brewed at cellular or weapons-grade levels, seismic or oceanic volatility, and so on and so on. Whatever their cause, disasters will be born of some mixture of human and natural action or inaction, lives will be irrevocably altered, and absurd numbers of people will die.
Yet Rebecca Solnit sees human possibilities inherent in the certainty of big trouble. In “A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster,” this writer of impressive versatility explores disasters and the goodness that can come to characterize them. A careful student of the sociology of catastrophe, Solnit argues that the human experience of disaster so alters convention that a different social milieu can emerge, if briefly, within them; one distinguished by altruism and the absence of social hierarchies. In contrast to the presuppositions of the powerful (and Hollywood), steadfast about the inevitability of anarchic mayhem and riot, Solnit makes a convincing case for the sheer dignity and decency of people coming together amid terror.
Study may shift where foods grow
WASHINGTON — New York may be the nation’s second leading producer of apples, and Maine is near the top in potatoes — but the vast majority of the fruit and vegetables eaten in the Northeast come from other parts of the country.
A federal study aims to change that, by figuring out what could be grown more in the Northeast to satisfy big-city markets.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said this week it is pouring an additional 0,000 into the food security effort, which will examine soil types, climate and economic issues that could shed light on the region’s potential to produce more of its own food. Doing so could dull the effect of high fuel prices and other transportation-related woes than can drive prices up in grocery stores.
New Presentations from Matt Simmons
• What Lies Beyond The Fossil Fuel Horizon?
• Investing In Energy: A Nightmare Or An Enlightened Dream
• How Did Our Energy Hole Get So Deep?
Pemex’s Export Revenues Down 55.5 Percent
MEXICO CITY – Mexican state oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos said the value of its crude exports during the first eight months of the year totaled .4 billion, 55.5 percent less than in the same period of 2008.
UK acts to back Cadogan Petroleum
THE British government has intervened on behalf of Cadogan Petroleum, the quoted oil explorer embroiled in a dispute with Ukraine that has pushed it to the brink of liquidation.
Climate change bill may drift
WASHINGTON — Although President Barack Obama confidently assured world leaders last week that the U.S. was determined to combat global climate change, that resolve isn’t shared in the U.S. Senate.
The chamber has instead been consumed by other domestic priorities — including the administration-backed push to overhaul health care — and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is months behind her original timetable for introducing legislation that would cap greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.
With all of the obstacles, it is increasingly likely the Obama administration will not have a new climate change law — or even a preliminary version passed by the Senate — to bring to international negotiations on a global warming pact this December in Copenhagen.
Heavier Rainstorms Ahead Due To Global Climate Change, Study Predicts
ScienceDaily — Heavier rainstorms lie in our future. That’s the clear conclusion of a new MIT and Caltech study on the impact that global climate change will have on precipitation patterns.
Dust storms spread deadly diseases worldwide
Huge dust storms, like the ones that blanketed Sydney twice last week, hit Queensland yesterday and turned the air red across much of eastern Australia, are spreading lethal epidemics around the world. However, they can also absorb climate change emissions, say researchers studying the little understood but growing phenomenon.
Small island states warn ecosystems already threatened by climate change effects, urge drastic reduction in greenhouse gases
Still reeling in the aftermath of a global economic crisis begun far beyond their shores, leaders of small island nations, among others addressing the General Assembly today, exhorted large economies to drastically reduce greenhouse gases that were threatening their ecosystems and sending shock waves through the very markets and industries on which their fragile economies depended.
Paul Roberts – The Future of Food in a Peak Oil
Roberts pointed out that in 1900, the average household spent half its daily income and half its hours providing food. Today, we spend much less time and much less money as a percent of our income, thanks to the industrialized food system. “I don’t think too many people want to go back to 1900, spending that much time making food,” he said later in response to a question about how disconnected we’ve become from our food sources.
“But,” he continued, “we have recognized that there are also costs. At the end of the day, food is not an industrial product. Food is not iPods or SUVs and there are troubling questions when industrialization is applied to food.” In a system where the inspection person on the chicken processing line has only three seconds to look for defects, he elaborated, it was only a matter of time before something like the 2007 recall of 22 million pounds of potentially E. coli-tainted hamburgers, which sickened dozens and ultimately put the meat company out of business.
Iran Plans 1 Billion-Euro Bond Sale to Fund Gas Field
(Bloomberg) — Iran plans to sell 1 billion euros (.47 billion) of bonds by December to fund the development of the South Pars natural-gas field, the Oil Ministry’s Shana news agency reported today.
Saudi not in favour of high prices
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, wants to keep crude prices from rising to the record of 7.27 a barrel seen last year, said the kingdom’s oil minister.
Saudi jobless rate to ease by 2014
Saudi Arabia’s festering unemployment problem could ease at the end of the forthcoming five-year development plan as the world’s oil powerhouse is intensifying efforts to find jobs for citizens, a local report said yesterday.
Unemployment in the kingdom, which sits atop a quarter of the world’s recoverable oil deposits, stood at nearly 10.5 per cent at the end of 2008 and it is expected to shrink to 7.1 per cent at the end of 2014, said the report by the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
U.S. to Demand Inspection of New Iran Plant ‘Within Weeks’
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to tell Iran this week that it must open a newly revealed nuclear enrichment site to international inspectors “within weeks,” according to senior administration officials. The administration will also tell Tehran that inspectors must have full access to the key personnel who put together the clandestine plant and to the documents surrounding its construction, the officials said Saturday.
Smuggling Europe’s Waste to Poorer Countries
Exporting waste illegally to poor countries has become a vast and growing international business, as companies try to minimize the costs of new environmental laws, like those here, that tax waste or require that it be recycled or otherwise disposed of in an environmentally responsible way.
Rotterdam, the busiest port in Europe, has unwittingly become Europe’s main external garbage chute, a gateway for trash bound for places like China, Indonesia, India and Africa. There, electronic waste and construction debris containing toxic chemicals are often dismantled by children at great cost to their health. Other garbage that is supposed to be recycled according to European law may be simply burned or left to rot, polluting air and water and releasing the heat-trapping gases linked to global warming.
U.S. Panel Shifts Focus to Reusing Nuclear Fuel
OXON HILL, Md. — With a federal plan to handle nuclear waste in deadlocked disarray, an advisory panel that has spent 20 years studying a proposed repository at Yucca Mountain turned Wednesday to discussing ways of reusing the fuel instead.
But the meeting of the panel, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, made evident that such reuse was uncertain, along with the future of Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, about 100 miles from Las Vegas.
Solar Module Prices Halt Slide on German Demand, Barclays Says
(Bloomberg) — Solar module prices, which have dropped by more than half in the past year, have stopped declining as a seasonal demand increase in Germany reduces inventories, according to Barclays Capital.
Schwarzenegger to Children: Hurry Up in There!
LOS ANGELES — In a new twist on an old saw trotted out by generations of parents who think their children have it easier, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken to monitoring his children’s water use by timing how long they spend in the shower. If they are in there too long, he said, he turns off the hot water midstream, inciting screams.
The Future of Cars Was Hydrogen, Once
The enthusiasm for electric vehicles keeps growing, but only few years ago the auto industry was betting on hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars.
Tiny Cars Feel Smart
The Slaughters, both 86, are among several owners of ultra-compact Smart fortwo cars at Lake Ashton, a gated retirement community in Lake Wales.
It might seem odd to find so many of the cars, which project an air of European futurism, in a place where Cadillacs are common and the entertainment leans toward Joe Piscopo.
Then again, when you don’t have kids you don’t need a back seat.
Australia: Cutting the train line won’t ‘fix our city’
The report’s supporters obscure its true nature by focusing on the urgent need to reverse urban decay. But the reality is that the main goal of the “fix our city” campaign is to cut the rail line.
The rail line sits on prime land. Developing this land (especially the last 500 metres of it) has been the goal of a 25-year push by developers to get rid of the line.
E.P.A. Ordered to Reconsider New Mexico Power Plant Permit
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A federal appeals board has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider an air permit issued for a planned coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Nation.
The decision, in part, grants a request by regional agency officials who wanted to take another look at parts of the permit for the billion Desert Rock Energy Project, which is planned for tribal land in northwestern New Mexico.
There’s nothing ‘clean’ about it
Have you ever had that nightmare where you’re being chased by a monster and yet your legs feel like lead and you can’t get away?
That’s how I feel every time Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty start babbling about the joys of dragging us into a global cap-and-trade market, supposedly to lower man-made carbon dioxide emissions.
