Ideas on Energy: Mid-Atlantic Energy Technology Forum Looks to the Industry’s Future

(Note: This is reposted from my friends at Pepper Hamiliton LLP, co-hosts of the Mid-Atlantic Energy Technology Forum with the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, of which I am co-founder.)

The future of the energy industry; the technologies with the potential to impact energy exploration, delivery and efficiency; and the energy industry investment climate were on the agenda at the 6^th Annual Mid-Atlantic Energy Technology Forum.

Pepper’s Energy and Emerging Company Groups hosted the April 3, 2014 event in Philadelphia, along with the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (which served as the event venue) and the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic. Nearly 300 energy industry professionals were in attendance.

The Forum kicked off with an investor panel moderated by Pepper partner Thomas P. Dwyer that discussed the current strategic and financial climate and what to expect in the energy sector in 2014. The featured panelists were George Coyle, manager, investments technology ventures, ConocoPhillips Company; Bill Kingsley, managing director of EnerTech Capital; Michael Smith, vice president, head of Constellation Technology Ventures at Exelon; and Annie Theriault, vice president of the Northwater Intellectual Property Fund.

Dwyer asked the panelists how the long-term viability of energy technology is perceived in the marketplace, to which Coyle responded, “Energy technology has always been there and will continue to be. While we saw a drop in cleantech investment, we’re still invested in a number of cleantech companies, including the first commercial carbon capture plant in Texas.”

“Oil and gas are booming, and those industries continue to drive the need for technologies that help them to be more efficient and sustainable. It’s difficult to supply energy and it takes energy to do that, so there’s no shortage of need for technology that streamlines those processes,” Coyle said.

Smith said that as an electric power provider, his company is seeing a paradigm shift in how businesses and individuals make and use power, which will likely change the way energy and related services are provided going forward. “Disruption in our industry is coming from the outside. People are making devices to make buildings smarter, and those innovations are coming from technology people, not energy people,” Smith said.
Dwyer then posed a thought-provoking question to the panelists: Will there be a Google or Apple of the energy space, or is the industry too regulated for that to happen?

Kingsley said, “It won’t happen in the next two or three years. The utility system in the United States is brilliant in the way it was set up in the 1920s and 30s. But, that investment model is now creaky. Everyone is looking at doing something with natural gas – there wasn’t much going on in that space 15 years ago. Utilities can’t plan effectively in that environment.”

“That’s right from my perspective,” Smith said. “Customers increasingly determine their fate, and we’re seeing an erosion of the energy paradigm that’s been around for 100 years.”

Coyle added, “We’re seeing a reversal of roles. Instead of creating more devices to take power off the grid, we’re seeing new ways of putting power back on the grid.”

Dwyer asked the panelists about trends in exits in the energy space, and Theriault said that exits involving IP in the software space are doing well. “On the M&A side and public company exits, energy is still a tricky market and will continue to be challenging,” she said.

Kingsley said, “We had people who walked away from the cleantech sector who are now coming back, so it’s a cyclical market. I like it – there are fewer investors, so the deal prices are better.”

The discussion closed with the panelists’ thoughts on opportunities and challenges for energy technology in the Mid-Atlantic region. Coyle said that while there are many very good energy technology professionals in the region, the challenge is getting the best and brightest minds to care about energy and see it as a career path, as it is seen in Houston and other parts of the country where the energy sector is more dominant. He also said that perspective may change now that Pennsylvania is one of the largest energy production states, thanks to the Marcellus Shale.

“There is no dearth of activity in this region, and I am not at all concerned about the viability of energy technology in the Mid-Atlantic,” Smith said.

A company showcase followed the panel discussion, and featured five innovative companies, which each presented a snapshot of their company’s energy-focused technologies. Kevin Brown of Hobbes & Towne introduced the presenting companies:

• Applied Communication Sciences has developed an innovative grid technology product that is getting traction in the marketplace. For example, the company’s utility pole sensors are deployed in the Sacramento Utility District to better monitor its network.
• Essess is a mobile thermal imaging technology company that can map a building’s energy loss – identifying leaks in a building envelope undetectable by the human eye – and provide remediation services.
• Infinite Invention LLC provides the ConnectDER, an electric power meter that mounts between a standard utility meter and the meter case to provide a quick, safe, inexpensive way to connect solar homes to the grid.
• Preferred Technology, LLC provides environmentally friendly resin-coated sand products to the fracking industry; coated sand prevents wells from clogging during the fracking process.
• Solar Grid Storage LLC “makes solar better with batteries,” providing a containerized storage solution that changes solar power into grid power by adding batteries to solar photovoltaic installations.

Scott Anderson of Ernst & Young’s Global Cleantech Center then introduced keynote speaker Bob Inglis, a former congressman from South Carolina and executive director of the Energy and Enterprise Initiative (E&EI) at George Mason University, to close out the program.

Inglis founded the E&EI in 2012 on the conservative principles of free enterprise and economic growth, limited government, liberty, accountability and reasonable risk avoidance to solve the country’s energy and climate challenges.

“At E&EI, we believe that free enterprise can fix climate change,” Inglis said. “Our proposal involves cutting income taxes and replacing it with a carbon tax – in effect, reducing taxes on income, which you want more of, and taxing something you want less of.”

