Top 10 Reasons Israel is a Cleantech Leader

David Buimovitch/AFP/Getty Images

Here at The Green Skeptic we've been following the progress of cleantech in Israel for some time.

There are many reasons Israel has been an innovator, including, in part, because it has to be. Now, Sustainable World Capital's Shawn Lesser highlights the history of innovation, access to capital, scarce resources and other factors propelling cleantech today in Israel.

Here are the Top 10 Reasons Israel is a cleantech leader:

1. Israel is the Silicon Valley of water. Relative to its small size, Israel has devoted more resources to the development of waste water treatment and reclamation than any other country in the world. Seventy percent of its waste water is recycled, three times the figure of number two: Spain. Israel is the birthplace and world leader in drip irrigation, which has literally turned deserts into farmlands. The Israeli firm Netafim, a $500 million high-tech drip-irrigation giant, is a world leader in smart irrigation technology and has been credited with starting the drip irrigation revolution. Israel Newtech, which promotes Israeli clean energy and water technologies, has identified hundreds of water companies. It’s estimated that Israel’s water industry was valued at $1.4 billion in 2008 and could reach $2.5 billion by 2011.

2. Brain trust. Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to population in the world. Within its small borders is an enormous concentration of PhDs and engineers, bolstered in large part by the large immigration from the former Soviet Union. This concentration of minds in a relatively small geographical space creates a country-wide incubator where ideas are constantly tested in the coffee shops of Tel-Aviv and the hallways of universities. 

3. Necessity as the mother of innovation. Due to its location and terrain, Israel is a country that has had extremely limited natural resources since its inception. Israelis have therefore become experts at getting the most out of limited natural resources. Confronting adversity has trained Israelis to think outside of the box. “Israel is poor in natural resources and rich in brain capital. Clean energy bridges that gap. What Israel lacks in the ground it makes up with its people,” says David Anthony from 21 Ventures.

4. Leveraging tech expertise to cleantech. “Israel’s tech sector has flourished through the creation of core technology competencies that are world leading,” as Glen Schwaber, Partner at Israel Cleantech Ventures, wrote in his article “The Quest for Smarts.”

“Israel’s tech sector has flourished through the creation of core technology competencies that are world leading,” according to Schwaber. These include, but are not limited to digital printing, semiconductors, power electronics, optics and software. Over the last two decades, multiple billions of VC dollars have poured into Israeli companies in these sectors, market leaders have emerged, and many of the world’s largest multinationals have bought companies and set up shop in Israel as a result.” 

5. Capital. Just about every major US VC firm in Silicon Valley, from Battery Ventures to Greylock to USVP to Sequoia Capital, is prospecting across Israel for cleantech investments. All told, at least 40 venture funds, several of them American, manage more than $10 billion in Israel, with an increasing share of their allocations devoted to cleantech companies. 

6. The Better Place Factor. Better Place is Israel’s best known cleantech company, and it recently raised a further $350 million (see Better Place deal bested by Airtricity). Founded by Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, the company is developing electric vehicle battery swapping infrastructure. 

7. The sun shines brightly over Israel. The solar radiation Israel receives is a driver of solar thermal companies. Siemens bought Israeli solar thermal pioneer Solel for $418 million, while BrightSource Energy has raised more than $160 million from investors, including U.S.-based VantagePoint Venture Partners, Google, BP’s investment arm, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase. Other notable solar thermal companies include Heliofocus, ZenithSolar, and AORA. 

8. Kibbutz Pioneers. The foundation of Israel’s cleantech industry was laid with the beginning of the kibbutz (collective communities) movement at the start of the 20th century (see Israel’s cleantech kibbutzim pioneers). At that time, the land was mostly semi-arid, with a scarcity of water and pockmarked by mosquito infested swamps, so principles of sustainability and self-sufficiency were adopted from the outset so as to “make the desert bloom”. 

9. Home grown Israeli VC community. Israel has a vibrant local VC community which includes Israel Cleantech Ventures, AquaAgro and Terra Ventures—three firms dedicated to investing in Israel’s cleantech sector. Having a vibrant local VC community also draws foreign money.

10. Momentum. Israel is fast becoming the cleantech incubator to the world. In proportion to its population, it now has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world except the U.S., with 3,500 companies, mostly in hi-tech. Exciting new cleantech startups to keep an eye on, in our opinion, that haven’t been mentioned already include Bio Pure Technology, BioPetroClean, CellEra, Emefcy, Enstorage, Greenlet Technologies, GreenRoad, GreenSun Energy, IQ Wind, Linum, Panoramic Power, Phoebus Energy, SolarEdge, Takadu, Technospin, Transalgae and Variable Wind Solutions.

