http://www.cleantechgreentech.com Expert blog providing an in-depth review of clean tech investing and green building, with a focus on energy efficiency and savings, government policies and programs, greenhouse gas reduction strategies, and more. en http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/themes/default/images/rssicon.jpg http://www.cleantechgreentech.com http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/03/Biogas-in-California One of the biggest alternative fuel sources is what is called biogas, usually methane, that can be burned relatively cleanly to drive turbines and create electircity. And there are two big sources for biogas, and both are waste. One is landfills, which can capture the gases given off as garbage decomposes, and the other is animal waste, with methane captured in a similar process. Most of that methane tends to just be released into the atmosphere, a problem as most environmentalists see it because methane itself is not a very friendly chemical to have in the air, and the big waste lagoons of industrial farms tend to produce a ton of it. Turns out Pacific Gas & Electric has devised a perfect solution, helping those farms set up sequestration and cleaning processes so that the released methane is stored in a relatively pure and usable form for transportation to nearby natural gas pipelines. PG&E splits revenue from the sale of the energy and carbon credits gained in using renewable energy with the farms. In all, an elegant solution to the problem PG&E and many other California utilities face: offering at least 20% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2010--suddenly just two years away. And biogas is at a competitive price point right now, just about a third of what it costs per kilowatt hour for photovoltaic solar (though you can expect that gap to narrow as solar ramps up in the next five years). PG&E estimates they can light 1000 homes with the energy produced by a 2,500 cow dairy farm. With a little less than 2 million dairy cows in California (not to mention other potential sources for methane from other agribusinesses), the potential for utilities out west to meet their goals is pretty significant at this point. What's most exciting about this program is not so much the specifics, since those are actually not very pretty, but the creativity with which companies and entrepenneurs are approaching the question of alternative energy. Ten years ago, the idea of reducing our dependence on fossil fuels was met with one uniform suggestion: cut our usage of electricity. There was no other answer for it. And while a smart energy efficiency program is still part of any plan intending to reduce emissions and get us out of a fossil fuel economy, better ways of producing power keep coming up, and keep getting better the more we start to look into it. The other lesson here is that, while too much government intervention can distort the free market and create economically unsustainable environments, just the right amount can help stimulate innovation and promote adoption of new technologies. Government's best role still tends to be as a large-scale consumer and early adopter of better technology--a role some corners of government like defense and space have long cherished--but these kinds of binding goals for renewable electricity seem to be having a positive effect as well. In reality, it appears as though the biggest reason that utility companies did not adopt cleaner sources of energy, or work on innovation of such, is that they did not need to, and there was no external motivation. Now that the motivation is there, look for the innovation to accelerate. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/03/Biogas-in-California Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:28:13 -0500 alternative energy cleantech biogas methane government regulation energy efficiency renewable electricity http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/03/Unusual-Sources-For-Cleantech-Investment As with the internet boom before it, the cleantech explosion is inspiring unqiue investment schemes to help drive it and capitalize on it. The dramatic growth of the cleantech sector over the last couple of years, in response to steep gains in energy prices and growing awareness of climate change issues, makes the cleantech sector look rather inviting. One of the wrinkles in the investment growth, however, is that unlike the internet boom, which quite literally saw a number of start-ups making their million dollar IPOs from a garage workbench, a cleantech revolution is going to need much greater investment because the infrastructure requirements are that much greater. Competing with the current giants of industry won't necessarily need their record annual profits in the tens of billions of dollars, but they do need billions. That's one of the concepts behind Steve Newcomb's drive to found a new VC fund, one that doesn't look to a few deep pocketed investors, but to what the IT industry calls crowdsourcing, lots of little investments from the average investor. Newcomb is the co-founder of search startup Powerset, and sees great potential in both the small investments and collected wisdom of many looking to make a difference. He also envisions a sort of American Idol approach to choosing investments, letting investors vote to support what looks the most promising. And while the American Idol comparison might be a bit frightening to some, there's an inherent value in polling a lot of average investors for investment ideas: if nothing else, it's likely to give a better idea of what potential products might be commercially viable. The dotcom bubble could have used a lot of that kind reality checking on some of the ghosts of concepts that earned multi-million dollar IPOs. Which is not to say that a large group of investors is are proof against smooth talkers and pitches filled with attractive buzzwords, but collected wisdom seems more likely to catch on than not. In all, it's a very creative idea for VC funding. Other interesting sources are coming forward for cleantech investment, including a $15 billion fund out of Dubai called the MASDAR Initiative, which won an award at the Cleantech Forum as Cleantech Leader of the Year. Also, states continue to lead where the federal government lacks, as state treasurers and controllers start putting states' investments into cleantech. Moves like this are sure to bolster the cleantech sector and make 2008 another record-breaking year for investment. And hopefully, with concepts like Newcomb's, that money can be better targeted at ideas that will actually bear fruit. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/03/Unusual-Sources-For-Cleantech-Investment Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:28:15 -0500 cleantech cleantech investing foreign investment state leadership venture capital crowdsourcing http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Governors-Discuss-Clean-Energy Last weekend most of the United States' 50 governors met in Washington, D.C. to discuss, among other things, the importance of clean energy to their states in the years to come. As has already been shown, the US is lagging badly on the federal level in providing direction for a clean energy economy, while the states and localities seem to be taking up much of the slack, from expected sources such as California and New England, and from the unexpected like Minnesota and Iowa. In fact, Minnesota's Gov. Tim Pawlenty's Securing a Clean Energy Future initiative formed the focus of Saturday's opening plenary session, where Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times columnist, and Jeffrey R. Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE, answered questions from the governor on the roles of the states and business, respectively, in brining about that clean energy future. Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan got in the first question on the panel, looking for a policy focus for the Governors to support to help Congress pass useful legislation. Friedman's initial answer (Windows Media video) focuses on the role of utilities in the clean energy economy and how Congress can incentivize green measures on the part of utilities. Immelt, meanwhile, offered that governors such as Granholm, who are concerned about replacing manufacturing jobs lost over recent years as the manufacturing economy has taken a severe hit, should focus on jobs for export--that is, green technologies such as photovoltaic solar panels, wind turbines, and coal gassification plant components. Such technologies are the lifeblood of a clean energy economy, of course, and not every state is going to be equipped to help produce them. The meeting was not quite an unmitigated success, however, despite the good discussion that the governors were able to engage in. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, for instance, was frustrated by the lack of consensus on clean energy policy. It seems less than likely that the 50 governors will reach any better consensus than, say, the US Senate on any contentious matter, especially one impacting the economy so strongly, but it's not hard to see how Schweitzer could be disappointed. The meeting is a rare opportunity for the states to stand as one and declare their needs to the President and Congress, and a majority statement with minority dissent would seem to be a weak and unconvincing tool for pushing policy change. That all said, what's heartening is the will of the Governors Association to address these issues and devote a significant portion of their winter meetings to the topic. Look for more discussion in the future as clean energy becomes more of a necessity than obviously some governors are willing to admit at this point. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Governors-Discuss-Clean-Energy Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:28:26 -0500 clean energy governors' association winter meeting policy change congress governors incentives http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Cleantech-Cool-Earth-Solar-Balloon One of the great things about the cleantech boom of recent years, like with the information technology boom of years past, is the number of cool ideas being flown out there as inventors and entrepenneurs come out of the wood work to try to capitalize on the growing market. Some of the ideas are decidedly uncool, of course, one of the pitfalls for investors who aren't familiar with the lay of the land but still want to get in on the boom, but it seems like with cleantech and alternative energy it is getting easier to pick out the speculators and charlatans from those who something serious to offer. Aptly named Cool Earth Solar seems to be one of the latter, promoting a new balloon-based solar concentrator package for grid-level energy generation. Combining existing technology with an inexpensive manufacturing and deployment process, Cool Earth Solar promises an energy package that is competitive with natural gas power plants in price and output. The downside to their offering is that they're not looking to sell to consumers and third parties. Though the deployment would seem to be scalable from rather modest installations to large-scale arrays, the company has elected to position itself as a producer of alternatives to our current grid providers. Smart, in many ways, because that's where most of the money is right now in solar. From concentrator farms in the American southwest to big parking-lot sized arrays for Google or Wal-Mart, the trend right now seems to be in replacing or supplanting big power plants, rather than angling for the microgeneration market. Microgeneration has the potential to be extremely transformative, one of the reasons why many of the solar providers are being lured away from it; the big energy companies see the potential for their being cut out of the loop in the future of energy, and they would rather maintain their current position than be rendered obsolete by an effective micro solution. From an alternative business standpoint, microgeneration is also a likely very volatile and uncertain market even now. A competitive price point, especially in an environment of low consumer confidence, might not be enough to promote enough consumer interest to make the company viable. Focusing on the grid-level provides another option, and that is of high altitude solar collection. A compromise between ground-based arrays, with their near horizon and susceptibility to cloud cover and orbital solar installations, with the expense of installation and difficulty in transmitting power to the ground, a high altitude lighter-than-air solar collection mechanism could provide for enery needs cheaply and effectively. Certainly one of the very exciting possibilities that the cleantech boom is providing. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Cleantech-Cool-Earth-Solar-Balloon Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:04:32 -0500 cleantech cleantech investing cool earth solar solar concentrator microgeneration photovoltaic Cool Earth Solar http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Green-Building-Comes-Home-At-The-International-Builders-Show This year at the International Builders Show in Orlando, Florida, the National Association of Home Builders kicked off its Green Building Program, a competitor of sorts to the US Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards on the residential front. While LEED is mostly focused on public and commercial buildings, they do have a residential standard, though obviously not one backed by the NAHB. Still, their focus has largely been, well, large-scale and commercial over residential. So the NAHB decided to do their own thing, and cornerstone to the show and their own announcement was the first certiifed home under the Green Building Program, right in Orlando and open to attendees of the show. The home combines smart home high-tech gadgetry, such as programmable lighting with built-in presets and backlit control panels for easy access, and low-tech design elements such as a solar chimney, cleverly designed as a soaring cupola, that draws up hot air in the house and helps ease the burden on the Florida home's cooling system. Of course, at over 6000 square feet the home is far larger than practical for most people, and greater savings could certainly be achieved in a smaller footprint. But the home is most critical as a demonstration model. Coined the New American Home, just about every conceivable feature is jammed into this futuristic home with the traditional look as a way of making a point about the Green Building Program, and that is that builders and designers need not sacrifice aesthetic or modern features for a green ethic. Much of it is in fact impractical, as the Orlando Sentinel reporter points out. The tub is conceivably too large to use regularly, for instance. The value comes through in its visibility and utility as a test bed. As the first home certified under the NAHB's new program, it's going to stand as a kind of flagship for the program, and to do that it needs to be highly visible and heavy on the wow factor. It couldn't have been the tenth or fifth or even the first home in an average development in a random suburb; the home had to make a statement. And this new home certainly did. Is it the New American Home for real? Only time will tell, but it's to be hoped that it will at least influence new home construction in the coming years. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Green-Building-Comes-Home-At-The-International-Builders-Show Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:11:47 -0500 green building cleantech smart home demonstration model NAHB home builders resource management certification http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Alternate-Strategies-for-Cleantech-Start-ups Over at C Net, Martin LaMonica takes a look at the money pouring into alternative energy start-ups (most of them solar) and considers how they might be able to attack the big boys of the energy without going head-to-head. Which, in a way, ignores that some of the big boys of energy now are also taking on the challenge of alternative energy themselves; BP and Shell, for instance, are heavy into alternative energies, Chevron is the world's biggest player in geothermal, and it seems like just about every local and regional power company--right down to the new-fangled co-operatives--are growing alternative energy options. But, it certainly is wise to look at how new companies and new grid providers can shake up the energy game, especially in electricity production, without trying to build billion dollar companies overnight. Nothing, after all, will insure a start-ups rapid and spectacular death than if they try to compete on par with the giants of industry. One of the great things, however, of the alternative energy movement is that the new technology and techniques provide alternative means for producing and distributing power. For one, we've mentioned several times the possibilities of micro-generation--that is, the production of electricity in kilowatt amounts on or near the sites where it is going to be used. This is, in fact, one of the more exciting prospects for an alternative energy revolution. The potential, as distant as it might be, for the eradication of long distance, high tension power lines is one to be viewed with a certain anticipation. If a house can generate its own electricity, or a neighborhood be self-sufficient, there's a possibility for an end to the major grid suppliers altogether. A different C Net article, in fact, tackles this very concept in talking about the Infinia dish solar collector, an alternative to the traditional photovoltaic solar solutions. The dish, which concentrates solar energy as heat to drive a small Stirling engine, could revolutionize solar installations, working more efficiently than a comparable size photovoltaic array and at a 20-30% lower price point. While the company's current focus is large scale, grid-supplying installations in the American southwest, the dish certainly has potential for smaller scale neighborhood or home installations. And like many technologies, this one is easily scalable, which is perhaps the true revolution in alternative energy. We can plant five of these dishes and start churning out some kilowatts, but the only restriction to expansion is shade-free real-estate, as opposed to massive coal or nuclear plants which are essentially static constructions--once they've been built to a certain capacity, that about does it. Further expansion is expensive and difficult, whereas with this kind of solar installation, expansion can be done on a rolling basis as the components roll off the assembly line. The best part of the alternative energy revolution is that it will take many shapes and forms, and while it might be slow to catch the current heavyweights of energy production, the new techniques and technologies have the option of acceleration; just on the hairy edge of competitive today could be transformative in the next five or ten years, justifying the excitement of VCs and other investors. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Alternate-Strategies-for-Cleantech-Start-ups Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:49:33 -0500 http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Cleantech-Funding-Challenges In one particular sector of cleantech--the big, sexy alternative energy grouping--the struggles of the US economy spell interesting challenges for the future of investment funding. While the sector as a whole is expected to continue to do well, alternative energy has built-in a number of hurdles that make it more difficult to secure funding at the start-up level, made worse by the recent credit issues on th market. Alternative energy projects tend to need significant amounts of capital from the beginning in order to get off the ground properly, mostly because their competition is well-heeled and entrenched, but also because most of these projects need to be done in large scale in order to compete. Individual solar panels are not so expensive or hard to sell to scare away funding, for instance, but installations in scale to challenge current coal-fired or nuclear power plants are. Again, an individual wind turbine would not be that dramatic an investment, but they need to be installed as part of massive wind farms in order to reap the benefits and stand as a threat to the current energy paradigm. Putting that kind of money in, on technology with relatively short track records, can be daunting. Which is why creative solutions are required. For instance, Google.org--the philanthropic extension of the information giant--plans to help start-ups with the millions they need to bridge the valley of death referenced in the Reuters article above. Most cleantech offerings won't need that kind of heavy support, as they'll be able to grow in a more typical fashion, but alternative energy is a special case, and certainly one that deserves that special support. If something is ever to be done about fossil fuel dependence at the grid level, it will require impressive action. One sector that may well be recession-proof seems to be green building. Growing at a dramatic rate, the blog Green Chemicals suggests that green building could itself continue to expand even if the economy contracts. In fact, this is the likely vector for all of cleantech and the general green revolution, the challenges of alternative energy notwithstanding. In many ways, there's too much excitement and far too much momentum in the movement for a recession to reverse the current trends, or even slow development all that much. The pressures that have brought clean-and-green to the fore are still in place, and growing too quickly, for consumer insecurity to make invisible. So some corners of the movement may have to get creative about funding, but as Google has shown, there's a willingness out there to get the job done and make the changes we're living through viable. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Cleantech-Funding-Challenges Sat, 09 Feb 2008 21:17:32 -0500 http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Innovation-Solves-Energy-Issues Innovation is one of those things that is going to take many forms as we move into the heart of a cleantech revolution, and not all of them are going to command big IPOs and such. But that, really, is going to be the strength of such a movement, the flexibility of the potential range of solutions. Unlike, for instance, information technology which simply needs to keep pushing the envelope technologically, in cleantech and green building and related movements there are a plethora of cheap, easy means of improving energy efficiency, reducing carbon emissions, or becoming energy independent available to those serious about making the change. British Columbia is aggressively pursuing the use of biomass in electricity production, on which they hope to be entirely self-reliant by 2016. To that end, the province is seeking $25 million to establish a Bioenergy Network which would encourage the development of pilot and demonstration projects with industries and communities in key biomass resource areas. One of the examples given in the article is harvesting waste from an insect infestation to work as biomass stock for heating and energy generation. Such out-of-the-box examples show how unconventional approaches can net very conventional gains; another example would be the dramatic success of the use of green roofs on commercial buildings. As with waste biomass reclamation, green roofs provide a ready solution that does not require major infrastructure changes or dramatic alterations in how people go about their lives. For the consumer and voter, these are the most palatable--and thus likely to be voted upon or otherwise approved--types of changes. And BC's strategy is clearly quite sound. With an aggressive goal electricity self-sufficiency and a host of other milestones, the province needs to seek out as many options as are ready and waiting, the so-called low-hanging fruit. Biomass fits the bill perfectly and should provide the province a strong means to their progressive ends. From the opposite side of the energy self-sufficiency coin, New Zealanders will be able to pick up a unqiue device this week that allows them to monitor their home energy usage in realtime. Coming on the heels of concern over energy shortages in NZ, the local development of the Centameter, sensitive enough to detect the impact of a single 25W light bulb being turned on and off, provides an answer for the critical question of just how much electricity homeowners are using. This kind of ability to monitor electricity consumption is critical to the execution of smart grids, which could help consumers save by turning down energy usage during peak pricing hours and likewise allowing power companies to shutter inefficient plants that they need only for peak demand. Every little step is nonetheless a step forward, and this kind of innovation and lateral thinking ensure that we will continue to step forward. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Innovation-Solves-Energy-Issues Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:10:55 -0500 http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Government-Invests-in-Green-Building Traditionally, there are two ways for government to get involved in stimulating new technology; one is the direct regulation of current processes and systems so that new technologies are pushed to the forefront. Government focus on DARPAnet, for instance, paved the way for the information technology revolution and the growth of the internet itself, for which DARPAnet was a precursor. And the other way is through patronage of the technology. Airplanes were a civilian development, but their popularization and development relied largely on the government as a primary driver for sales and innovation. Green building could be driven in both ways, though right now government and state entities at every level seem to content foster growth as customers and enablers, rather than regulators. The federal government continues to provide fitful leadership in this arena, and it seems to be defense and intelligence entities that are ahead of the curve. Several military bases are seeing solar power installations come to their wide open spaces, while the CIA is opening a new campus of green buildings. Integrating the corporate worlds new favorite in green building methods, the green roof, the buildings promise a more healthy environment for the employees of America's top intelligence agency. Rewarding carpoolers and drivers of efficient vehicles with choice parking spots would indicate a further commitment to encouraging greener habits among consumers. On the state level, Maryland is looking to maintain or improve on its ranking as the fifth-greenest US state. Gov. Martin O'Malley wants to see legislation that would require all new state buildings, substantially remodeled or reconditioned buildings, and state-funded public schools to adhere to a stringent green building standard. The article points to a current success story, that hopes to be a future green building landmark, at St. Mary's College where a new, green classroom building has just opened and renovations are planned on a number of others. One key that the article points out is the growing recognition that green building adds a 1-2% premium for green building. In the case of the new classroom building, that was about $600,000, which they estimate pay off in energy savings within 10 years, and that assumes a typical increase in energy prices, rather than the dramatic spike some are predicting. In a more innovative effort, two builders are suggesting that Iowa support making green building part of the curriculum at Iowa community colleges. They hope to keep a lot of that training at home, in Iowa, and help grow the state as a leader in green building and associated technology. And efforts like this can only help, spreading out the expertise and, to some degree at least making the involved labor less expensive. The fewer specialists there are, the more they'll cost, and while there will still likely be a premium on green builders for the foreseeable future and provide better paying jobs, the field is going to need as many trained builders and designers as it can handle for the next fifty years at least. And yet again, it looks as though state and local authorities are making strides where the federal government lags. Perhaps not surprising given the current administration, but a disappointment just the same--and a hope that the next one can get it done. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Government-Invests-in-Green-Building Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:28:56 -0500 http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Cleantech-Stares-Down-A-Tough-Road Although confidence seems up again given the bi-partisan economic stimulus package working its way through Congress, the reality of a possible recession, fueled by the subprime mortgage crisis, spells possible trouble for the cleantech industry as it tries to step into the mainstream in a big way. The biggest question is how the sector can weather the potential bubble and/or slowdown situation facing the economy today. The primary upside is that cleantech is, in part, a direct response to the pressure high energy prices put on the economy. And though oil might take a dip on recession fears, now and then, prices are going to continue to rise, perhaps dramatically, often as a result of pressure outside of the US or North America. On that level, then, the very nature of the energy economy could be a driver that pushes cleantech straight through the other side of a recession, and perhaps could be one of the things that helps ameliorate or end one. C Net suggests that recession fears could make it tough for cleantech companies, especially those relying on IPOs for their funding. A slow stock market will likely mean such moves, counting on huge buzz for lots of quick buy-in and a rapid share price increase, won't find the deep pockets it needs among mutual funds and hedge funds and average investors. As the article points out, however, this