Fossil fuels are running out anyway; so why fight about climate-change?
Since fossil fuels are, in fact, running out, it seems senseless to keep arguing about climate change. The point is, whether or not you care to believe the evidence under our noses, what we need to be concentrating on is finding new, clean, renewable, eco-friendly energy sources.
Population: Overconsumption is the real problem
THERE is a pervading myth that efforts to fight climate change and other environmental perils will be to no avail unless we “do something” about population growth. Even seasoned analysts talk about the threat of “exponential” population growth. But there is no exponential growth. In most of the world fertility rates are falling fast, and the countries where population growth continues are those that contribute least to our planetary predicament.
Tags: Africa, Bond Sale, Calif., cause disasters, China, Copenhagen, eastern Australia, Europe, Food, General Assembly, Germany, impressive versatility, India, Indonesia, Iran, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Md., Nevada, Oil, Paul Roberts, Riyadh Chamber, Rotterdam, Saudi Arabia, sen barbara boxer, Shana, social hierarchies, South Pars, Sydney, Tehran, U.S., Washington, waste, Yucca Mountain
Posted in Energy Efficiencies | No Comments »
Monday, September 28th, 2009
In the rush to grow energy crops for producing alternative fuels, jatropha has often been heralded as the most promising because it can be grown on marginal land. But so far jatropha hasn’t lived up to the hype — requiring too much water and producing too little yield — prompting some early investors, like oil giant BP, to give up on the crop. But a young Encinitas, Calif.-based startup, SG Biofuels, says the problem with these early efforts was that they put the cart before the horse.
The firm has spent the last three and a half years amassing what it says is the largest and most diverse library of jatropha genetic material in the world. The team scoured India, Southeast Asia, and most importantly Central America, the native home of the shrub, to build the firm’s library. “This is the foundation for any effective crop improvement program, and we were shocked that no one had done that,” SG Biofuels CEO Kirk Haney told us. “That is step one, but many jumped to step five by putting [jatropha] in the ground and crossing their fingers.”
SG Biofuels scientists are applying breeding techniques and genetic engineering to this pool of jatropha material to produce superior strains that could be harvested for oil. That oil could then be processed into a variety of bio-based products, including biodiesel and feedstock substitutes for the petrochemical and jet fuel industries.
Besides the library, Haney said the firm’s other advantage over competing biofuel companies is that it’s focused on doing a few things well and not spreading itself out too far along the value chain. Despite its name, SG Biofuels has no intention in the near term to extract oil or process it into products itself; that would be done by growers and energy outfits. Instead, the startup aims to develop superior strains and then provide services to plantations for growing their seeds.
SG Biofuels has already had some success. It’s identified strains that can grow in higher elevations and colder climates than initially thought possible. The company says its jatropha crop could already produce oil at .50 per gallon (before refining), if at commercial scale, and Haney predicts that the cost will drop to less than per gallon within the next two years with the release its first commercial product. At that price, SG Biofuels’ jatropha would yield oil that is cost-competitive with petroleum while still offering growers a healthy margin, Haney says.
But biodiesel, while only part of the startup’s target market, has been more bust than boom as of late, regardless of the feedstock. And SG Biofuels isn’t alone in its attempts to genetically improve jatropha. La Jolla, Calif.-based Synthetic Genomics is partnering with Malaysia’s Asiatic Centre for Genome Technology to modify existing varieties of the shrub and increase yield, oil quality and disease tolerance. The partnership announced in May said that it was the first to complete the sequence of the jatropha genome. And BP’s former partner, London-based D1 Oils, is still in the business of improving and growing jatropha.
SG Biofuels has so far been financed by founders and friends, raising funds “in the millions” of dollars but less than million, Haney says. The company hopes to raise its first institutional round in the first quarter of next year.
Tags: America, Biofuels, Calif., CEO Kirk Haney, energy crops, fuel industries, India, jatropha, London, Malaysia, Oil, oil giant bp, Southeast Asia
Posted in Energy Efficiencies | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ — Leading online solar provider Sungevity announced today that it has raised an additional million led by Greener Capital, a new venture capital firm.
Charles Finnie, managing partner in Greener Capital, said. “This is the best business model we have seen in the residential solar space. Sungevity’s unique web-based direct selling model has enabled the potential for rapid deployment, great customer service and scalability at the lowest installed cost in the industry. We are excited to invest in Sungevity, as solar power becomes competitive with grid electricity across the US.”
Finnie will join the Sungevity Board. The company has also added three key members to its executive team, doubled its salesforce, and plans to enter three new geographies by the end of the year.
“We’re very pleased to welcome such a remarkable group to Sungevity,” said Danny Kennedy, president and cofounder of the company. “We believe that the support from Greener Capital and our growing world class team will be a tremendous boost to our mission of giving more customers greater access to solar electricity. We’re making going solar easy, an excellent investment and a smart way for you to reduce carbon pollution.”
Joining Sungevity are:
- Charles Ferer, CFO. Most recently Ferer served as CFO for SolarCity, the US’s largest solar installer, where he helped raise over M in tax equity and launch a successful solar leasing program. He has more than 20 years of experience for companies including Gap and PepsiCo. Ferer has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Puget Sound, and an MBA in Finance from Indiana University.
- Daphne Li, COO. Li has held key leadership positions in marketing, product management, strategy and M&A at ADP and Apple. As Chief Strategy Officer and VP, Marketing for DoveBid, she helped start up business online auctions and grew revenue from M to 0M. She currently sits on KQED’s board. Li has a B.A. in Economics and an MBA, both from Stanford.
- Ariel Tseitlin, VP, Technology and Product Development. Tseitlin was most recently the Founder & CEO of CTOWorks, a software consultancy advising early-stage start-ups on their technology strategy. Prior to CTOWorks, Tseitlin was the VP of Engineering at Playboox, a SaaS CRM start-up. Tseitlin has also held senior management positions at Oracle and Siebel Systems. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and an MBA with Honors from Wharton.
“With our easy online service, we have the lowest-cost way of getting solar power into American homes,” said Andrew Birch, CEO and cofounder of Sungevity. “Now we have the team and resources to make sunshine online available to millions of home-owners.”
Sungevity launched to the public in April of 2008 and has quickly become a leading provider of residential solar in California with its unique online solar sales offering. It is the only company to provide firm online quotes and make sales a site visit. Sungevity’s solar sales process reduces costs by around 10% by removing the need for technicians to visit a home, enabling consumers to go solar more efficiently than ever before. Sungevity has provided thousands of solar quotes to homeowners across the state, offering a more affordable way for consumers to reduce their carbon emissions with a positive long-term investment.
Get a quote by going online to www.Sungevity.com or by calling 877.257.8648.
Tags: Andrew Birch, B.A, Berkeley, Calif., California, capital, carbon pollution, CFO. Most, Charles Ferer, Charles Finnie, Chief Strategy, chief strategy officer, Danny Kennedy, Daphne Li, Li, M. She, MBA, online, Sungevity, university of puget sound, US
Posted in Solar News | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
BrightSource Energy has
struck a preliminary deal with Coyote Springs Land Co. in Nevada to
expand a previous land lease agreement and increase the size of its
solar thermal power development to 960 megawatts from 600 megawatts.
The latest deal calls for building solar thermal power plants in a
12-square-mile zone within Coyote Spring’s property in Lincoln County.
Back in March this year, Oakland, Calif.-based BrightSource had signed a deal with the same landowner to build 600 megawatts within a 6-square-mile area.
BrightSource declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal.
Land is a hot commodity among solar thermal power developers, who
typically build large projects with hundreds of megawatts in generation
capacity in one location. Properties managed by the federal Bureau of
Land Management in eastern California, Arizona and other southwestern
states have been popular choices.
The rush to develop on BLM land, which typically comes with cheaper
leases than renting or buying private properties, has elicited strong
opposition from environmental and recreational activities groups.
Environmentalists have pushed for the development of power plants on
previously tilled or otherwise used properties instead of pristine
sites.
BrightSource was embroiled in such a dispute when it previously
proposed to build on a site in eastern Mojave Desert that was part of
600,000 acres a nonprofit conservation group bought and donated to the
Interior Department for preservation.
The conservation group, the Wildlands Conservancy, has since turned
to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for help. Feinstein has
indicated she would introduce a legislation to turn the property into a
national monument, a designation that would prevent any renewable
energy development.