As Al Gore siad in a recent visit to Israel, “the people of Israel can lead the way to renewable energy. With its unique geographical position, and cleantech know how, Israel is a natural leader in the field.”

Cleantech could well become Israel’s biggest export market. Other countries should take note.

Upcoming: Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference 2010

Has there been a better time to be an entrepreneur than right now?

Technology breaks down barriers and makes it easier and less expensive than ever to turn an idea into a business -- and traditional job venues don't seem to be getting into hiring mode any time soon.

So get yourself over to the 13th Annual Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference at the Marriott in Philadelphia this Friday (February 19, 2010) to learn about "Opportunities for the Entrepreneurial Community in a Rising Economy."

The conference is a leading entrepreneurship forum for entrepreneurs, investors, industry professionals, academics, and students to foster entrepreneurial innovation and leadership.

This year's conference focuses on identifying and capturing entrepreneurial opportunities as the economy regains momentum or, at least, as the economy reboots.

Of particular interest to readers of The Green Skeptic is the panel on "Current Trends and Opportunities in Clean Tech," which features Sam Gabbita of Element Partners, Sean Carney of FiniteCarbon, and Stephen Tang, President of the Science Center, and a session on "Financing Your Clean Tech Ventures" with Ravikant Barot of OxiCool, Mark deGrandpre of Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Emily Landsburg of BlackGold Biofuels, and Harrison Wellford of Wellford Energy Advisors.

There are also sessions devoted to Health Care Services, Consumer Products, Tech and Web-based Services.

Keynote speakers include:

• Rob McCord, Treasurer of Pennsylvania and founder of life-science and technology venture funds
• Scott Friend, Co-Founder of ProfitLogic (which sold to Oracle in 2005) and Managing Director at Bain Capital Ventures
• Dr. Kathy Crothall, founder of three medical device companies (including Animas, which sold to Johnson & Johnson in 2006) and a Principal at Liberty Ventures Partners.

The conference is trying something new this year: a Student Expo. Building off the success of last year's Start-up Expo, this year's Expo will feature both local start-ups and selected start-ups run by Penn students. Entrepreneurs will showcase their businesses and introduce their teams to the 500+ conference attendees.

The conference is this Friday, February 19th at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. More information is available at WhartonEconference.com.

Register for the event using TicketLeap.

Hope to see you there!

CREE LED Market Leader, Continues to Impress

I've been long LED lighting manufacturer $CREE for a long time, as readers of this blog know. Today, Cree continued to impress me with its quarterly earnings release, beating estimates and generating record revenue.

They announced record revenue of $199.5 million for its second quarter of fiscal 2010, ended December 27, 2009, which is a "35 percent increase compared to revenue of $147.6 million reported for the second fiscal quarter last year and an 18 percent increase compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2010," according to a company press release.

“We continued to execute very well in Q2, as we delivered record revenue and net income,” stated Chuck Swoboda, Cree chairman and CEO. “LED lighting adoption continues to gain momentum and our near term focus is on factory execution and capacity expansion. Our strong balance sheet further enhances our leadership position and supports our mission of leading the LED lighting revolution.”

Here are other highlights from the press release:

Q2 2010 Financial Metrics:

* Cash and investments increased $65.6 million from Q1 of fiscal 2010 to $954.1 million.

* Cash flow from operations was $21.5 million. Free cash flow (cash flow from operations less capital expenditures) was ($19.9) million as we spent $41.4 million on capital expenditures.


* Accounts receivable (net) increased $20.3 million from Q1 of fiscal 2010 to $113.4 million, resulting in days sales outstanding of 51, an increase of 1 day from Q1 of fiscal 2010.

* Inventory (net) increased $7.3 million from Q1 of fiscal 2010 to $93.3 million and represents 80 days of inventory, a decrease of 1 day from Q1 of fiscal 2010.