is not a deal-killer for those looking to go public or attract enough investment, it just means start-ups are going to have to get more creative. The bonus there is that there's a ton of interest in the commercial world for cleantech and alt energy resources; Wal-Mart and Google are high-profile corporate sponsors, but plenty of solid and legitimate businesses that will be able to weather a recession will be looking to cut long-term costs and cleantech is one of the best ways to do that. So corporate partnerships, like Google's effort to develop and promote clean-and-green consumer PC options, are likely to spur development and growth where typical investment might fall short. The other major concern, of course, is for the dreaded bubble. The talk about bubbles seems to go hand-in-hand with talk of growth, as though the two are inseparable. In some respects they are, of course, as any hot growth sector is going to attract fringe players and fly-by-nighters who want to cash in on the hype without producing a product, not to mention all the well-intentioned folks who just don't have a solid idea, but can attract cash with their conviction. That stuff is always a danger, but the good news is that the cleantech rise is built on the strong backs of viable technologies. Solar already works, wind already works, LEDs already work, it's just a matter of presenting them as viable products and bringing down costs through economies of scale. Likewise with cleantech's cousin green building, there's plenty of already here to what's just over the horizon. No question a recession at this stage would be a drastic test for the nascent cleantech sector, but the strengths that can see it through are already realized, already working to push past uncertainty and doubt about the economy. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Cleantech-Stares-Down-A-Tough-Road Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:25:03 -0500 http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Modular-Living-Green-Living When most folks think of modular homes, it's almost a cinch that what pops into their minds is a gentle euphemism for aluminum-walled trailers, the cheap-as-dirt mainstays of semi-rural Midwest living. At best, one might think, a modular home is a double-wide with the wheels off, no safer or more aesthetically pleasing--or greener--than a dirty cardboard box. But it seems modular homes have grown up a bit, and joined the 21st century, and it is well past time to discard old prejudices. Even among the modular or pre-fabricated homes that were more than just a double-wide with the wheels knocked off, traction and market share was hard to come by. On the one hand, pre-fab home builders had a terrible time getting the word out about their product. The unions and corporations that made a living on site-built homes had no desire to lose out to factory-built homes and did what they could to stifle the competition. Advantages, such as not being exposed to the weather during construction, or being built on plumb, factory templates could not sway the average homebuyer and they languished as the less-well-regarded cousins of what we generally call mobile homes. But that's slowly changing, in part because of the green sensibilities that pre-fab homes can bring to the table. For starters, the pre-fab home can take advantage of green building techniques not easy to include on the job site. More fragile--but higher efficiency--foam insulations, for example, can be easier to apply on the factory floor than elsewhere, and applications can be more regular and exacting. Likewise, smart home management systems are easier to install in factory conditions. In terms of deep green, pre-fab homes stand head-and-shoulders above all but the biggest home developments in that they're able to provide a central location for delivery of materials, leaving the wasteful delivery to the construction site to a couple of trips with the pre-fab components, and a crane and crew to assemble them, generally little more than what a builder would need to attach roof joists to a half-completed home. Factory location also provides an ample opportunity for material recycling, dramatically reducing waste and improving a home's overall green profile. While it's unlikely that pre-fab homes will replace their stick-built brethren any time soon, it's heartening to see them challenging in the green building arena, ready to take the lead should traditional methods fail. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/02/Modular-Living-Green-Living Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:23:35 -0500 http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/01/High-Efficiency-Breakthrough You cannot rely on major break throughs. That has been a core message of the environmental movement and global warming crusaders practically from Day One. It is foolhardy to rely on technology to rescue us from our high- and low-tech messes, because you never know when engineers and researchers are going to hit a brick wall. And really, that's very prudent thinking. If we're at the Orville and Wilbur Wright stage of cleantech and alternative energy, it could very well be sixty more years before we put a man on the Moon, so to speak. Increasing energy efficiency, whether through cleaner existing technologies or going back to old, abandoned techniques that work better than our modern solutions, remains one of the best ways to deal with the current energy problems. But it's also wise to always be on the look-out for that break through that could change the whole game. The other day, we mentioned Scientific American's ambitious plan to dramatically increase renewable energy production and usage by 2050, mostly using existing, in production technology. And what would make that idea better, but a dramatic jump in solar efficiency? The novel concept, which is not simply a bump up in the efficiency of traditional photovoltaics or Sterling heat engines, could manage efficiencies around 60%, twice the current record-holders. Without moving parts and using relatively simple materials, the Johnson Thermoeletric Energy Conversion System (or JTEC) would be a low-maintenance, long-life solution to the question of solar-generated electric power. Developed by the inventor of the SuperSoaker (himself a former NASA/JPL engineer), JTEC has the potential, not only to replace large-scale grid generation infrastructure, but could also be scaled down dramatically to, for instance, capture waste heat from an internal combustion engines--a prospect that could dramatically improve the performance of gas-electric hybrids. Critical is to remember, however, that even if a breakthrough product like JTEC were to replace coal and nuclear tomorrow, energy efficiency would still be a major concern; though solar seems limitless, there are still obstacles to having power too cheap to meter, even if we were to achieve 100% efficiency. Energy efficiency efforts give more control to the consumer, and also help maximize capacity for future expansion; if anything is true in all this, it is that human endeavor will require more energy in the future. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/01/High-Efficiency-Breakthrough Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:12:35 -0500 http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/01/More-In-Store-For-Cleantech-Investing The question of whether or not investing in cleantech is going to maintain its pace seems to have been answered. Most analysts agree that cleantech investing is likely to continue unabated, and likely to go on unaffected or lightly affected by any US-based economic downturns because of the credit crunch. More pressing, then, is the question of how it's going to happen and what technologies to look out for. Earth2Tech is passing on speculation that oil could double in price by the end of the year, a development that would almost certainly spur massive interest in cleantech, especially alternative fuels and next-generation automobiles. The question, of course, is how realistic is $200 per barrel oil? While it seems like an inevitability, demand would have to achieve a meteoric rise in a very short period of time to hit that kind of mark in just 12 months. Still, the true inevitability is that the price of oil will rise and any savings technology, alternative, or replacement is very likely to do well in the coming years. While our focus has always been on green building and cleantech, the automotive side of the equation is critically important to reduction of emissions and the easing of dependence on fossil fuels. Virtually anything that holds promise for development of a new standard for America and Canada's roads are going to be surefire winners in the investment game in the coming years. The days are probably already numbered for corn-based ethanol, and maybe ethanol in general if hydrogen becomes easy to extract and distribute. Improved production of electricity on the grid could also finally herald the rise of effective electric vehicles. And speaking of grid technology, India's Deeya Energy received $15 million in Series B financing to help develop and manufacture their L-Cell technology batteries. L-Cell appears to be a much safer, cheaper, and rapidly chargeable battery than it's Nickel Metal-Hydride and Lithim Ion cousins, potentially changing the face of the battery game. While an obvious application is the aforementioned electric vehicles, which would benefit greatly from a cheap, quick-to-charge battery, there's other sectors that are looking for a good storage solution. Alt energy is one of them, especially in the microgeneration market, especially for northern tier states and Canada. Right now the main problem is the inability to save the energy from abundant daytime sunshine and use it in the nighttime or winter; one of the favored solutions up to now has been hydrogen to drive a fuel cell and power the home, but virtually any amount of stored hydrogen poses some kind of danger. That danger is drastically reduced with the application of Deeya's L-Cell. If it should prove successful in improving India's infrastructure, look for American licensees to pick it up and run with it. In all, it looks like a good year for cleantech, and the clean automotive sector and energy storage are looking to be the next two big hitters in the field. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/01/More-In-Store-For-Cleantech-Investing Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:08:47 -0500 http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/01/Making-The-Alt-Energy-Push How do you answer naysayers? With a big, workable plan. One of the things that has plagued the growth of clean, renewable energy in the West has been an almost fervent, religious pessimism regarding the prospect; whether the extremes of environmentalism have worked their way into the public consciousness, or people are just naturally skeptical of free energy from the sun being actually free, it seems most are afraid of something like wind or solar as an actual answer to our problems. Enter Scientific American. Their January 2008 issue proposes something truly radical: a massive push to replace almost 70% of the United States' electrical needs with solar by 2050. [via MariaEnergia] Sound incredible? All that's required is a 30,000 square mile solar farm, some storage, and the high efficiency transmission lines to get it from the Southwest to the rest of the US. Simple. The reality is, however, that it's almost childishly simple. The problems are one of scale. The solar farms are coming on-line, storage schemes worthy of the project have variously been in continuous use since 1978, and the transmission line technology exists and is already being coveted by those with the dream of transforming the grid electrical system in the US to something more sustainable. Next step will be to scale up many of these technologies. From the aspect of the solar farms, the good news is that it's one of the hottest sectors in VC investing, one built on proven technology (if still a little immature), and with a strong, existing industrial base. The biggest questions in solar are simply improving efficiency over cost, something already on the horizon at least as far as lab tests are concerned. The real problem is public and political will. Nordhaus and Shellenberger ran into similar problems when attempting to sell their Apollo program for climate change to Presidential candidates. At the time (2004), with global warming not really hitting the front page yet, they found a lot of people willing to agree in principle to their idea for a major developmental push to end dependence on fossil fuels, but no one would put any real muscle behind it. Where it could have been a defining call for action for the Democrats in 2004, in fact, they ignored it and ultimately lost to a second Bush term. The Scientific American concept can succeed, but it's going to need a champion in the mold of Kennedy and his proposal to put a man on the Moon within a decade. And like Kennedy and Apollo, the plan has to be solid enough to outlive the originator, and span multiple Presidential administrations. But now is certainly a ripe time for this kind of proposal, and with the US Presidential campaigns kicking into high gear, now is certainly the time for a champion candidate (or party) to step and bring this kind of dream to the forefront and make it reality. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/01/Making-The-Alt-Energy-Push Mon, 07 Jan 2008 20:36:01 -0500 http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/01/Automating-Homes-Into-Green-Buildings The average residential home wastes a ton of energy, that much is already known. Common fiberglass insulation is barely adequate, especially in Canada and northern tier US states, most windows and doors have leaky seams and edges, and most homes are fully heated (and sometimes lit!) even when no one is home. Part of that is due to building codes that are, frankly, decades out of date, not to mention the vast bulk of homes built long before energy conservation was really a concern. Usage itself has been a tough question to approach with the public. Prior to the coming of the simplest programmable thermostats, no one would have been willing to, say, keep their house at 50F through out the day and have to wait in the cold for the furnace to make up the difference after they got home and reset things. Programmable thermostats themselves helped to some degree; if you could predict when you would be home and away, for instance, you could program the thermostat to take the temp down during the day, then kick it back up (or the reverse for central air conditioning) before you're scheduled to get home. And as it stands, there's tax breaks for programmable thermostats, and they've been shown to save considerable money over a year of use. Smart homes are the next step forward. Imagine, for instance, that the house could determine occupancy of each room and adjust lighting and heat accordingly. No need to touch the thermostat, or try to remember on what days you'll be home when. Many folks have unpredictable schedules these days, or at least ones that change often; reprogramming a thermostat weekly to reflect upcoming activities would be onerous and unlikely to be used. Likewise, if you want to sleep with the temps low, since you'll be snuggled under the blankets, but have a toddler who is prone to kick the covers off in the night, you may want to set each room up differently. The best news, of course, is that most of this kind of thing is already possible. For now it's been reserved to those who can afford expensive installation of sensors and monitors and suchlike, but as with most technologies, the cost is coming down rapidly and it could be less than a decade before most or all new homes are built with such systems in place. Programmable thermostats already come standard, so it's not a stretch to think that full-home systems may not be far off. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/01/Automating-Homes-Into-Green-Buildings Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:39:02 -0500 http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/01/Cleantech-Trendspotting We aren't the only ones who went looking for trends and predictions for 2008. Here's some highlights from around the blogosphere: Predictably, ZDNet chose to focus on the impact of technology, both pro and con, on the budding green revolution. An interesting note is their take on the future of paper and printing. Laser printers, especially, are power-hog workhorses and any significant reduction in their use is going to be a victory for reduction of material waste, power consumption, and plain old tree-loving. They also mention virtualization, which we've touched on before, and continues to be a fantastic idea. The only thing we would add to their list is the likelihood of a big-time announcement from the Google-spearheaded green workstation project. Jetson Green makes green building the worthy focus of their prediction list, and rightfully so since it's also the focus of their very excellent blog. They like how the market is going to drive green building this year, and we can't disagree. LEED certification may see a competitor emerge in the third-party certification game, and it may very well be the government. Despite recent failures in initiatives to green up building codes (and notably, not failures at the ballot box), it seems very likely that this year will see a turnaround in that trend. Look for Seattle or all of Washington State to go first, since California dropped the ball. Over at Earth2Tech, they've hit on a wide variety of predictions. The two we like are the growing importance of energy policy at a time when it's going to interface neatly with a major US Presidential election, and the positive outlook for increased VC investment. A lot of the technologies and projects that have been invested in over the past couple of years at astonishing levels will start to mature, giving investors more to latch onto in terms of tangible advances. The only quibble with their list is the question of energy transmission lines; certainly they are in need of upgrade, but that only points to a greater need to embrace microgeneration at the local and individual level. Long distance transmission of power should start on the long road into the west this year, supplanted by clean and cheap local power generation. The failings of energy infrastructure here should not result in a call to replace that infrastructure, piece by piece, but supplant it entirely with a new paradigm. In all, 2008 is shaping up to be a rather dynamic year, as demonstrated by the breadth of predictions out there for cleantech and green building. Notable in the lists is that none of them overlapped in any significant way, demonstrating the many directions in which the movement seems to be penetrating our lives. It's going to be an exciting thing to watch. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2008/01/Cleantech-Trendspotting Thu, 03 Jan 2008 07:01:49 -0500 http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2007/12/Tension-in-Residential-Green-Building As the auto industry has recently demonstrated, even if an industry clearly possesses the capacity to improve its end product, and at a price that does not put that product immediately out of reach of 95% of its consumers, they'll fight tooth and nail to oppose any legislation that makes them do it. For the auto industry, and probably most other industries, the reason why is simple: there are higher profit margins in doing things the way they've always done them. Despite the incredible demand for hybrid cars, they still cost a little more to produce and making more would require retooling more auto plants, further reducing margins. The same seems to be true of parts of the building industry; some builders are wholeheartedly onboard with green building, especially when it saves money on the front end. The Rolling Hills Estates City Council in California is taking up that question, after a similar measure was vetoed at the urging of construction interests at the state level. The strongest wording of the measure would require a number of eco-friendly improvements to every new building in Rolling Hills Estates, a move builders oppose over cost. However, it's already been well-demonstrated that there are a number of cost-saving green features that can be added at or below the cost of current counterparts. It's also quite feasible that such requirements could also prompt builders to tighten up their construction practices, such as using on-site recycling. It's certainly true that a home that is packed with green innovation can end up costing more than a home built without it, but at a 25% cost increase that's a far cry from the Rolling Hills Estates' builders cherry-picked example of 400% increases. Even if you take in such a large increase for the cost of, say, organic paint, there are a number of other ways to save money on the front end and mitigate such premiums. And though there might be cost premiums, all of them tend to pay for themselves over the life of the house, especially simple things like rainwater reclamation. And even given that, like with slightly more expensive hybrid cars, green homes seem to be a more attractive buy overall. And the allure is undeniable. As the market for mortgage refinancing shows, a single, steady payment is going to be far more attractive than those that can fluctuate wildly over time; with rising energy and, especially in the Southwest, water prices, the predictability of a fixed rate mortgage payment beats the uncertainty of climbing gas and electric prices. This simple concept, in fact, will probably be what drives microgeneration once the prices do come down low enough that it's not immediately priced out of most buyer's budgets. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2007/12/Tension-in-Residential-Green-Building Fri, 28 Dec 2007 22:09:22 -0500 http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2007/12/2007-Cleantech-Investings-Watershed-Year Maybe one could make the case that 2006 was a more critical year for cleantech investing. It was, after all, the year that saw venture capital investment in the industry break one billion dollars US. But at that point, it seemed the industry was still on the cusp. Would a 1980s-style turnaround and market growth in other sectors cancel out the effects of rising energy prices, or would the market be looking toward cleantech for the growth to drive the economy? 