BrightSource abandoned its plan in
that eastern Mojave location a few months ago. It has another project
on public land in the Mojave, in Ivanpah, that is still under
development. The plan to is to start building the project, which has a
total generation capacity of 400 megawatts, in early 2010.
The company has been keen on finding project sites on both public
and private properties. It plans to build power plants on Coyote
Springs land and sell the electricity to Coyote Springs as well
utilities/communities in southern Nevada and California.
Source
Tags: Arizona, BrightSource, Calif., California, Coyote
Springs, Coyote Springs, eastern California, eastern Mojave, eastern Mojave Desert, land, Lincoln, Nevada, Oakland, power, renewable energy development, sen dianne feinstein, southern Nevada, U.S.
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Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
Solar power and electric can go together like a horse and carriage. That’s the idea behind SolarCity’s effort to market its solar energy system sales along with electric car charging installations.
The Foster City, Calif.-based company announced Tuesday a
partnership with Rabobank to make electric car charging available for
free to owners of Tesla Motors’ vehicles traveling on Highway 101
between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Other cars that can make use of
same charging technology are welcome.
SolarCity has set up a fast-charging device at four of the bank’s
branches near the freeway as part of a larger charging technology
development project by Tesla, which is headquartered just south of San
Francisco.
The partnership with Rabobank is more than just a marketing strategy
to win over more solar customers. Rive said his company is entering the
business of installing charging stations for plug-in hybrid and
electric cars because it, too, promotes the use of cleaner energy.
"We want to design systems for powering your home and car," said
Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity. "The key thing is we want to eliminate
all the reasons we can’t live a carbon-free lifestyle."
Rive is throwing out some incentives to entice home and business
owners to install solar and charging stations: "If you get a PV system,
then the EV system is free." (This deal won’t likely last once more
electric cars become available.)
SolarCity has been selling and installing solar energy systems since
its founding in 2006. The company is one of few that offer financing
options to both residents and businesses that don’t want to pay the
expensive upfront costs of owning a solar energy system.
Last week, it said it had finalized its purchase of Los Angeles-based SolSource Energy, whose business includes installing electric car charging stations. SolSource has been the North American distributor of Toyota Tsusho electric car chargers. Toyota Tsusho is responsible for the export, sales and marketing of Toyota vehicles and auto parts.
The four charging stations at Rabobank branches are part of a larger project by Tesla Motors to develop and deploy a car charging technology.
The San Carlos, Calif.-based electric automaker received a grant of
1,000 from the California Air Resources Board for the project in
2007, said Tesla spokeswoman Rachel Konrad.
Part of that money went into co-developing the charging device with ClipperCreek
of Auburn, Calif., Konrad said. The result is a fast-charging device
Tesla calls the "High Power Connector" that provides up to 70 amps, 240
volts of electricity, making it possible to fully charge a Tesla
Roadster after 3.5 hours, Konrad added.
Tesla car owners can have an electrician install the High Power Connector, which costs an extra ,000
and comes in a wall-mounted box with a power cord, in their garages.
Tesla also has designed its cars to be able to charge with the standard
110-volt outlet, which could take 37 hours for a full charge.
About ,000 of the 1,000 grant was set aside for setting up the
charging spots, Konrad said. The money went into buying equipment for
the installations, SolarCity said. Incidentally, Rive is a cousin of
Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO.
The solar installer has built the charging stations at Rabobank
locations in Salinas, Atascadero and Santa Maria. The Goleta location
is scheduled to be up and running by Oct. 15, said Jonathan Bass, a
SolarCity spokesman.
SolarCity also has erected a 30-kilowatt solar energy system at the
bank’s Santa Maria branch. Rabobank has signed a power purchase
agreement with SolarCity to pay for the electricity generated from the
30-kilowatt system (SolarCity will own it). The bank is considering
adding solar in its other locations.
The bank offers the sites and will be paying for the electricity
while SolarCity owns and maintains the charging stations. The stations
are located in or near shopping centers, so motorists have something to
do while waiting for their cars to juice up.
The charging is free for now. Given the limited number of Tesla car
owners, the bank isn’t in danger of seeing a huge spike in electricity
bills. The same deal isn’t likely to last after major carmakers begin
to launch plug-in hybrid or all-electric cars starting in 2010.
SolarCity does plan to add charging equipment from those companies,
or install universal chargers when standards are in place, Bass said.
The company has installed a fifth station on land owned by the city of San Luis Obispo, which will operate it, Bass said.
Image via SolarCity.
Source
Tags: Atascadero, Calif., car, Carlos, CEO. The, EV, Foster City, Jonathan Bass, Konrad, Los Angeles, Luis Obispo, Lyndon Rive, North American, north american distributor, Rachel Konrad, San
Francisco, San, San Francisco, Santa Maria, solar energy system, solar energy systems, SolarCity, Tesla
Posted in Solar News | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
Sungevity has raised million in equity and hired new executives to help it expand its business. Greener Capital led the round, said the Berkeley, Calif.-based installer of solar energy systems. Sungevity also hired Charles Ferer as chief financial officer. Ferer
served the same role at SolarCity, one of California’s largest
installer headquartered in Foster City. Daphne Li also is joining Sungevity as its chief operation officer.
Li was the chief strategy officer and vice president of marketing at
DoveBid, which helps companies assess and sell their assets. Li helped
launched an online auction business there and grew the sales from
million to 0 million, according to Sungevity.
The solar installer also has hired Ariel Tseitlin as its vice
president of technology and product development. Tseitlin came from
CTOWorks, a software consulting firm he founded and headed as chief
executive. Aside from selling its installation services to residential customers, Sungevity has devoted resources into developing software and services to generate a list of potential customers for other installers. The company uses satellite images of those likely customers’
rooftops to help layout the design of a solar energy system in order to
provide a cost estimates. This approach saves the time and money
involved in sending staff for a site visit. Most of the site visits
don’t generate contracts because consumers tend to shop around.
Source
Tags: Berkeley, Calif., California, Charles Ferer, chief strategy officer, Daphne Li, Foster City, installer, Li, officer, solar energy system, solar energy systems, Sungevity
Posted in Solar News | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
Solar power and electric can go together like a horse and carriage. That’s the idea behind SolarCity’s effort to market its solar energy system sales along with electric car charging installations.
The Foster City, Calif.-based company announced Tuesday a
partnership with Rabobank to make electric car charging available for
free to owners of Tesla Motors’ vehicles traveling on Highway 101
between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Other cars that…
go to solarfeeds for the rest of this story>>>>>
Tags: Calif., car, Foster City, Los Angeles, motors vehicles, power, San Francisco, Solar, solar energy system, tesla motors
Posted in Solar News | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
Sungevity has raised million in equity and hired new executives to help it expand its business. Greener Capital led the round, said the Berkeley, Calif.-based installer of solar energy systems. Sungevity also hired Charles Ferer as chief financial officer. Ferer
served the same role at SolarCity, one of California’s largest
installer headquartered in Foster City. Daphne Li also is joining Sungevity as its chief operation officer.
Li was the…
go to solarfeeds for the rest of this story>>>>>
Tags: Berkeley, Calif., California, Charles Ferer, chief operation officer, Daphne Li, ferer, Foster City, installer, Li, officer, solar energy systems, Sungevity
Posted in Solar News | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
With so much activity in Washington, D.C., these days — from funding opportunities to policies like cap and trade — that could affect cleantech industries, many startups have sent their executives to the capital or hired lobbyists in the hope of adding their voices to the debate. But cleantech startups need to be careful when it comes to dedicating their limited resources to these efforts. While spending time in D.C. can certainly bring rewards, once there it’s easy to spend tons of cash without much to show for it. Here’s our list of the top 5 things startups should know before hopping on a plane to Washington.
Don’t hire a lobbying firm first. Before ever stepping foot in D.C., identify which issues you think you can add value to, says John Stubbs, executive director of the Global Innovation Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that works to promote innovation for solutions to global problems. Those issues could be cap-and-trade legislation, renewable portfolio standards, tax credits, stimulus, patent reform or others.
Then, if you want to dip your toe in the water, join a group that has a presence in the nation’s capital, like the American Council on Renewable Energy. Through the group, Stubbs says, you can participate in efforts to talk to legislators, their staff members and Obama administration officials. This will help you learn how you can fit in and how you can influence government decisions. Through this learning process, you’ll become more informed about what type of lobbying firm, if any, you might want to hire.
