10 Favs; 10 Years: A Tale of Two Cleantech Companies -- One Failure, One Success

Here's another favorite from the past decade. I did a deep dive on two cleantech companies for the IMPACT investor conference back in 2011. I looked at the examples of Solyndra and CPower and examined why one failed and the other succeeded. This post included my original slides via SlideShare:

I recently presented "A Tale of Two Cleantech Companies: A case study of what leads to a successful exit or a stunning failure" at the IMPACT 2011 Venture Summit Mid-Atlantic in Philadelphia, PA.

I told the stories of Solyndra and CPower and how they failed and succeeded, respectively.

Here are my slides from the presentation:

Scott Edward Anderson A Tale of Two Cleantech Companies from Scott Edward Anderson

And here is a transcript of my notes/talking points on Scribd: A Tale of Two Cleantech Companies

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

What's Going On: My Remarks from Cleantech Open Northeast

Investor panel at Cleantech Open NE Kick Off in Philly. 

Cleantech startups, like any new venture, need a leg up. That's where accelerators like Cleantech Open come in.

If you don’t know Cleantech Open, it’s an accelerator that has been helping cleantech startups and entrepreneurs launch, improve, and fund their businesses since 2006.

Last night, I delivered the keynote to kick off Cleantech Open NE in Philadelphia.  My remarks centered around three areas: ten trends and drivers, four reminders, and five things I’d like to see in the cleantech sector or hopeful signs.

First, the 10 trends and drivers:

1. The VCs have left the building. Well, some of them. There’s been a capital “Shakedown Street” as VCs/LPs are backing out of cleantech. (Tucker Twitmyer offered the statistic that there were 184 investors in the cleantech space a few years ago; now there are a dozen.) And even CALpers is complaining publicly about getting burned in cleantech at the 2013 ECO:nomics conference. 
2. Reduced government subsidies, at least in Europe and US, if not China. 
3. Yet, natural resources, the environment, and food are among the top business risks called out in the WEF 2013 Global Risk report.
4. And the food-water-energy nexus is one of top mega trends identified in the US National Intelligence Council report Global Trends 2030. 
5. While Renewable Energy is becoming more cost competitive with "traditional” energy sources, and costs are coming down, particularly for solar, we may yet see a temporary increase in solar prices as the industry rationalizes. But the overall trend is down. Good for you and me; may not be so good for companies. 
6. According to a recent EY survey, the resource use and the “energy mix” are becoming “C-suite” issues, but few companies have long-term strategies to deal with resource scarcity. 
7. China, China, China: Both their own development & investment outside of China (in US companies; elsewhere) is something to behold…but, guess what, it’s largely fueled by coal and oil. Sure they are making huge advances in RE technology adoption, yet it's Old King Coal is driving their merry old economic growth. 
8. Corporations increasingly see cleantech as an innovation pipeline, not just for strategic investments and M&A. 
9. Consolidation happens: M&As, flame-outs, and bankruptcies, but wait…we’ve even had a couple of IPOS! 
10. Natural gas is displacing coal slowly for generation, chiefly for new cogen development, which may provide an opportunity to accelerate the most promising, available renewable energy technologies. On the other hand, some argue it is largely damaging RE prospects. 

Next, 4 things we need to remember:

1. As I wrote on The Green Skeptic back in August: we need to remember Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Technology. We’re currently sitting in the trough of disillusionment, somewhere between the peak of inflated expectations and the slope of enlightenment. (Hopefully, it’s not a slippery slope.) 
2. We need to remember that energy transition is dynamic and full of risk. There will be flame-outs and successes. 
3. We need to stop bickering about Tar Sands and Natural Gas – these are part of the transition away from a fossil fuel based society, In some ways, they may buy us time to get the best technologies to maturity. 
4. We need to focus on adaptation, with a capital A. The die is cast, and smart government leaders like Christie, Bloomberg, and Nutter are working on adaptation as much or more than avoidance. It IS too late to turn back now and there is no global will to stop the carbon train. So, if it ain’t gonna stop, let’s figure out what we can do to adapt and deal. 