Recent Business Highlights:

* Awarded $39 million in tax credits as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support our investment to build energy efficient LED lighting

* Announced that Cree LED lamps have been selected for an initial deployment in approximately 650 Walmart stores

* Set a new standard for indoor LED lighting with the XLamp® MX-6 LED, the industry’s first lighting-class PLCC LED

* Demonstrated an A-lamp LED light bulb with the highest lumen output and efficacy reported in the industry

* Achieved industry-best reported R&D results of 186 lumens per watt from a white high-power LED

* Purchased a facility for manufacturing expansion in Huizhou, China


Business Outlook:

For its third quarter of fiscal 2010 ending March 28, 2010, Cree targets revenue in a range of $215 million to $225 million with GAAP net income of $37 million to $40 million, or $0.35 to $0.37 per diluted share. Non-GAAP net income is targeted to increase quarter-over-quarter to $44 million to $47 million, or $0.41 to $0.44 per diluted share, based on an estimated 107.5 million diluted weighted average shares. Targeted non-GAAP earnings exclude expenses related to the amortization of acquired intangibles of $0.02 per diluted share, and stock-based compensation expense of $0.04 per diluted share.

Here's a link to the full press release: CREE Earnings Q2 2010
 


(Disclosure: I hold a long position in CREE. 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.)

Vive la France: First Solar to build largest solar plant in France

EDF Energies Nouvelles (EDF EN) and First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR) today announced a venture to build France’s largest solar panel manufacturing plant. With an initial annual capacity of more than 100MWp, the plant will produce solar panels made with First Solar’s advanced, thin-film photovoltaic technology.

According to a press release today, First Solar will build and operate the plant in France, representing an expected investment of more than €90 million. The initial annualized capacity of the plant is expected to exceed 100MWp, according to FSLR, making it the largest manufacturing facility for solar panels in France.

EDF Energies Nouvelles has agreed to finance half of the capital expense and plant start-up costs and will benefit from the plant’s entire output for the first 10 years. First Solar and EDF EN intend to announce their decision on the site location within the next few months.

First Solar’s manufacturing site will also include a facility for recycling solar panels, France’s first such facility and Europe’s only solar panel recycling plant outside of Germany.

For more information see: First Solar

(Disclosure: Long FSLR)

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Speaking Today at Nationwide Town Hall on a Just and Clean Energy Future , Drexel University

Today, I'm speaking at Drexel's Town Hall on a Just and Clean Energy Future, part of Focus the Nation's Nationwide series of Town Hall meetings.

I'll be part of a panel on the Clean Energy Economy, with Audrey Zibelman, Viridity, LLC, Jason Brady of the Blue Green Alliance, and Kate Houstoun of Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia.


Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter is scheduled to lead the a Town Hall style discussion before my panel. I will be interested to hear his remarks and hope the focus is on energy efficiency, innovation, and private sector investments to jump start the new green economy.

Will try to update with a post tonight.

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An Obama Stimulus, Not A Futurama Stimulus

The stimulus package that passed in the House -- without a single GOP vote -- yesterday is not as forward thinking as it appears, despite what Nancy Pelosi said in a news conference.

"This is a bill about the future," Pelosi said. "It is a bill that will guarantee that we will create jobs, that there will be good paying green jobs that will transform our infrastructure, transform our energy and how we use it and our dependence on foreign oil."

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council's tally, outlined in the daily green, the StimPack accounts for:

* $3.4 billion for states for clean energy projects
* A grants program for technologies covered by the renewable energy tax incentives
* $6.2 billion for weatherization of low income homes
* $3.5 billion for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (supports clean energy projects primarily at the city and county levels)
* $2 billion for clean energy research & development
* $6 billion for increasing energy efficiency in federal buildings
* $12 billion for transit
* $2 billion for ready-to-go drinking water infrastructure projects
* $6 billion for ready-to-go sanitation infrastructure projects.

But the Bill doesn't go far enough, according to some critics, in support of public transportation, including light and high speed rail. Others, however, do point out that transit is one of the larger ticket items in the green portion of the package.

The Sierra Club praised the House Bill, noting that clean energy spending is at $100 billion. But "the bill isn't all green," according to other critics, and the Senate is apparently putting $4.6 billion for coal and $50 billion for the nuclear industry.

Of course, that depends upon your shade of green. Among the coal provisions outlined in a news release and a committee statement issued by Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va. are:

*$2 billion for "near-zero emissions" power plants designed to capture and sequester CO2
*$1 billion for the Department of Energy's Clean Coal Power Initiative, and
*$1.6 billion for carbon capture at industrial plants.

I'd like to see some investment in such R&D for coal, as it remains the most plentiful resource we've got domestically and comprises such a high percentage of our energy needs today. If we can figure out how to clean it, capture and store it or just reduce its impact, I'm all for it.