Don’t threaten to go to China. Business executives often think they can scare legislators and their staff into making policy changes by threatening to build their factories or take their businesses to China. Don’t do it, John Gimigliano, a principal at professional services firm KPMG, said during a panel discussion at the recent AlwaysOn GoingGreen conference in Sausalito, Calif. Even if it’s true, the threat has “lost its punch” because so many have used it, Gimigliano said. You have to come up with something else to grab their attention.
Focus on building relationships. What Congress and their staff are really looking for are experts on different topics to whom they can turn to for advice, says Betsy Mullins, senior vice president of government affairs for TechNet, which promotes technology and innovation in Washington, D.C. You’ll stand out if you can prove to policymakers that you’re an expert in your field and you have solutions to current problems. Focus on building relationships and demonstrating that you’re a thought leader in your field. If successful, Congress and their staff will start coming to you. Don’t leave the capital without having asked legislators: “What can I do for you?”
Don’t outsource your public affairs efforts. This relates to building relationships. Some executives think they can hire high-priced lobbyists who will then do their bidding for them, said Gimigliano. If a startup is serious about having an impact in D.C., then C-level executives will have to spend time there. They will have to meet with staffers and build trust. One smart way to do that is to form networks with other organizations around issues that matter, says Global Innovation Forum’s Stubbs. You can then approach legislators together, and you’ll be taken more seriously because it will appear that your issue isn’t just about you, but about an entire industry.
Manage your expectations. Many issues that involve government take a great deal of time to flesh out, says TechNet’s Mullins, for example patent reform has been under way for seven years and still isn’t resolved. You need to think about how you measure success. Certainly if your main goal is to get, say, an extension of a tax credit and it is extended, then that’s a success. But there are other ways to have influence. You could develop a strong relationship with a legislator or you could produce a white paper that gets broad circulation among staffers. Efforts in the capital should be seen as any other investment. They take time, and it’s not enough to just bring a checkbook.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
This article also appeared on BusinessWeek.com.
Tags: Betsy Mullins, Calif., capital, China, D.C., Don, innovation, John Gimigliano, John Stubbs, patent reform, renewable portfolio standards, time, Washington
Posted in Energy Efficiencies | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
Intel Corp., a San Jose, Calif.-based chip company, today announced a range of low-power chips aimed at driving down the power requirements inside data centers. Among them were two new Xeon 3400 chips; a version that consumes only 45 watts will be released this year while the company is going to start selling a 30-watt version in 2010.
“This is a brand-new segment for us,” said Sean Maloney, executive vice president at Intel, which also announced a new Microserver reference design that would allow hardware makers to cram as many as six low-power Xeons into a single 1u rack — which translates into about 228 servers per cabinet. The servers are targeted at providers of web services, Intel said.
Maloney pointed out that in a few years, power is going account for nearly 25 percent of a data center’s costs — a situation Intel, with these new chips, is looking to address. Intel has already started shipping these chips to its OEM partners, such as Silicon Graphics. (More details on Intel’s web site.)
Tags: 1u rack, Calif., company, Intel, power, power chips, San Jose, Sean Maloney, watt version
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Monday, September 21st, 2009
SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Applied Materials, Inc. today extended its leadership in pioneering solar wafering technology with its new Applied HCT Diamond Squarer™ system. This innovative new system can reduce the cost of squaring silicon ingots by up to one-third while offering at least twice the cutting speed of conventional squaring processes. Key to the HCT Diamond Squarer’s high performance is its novel diamond wire technology that eliminates the need for abrasive slurry and cuts electricity consumption in half. The compelling benefits of diamond wire are also available for Applied’s currently-installed HCT Squarer systems as a cost-effective, easily deployable upgrade kit.
In the conventional squaring process, a rapidly moving wire, carrying abrasive slurry, is used to cut monocrystalline or multi-crystalline silicon ingots into standard size bricks which are then sliced into wafers for photovoltaic (PV) applications. The HCT Diamond Squarer system uses diamond particles bonded to a metallic wire core to cut the ingot faster. In addition to increasing machine capacity and lowering energy consumption, this technology simplifies the squaring process by eliminating the complexity and expense of slurry management.
The performance of the new HCT diamond wire process has been validated by multiple customers. Maxim Vediankin, general director at high-quality wafer producer Silicio Solar, commented, “We are very impressed with HCT’s Diamond Squarer technology since it doubled our solar ingot squaring capacity. We’ve also seen a 50% reduction in energy use – which is vital to our roadmap for reducing the carbon footprint of our wafering operations.”
“We are continuously working on advanced technologies such as diamond wire to drive down the cost-per-watt of solar electricity,” said Jean-Maurice Imbert, general manager of Applied Materials’ Precision Wafering Systems division. “Integration of the squarer and the diamond wire is critical, requiring an in-depth understanding of the interaction between the two components to optimize the process and environmental advantages.”
The Applied HCT Diamond Squarer system is the latest addition to Applied’s production-proven suite of solutions for manufacturing silicon wafers for solar PV cells, which includes the market-leading Applied HCT MaxEdge™ wire saw for slicing ingots into ultra-thin wafers. For more information, visit http://www.appliedmaterials.com/products/solar_crystal_precision_wafer_sys_3.html.
Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT) is the global leader in Nanomanufacturing Technology™ solutions with a broad portfolio of innovative equipment, service and software products for the fabrication of semiconductor chips, flat panel displays, solar photovoltaic cells, flexible electronics and energy efficient glass. At Applied Materials, we apply Nanomanufacturing Technology to improve the way people live. Learn more at www.appliedmaterials.com.
Tags: Applied, applied materials inc, Calif., CLARA, Diamond, Jean-Maurice Imbert, Maxim Vediankin, silicio solar, silicon ingots, wire
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Monday, September 21st, 2009
SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–eBay Inc. (Nasdaq:EBAY), the world’s leading online marketplace, today announced its first greenhouse gas emissions reduction target through the Carbon Disclosure Project, an independent not-for-profit organization holding the largest database of corporate climate change information in the world. By 2012, eBay has committed to reduce its corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 15% over a 2008 baseline.
The target will be achieved through an ongoing commitment to energy efficiency and conservation, continuing investments in renewable energy and by promoting more sustainable behavior – such as travel habits and personal energy use – among its global workforce of 15,000 employees.
“eBay continues to demonstrate our long-term commitment to responsible energy use and environmental leadership with our first greenhouse gas emissions reduction target,” said eBay Inc. President and CEO John Donahoe. “As a company whose business continues to grow year over year, we recognize that the goal is ambitious, but we’re confident that it is achievable.”
In 2007, 2008 and 2009, eBay Inc. worked with leading environmental consultant ICF International to prepare a GHG emissions inventory. While eBay reported on these efforts qualitatively in 2007 and 2008, the company elected to disclose GHG figures quantitatively in 2009 to the Carbon Disclosure Project, becoming one of the first Internet companies to do so.
Energy Efficient Operations and Data Management
As an ecommerce company, eBay has a relatively small carbon footprint with a majority of the company’s environmental impact coming from the energy consumed by its data centers. The company’s approach to data management and infrastructure will be a key efficiency driver. In 2010, eBay will unveil a new state-of-the-art green data center that will house more than a third of its global data infrastructure. The site, which is being built to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standards in South Jordan, Utah, will deliver state-of-the-art efficiencies in cooling and power management, as well as in IT infrastructure and software.
eBay also operates on a two-year tech refresh system that allows the company to process more transactions per watt. While this system drives energy efficiency in its operations, it comes with environmental collateral damage in the form of e-waste. To address this, eBay has undertaken new initiatives in the past year to actively repurpose and extend the useful life of hardware.
An example of the company’s commitment to reuse can be found in its recent donation of old servers to the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. The server donation initiative not only puts old eBay servers to work in Notre Dame’s research labs to power AIDS and cancer research, but leverages the heat generated from those servers to warm a greenhouse that sits adjacent to the laboratory.