And finally, 5 things the sector needs now or hopeful signs:

1. Cleanweb – or as I see it, get the best minds of the younger generation to apply the same creativity and excitement to energy and resource efficiency that they do to gaming and social web distractions. We need more business model innovation rather than technical innovation. 
2. Level the playing field. Subsidy free, for all! Rather than subsidy free-for-all! If it’s a free market, let it be free. And let the winners win and the losers lose. 
3. Get government out of the business of picking winners and focused on R&D. Solyndras will happen, but it shouldn't be on the public dime. 
4. Get the partisans out of the picture. Cleantech, the environment, and energy are neither Republican nor Democrat issues. We can’t let this partisan divide tear this sector apart. 
5. Now, more than ever, we should focus on the killer app or business model innovation of today not the platform “game-changer” of tomorrow. As my pal Tucker says, this is a game of incremental progress punctuated by breakthroughs that will take 50 years to commercialize. The good news is, the increments are meaningful.

Those were my thoughts shared with the audience last night in Philadelphia. Let me know what you think.

For Advanced Materials Like NanoSteel, Patience and Focus Are Virtues

"Could the humble sea urchin hold the key to carbon capture?"

I get a lot of press releases and articles. Most of them I ignore: a revolutionary high energy green food or lifestyle product, which I don't cover on The Green Skeptic.

But the other day, as I was preparing for the Greater Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technology/Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic luncheon panel on advanced materials and nanotechnology, I came across one with this headline: "Could the humble sea urchin hold the key to carbon capture?"

An article on the subject by Dave Lewis also came in from my friends at The Energy Collective. Both were about some new research conducted by experts at the University of Newcastle in the UK. They’d recently published a paper, "Nickel nanoparticles catalyse reversible hydration of carbon dioxide for mineralization carbon capture and storage."

Why was it relevant to our discussion yesterday?

The researchers, Gaurav Bhaduri and Lidija Šiller, discovered that nickel nanoparticles catalyze the reaction that turns CO2 in water into carbonic acid.

Their discovery came after finding high concentrations of nickel ions on the surface of sea urchin larvae, suggesting to them that nickel plays a role in forming the sea urchin's exoskeleton.

"You bubble CO2 through the water in which you have nickel nanoparticles and you are trapping much more carbon than you would normally," Šiller told a reporter at the BBC, as quoted by Lewis. "And then you can easily turn it into calcium carbonate."

Calcium carbonate – we call it chalk – makes up around 4 percent of the Earth’s crust and acts as a carbon reservoir. Thus, it’s possible this research could lead to new ways to capture CO2 at its sources.

Admittedly, this is only research at this stage, still a long way from any practical applications, but as we heard from our panelists yesterday, this is how things work in the advanced materials space.

Breakthroughs in advance materials are happening every day. Whether catalysts and solvents improving energy generation and storage or membranes for better water filtration and air purification.

From materials fostering greater energy efficiency to nanomaterials used in the latest clean technologies, advanced materials provide solutions to make products more efficient, less expensive, safer, and even longer lasting.

In fact, advanced materials are all around us, and some are so ubiquitous as to be taken for granted: from superconducting materials in our computers and smartphones to LEDs for lighting; from lightweight bicycles to turbine blades, magnetic storage devices, and even shampoos.

Yesterday's panel provided a great opportunity to explore the world of advanced materials and nanotechnology with a group of investors and entrepreneurs in the space. Tucker Twitmyer of EnerTech Capital, Joseph King of DuPont Ventures, Mike DeSimone of DeSimone Group Investments, and David Paratore of NanoSteel.

NanoSteel logo

NanoSteel, as the name implies, is a leader in nano-structured steel material designs. Paratore, the president and CEO shared the story of how their relationship with automaker GM developed.

Through EnerTech, NanoSteel got a meeting with GM. The meeting didn't go well. It was clear they thought NanoSteel's technology was "cute," but not ready for them.

"If you can help us save weight in our automobiles by offering very high strength steel with high formability, come back and talk to us," GM said.