And, as for nuclear, I still maintain it needs to be part of the mix.

Another source of criticism of the House Bill may be remedied in the emerging Senate version, which would adjust the alternative minimum tax (ATM), thereby holding down many middle-class Americans' income taxes for 2009.

President Obama's administration has said it would ultimately accept an ATM provision, which may go a long way towards giving the Senate Bill legs. Compromise and consensus may be the key to the Obama presidency.

But with so many other programs stuffed into this StimPack, including many traditional Dem favorites, it's hard to see the future: so much in here looks like the past.

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If You Can Afford It, New Incentives for Home Energy Efficiency

2009 brings some new incentives for homeowners to adopt energy efficiency from both state and federal sources.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week on several of these, including new provisions for tax credits in solar, small wind, and biomass stoves (those burning wood pellets or corn).

In addition, this year, both solar and wind residential tax credits can be claimed against the alternative minimum tax.

Improvements to weatherize your home could also qualify for an energy efficiency tax credit of up to $500. There are also new credits for upgrading your furnace, boilers, heat pumps, and water heaters.

Read more at WSJ.com: http://tinyurl.com/93n535

On Four Years of The Green Skeptic and Being Thankful

It's been four year since I created "the green skeptic" blog. A lot has changed in that short span of time -- and we have much for which to be thankful.

Despite the collapse of our economy, increasing numbers of poor people, and even more dire predictions of climate change crisis, we are on the verge of real change in the world.

I refuse to be pessimistic; skeptical, but not pessimistic.

I believe that four years from now we'll be on our way toward making lasting progress on renewable energy, energy efficiency, and creating jobs. We won't be all the way there, but we'll be making progress.

It will take us awhile to weather this downturn and craft a thoughtful and pragmatic response. But I believe we will get there.

And there appear to be many others who agree that the next great wave is a green wave.

It's just slow-moving right now, which is good; slow-moving waves tend to build stronger and conserve their energy for the shore.

Happy Thanksgiving. And thank you for reading.

SEA

What's Next for the Green Economy?

On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of participating in a panel discussing “What’s next for the green economy?” Hosted by the Eco Investment Club of San Diego, it was a lively discussion of great questions from an engaged audience.

With the financial markets in a tailspin (although they were getting an anticipatory boost that day) and crude oil prices also dipping to lows we haven't seen in some time, it was no surprise that "what's next?" was a question on everyone's mind.

My fellow panelists included Glenn Croston, author of 75 Green Businesses You Can Start to Make Money and Make a Difference, Oren Jaffe, co-founder of EcoTuesday, Jan Schalkwijk, CFA and Principal of JPS Global Investments, Ron Robins, founder of Investing for the Soul and author of the blog, Enlightened Economics, and Dave Iverson, a noted economist and environmentalist.

The questions ranged from investing to energy prices to the impact of the next administration on both. Here is a sampling of some of the questions:

Will a Green Economy rebound faster from financial turmoil?

Will consumers stick with Green during tough times?

What is the next administration really facing that's not being talked about in the media?

Does America need a energy technology bubble just like the information technology bubble?

###

Review: Investing in Renewable Energy by Jeff Siegel of Green Chip Stocks

Book cover via AmazonInvesting books are almost as tough to time as investments. Books are time-bound. What's happening when you write it will no doubt change by the time the book is published. The market may peak or collapse. Or the stock you recommend may tank. The company you featrue, as happened with VeraSun (VSE) this week, may go bankrupt.

Better to stick to the web for real-time recommendations and commentary (see my StockTwits post from a few weeks ago).

And investing books in an emerging sector in a volatile market are even tougher to time.

2007 was a banner year for alternative energy. The clean tech sector garnered more than $117 billion in new investments that year.

By January 2008, alt-energy stocks were imploding and pundits were crowing about the bursting of the next bubble.

Then all hell broke loose, the credit and mortgage crisis hit, the economy tanked, and the price of oil plummeted from its all-time highs.

October 2008 will go down in history as one of the blackest months on Wall Street.

What a time to launch a book, let alone a book about alternative energy investing.

But that's exactly what happened with Jeff Siegel, who, along with Chris Nelder and Nick Hodge, have just released Investing in Renewable Energy: Making Money on Green Chip Stocks (Wiley, 2008).