Investments in Renewable Energy
eBay continues to support the use of renewable energy to green its operations. The company opened a 197,000 square foot office building in San Jose last year, which features a 650 kW solar installation and has also been LEED Gold certified – with dimming systems and the use of recycled materials throughout. Following that, eBay is installing a new 100kW solar installation at the company’s offices in Denver, Colorado. A fuel cell strategy is also under way – to be announced in early 2010.
eBay Green Team – Driving Greener Behavior
A final key component of eBay’s carbon reduction strategy comes from encouraging more sustainable behavior among its global workforce of more than 15,000 employees. These actions are largely driven by the company’s Green Team – a group of more than 2,000 employees in 23 countries who are committed to making eBay a greener company. The Green Team, incubated in a company with a strong entrepreneurial spirit and an ethos of individual empowerment, has taken on projects of all sizes, all over the world. Some of these projects include:
- Under the leadership of employee Kasey Hesse, PayPal’s Omaha Green Team started a community garden project in the Spring of 2009 – one of the first community gardens of its kind. PayPal’s La Vista campus offers 20 10’ x 10’ garden plots for PayPal employees to grow fresh vegetables, fruit and flowers.
- Led by CS Product Manager June Rouine, the Dublin Green Team is eBay’s largest in Europe, with nearly 100 members. In 2009, the team engaged in a variety of initiatives to inspire employees and green the office environment, like participating in local organic markets and National Cycle to Work week.
- At eBay headquarters this summer, the San Jose Green Team co-hosted an electronics recycling drive to benefit the Blind Center of Nevada, a nonprofit and eBay PowerSeller that refurbishes and resells donated items on eBay to provide meaningful employment to blind and visually impaired individuals. Hundreds of employees participated, donating more than 8,200 pounds of personal electronic equipment—keeping nearly four tons of dangerous materials out of landfills.
About eBay
Founded in 1995, eBay Inc. connects hundreds of millions of people around the world every day, empowering them to explore new opportunities and innovate together. eBay Inc. does this by providing the Internet platforms of choice for global commerce, payments and communications. Building on this positive foundation, eBay Global Citizenship was formed to harness the capabilities that underlie our core businesses to further our ability to be a “force for good.” Our citizenship portfolio includes the eBay Green Team, the eBay Foundation, and our ventures for social good – eBay Giving Works, MicroPlace, and WorldofGood.com by eBay. Since its inception, eBay Inc. has expanded to include some of the strongest brands in the world, including eBay, PayPal, Skype, StubHub, Shopping.com and others. eBay Inc. is headquartered in San Jose, California.
Tags: Calif., carbon disclosure project, CEO John Donahoe, Colorado, company, Dame, Denver, eBay, energy, greenhouse gas emissions, Indiana, Omaha, reduction target, San Jose, South Jordan, U.S. Green, Utah
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Monday, September 21st, 2009
SANTA CLARITA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dr. David Lee, CEO of BioSolar (OTCBB:BSRC), developer of a breakthrough technology to produce bio-based materials from renewable plant sources that reduce the cost of photovoltaic solar cells, says that intense media coverage of cleantech innovations across energy sectors is helping to fuel market opportunities for green companies across the nation.
“As a company on the cusp of emerging from the research and development stage to commercialization, sustained media penetration has been essential in building BioSolar’s profile prior to production,” said Lee. “In today’s tough economic environment, companies across green segments are competing to increase visibility among key audiences, and we are pleased that we have been able to leverage our technological leadership to create a groundswell of media attention around our technological advances and commercialization plans.”
Hailed as a technology that “will reduce the cost of solar cells,” in a recent Printed Electronics World article, BioSolar recently filed a new patent application for its proprietary BioBacksheetTM-A, a bio-based backsheet featuring an absolute moisture barrier for the thin-film photovoltaic cell market, as reported in Semiconductor Today.
In a two-part Question and Answer with Energy Boom, Lee explains, “With the market for solar power already in explosive growth mode, BioSolar is singularly positioned to lead the development of truly sustainable and cost-effective solar technology.”
BioSolar’s backsheets are expected to cost significantly less than petroleum-based films currently in use by most solar module manufacturers. The BioBacksheetTM-C, designed for the traditional C-Si PV modules, will be the company’s first commercial product.
“Despite current economic conditions, the media is tapping into the growing public and investor interest in alternative energy technologies and helping innovative startups in the green energy space. Companies, like BioSolar, are rapidly coming to market with cost-efficient and environmentally friendly products that will fundamentally change the world.”
Tags: BioSolar, Calif., CLARITA, Dr. David Lee, energy, intense media coverage, Lee, photovoltaic solar cells, pv modules, technology
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Monday, September 21st, 2009
Tech On Top in Green Rankings: Five out of the top 10 greenest companies in the U.S., according to Newsweek, are tech firms — HP, Dell, Intel, IBM, Applied Materials. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) S&P 500 Report was also released today and included Cisco and HP — Newsweek and release.
Fuel Cell Oorja Fuels Up: Fuel cell startup Oorja Protonics (which we’ve covered here and here) has raised 0,000 according to a regulatory filing — VentureBeat.
Chinese EV Pioneer Seeing Slow Sales: China’s plug-in vehicle maker BYD has reportedly only sold 100 plug-in hybrids cars over the last eight months, less than the expected 3,000 to 4,000 vehicles — MIT Tech Review.
Solyndra Awards Construction Contract: Construction company Tutor Perini says it will build the first phase of a 3 million thin-film solar panel facility in Fremont, Calif., for Solyndra — Forbes.
Conference Week: Get ready for news from GridWeek, the Clinton Global Initiative, Climate Week NYC and the G20 in Pittsburgh – I’m already tired thinking about it.
Tags: Calif., carbon disclosure project, China, Clinton Global, clinton global initiative, EV Pioneer, fuel, hybrids cars, Newsweek, Pittsburgh, tech, U.S.
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Monday, September 21st, 2009
PHOTOS: The Best Electric & Hybrid Cars From the Frankfurt Motor Show: For a cross section of the electric and hybrid vehicles that automakers have either in the pipeline for production or on deck for conceptual development in the next few years, you couldn’t beat Frankfurt, Germany last week.
IBM Launches Software to Act as Smart Grid Glue for Startups: IBM detailed a bit more about how it’s acting as a sort of glue between utilities and third-party smart grid vendors, with the announcement of new software called “Solution Architecture for Energy and Utilities Framework (SAFE).”
Ray Lane: Fisker to Make Major Announcement About K Plug-In Hybrid: Kleiner Perkins investor, and former President of Oracle, Ray Lane, said that electric vehicle maker startup Fisker is gearing up to make a major announcement about a ,000 plug-in hybrid vehicle later this week or next week.
Tesla Motors Raises .5M Series F, Charges Up for Global Buildout:Electric car startup Tesla Motors, which just snagged a 5 million loan from the Department of Energy, has done it again — raised capital, that is. The San Carlos, Calif.-based company has pulled in .5 million in a sixth round of private equity financing, according to a Bloomberg report from the Frankfurt Motor Show.
Does Fiber Have a Role in the Smart Grid? A Tennessee Utility Thinks So: One of the more unique smart grid projects we’ve heard about comes courtesy of a fiber-optic network in the little town of Chattanooga in Tennessee. Municipal utility and communications company EPB is in the process of building out a 0 million fiber network for the city’s residents that will offer Internet, phone, video and — in an unusual twist — smart grid services.
Tags: Calif., car startup, Carlos, Chattanooga, Electric, Frankfurt, frankfurt motor show, Germany, Grid, K Plug-, M Series, Major Announcement, Ray Lane, Read, San, Tennessee, tesla motors, week
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Monday, September 21st, 2009
Rennovia, a stealthy renewable chemicals startup based in Menlo Park, Calif., has secured a .3 million first round of venture funding led by 5AM Ventures and Versant Ventures (hat tip peHUB). Details on Rennovia are slim, but its mission, according to a job posting from the company, is to lead the development of chemical processing technology for making existing bulk and specialty chemicals from “biorenewable” feedstocks. Tom Boussie, Rennovia’s VP of technology, told us that the company is not ready to reveal details about the particular chemicals it plans to produce, its technology, or the feedstocks it expects to use. But Boussie said Rennovia will launch a web site “in about a week” that should contain more information.
The process for making renewable chemicals is similar to that for making transportation fuels from bio-derived feedstocks (like woodwaste or fast-growing plants), and both are efforts to develop products that don’t rely on petroleum. But venture capitalists so far have focused more heavily on biofuels, investing millions of dollars in dozens of startups like Coskata and Mascoma. By contrast, venture funding for biochemicals is not even tracked as a separate category at this point on Dow Jones. Rennovia is now among a small but growing group of startups and large companies focused squarely on the renewable chemicals market. Segetis, for example, has raised million in funding from Khosla Ventures to develop chemical products for industrial and consumer applications using feedstocks from agriculture and forestry. And chemical giant Stepan makes soy-based surfactants, or surface active agents commonly used in household cleaning detergents, among many other products.