At the time, they couldn't. But NanoSteel now had a target and started to focus on it. As they did, they got closer and closer to realizing what the company was after and hence a relationship ensued.

Finding your focus is key, Paratore suggested, relentless focus on the commercial value of your enterprise. Without it, you risk being just an academic exercise.

That GM had a problem worth solving – and one that NanoSteel hadn't considered before – was a bit of serendipity.

Stories like that are not unfamiliar in the advanced materials space. Mike DeSimone told of how the iPhone got its glass.

"Gorilla Glass" was the brainchild of researchers at Corning in 1960, but it was an idea whose product had not yet come. It languished on the shelf for many years, until Steve Jobs was struggling with what became the iPhone.

Jobs wanted a glass that wasn't plastic, which scratched easily; something that thin, light, and damage-proof.

Corning had developed just such a glass in 1960 – then called "muscled glass" – but it was mothballed after Corning couldn't find enough commercial applications for the product.

Jobs learned about it and convinced Corning’s CEO Wendell Weeks to produce the glass for Apple's iPhone.

As of October 2012, according to Corning, Gorilla Glass has been used in over one billion mobile devices. Not bad for a mothballed advanced material.

Both Tucker Twitmyer and Joseph King warned that investors need to have a long time-horizon when they think about investing in advanced materials. Yet, they offered, the long-term "shelf life" of these products can make the companies producing them very attractive.

And it was clear from the two stories shared -- and other stories from companies such as OxiCool -- that there's a need for connectors. People who can be a part of the "seeking ecosystem" of a company – for either the one with the solution or the one with the problem.

My five takeaways about the advanced materials space (that are, frankly, applicable to other subsectors in cleantech) from yesterday's panel:

1. Advanced materials are everywhere – in some cases we're talking about new materials and in others old materials with new properties used in a different way, a change in the core application. 
2. Patience is required, both as an investor and as an entrepreneur: the time horizon is long, but so is the shelf-life. 
3. Focus is key for entrepreneurs – relentless focus on commercial value, as Dave Paratore put it, but also remaining nimble enough to recognize and adapt to opportunities. 
4. For service providers, there are opportunities to help companies in the space build relationships and partnerships, make introductions, to be part of the company's "seeking organization." 
5. IP = value creation in advanced materials science.

(Disclosure: The author is co-founder and board member of the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic and sits on an Advisory Panel for The Energy Collective.)

Is the Sky Falling for Cleantech Investment?

As Henny Penny cried, "The sky is falling, the sky is falling."

And to look at the latest report on quarterly cleantech venture investment released last week by Cleantech Group, one might think the same is true for this sector.

"Measured by dollars invested, cleantech venture investment fell 14 percent compared to the previous quarter ($1.88 billion) and was off 25 percent from 2Q11 ($2.15 billion),” according to the Cleantech Group. “The number of deals recorded in 2Q12 was 155, compared to 197 in 1Q12. The tally may rise again once all investors have reported all deals."

But does it really mean the sky is falling?

“Despite headwinds facing the sector and global economic instability, we continue to observe top tier funds such as Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, NEA, and others actively investing into cleantech,” said Cleantech Group CEO Sheeraz Haji in a press release. 

“While some may be ducking ‘cleantech’ as a label in North America," Haji noted, "growth in technologies addressing resource and energy challenges remains strong and both corporate and investor interest remains high.”

"The dip in cleantech venture capital this year is not unexpected," Dallas Kachan of Kachan & Co., wrote in an email to me last week. "We forecasted a decrease in cleantech VC in 2012 due to a tightening in the investor fundraising climate, waning policy support in the developed world, perennial concerns about IRRs in cleantech and macro-economic turbulence and other factors.”

Another factor may be that investors who were dabbling in cleantech the past couple of years have fled the sector, which may have artificially inflated the numbers in previously quarters and years.

I've also been hearing from several investors and entrepreneurs with whom I speak to regularly, that there's still an overall belt-tightening in the investor world.

