The Abrams Clean Tech Report

 

Clean Edge issues ’09 State of Green Business Report, Clean Tech Open Launch 3/19 (Discount Registration Code Noted), and Upcoming Events

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

Hey folks – a couple of notes for the day…while I’m here at home recuperating from some minor surgery in our as of yet still-somewhat-unpacked new abode, multi-tasking, trying to write a proposal while finishing this blog…

Clean Edge has come out with its 6th annual Clean Energy Trends 2009. You can download the report here: http://cleanedge.com/reports/reports-trends2009.php. No surprises from Clean Edge in the expectation that revenues from cleantech companies will be flat or slightly declining this year; but what was interesting for me yesterday morning was hearing the perspectives of the Clean Edge team. Micro-power and grid transmission technologies will make headlines this year; and utility scale energy storage is getting interesting. Perhaps not surprising, but I am particularly fascinated by micro power stuff. I had taken note a year or two a go when people started talking about micro-scale power, but it was so early, I didn’t really dig into the subject. But my ears perked up with interest to hear Joel’s comments about Walmart, which has 2 stores currently running on micro grids…taking the first steps to control its own power destiny. Whether Walmart will eventually become a power provider…we’ll see. Very interesting idea to think about though, considering that a few years ago, I remember thinking that utilities were going to look very different in the future from how they look today. There is much more to garner from the report, including Clean Edge forecasts for the wind, biofuels, and solar PV markets. The firm also provides an analysis of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009, signed into law by President Obama. $70 billion in direct spending and tax credits for clean energy and transportation programs. Finally!

Next on my writing agenda: consider this a heads up: the 4th Annual Clean Tech Open Competition will kick of March 19 at San Jose City Hall. More here. I’ve provided a link to a discount code below for those of you who’d like to attend. Past winners of the Clean Tech Open are busy and if you’re looking for interesting cleantech businesses to fund-check out CTO companies. I’ve given some brief background on last year’s winners below. Through the CTO there are plenty of opportunities to speak with alums as they’re working on their ventures, and if you’re seriously interested in funding opportunities with any of these companies, you can contact them either through CTO staff or directly.

As a bit of background, to date, there are 125 alumni companies from 3 annual Clean Tech Open competitions that have taken place; 84% are still active; over 500 people have been employed by alumni companies, with 1248 projected employees by end of ’09; all told, alums have secured $125 mio in private funding to date, and are serving almost 1000 customers already. So this morning when I sat on the 2nd Clean Tech Open Briefing call, it was great to see how the Clean Tech Open has taken even the next step in its growth. The organization has launched an Accelerator program for participating companies; and expanded even further, announcing they have expanded into the Northwest. Expect 3 rounds of elimination in this year’s competition – i.e. you can pass go, then you have to pass another round – the semi-finalist round, and then there’s the winner’s circle, if you’re lucky. Good luck. Good news: the CTO has volunteers working on translating what the federal monies mean in terms of opportunities for companies interested/looking to take advantage of federal funds. It doesn’t get better than that. Sign up now, while it’s cheap to do so, if you’re a start-up interested in participating.

A few details:
-Your team must have at least 2 members
-You must have no more than 300k in third party funding at registration
-All team members must be US citizens or legal residents
-You can register at www.CleanTechOpen.com
-Create a team online in one of six categories
-The cost is $125 until 3/31.

Just a note for those of you who may/may not be local, or haven’t really followed what’s happened with the CTO: The Clean Tech Open is really paving the way for entrepreneurs to work as closely with various influencers in the clean tech community as possible. Truly. I can’t really think of an organization more tightly intertwined with all the necessary moving parts that can achieve what the CTO is able to achieve. This morning, for example, the discussion was around how to work with investor owned utilities, and what to expect if a company is an emerging technology, in working with an IOU. You might think that’s sort of mundane, but in truth, the CTO has really created a forum for real entrepreneurship, Silicon Valley-style, that shows off the best of what Silicon Valley can do and make possible. The information shared this morning was invaluable; the discussion around IOUs should be a total giveaway as to just how important the topic of ‘smart grid’ has become around here. Panelists this morning included Robyn Zander Program Manager, Southern California Edison, Abdullah Ahmed, Emergin Tech Manager, SDG&E, and Joanne Medvitz, Sr. Program Manager, Tech Transfer, PG&E, and discussed was the IOUs’ proposed technology resource outreach incubator program (TRIO) for emerging technology vendors, as well as how emerging technology companies can engage with IOUs.

Ultimately, such coordinated efforts demonstrate that the goal is to speed the commercialization of energy efficient technologies, and what you’re witnessing by attending such CTO events is a view to the “all hands on deck” mentality making it happen now. The Clean Tech Open as an organization has this unique ability to get all the necessary participants to the table to make these sorts of things happen, bridging the gaps in the market where emerging technologies often have difficulty getting commercialized, whether between public and private sector parties or otherwise. Anyway, look for the next CTO briefing to include a panel of representatives from some of the local labs. It’ll be extremely educational, and give you a marvelous glimpse into the inner workings of Silicon Valley tech transfer as it happens between labs, entrepreneurs, and the money inbetween…

For a discount code – use: LaraLaunch to receive a 25% discount for the Clean Tech Open Launch on the 19th. You can register here: http://www.cleantechopen.com/app.cgi/events/view/62