But many biofuels startups also have an eye on the renewable chemical market because of the similar production processes, even if they don’t trumpet it on their web sites. David Woodburn, an analyst with investment bank ThinkEquity, tells us that most next-generation biofuels startups include at least one slide in their corporate presentations that talks about renewable chemicals. Woodburn said there are thousands of individual chemical products and markets that these firms could target.
As details about Rennovia emerge, we’ll be able to better assess its business strategy. It’s clear that there’s plenty of opportunity in renewable chemicals, but it’s a massive and diverse market, and Rennovia will have to demonstrate that it can be cost-competitive with the conventional products it hopes to replace.
Tags: Calif., chemical, cleaning detergents, David Woodburn, Menlo Park, Read, renewable chemicals, Rennovia, Tom Boussie, venture, versant ventures
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Monday, September 21st, 2009
While the idea of an investment bubble growing for the smart grid isn’t new, the rhetoric around the question of whether or not we’re in the midst of a smart grid bubble has only risen in recent weeks. At the AlwaysOn Going Green conference in Sausalito, Calif. this week, a panel of tech execs indicated that they had seen a lot of unwise over investment in the smart grid space and Adrian Tuck, CEO of home energy management firm Tendril said, “We’re falling into a classic trap: a bubble.”
Tuck’s industry — home energy management — is certainly one of the areas that has seen over-investment from venture capitalists. In just the past few months, home energy management startups Tendril, AlertMe, Control4 and EcoDog raised multimillion dollar rounds. There’s a low barrier to entry for companies in this space (basically a couple of developers) and for venture capitalists that have a history of investing in web firms, home energy management is something they can easily understand.
But there’s a bigger shift in investing in the smart grid industry taking place according to some investors, and which I argued in a GigaOM Pro article (subscription required): the first wave of infrastructure companies are already well-established, says Foundation Capital partner Adam Grosser, whose firm backed smart grid network provider Silver Spring Networks. Companies that bet on smart grid infrastructure several years ago are already big enough to be ruling the market where large companies win utility deals.
The opportunity now is in next generation applications that will run on top of that infrastructure, like more mature software for demand response and billing. To find out the hot next-gen smart grid ideas, check out GigaOM Pro.
Tags: Adam Grosser, Adrian Tuck, Calif., energy, Grid, grid infrastructure, home, infrastructure companies, Read, Silver Spring, Tuck, venture capitalists
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Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
Kleiner Perkins investor, and former President of Oracle, Ray Lane, said that electric vehicle maker startup Fisker is gearing up to make a major announcement about a ,000 plug-in hybrid vehicle later this week or next week. The venture capitalist, whose firm funded Fisker, let the news slip at the AlwaysOn Going Green conference in Sausalito, Calif. on Tuesday. Fisker has already developed its inaugural plug-in car the Karma, which will be sold for ,900, but as Lane put it on the panel “who would not want to buy a Fisker Karma if you could afford it.”
Does that mean that Fisker has received a Department of Energy loan? In March, Henrik Fisker, founder and CEO of the Irvine, Calif.-based company, said that Fisker plans to refurbish a factory in the U.S. and develop a lower-cost plug-in hybrid car than its ,900 Fisker Karma if DOE loans come through. Back then Fisker did not specify how much money the company requested, but said “If we get the DOE loan we will start the project this year. . . It could be in the market in as little as 26 months from when we start.”
Fisker Automotive has raised some 0 million since its founding in 2007, but, like Tesla, needs much more to build an auto factory and produce a cheaper plug-in at scale. Competitor Tesla received a DOE 5 million loan in June.
Tags: Calif., DOE, Henrik Fisker, Irvine, Karma, loan, plug in hybrid car, Ray Lane, Read, U.S., vehicle, venture capitalist
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Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
Electric car startup Tesla Motors, which just snagged a 5 million loan from the Department of Energy, has done it again — raised capital, that is. The San Carlos, Calif.-based company has pulled in .5 million in a sixth round of private equity financing, according to a Bloomberg report from the Frankfurt Motor Show this morning.
London-based Fjord Capital Management led the round, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk said “was an opportunistic investment.” This time around, the startup was “not looking for money,” but the funds will be used to support international buildout of Tesla retail stores, which the company has previously said will be expanding to several European countries.
Rather than following the more common dealership franchise model, Tesla uses showrooms modeled after Apple stores to show off its vehicles, bring in deposits, make sales and eventually service the cars. The stores don’t come cheap, since Tesla targets high-income customers in upscale real estate markets like Manhattan, Los Angeles and London.
As of November 2008, Tesla had raised some 5 million, including million from Musk himself, and burned through most of it. After being unable to raise another 0 million on the terms it wanted (partly due to the credit crunch), Tesla raised million in convertible debt financing from existing investors. But 2009 has been more favorable for Tesla’s financial situation.
In addition to the DOE funds, this latest round of investment comes just four months after Germany’s Daimler AG bought a 10 percent stake in Tesla for million as part of a new strategic partnership (Daimler later sold part of that stake to Abu Dhabi-based investment group Aabar Investments), and it’s on the heels of Tesla’s first reported month in the black. Tesla recently announced it achieved “overall corporate profitability” for the first time ever in July, with million profit on million in revenue, including, according to Tesla spokesperson Rachel Konrad, “a small percentage of revenue from technology sales,” as in the Daimler deal.
Tags: Abu Dhabi, Calif., Carlos, daimler ag, elon musk, Germany, investment, London, Los Angeles, Manhattan, Rachel Konrad, Read, round, San, Tesla, tesla motors
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Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
LIVERMORE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cool Earth Solar, a utility-scale solar company that provides clean energy at prices competitive with traditional fossil fuels, today announced that it has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the GoingGreen Top 100 Winners. Inclusion in the GoingGreen 100 signifies major developments in the creation of new business opportunities in the green technology industries. Cool Earth Solar was specially selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and industry experts spanning the globe based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value and media buzz.
Cool Earth Solar and the GoingGreen Top 100 Companies will be honored at GoingGreen West on September 14 – 16, 2009 at Cavallo Point in Sausalito, Calif. This two-and-a-half-day executive event features CEO presentations and high-level debates on the most promising emerging green technologies and new entrepreneurial opportunities.
In addition, Rob Lamkin, CEO of Cool Earth Solar, is speaking at the event on Tuesday, September 15 at 11:00 a.m. PDT on the “Terawatts of Solar” panel. Lamkin and other industry experts will be addressing new solar technologies that can scale to deliver massive amounts of clean energy comparable to conventional energy sources.
“The GoingGreen Top 100 winners have excelled in key strategic areas in the global clean energy technology markets,” said Tony Perkins, founder and CEO of AlwaysOn. “We congratulate them for their success in introducing new tools, services and systems that are driving the next phase of greentech innovation and transforming the biggest industries on earth.”
The GoingGreen 100 winners were selected from among hundreds of other technology companies nominated by investors, bankers, journalists and industry insiders. The AlwaysOn editorial team conducted a rigorous three-month selection process to finalize the 2009 list.
Cool Earth Solar has created a breakthrough concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) technology that massively scales to meet the world’s power demands at prices competitive with traditional fossil fuels. Unlike most solar systems that require large amounts of heavy, expensive materials, Cool Earth Solar’s inflated CPV technology is primarily made of ordinary thin-film plastic and air. When inflated, Cool Earth Solar’s concentrator naturally forms a shape that focuses sunlight onto a PV cell and magnifies it by up to 400 times. This design generates the same amount of electricity as traditional flat-panel PV systems while using up to 300 to 400 times less solar cell material.
A full list of all the GoingGreen Top 100 Winners can be found on the AlwaysOn Web site at http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/33354
“Cool Earth Solar’s selection as one of the AlwaysOn GoingGreen Top 100 validates our breakthrough approach for dramatically reducing the cost and decreasing the time-to-market for utility-scale clean energy production,” said Lamkin. “We are honored to be named alongside so many other exciting companies and are committed to fundamentally changing the economics of solar energy production by minimizing material and deployment costs.”
Tags: Calif., clean energy technology, conventional energy sources, earth, GoingGreen, new business opportunities, Rob Lamkin, Solar, Tony Perkins
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Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
SANTA CLARITA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–BioSolar (OTCBB: BSRC), developer of a breakthrough technology to produce bio-based materials from renewable plant sources that reduce the cost of photovoltaic solar cells, is expanding its analytical laboratory capabilities with the addition of testing equipment from machinery and equipment maker Mocon, Inc. for measuring water vapor transmission rate, a critical property of BioSolar’s innovative bio-based backsheets.