The good news is the authors run an investment advisory service that focuses exclusively on renewable energy and the organic and natural foods markets. You can subscribe to his service and e-newsletter at GreenChipStocks.com.

To their credit, they do print a disclaimer about the relevancy of printed media in an age of instant analysis, and suggest you don't take investment advice from the book without doing your own research.

That said, there is enough worthy and relevant information in this book to make it worth having on your shelf along with last year's The Clean Tech Revolution, by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder, if only for the insights into the sector and the general knowledge about what to look for. (See my review of Clean Tech Revolution here.)

Messrs Siegel, Nelder, and Hodge do know the sector well and have thoroughly researched the various technologies, from solar and wind to geothermal and efficiency. They don't spend as much time visiting with companies as Pernick and Wilder did, but they do offer insights into the benefits and drawbacks of some well-known and some lesser known publicly traded stocks in the sector.

Their overall premise is that "green chip" investing will pay off in ways that blue chip investing once did. Recent Green Chip newsletters indicate they are still bullish on the sector, albeit with tempered enthusiasm over the short term.

"There is little doubt that the companies operating within this industry today," write the authors, "will ultimately become the dominant players int he overall energy generation and transportation mix of tomorrow."

Why? Because "our insatiable energy consumption and lack of conventional supplies to meet our growing demand," the authors write, "this is probably one of the safest long-term bets you can make."

I'd emphasize the LONG term in that sentence and, if you buy this book, make sure you subscribe to Green Chip Stocks as well to keep up on market conditions that will affect the overall profitability of renewable energy.

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O, Canada! There's an Important Election Up North, Too, for Clean Tech

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeFor Canadian Thanksgiving (and because I'm busy with consulting work today and it's a holiday here in the States), I'm going to reblog one of my favorites Canadians Tyler Hamilton's assessment of the Canadian political race (they vote for Prime Minister tomorrow) and the prospects for cleantech and action on climate change.

Tyler recommends Canadian voters choose Liberal Party candidate Stéphane Dion over Conservative incumbent Stephen Harper or even the Green Party, which found some candidates backing out or even backing Dion.

In Tyler's opinion, Dion represents the best hope for clean energy and infrastructure development in the North Country. Read his full column in the Toronto Star (link here or below) for details.

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada! The world can be a crazy place, but we do — in the big picture — have much to be thankful for. Enjoy the time with family and friends, and a week of turkey dinner leftovers.

Today I’ll just post a link to my Clean Break column, which argues that green-minded Canadians heading to the polls tomorrow would be best to vote for the federal Liberals if they hope to see any action on climate change and development of a cleaner, more energy-efficient economy. Now is the time to begin taxing pollution and using that money to tackle poverty, stimulate the economy, and ultimately help Canadian households and businesses operate more efficiently, while at the same time accelerating green innovation that could serve us at home and others abroad.

From the perspective of a green-technology advocate, one could just as easily support the Green Party and, to a lesser extent, NDP on this issue, but the Liberals are the most likely to defeat the federal Conservatives, which have proven in their two years of power that they don’t take green job creation or climate change seriously. This is an important federal election, coming at a time when even the U.S. is likely to vote in a new president — i.e. Obama — who has declared energy and green-economy building as his top priority. -- Tyler Hamilton, Clean Break

Tyler is senior technology reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. His bi-weekly column, Clean Break, is the basis of a blog of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market.

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Clean Tech: Senate Extends Renewable Energy Tax Credits

Image via WikipediaLate Tuesday afternoon the Senate voted to extend renewable energy tax credits for the wind and solar industries. The final tally: 92-3; a surprising slam dunk.

Surprising because the tax credits had been held hostage by partisan politics for much of this year and, as deadlines loomed, it didn't look good for getting it passed.

But concern on both sides of the aisle about the economy and energy forced the hand of compromise. Extending the credits now also happens to secure something on the order of 115,000 jobs and at least $19 billion in renewable energy investments.

This is a good thing and has largely gone unnoticed in all the hullabaloo around the $700B Bailout plan. And, I believe, this has the potential to have more and longer impact on the economy than Paulson's Power Play.

Why? Because this investment in the new green economy can unleash opportunities for alternative energy investors and companies, opportunities that have been waiting in the wings for too long.