Other investors may not be convinced the sector will thrive without a carbon price, which we won't see any time before the November election -- if then!


The news isn't all grim, however, and venture capital is not the only money in the sector.

Increasingly, big companies are filling the gap from the venture community and those firms that are in it for the long haul are making follow-on investments. 

"The largest companies in the world are buying their way into clean technology markets," Kachan noted in the same email exchange, "supplementing the role of traditional private equity and evidencing a maturation of the cleantech sector. A decrease in venture is being made up for by a rise in corporate involvement in cleantech."

Still, there has been a shakeout in cleantech companies as subsidies get pulled and follow-on money ceases its flow.

"A lot of cleantech startups have been getting shaken out and will continue to do so," wrote Rob Day in his excellent take on the Cleantech Group findings.

Day also noted some positive news, however, that Limited Partners (LPs) "finally appear to be slowly getting   back into the habit of funding cleantech venture capital firms. So I think we'll see a pickup in deal flow in the second half of the year. But probably not enough to forestall the ongoing shakeout."

As Day and others have noted, deal counts may be more indicative than dollars when it comes to judging the overall health of investing in the sector.

The top two sub-sectors in terms of deal counts in the Cleantech Group report? Energy efficiency and water.

How to Save a Planet - On a Budget: New ebook featuring The Green Skeptic

My insights on cleantech investing are featured in a new ebook from The Energy Collective. How to Save a Planet - On a Budget. 

Built from the webinar we did last November, the book offers insights from over a dozen experts in the field and includes pertinent information for companies, investors, and clean energy advocates. 

The book asks the critical question, How can we drive progress to a clean energy economy when governments are broke and investment is scarce?

My thoughts can be found in Chapter 3, "The Changing Shape of Clean Tech Investment."  

Download it free here: How to Save a Planet - On a Budget

For those concerned about the planet’s well-being, it’s one of the crucial questions of our time, one that may have implications for our environment for generations. In a time of financial scarcity, our goal at TheEnergyCollective.com is to figure out how companies and governments can shift to greener, cleaner consumption of energy, and, most importantly, how they will pay for the infrastructure projects that are essential to limiting our output of climate change-causing greenhouse gases.

To that end, we conversed with a diverse group of experts and examined case studies that describe viable solutions to our climate crisis in the midst of an economic crisis. We hope this content will be of interest to energy professionals looking to learn about where the industry is going, those in cleantech interested in financing solutions, those in government hoping to improve local infrastructure, and advocates, journalists, policymakers and policy wonks looking for the latest insight on market solutions to climate problems. 

We cover:

• Paying the true cost of energy through carbon pricing
• Can carbon markets drive green innovation and infrastructure?
• Public-private cooperation for a greener economy
• The economic case for green infrastructure
• Cleantech startups and the venture capital funding climate
• Federal policy and cleantech

Featuring Input from:

• Gernot Wagner, Environmental Defense Fund
• Marc Gunther, FORTUNE
• Jesse Jenkins, Breakthrough Institute
• Will Coleman, Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures
• Thiemo Gropp, co-founder, DESERTEC Foundation
• Andrew Carman, Head of Americas for Project & Structured Finance - Infrastructure, Cities & Industry, Siemens Financial Services, Inc.
• Jo Danko, Global Director for Sustainable Solutions, CH2M HILL
• Lucas Merrill Brown, Rhodes Scholar, Oxford
• Kirk Edelman, President and CEO, Siemens Financial Services U.S
• Lane Burt, Technical Policy Director, USGBC
• Lee Thiessen, Executive Director for Climate Change Policy and British Columbia’s Climate Action Secretariat
• Janet Peace, VP of Business and Markets Strategies, C2ES
• Dan Shugar, CEO, Solaria
• Scott Edward Anderson, founder, VerdeStrategy

Download it free here: How to Save a Planet - On a Budget

Why Cleanweb Will Beat Cleantech

Blake Burris and my friends at Cleanweb Hackathon have created an excellent primer on "Why Cleanweb Will Beat Cleantech."