“Thin-film solar modules, like those based on cadmium-telluride and CIGS, require backsheets with a water vapor transmission rate of nearly zero, which presented a manufacturing challenge and growth barrier to the solar energy industry. BioSolar has successfully broken through this challenge with a near absolute moisture barrier in the initial pilot run of BioBacksheetTM-A, a bio-based backsheet for the thin-film solar cell market,” BioSolar’s CEO Dr. David Lee.
Currently, the company’s complete line of bio-based backsheets meet or exceed the characteristics of various testing and performance standards for the PV industry and are expected to cost significantly less than petroleum-based backsheets currently in use by the majority of solar module manufacturers today.
“BioSolar also houses an Instron® tester to measure tensile strength and elongation, which provides data expected to be included on product specification sheets,” added Lee. “As we switch into commercial production mode, instruments such as these in our analytical laboratory are critical to ensure quality control.”
This new testing and analytical equipment adds to the company’s suite of other equipment, such as damp heat and temperature cycling testing, and prepare the company for commercial production of BioBacksheets.
Tags: BioSolar, Calif., CEO Dr. David Lee, CLARITA, equipment, Lee, photovoltaic solar cells, solar energy industry, testing, water vapor transmission
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Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–New technology from eIQ Energy Inc., which today marked its official launch, will lower the installed cost and improve the performance of solar power systems, while also eliminating the design and installation constraints inherent in conventional string architectures.
eIQ Energy’s Parallux system is built around the vBoost DC-to-DC converter module. It uses advanced DC power management technology to allow easy connection of solar panels in parallel rather than in series. This approach allows the connection of an unprecedented number of panels on a single cable. In the case of thin-film photovoltaic panels, the company’s Parallel Solar architecture enables the connection of over 100 solar panels on each cable run—a twenty-fold improvement over conventional string architecture. This results in significant installed-cost savings.
This breakthrough Parallel Solar technology also mitigates the effects of panel mismatch due to shading, soiling, and manufacturing variations, which can easily disrupt the performance of an entire string array.
vBoost allows any solar panel to be connected in parallel to a constant high-voltage DC power bus, and also incorporates distributed maximum power point tracking (MPPT). The DC bus voltage can be fixed at the optimal level for any inverter, improving inverter efficiency and reliability. In combination with distributed MPPT, this enables solar photovoltaic systems to harvest 5 to 30 percent more energy than conventional systems.
As a result, designers are free to focus their efforts on power production rather than component interaction. Simplified wiring, easy interconnection, unit level monitoring and reduced inverter expenses assure operators of long-term performance and lower costs throughout the system’s life cycle.
eIQ Energy’s Parallux system also includes panel-level monitoring for enhanced visibility into system operation. This helps streamline maintenance and ensure long-term system performance. Monitoring data is sent over the main power bus, so no separate cabling or wireless system is needed.
“Our team includes top DC power supply and power management engineers, and together they have developed a unique solution that addresses the inherent limitations of string architectures,” said eIQ Energy CEO Oliver Janssen. “Parallel Solar simultaneously addresses fundamental problems facing plant designers, installers and operators, and provides quantifiable incremental performance without increasing cost. We are helping to unlock the full potential of solar energy with innovative thinking and unique technology that’s built for harsh operating environments.”
eIQ Energy began operations in 2007; its development and management teams include experts in DC power electronics and analog semiconductors with global experience in power supplies, power management and renewable energy. vBoost has been tested with a wide range of crystalline and thin-film solar panels at eIQ Energy’s San Jose test facility and at various ongoing beta site installations.
Funding through July of 2009 totals million from NGEN Partners and Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH (RBVC). “eIQ Energy took a unique approach to resolving the technical and economic problems at various points of the design and installation of solar PV arrays. They have produced a solution that opens the door to better productivity for solar arrays in both commercial and residential installations,” noted NGEN managing director Robert Koch.
Luis Llovera, eIQ Energy board member for RBVC, added, “In addition to optimizing PV system and inverter performance, Parallux can reduce the cost of the entire balance-of-systems side of an array, including cabling, hardware, design and labor. The result can give a positive impact on the solar PV ROI model.”
More information can be found at www.eiqenergy.com; the company will also be hosting an open house event at its San Jose headquarters on Sept. 17, and is exhibiting at the Solar Power International 2009 trade show in October.
Tags: Calif., CEO Oliver Janssen, dc bus voltage, eIQ, energy, Luis Llovera, maximum power point, power, power management technology, Robert Koch, ROI, San Jose
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Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
EL DORADO HILLS, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Premier Power Renewable Energy (OTCBB: PPRW), a global leader in the development, design, engineering and construction of solar power systems for commercial, government and utility markets in the U.S. and Europe, today announced that it has completed installation of a solar system for Barsotti Juice Company.
The project utilized dual axis trackers, which have a life span of 30 to 40 years, to reduce Barsotti’s annual electricity bill by at least 50%. Utilizing Premier Power’s expertise in the design, engineering and construction of commercial and utility scale solar systems the overall production of the system to date has surpassed estimated production by 10%.
For more than 30 years Barsotti has managed 67 acres in Northern California’s famous “Apple Hill” region, located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Concerned about the environment as well as the company’s rising electricity costs, the Barsottis were looking for answers. What they found was a solution from Premier Power that addressed both issues using clean, renewable solar electric power.
“Barsotti Juice Company can now harvest more than just apples,” said Dean Marks, chief executive officer of Premier Power. “With our dual axis trackers Barsotti is now able to harvest solar electricity by following the sun throughout the day. This installation is a perfect example of how solar electricity can provide a significant cost savings and ROI to the customer, while at the same time addressing its client’s environmental initiatives and requirements. We are beginning to see more of this concept of supply chain demand where large corporations are requiring that their suppliers meet a certain ‘green’ standard in order to do business with them.”
Tags: Apple Hill, Barsotti, Calif., Dean Marks, el dorado hills, Europe, Northern California, power, Premier, ROI, Sierra Nevada, sierra nevada mountains, solar power systems, U.S.
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Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
A showcase project called PlanetSolar plans to build a solar-powered catamaran and sail it around the world, and it has chosen SunPower’s cells to do the job.
San Jose, Calif.-based SunPower said Wednesday that it plans to
provide 38,000 solar cells with 124 kilowatts of generation capacity.
The cells, which can convert 22 percent of the sunlight that hits them
into electricity, will be embedded into the skin of the catamaran.
The selection of…
go to solarfeeds for the rest of this story>>>>>
Tags: Calif., catamaran, generation capacity, San Jose, showcase, showcase project, solar cells, SunPower
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Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
A showcase project called PlanetSolar plans to build a solar-powered catamaran and sail it around the world, and it has chosen SunPower’s cells to do the job.
San Jose, Calif.-based SunPower said Wednesday that it plans to
provide 38,000 solar cells with 124 kilowatts of generation capacity.
The cells, which can convert 22 percent of the sunlight that hits them
into electricity, will be embedded into the skin of the catamaran.
The selection of…
go to solarfeeds for the rest of this story>>>>>
Tags: Calif., catamaran, generation capacity, San Jose, showcase, showcase project, solar cells, SunPower
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Monday, August 31st, 2009
When software is designed well, it can radically improve the way an industry works. That’s the vision behind ongoing efforts at Autodesk to upgrade its building performance modeling software — to make energy retrofits of buildings cheaper and easier. The San Rafael, Calif.-based firm believes the improvements it’s making to its suite of construction industry software will compress the time it takes to do detailed sustainability analysis (energy, water, emissions) from weeks to days and as a result, make such analysis cheap enough to be accessible to a majority of the building market.
More than 100 million buildings in the U.S. are leaky and inefficient and could use an energy makeover with measures like better insulation, heating and air conditioning systems and natural ventilation. But most of these structures are relatively small (homes and offices), and the cost of building accurate computer models to do detailed analysis on them is often too high with current technology, according to John Kennedy, senior manager for sustainable analysis products at Autodesk. He says energy service companies (ESCOs) -– businesses that develop, install and finance energy efficiency projects –- today won’t touch a building less than 10,000 square feet.