The event program is available online at http://www.pepperlaw.com/pdfs/Energy_Tech_Forum_Program_Book_2014.pdf.

Coming Up: 6th Annual Mid-Atlantic Energy Tech Investment Forum

Six years. We've been running these cleantech and energy tech investment forums for six years. And by "we" I mean my co-founder of the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, Kevin Brown of Hobbs & Towne, and me, along with our pal Tom Dwyer, who was part of the original team putting this show together.

Now Tom is at Pepper Hamilton, which joins us as co-sponsor this year, but we'll be at the same venue, as the past few years, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Or as my kids used to call it, the "dinosaur museum."

This year, we've got another stellar line up, with keynote speaker Bob Inglis, former U.S. Representative for South Carolina's 4th Congressional District, who lost his seat to a tea-party challenger because of his outspoken free-market acknowledgment of climate change and support for green energy solutions. 

Bob went on the found the Energy and Enterprise Initiative at George Mason University, an independent think-tank devoted to promoting free enterprise solutions to climate and energy issues. In other words, he's one of the good guys and you won't want to miss what he has to say.

We'll also have an investor panel, featuring

• George Coyle, Manager, Investments Technology Ventures, ConocoPhillips Company
• Michael Smith, Vice President, Head of Constellation Technology Ventures at Exelon
• Annie Theriault, Vice President, Northwater Capital
• Tucker Twitmyer, Managing Director, EnerTech Capital

And, of course, our ever-popular company showcase and cocktails with the dinosaurs.

When: April 3rd, 2014, from 4:00 - 7:30 

Where: Academy of Natural Science, Philadelphia, PA 

Be there or be square. Here's how to register for the event: REGISTER

Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 02/25/11

As I write this there's a strong odor of natural gas outside my house. Philadelphia Gas Works has been notified and is sending someone out.  But if you don't hear from me after this post, you will know why.

Speaking of gas...

David Anthony, Managing Partner of 21Ventures, asked Is there a future for hydrogen? in a post in OnGreen.com this week. Seems there are a lot of hurdles for hydrogen and still a l-o-n-g way to go, especially with natural gas being readily available and cheaper for many uses.  I just don't see how hydrogen competes.

Meanwhile, former Google climate and energy technology manager Jeffrey Greenblatt, now of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory imagines the low-carbon energy system of the future: Think Biomass, Not Natural Gas.

Katie Fehrenbacher sees the future of cleantech investing: Cleantech 2.0.

And former South Carolina GOP Representative Bob Inglis says it's Time to Change What We Tax. 

A new study concludes that Solar Power Growth is Up 70 percent worldwide,while Ucilia Wang of Earth2Tech lists 7 Fear Factors That Move Solar Stocks.

Car & Driver does its first drive revie of the Fisker Karma and finds the plug-in hybrid "a beautiful, luxurious machine that goes easy on the guilt."

A Harvard Study Estimates Coal Power Has $300 to $500 Billion in Hidden Costs, while Mireya Navarro of the New York Times' Green blog wonders if carbon trading alive and well? Carbon Auction Yields $16.9 Million for New York.

Dan Yurman, writing in The Energy Collective, talks about the former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who argues for recycling spent nuclear fuel: Spent Nuclear Fuel is Actually Full of Energy.

And, finally, The Economist wonders whether so-called "black carbon" can fight pollution and help the climate at same time? Climate Change in Black and White.
 
Have a great weekend.  Hope to see you next week.

GOP Bob Inglis Goes 'On-the-Record' About Climate Change

Whatever you think about Bob Inglis (R-South Carolina), you've got to hand it to him for going out "on-the-record" on climate change and calling out his peeps for missing the commercial opportunity.

Here's a clip of his remarks via ThinkProgress:




And here are some of the best bits:

Kim Beazley who's Australia's ambassador to the United States tells me that when he runs into a climate skeptic, he says to them, "Make sure to say that very publicly, because I want our grandchildren to read what you said and what I said."

Tom Friedman gave me this great analogy yesterday -- Your child is sick. 98 doctors say treat him this way. Two say no, this other way is the way to go. I'll go with the two. You're taking a big risk with those kids. Because 98 of the doctors say, "Do this thing," two say, "Do the other."...

And I would also suggest to my Free Enterprise colleagues -- especially conservatives here -- whether you think it's all a bunch of hooey, what we've talked about in this committee, the Chinese don't. And they plan on eating our lunch in this next century. They plan on innovating around these problems, and selling to us, and the rest of the world, the technology that'll lead the 21st century.

So we may just press the pause button here for several years, but China is pressing the fast-forward button.

And as a result, if we wake up in several years and we say, "gee, this didn't work very well for us. The two doctors didn't turn out to be so right. 98 might have been the ones to listen to." Then what we'll find is we're way behind those Chinese folks.

Because you know, if you got a certain number of geniuses in the population -- if you're one in a million in China, there's 1300 of you. And you know what? They plan on leading the future.

So whether you -- if you're a free enterprise conservative here -- just think: it's a bunch of hooey, this science is a bunch of hooey. But if you miss the commercial opportunity, you've really missed something.

We have a lot of people who make a lot of money on talk radio and talk TV saying a lot of things. They slept at a Holiday Inn Express last night, and they're experts on climate change. And those folks substitute their judgment for people who have PhDs and work tirelessly to discover the data.