Have a look:

Why Cleanweb Will Beat Cleantech

View more presentations from Blake Burris

You might also enjoy the narrated version of the deck on YouTube by @cleanwebvc: CleanWeb

Contrarian Investors Take Stage at Mid-Atlantic Cleantech Investment Forum

"Energy efficiency is the cleaner energy option that pays for itself," suggested Mark Fulton to the large crowd gathered for the Mid-Atlantic Cleantech Investment Forum last Thursday evening. "It applies already existing technologies at scale with no government funding and a payback of 2-4 years." 

Mark Fulton

Fulton is Managing Director and Global Head of Climate Change Investment Research and Strategy with Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors, so he has the data and charts to back up his statements. 

His team is currently exploring financing models for energy efficiency, which they believe will generate over $1 trillion in savings over 10-20 years.

"The Empire State Building energy efficiency upgrade demonstrated 30 percent IRRs," offered Fulton. "So why isn't anyone investing in it?"

Perhaps it's the wise investor's contrarian outlook.

The Forum, now in its 4th year, co-hosted by the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic and Blank Rome's Cleantech Group, offered some contrarian suggestions from an investor panel.

The panel included Tucker Twitmyer of EnerTech Capital for whom "efficiency plays have been our bread and butter," and Lux Capital founder Josh Wolfe, who's refrain, "it's a great technology," belied the fact that not all great technologies make great investments.

It's such a contrarian outlook, too, that has led to successful investments for Lux, EnerTech, and NRG Energy's venture arm, and that has cleantech newcomer Edison Ventures looking to capital efficient "cleanweb" models as a way to play in the sandbox. 

The nascent cleanweb movement, initially launched by Sunil Paul at Spring Ventures, brings together web coders to tackle big energy problems. (You can read more about the cleanweb hackathons here.)

Tucker Twitmyer

Twitmyer, who has been investing in clean energy companies and projects for over 10 years, sees parallels with earlier cycles in the space, "LP [limited partners] who haven't seen the kinds of returns they want have started heading for the exits."  

But that's not necessarily time to panic, suggested Wolfe. On the contrary, when the bulk are investors are chasing the next big thing, Wolfe and other successful investors see opportunities in what's left untouched.

Josh Wolfe

This thesis has paid off handsomely with one such investment, Kurion, which has a solution for addressing toxic nuclear waste, realizing $40 million in profit on $100 million in revenue last year.

The company was one of the few working to clean up the Fukushima nuclear reactors in the wake of the tsunami a year ago.

Another panel at the Forum on shale gas development revealed that there's a growing need for clearly defined regulations in the natural gas sector, especially around well-casing construction and fluids disclosure.  But the panel of experts concluded that sustainable natural gas development is achievable.

Presenting company pitches by new entries in the space rounded out the evening's program, including Green Power Technologies (the "BERT" people), Matcor, OmniWind, Primus Green Energy and XL Hybrids.

"We need to start talking about cleaner energy, not just clean energy," offered Fulton in his keynote. "Sixty to seventy percent of American voters support the idea of cleaner energy," which includes advances to make existing forms of energy better, cleaner and more efficient.

Recognizing there are no silver bullets or magic remedies, fora like this one are designed to call attention to the variety of solutions available. No matter how contrarian they may seem. 

(Disclosure: The author is a co-founder of the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, which co-hosted the Forum.)

A Tale of Two Cleantech Companies: My Presentation from IMPACT 2011

Today I presented "A Tale of Two Cleantech Companies: A case study of what leads to a successful exit or a stunning failure" at the IMPACT 2011 Venture Summit Mid-Atlantic in Philadelphia, PA.

I told the stories of Solyndra and CPower and how they failed and succeeded, respectively.

Here are my slides from the presentation:

Scott Edward Anderson A Tale of Two Cleantech Companies

View more presentations from Scott Edward Anderson.