But Autodesk believes the economics will dramatically change once engineers and architects can build a model in, say, a day or two and have it automatically spit out recommendations with the impact on cost and performance for each measure. Some of the new or improved features Autodesk is working on include: an increased use of cloud computing that would make sophisticated analysis quicker, more leverage of deep reservoirs of data about local weather conditions and the performance of different building products, more accurate and faster modeling of natural ventilation and water use, and an emphasis on making sure all of this “sustainability criteria” can be easily and accurately shared between the different software used by architects and engineers. Kennedy didn’t provide a timeline for these upgrades.
Autodesk also wants to incorporate the embodied energy of building materials (the total energy used in manufacturing, transporting and installing) more thoroughly into its software models. “It makes no sense to put triple-paned windows in a house in Los Angeles when the energy saved from its use would never exceed the amount needed to build it,” Kennedy said. Few vendors currently supply or even have this data to provide, he added.
Still, even with Autodesk’s planned improvements, it’s unclear how far down into the building market its software can penetrate. At some point, it will always be cheaper for boutique energy retrofitters focused on the residential market to analyze a home than an architectural or engineering firm charging 0 an hour.
Autodesk says that current versions of its software –- such as performance modeler Ecotect Analysis and its on-demand Green Building Studio –- has already shrunk the time it takes for sustainability analysis from months to weeks, and the firm can also boast of a growing customer base. But the use of building performance software, from Autodesk or anyone else, is still relatively uncommon among design firms.
Part of the reason for this slow adoption is the perceived high cost of using these tools. Another reason, however, is that the industry –- broadly speaking -– is still operating collectively as if energy and water use don’t need to be factored in during design. It’s what Dawn Danby, sustainable design program manager at Auodesk, calls a “cultural” problem. While stricter building codes and the growing prominence of green building standards like LEED are pushing the embrace of performance software, widespread adoption won’t happen until architects and engineers change their habits.
That helps to explain Autodesk’s mounting marketing push alongside its software development. As part of that effort, in July the firm announced its “Clean Tech Partner Program” through which it will give away software packages worth up to 0,000 each to 100 early-stage cleantech startups. According to Danby, the firm is working hard to inform designers and building owners that its software is relatively easy to use, inexpensive and gives quick feedback.
Still, changing the construction industry will be a long slog, even when one of the strongest pushes is coming from a fast-moving software company.
Image courtesy of NREL.
Tags: accurate computer models, building, Calif., construction industry software, Dawn Danby, energy, energy efficiency projects, John Kennedy, Los Angeles, Rafael, San, software, U.S.
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Monday, August 31st, 2009
Battery makers are raking it this summer — and not just from the government. With the first major round of stimulus awards for plug-in vehicle batteries less than a month behind us, startup CFX Battery has secured the first million of a planned .9 million round of financing, according to regulatory filings reported by Dow Jones.
CFX (included on our list of 13 battery startups to watch) has now raised a total of some million since its founding just over two years ago. Like fellow battery startup Seeo, which has also raised a new round of funding this week, CFX emerged from research in a university lab. According to Volkswagen electrochemistry chief Joerg Huslage, that’s where we’ll see most of the groundbreaking innovations for batteries in coming years.
Caltech professor Robert Grubbs, along with the Nobel Prize-winning director Rachid Yazami (who was leading France’s National Center for Scientific Research but had been a visiting associate at Caltech) spun CFX out of the Southern California university in 2007, getting help from the university’s tech transfer office to raise its first million.
Huslage noted yesterday at IBM’s Almaden Institute in San Jose, Calif., that U.S. and Europe have some catching up to do when it comes to supporting cutting edge battery research and recruiting top talent to conduct it in university programs. Pasadena, Calif.-based CFX is a good example of a startup using intercontinental collaboration and university resources in a way that could help the U.S. play catchup.
According to the Los Angeles Business Times, CFX plans to initially focus on building “primary” lithium batteries, which can’t be recharged. By the end of this year, CFX aims to have three manufacturers buying those batteries for use in military devices, defibrillators and other products. The idea is to build a business in those established markets, and then reinvest the revenue into the company’s rechargeable battery work for applications including electric cars, as well as mobile phones and laptops.
CFX is currently growing its team and seeking alliances with major equipment manufacturers. Already, however, the startup is looking beyond lithium. Anticipating a lithium squeeze down the road and eying lower-cost alternatives, Yazami tells the New York Times that he is also “trying to develop a battery powered by nano particles of sodium and water.”
Tags: battery, Calif., CFX, Europe, France, lithium batteries, Robert Grubbs, San Jose, Southern California, southern california university, U.S., university, vehicle batteries
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Monday, August 31st, 2009
Vinod Khosla, one of Silicon Valley’s biggest cleantech backers and the founder of Sun Microsystems, may be keeping an eye on the hype about lithium-ion batteries, but the venture capitalist is still excited about one of his earlier lithium battery plays: Seeo. The stealthy startup, which is developing a nano-structured lithium-polymer battery, has raised more than .6 million in new funding, according to regulatory filings picked up by peHUB this morning, and investors in the round include Khosla’s firm, Khosla Ventures.
Seeo, based in Berkeley, Calif., has now raised a total of more than .6 million for its solid-state battery, which is based on a solid polymer electrolyte that the founders developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. The material, which Seeo began licensing from the lab in 2007, allows for a more stable battery with higher energy density and none of the flammable liquid electrolytes that present a safety risk in conventional lithium-ion batteries.
According to founder and technology director Mohit Singh, the company’s batteries can operate at a much higher temperature than competing devices, which means it can be used in rugged, outdoor applications — attached to a solar system, for example. The Berkeley Lab also anticipates applications for technology like Seeo’s in electric vehicles, and says the startup’s batteries are on track to achieve the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium’s 5,000-cycle goal for plug-in vehicle batteries.
Seeo remains very tight-lipped about its technology, strategy and commercialization plans. But when I spoke with some of the startup’s team this week at IBM’s Almaden Institute, they shared Khosla’s take that lithium-ion batteries don’t represent a silver bullet for all energy storage challenges. And materials development director Hany Eitouni said he agreed with Ford’s Ted Miller, who spoke at the event and showed a slide depicting “evolution” of lithium-ion batteries through around 2017 — and then a “revolutionary technology change” after that. Will we really see such a shift in that time frame? We’ll have to, Eitouni said.
In the meantime, the company (and Khosla, through his investments) is jockeying to snag a piece of an increasingly competitive and growing market. Despite the hype, Khosla has said, “Lithium-ion markets are here today. We’re investing because there are good markets.”
Tags: battery, Berkeley, Calif., lawrence berkeley national lab, lithium ion batteries, lithium polymer battery, Seeo, Silicon Valley, Singh, technology, Ted Miller, U.S. Advanced, Vinod Khosla
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Monday, August 31st, 2009
Battery startup Farasis Energy is betting that a combo of low manufacturing costs in China and advanced tech expertise in the U.S. will lead to lithium-ion cells that can compete on a global mass market. CEO Yu Wang said in an interview today at IBM’s Almaden Institute in San Jose, Calif., that the six-year-old, Hayward, Calif.-based startup is close to having a factory ready in China for pilot-scale production of its lithium-ion cells.
The strategy is similar to the bet that electric car startup Coda Automotive is making and A123Systems also said it would base much of its manufacturing in China if it didn’t get funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. In addition to the cost-cutting benefits of keeping production in China, the strategy puts these companies at the forefront of what’s shaping up to be a powerhouse EV market. China has growing demand for autos in general, but also new government support for electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, as well as its own auto and battery makers eager to beat out Europe, Japan and the U.S. on plug-in vehicle technology.
Founded in 2003 by Wang and Keith Kepler, President and CTO (both directed research at now-defunct battery maker Polystor), Farasis Energy got its start before the field of lithium-ion battery startups really became crowded, or acquired the hype observed last month by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. Wang said he’s banking on that head start and his team’s industrial experience, in addition to the technology itself and low costs, to give Farasis a competitive edge.
So far the company has raised a first round of venture capital from Chinese investors as well as at least 0,000 under the DOE’s small business innovation research program. But unlike Coda, A123Systems, and more than a hundred other battery and vehicle developers, Farasis has opted out of requesting stimulus funds. For its second round of financing, sometime in the next two years, Wang tells us that Farasis may be courting investors stateside.
Tags: A, battery, Calif., CEO Yu Wang, China, Coda, Europe, EV, Farasis, Hayward, Japan, Keith Kepler, lithium ion battery, lithium ion cells, San Jose, startup, U.S., U.S. Department, venture capitalist vinod khosla, Vinod Khosla
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