2007 seemed to answer that question, definitively. Energy prices have continued to fluctuate, sometimes dramatically so, prompting consumers, as well as corporate energy customers to start to look toward new ways of procuring energy and better ways of using what they have. And in spite of significant market instability, thanks to a long-pending credit crisis among subprime mortgage lenders, cleantech investing has continued to rise, on pace to double last year's total. That by itself would be considerable, but 2007 was also a year for cleantech's profile to rise considerably. On the investment side, Vinod Khosla became a known name in environmental circles, and there's no end to the upside of that kind of information. Khosla is one of the richest men in America and rightly regarded as an extremely savvy venture capitalist. Where he goes, industries tend to flourish, and he's been heavily invested in cleantech for some time now. Google and Virgin founder Richard Branson have poured their money into serious cleantech efforts, leading the way as they also tend to do. In the more public eye, former Vice President Al Gore saw his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, win an Oscar for Best Documentary and bring the whole question of global climate change to light, followed more recently by the awarding of the Novel Peace Prize for his efforts. Likewise, several corporations got on board strongly, including the aforementioned Google which turned much of the parking lot at the Mountain View, Ca. headquarters into a solar farm, Wal-Mart which has been developing a number of key cleantech developments for their retail outlets, and Home Depot which gave away over 1 million compact fluorescent light bulbs to shoppers on Earth Day. There's no reason why the trends that built steam in 2007 should not thunder forward in 2008, making it look as though 2007 was the critical year for cleantech and global climate change. In reality, there's been too many developments to list and they're all pointing to a strong and healthy future, not just for cleantech, but for the world as a whole. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2007/12/2007-Cleantech-Investings-Watershed-Year Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:33:25 -0500 http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2007/12/Political-Developments-in-Climate-Change Normally we don't focus too much on the over-arching questions of climate change, especially with regards to transportation, but there have been a couple of recent developments on the greater political front worth noting. First, on the Canadian front, one of the most conservative and libertarian Canadian provinces, Alberta, is moving in a very green direction with a high-speed rail proposed to link Calgary and Edmonton, the two biggest cities in the province. Where oil is as big as it is in Texas, one might think that the proposal of high-speed rail might be met with as much derision as, say, a Toyota plant in Detroit. Yet the idea seems to be gaining traction, and for two good reasons, leaving aside purely altruistic environmental reasons. One is that it seems unlikely that the fortunes of oil are going to drop and Alberta's revenue from such is unlikely to go down either, especially if oil prices start to make reclamation of oil from shale economical. The second is that oil will eventually run out, and the best thing that oil-rich areas can do is prepare themselves for that eventuality. The high prices of oil might be good for the local economy, but eventually the oil economy is going to collapse, and Alberta is working to make sure that it's as small a part of the equation before that happens. Pursuing that same philosophy, President Bush signed a sweeping energy bill this month, dramatically increasing automotive fuel efficiency standards as its headline-grabbing provision. The mandated increase is the largest since the 1970s energy crisis and, thankfully, it did not take an artificial oil shortage to make it happen--just an historic spike in energy prices. If the US is likewise going to minimize the oil economy and any damage that might come from its collapse, minimizing usage is going to be the first basic step. Critical to that is forcing the auto industry into applying expensive, fuel-saving technologies to its large-scale, profit-leading vehicles such as SUVs and minivans. Despite their protests, an increase in CAFE standards is one of the few ways the government can make that happen. Another intriguing provision in the bill is the gradual banning of incandescent light bulbs. Maybe a waste of legislation, but certainly seems to be one of those things where legislation is going to follow commercial trends. Compact fluorescents, LEDs, and even LECs (Light-Emitting Capacitors) are capturing the public's attention and dollar, and it's likely that the market for incandescent bulbs would likely be minimal within five years anyway. Still, nice to see that the government is paying attention to the need for changes in building standards. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2007/12/Political-Developments-in-Climate-Change Sun, 23 Dec 2007 10:46:32 -0500 http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2007/12/Green-Building-Makes-Sense The reports pointing out the wisdom of green building seem to be thick on the ground, but it never hurts to point out when a new one crops up. The reports themselves are invaluable, especially taken together where the sheer weight of them can often work to convince the skeptical or uncertain. So far, though, green building skeptics are hard to find and these kinds of reports serve to reinforce the underlying premises of the green building movement. As the report states, one of those key premises is that adoption of green building techniques could save huge percentages of energy usage over the next twenty years if broadly adopted. Andrew Burr, writing at CoStar Group, suggests that rising energy prices have buoyed the green building industry, and in one sense he's certainly correct. The alarming rise of energy prices over the past few years have placed an urgency on the questions of efficiency and conservation that were not there as recently as the Kyoto Conference in 1998. Some believed that the situation was urgent, but a new energy crisis had not yet made it urgent on multiple fronts. So there's little surprise that many more are looking for options, other than giving more of their money to big energy companies. But there's also an inevitability of sorts to green building. Even if, for instance, you believe that global supplies of coal, oil, and natural gas are effectively unlimited, there's still a) a growing demand for them and b) a finite rate at which they can be extracted, transported, and processed. In some ways, this is what is happening already, though OPEC tends to place artificial controls on the flow of oil. One way or another, then, it's likely we would have been faced with an energy bottleneck at some point, and a move into cleantech and green building the only reasonable course to maintain standard of living and economic growth. Meanwhile, the movement seems to be producing unexpected solutions, such as the use of geothermal in Illinois. Far from the traditional geothermal hotspots, like the American West and Indonesia, Illinois nonetheless has found geothermal to be an effective and affordable alternative for over 65 installations statewide. Green building makes sense and will continue to do so, even if fuel prices were to level off or, unthinkably, decline over the long term. http://www.cleantechgreentech.com/2007/12/Green-Building-Makes-Sense Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:13:15 -0500