And here is a transcript of my notes/talking points on Scribd: A Tale of Two Cleantech Companies

IMPACT 2011 Venture Summit Mid-Atlantic to Feature Cleantech

IMPACT 2011 Venture Summit Mid-Atlantic, the annual conference put on by PACT (the Greater Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies), will take place a week from today and tomorrow (November 29 & 30) at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Convention Center and the Crystal Tea Room.

On Wednesday, the 30th, I'll be telling a "Tale of Two Cleantech Companies," offering perspective on a success story and a failure (hint: one of them is Solyndra) and Monday Night Football's Ron Jaworski, known to his fans as "Jaws," will be the keynote over lunch. Timothy C. Draper, Founder and Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, will close the 29th as keynote speaker.

A rich cleantech track has been developed for this year's conference, including panels offering investors's perspectives on the challenges and opportunities of investing in clean energy technology and fund managers's perspectives on energy efficiency finance.

Panelists include representatives from Meidlinger Partners, SJF Ventures, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Blue Hill Partners, New Venture Partners, DB Climate Change Advisors, Transcend Equity Development Corp and the City of Philadelphia.

14 cleantech companies will present, including

AHI Technologies
Alencon Systems, Inc.
e2e Materials, Inc.
FieldView Solutions, Inc.
Holganix, LLC
LED Saving Solutions
Liberty Hydro, Inc.
Local Food Systems, Inc.
MATCOR, Inc.
Organica Sustainable Water, LLC
Proterro
Quench
Rho Renewables, Inc.
WhiteOptics LLC

See the full agenda here, including non-cleantech related agenda items.

Hope to see you there!

Global Cleantech Cluster Association's Top 30 Companies Announced

As readers of The Green Skeptic know, I co-founded the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, a business network for cleantech professionals working from New York to Northern Virgina.

Earlier this year, we joined the Global Cleantech Cluster Assocication (GCCA), which is comprised of 30 cleantech clusters and networks around the globe from Switzerland to Singapore and San Diego to Syracuse.

Together the GCCA members represent 4,000 Cleantech Companies Worldwide.  And now the GCCA has an award to recognize some of the best of the best of those companies, nominated by its member organizations.

A Global Top 30 semi-finalists for the 2011 award were announced today and will now be judged by 28 cleantech venture capitalists, investors and serial entrepreneurs who collectively manage $3.5 billion in clean technology investments.

From this group ten winners will be picked in each of ten categories.  The award winners will be announced on November 14th in Dublin, Ireland, at the Dublin Cleantech Forum and GCCA Later Stage Awards.

Co-hosted by An iSli Ghlas – The Green Way, Ireland’s cleantech cluster, the full-day event will feature CEO presentations and high-level discussions on the most critical topics for emerging clean technology companies and investment opportunities.

The Global Top 30 Companies are:

Category	Companies	Clusters
Biofuels	Imperative Energy	An tSlí Ghlas – The Green Way, Ireland
	Chempolis	Finnish Cleantech Cluster
	Synthezyme	NYC Acre
Energy Efficiency/ Green Buildings	Omnio	swisscleantech
	Albeo	Colorado Cleantech IA
	PearlLED	Chicago Clean Energy Alliance
New Materials	Genomatica	CleanTech San Diego
	Beneq	Finnish Cleantech Cluster
	OPX Biotechnologies	Colorado Cleantech IA
Other renewables	AWS Ocean Energy	ecoConnect, U.K
	Open Hydro	An tSlí Ghlas – The Green Way, Ireland
	NovaThermal Energy	Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, U.S.A.
Solar	Alencon Systems	Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, U.S.A.
	PrismSolar	Clean Technology & Sustainable Industries U.S.A.
	Solaris	Chicago Clean Energy
Storage/Smart Grid	PowerGenics	CleanTech San Diego
	HydroGenics	MaRS Discovery District, Toronto, CA
	ICE Energy	Colorado Cleantech IA
Transportation	Achates Power	CleanTech San Diego
	Rapid Electric Vehicles	Green Tech Exchange, Canada
	SAM Group	swisscleantech
Water	Trunz	swisscleantech
	Rentricity	NYC Acre
	PortaPure	Chicago Clean Energy
Waste	EcoATM	CleanTech San Diego
	Newalta	EcoTech Quebec
	Akkuser	Finnish Cleantech Cluster
Wind	Moventas	Finnish Cleantech Cluster
	STEP	EcoWorld Styria, Austria
	Acrosoma	Flanders Cleantech Association

For more information about the Global Cleantech Cluster Association, go to their website: GlobalCleantech.org  

ECO-nomics: Re-envisioning Financial Services; My Talk at SXSW ECO

Last week I gave a talk at the first SXSW ECO in Austin, Texas. 