And here’s my brief bit about the 2008 winners – for those of you who missed it – which included…
- Over the Moon Diapers (eco-friendly diapering)
- Viridis Earth (residential HVAC retrofit)
- BottleStone (ceramic stone surface material with lower carbon footprint)
- Focal Point Energy (Solar hot water and steam generation for industrial applications)
- Power Assure (on-demand energy efficiency)
- ElectraDrive (rapid, inexpensive adaptation of existing vehicles to electric drive)

About ElectraDrive
Winner of the Transportation Prize at the 2008 California Clean Tech Open, and just nominated for a Crunchie, ElectraDrive is commercializing technologies to bring plug-and-play functionality to vehicle electrification. ElectraDrive offers a fully-integrated extended-range electric drivetrain to replace a vehicle’s gas drivetrain. The company has created a common underlying platform possessing the capability to rapidly integrate a wide variety of supported electric drive components into a wide range of vehicles. Their products include: ElectraMount, a continuously adjustable mounting frame for electric drive components, which allows components to be rapidly installed into vehicles whose gas drivetrains have been removed; and ElectraCore, another one of ElectraDrive’s products, is a proprietary operating system and data architecture allowing diverse supported electric drive components to be integrated and controlled within a variety of vehicle platforms using plug-and-play functionality. It can be plugged into the mains to recharge, but it also can be charged on the go from an onboard generator. The range-extending generator removes any worry about running out of juice. By retaining the existing gas tank, a car can go more than 2000 miles between fill-ups in mixed driving, provided it is plugged in at night. Overall fuel consumption may be reduced by a factor of ten. An ElectraDrive system can equally convert an existing vehicle or electrify a new ‘roller’ (vehicle without drivetrain) off the production line. ElectraDrive’s core technologies take advantage of the modularity of electric drive components to provide many different ‘flavors’ of its drive system, configured to meet the needs of different vehicles (such as front-wheel-drive or rear-wheel-drive) and driving cycles (for example, urban vs. highway). Contact Ray Jenks (415) 609-3425 rnj@electradrive.net or Fraser Murison Smith, 415.425.9891, fdms@electradrive.net, for more information.

Viridis Earth
Viridis Earth’s HelioMist technology was awarded the CCTO’s 2008 Energy Efficiency Award. The product is commercialized by AC Research Lab, Inc., which is currently in residence at the San Jose Environmental Business Cluster. Viridis has devised a $350 retrofitting device for residential and small commercial air conditioners (think old AC units) that it says will pay for itself in a single season of use. Contact Tuyen Vo, at tvo@viridisearth.com for more information.

About Power Assure
Power Assure was the 2008 Smart Power Category Winner at the CCTO awards. The company aims to make the average data center 50-80 percent more efficient by offering a platform service drawing from multiple other vendors. The company’s key solution set, Pasergy, is an energy efficiency management software application that says it can provide a range of energy savings solutions for virtualized or conventional web server farms and data centers. Contact Donnie Foster , 650.302.3219, dkfoster@powerassure.com, for more information.

About Over The Moon Diapers
Currently in focus group tests, Over the Moon Diapers is largely still in stealth. Jennifer will tell you she fixated on diapers while pregnant…long story short – Over The Moon Diapers was born. For more information, I encourage you to connect with the company’s founder, Jennifer Billock. Contact Jennifer at 415.648.5147, or jen@billock.com for more information.

About Focal Point Energy
Focal Point Energy is a company whose founder, Allen Bronstein waited 17 years for the right market entry opportunity. Bronstein had to shelve his initial concept due to market conditions all those years ago, but Bronstein is back at it again today. Focal Point Energy provides process heat and steam for commercial applications using a solar hot water and steam generator. The company stretches a reflective membrane instead of bigger, more expensive mirrors, between steel frames to generate thermal steam. The resulting effect provides steam for about 10 hours a day, and is light enough to mount on rooftops. Contact Allen Bronstein, at 650.796.1065 or gosolar46@gmail.com for more information.

About BottleStone
BottleStone’s founder says he’s a ceramic artist with a scientific background, so BottleStone’s concept is no surprise. “I’m a recycler at heart,” Paul told the audience last week at the Commonwealth Club. “20 years ago, I was recycling brewer’s yeast in tiles and trying all kinds of different things. I finally developed Bottlestone, which is 80% waste glass from recycling.” It’s a beautiful product, if you haven’t seen it – or perhaps you have…the company’s had its products displayed in a Sunset design home. Bottlestone provides a green alternative to stone slabs while also meeting or exceeding all of the other heat, scratch and stain resistant characteristics of stone slabs, not to mention a wonderful array of colors. It’s eligible for LEED* credits and the waste glass the company uses is direct from post-consumer (glass bottles), and is generated in Northern California, requiring no further processing before its use in BottleStone. The company’s initial point of market entry is countertop slabs. For more information, contact Michael Looney at mike@bottlestone.com or 650 949 0999.

Finally – I promised Linda Holroyd that I would spread the word regarding FountainBlue’s next Clean Energy Entrepreneurs’ Forum – Topic: Working with the Utilities. Also great events to go to, the Fountainblue panel will feature Facilitator Craig Lobdell, Director, KPMG; Lee Cooper, Manager, Emerging Technologies, Customer Energy Efficiency Pacific Gas and Electric Company; Gerd Goette, Managing Partner, Siemens Ventures; Elise Zoli, Partner and Chair, Clean Energy Practice, Goodwin Procter LLC, and a panelist from Electric Power Research Institute, still to be confirmed
Date & Time: Monday, April 6 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Location: EPRI, 3420 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto
Audience: Clean Energy Entrepreneurs, Intrapreneurs & Investors,
No Service Providers Please
Registration: http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=162509 by Friday, April 3 at noon.

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