Here is the slide show from my talk, available on SlideShare:

and here is a transcript of my talk on Scribd:

ECO-nomics: Re-envisioning Financial Services for the 21st Century

A video of the talk will be available at a later date.

Related articles

• SXSW ECO: How to Make a Difference (incl. brief video) (ecoleader.wordpress.com)
• SXSW Eco: Interview with Scott Wilcox, SXSW's CTO (treehugger.com)
• SXSW Eco: Replacing Unsustainable Language To Tackle Climate Change (huffingtonpost.com)

How a Cleantech Failure Can Be More Valuable Than Success | The Energy Collective

How a Cleantech Failure Can Be More Valuable Than Success

Failure is tough. Many businesses fail, including some very viable ones. They fail all the time. In fact, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA), 50 percent of all new businesses fail during the first year and 95 percent during the first five years. Some fail fast, some die a slow, painful death.

The question is not whether failure is good or bad, it's what you learn from it that counts...

Read More

My latest post for The Energy Collective.

Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 04/15/11

Image via CrunchBaseTax Day edition of the Green Skeptic LinkFest...

The Zipcar IPO Is A Smash Hit -- Up 60% On First Day, reports Business Insider. Social critic Richard Florida says that shows how the American dream is evolving away from an ownership society With Zipcar's IPO, Stock Market Endorses Rentership Society.

Q1 Venture money in cleantech hit $2.6B, but are the numbers all they are cracked up to be? Neil Dikeman isn't buying it: Brightsource, Fisker and Solyndra – Soul Crushingly Bad Numbers Make up 17% of Near Record 1Q11 Venture Investment

Is natural gas fracking worse than coal? A new Cornell study concludes that it may be, while theWorldwatch Institute reserves judgment, and still sees benefits of natural gas.

Grameen Bank update: The Ouster of Muhammad Yunus: Can Politics Destroy Grameen Bank? 

And Greentech Media reports on a new study claiming that 1 percent of US electricity is used to grow marijuana indoor: Marijuana, Top US Crop, Has a $5B Power Bill.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 04/08/11

One of the benefits of the work I do is going to or hosting investment forums and conferences where some amazing companies get to present.  It's also one of the drawbacks, as it impacts my blogging and writing about the events in a timely manner. 

I'm working on updates from the Mid-Atlantic Cleantech Investment Forum we held a week ago, New Ventures Global Investment Forum from this past Wednesday, and highlights from PV America.  Watch for that and a "state of cleantech investing" post next week.

Meanwhile, here are links for this week:

In the rush to EVs and Hybrids, don't count ICEs out: New Car Engine Sends Shock Waves Through Auto Industry: 3.5x more fuel efficient!

In other innovation news, a toxic byproduct from coal plants has been used by researchers to make metal foams that are just as strong as aluminum, but lighter, according to an article on GreenBiz.com. A team at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University used fly ash as an additive in metal foams designed to replace solid aluminum and magnesium in certain vehicle parts: Toxic Coal Byproduct Made Into Lighter, Stronger Metal Foams 

Geothermal energy production could triple over the next few years, expanding its reach from nine to 15 states, according to a report released this week by the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA). Renewable Energy World explains: US Geothermal Industry Expands with New Capital, Government Support

That could mean good news for companies like Ormat Technolobies ($ORA), which is also expanding operations overseas: Ormat Expands Geothermal Generating Capacity In Kenya

Nicholas Donofrio, a fellow emeritus with IBM and senior fellow with the Kauffman Foundation, talks about "Turning Energy Challenges Into Opportunities" [video]

Waste Management is trying to turn garbage into gold, according to an article in CNET by Martin Lamonica, by investing "in technology start-ups in an effort to get electricity, chemicals, or liquid fuels from municipal solid waste. Already, the company generates two to three times more energy than the entire solar industry." Waste Management CEO Places Energy Bets

 

Om Malik's surprise at his increasing energy bill and he turned to OPower to figure out why and what to do about it.  For OPower, Cloud, Big Data & Digital Energy Equal Magic 

Have a great weekend everyone.



(Disclosure: I hold a long position in ORA. This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.)

Insights into the Philly Cleantech Market, Investing, and Best Industry Blogs

Chris Williams and The Green Skeptic

Chris Williams of The Green Light Distrikt interviewed me last week about Philadelphia Cleantech scene, water, cleantech investing, and my favorite industry blogs.

He's posted the results in byte-sized morsels of audio:

Insights into the Philly Cleantech Market, Investing, and Best Industry Blogs from @Greenskeptic

The Green Skeptic & Howard Lindzon Talk Cleantech Stocks on StockTwits.TV

Howard Lindzon and I talked First Solar and other alternative energy stocks on StockTwits.tv. (Note, this was recorded last Friday after $FSLR's earnings, but before this week's move, but it was broadcast tonight.)



Dig that Patagonia hoodie, Howard! But you look like I'm putting you to sleep...

(Disclosure: I hold a long position in several stocks mentioned herein, including FSLR, ENOX, TTEK,JCI, EXC, ORA, and AON). This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.)

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.

Andy Swan's Finding Your Niche

My pal Andy Swan is brilliant when it comes to making things simple.

Just look at his bio on AndySwan.com:  "I've started and sold two companies. I have investments in some others. I love helping passionate people create wealth."

You'll recall Andy was the mastermind behind the Six Slide Challenge to entrepreneurs last summer. And the Elite Eight for Entrepreneurship.

His latest, posted yesterday, is a Venn diagram for Finding Your Niche.  Love it.

Tendril, UISOL, PJM Partnership Could Benefit Residential Consumers

Managing residential electricity demand and controlling load balances is an increasing problem for PJM Interconnection, North America's largest power grid, especially during extreme weather events and peak demand times.

Now Tendril, an energy platform company we've been tracking here at The Green Skeptic, is partnering with Utility Integration Solutions, Inc. (UISOL), a provider of demand response management and automation systems, on what they call a "Price Response Demand" demo project for PJM.

"This real-world demonstration will show the feasibility and ease with which residential customers can reduce their energy consumption in response to wholesale price signals that reflect grid conditions," according to Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck. "It will also enable utilities to aggregate Demand Response in consumers' homes for better load control, increased efficiency and additional savings."

The project combines Tendril's Connect platform with UISOL’s Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) price server to allow PJM to test a near real-time program for price response and better manage electricity demand.

If it works, residential consumers will be able to have a better handle on the cost of energy used in their homes and utilities will be able to better manage load balances that can lead to brown-outs or even black-outs during peak usage events.

This latest announcement comes on the heals of Tendril's partnerships with ThinkEco, creators of the "modlet" plug-load management device, and Whirlpool on smart home appliances.

The company also launched Tendril Energize, which they call "the first ever application suite based on proven behavioral science techniques" to provide "persistent consumer engagement in home energy performance."

Tendril and UISOL are demonstrating their PJM project at DistribuTECH 2011 this week in San Diego.

Related articles

• ThinkEco and Tendril Collaborate to Smarten the Smart Grid (prnewswire.com)
• Tendril's IDEO-Designed Home-Energy Monitoring Device Fails, Utilitarianism Wins (fastcompany.com)
• Whirlpool, Tendril to Collaborate on Smart Appliances (matternetwork.com)
• Are Consumers Ready For Home Energy Management in 2011? (gigaom.com)
• Tendril app tries to Energize consumer efficiency (news.cnet.com)