The Bill, known as the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008, stipulates

* $18 billion in tax credits for using wind, solar, and geothermal
energy sources.
* 30 percent tax credit for the purchase of residential, commercial, and
utility-scale solar PV systems with no cap for eight years.
* Extension of the production tax credit for wind for one year.
* Extension of tax credits for wave and ocean tidal energy.
* Qualification for residential and commercial small-scale wind and geothermal heat pumps.
* Taxpayers subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax are now eligible for the tax credit.

Removing the cap for the maximum available 30 percent tax credit is a big deal for for both residential and commercial solar project developers. The previous cap was a paltry $2,000, which doesn't go far with most solar projects.

Now financiers of larger projects are eligible to get back at least 30 percent of their investment with no cap. And those who were on hold waiting for tax credits to pass, may now be gearing up.

In addition, utilities, which heretofore were not allowed to receive solar tax credits, are now able to realize the benefits. This could increase solar spending among utilities in states requiring minimum percentages of electricity from renewable resources.

Effects of the passing of this legislation were already having an impact on solar stocks yesterday.

Now it's up to the House to polish it up and for President Bush to put his veto stamp away. He has, according to sources familiar with the situation, expressed his support for renewable energy tax credits and even the ATM provisions.

We'll see.

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Google and GE Entering Partnership on Smart Grid Technology

From New York Times: "Google and General Electric said Wednesday that they would work together on technology and policy initiatives to promote the development of additional capacity in the electricity grid and of 'smart grid' technologies to enable plug-in hybrids and to manage energy more efficiently.

"The companies said their goal is to make renewable energy more accessible and useful."

The importance of updating and shifting the transmission grid in the US can not be overstated. This would be a boon (not to mention a Boone) to making alternatives more feasible and the new green economy more possible.

Read the full story at: http://tinyurl.com/53rlk5

(Disclosure: The author holds small positions in both Google and GE. This information is not intended as investment advice or promotion.)

Is It Time to Green Financial Services?

"I'm hoping the financial services sector catches on to the green trend," Frank Baldassarre, president and CEO of e3bank, told the crowd at today's forum sponsored by the Pennsylvania Green Growth Partnership in Hershey.

Green building has caught on in a major way over the past decade. Now, 14 percent of US municipalities over 50,000 in population have programs promoting green development, according to Shari Shapiro, a lawyer with Obermayer, Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel in Philadelphia.

But the financing of those projects hasn't caught up with the building community.

"Until two years ago, I didn't know what LEED certification was," Baldassarre, a former senior vice president with Fox Chase Bank, who is launching one of the first green banks in the country. "It just wasn't something bankers were thinking about."

Baldassarre and others, such as Florida's First Green Bank, Shore Bank of Chicago, and New Resource Bank in San Francisco, are trying to change that.

"Bankers lack the knowledge to go green," says Baldasarre, who referred to "building as the bones and financial services as the circulatory system" of our economic body.

Perhaps the time is coming for the blood running through that circulatory system to turn from red to green.

My 3 Take-Aways:

1. The knowledge gap is a niche worth exploring;
2. There is another emerging niche associated with the real need for a diversity of green financial products and services; and
3. The tipping point is upon us.

-----

Addendum: Something Howard Lindzon (it's Howard's birthday tomorrow, so I'm giving him a shout-out) pointed me to today seems to support the idea of mining this niche. It comes from Roger Ehrenberg of InformationArbitrage.com:

"Investment Banking 2.0 will be the re-emergence of the boutique, the focused, nimble, high-touch firm that was the bedrock of capital formation in the early years of the stock market boom.

"Because these mega-firms being created at the urging of the Treasury are not sustainable. They'll live just long enough for investment banking losses to be absorbed by the commercial bank's larger capital base, after which the best talent will flee for greener pastures."

Greener pastures, indeed.

(Composed on BlackBerry; updated with links 9:29 PM)

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Career-Man vs. Entrepreneur-Man, a personal dilemma

Image via Wikipedia Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

Okay, that's a bit dramatic. But, really, it is the first day of the next phase on my path, which I see as more of a bend in the boardwalk than a fork in the trail.

My path began in publishing. I worked as a scout for an international agency and as an editor at Viking/Penguin, but prior to that I founded Rockstop! Magazine, back in the early 80s.

I have always started things. As a media entrepreneur, I was one of the founders of the web-based literary journal Ducky Magazine and founded this web log in 2004.

But for the past 16 years I have been basically a company man, most of that time with The Nature Conservancy, where I held various management positions and, most recently, with Ashoka, the global association of leading social entrepreneurs.

Part of what attracted me to Ashoka was the opportunity to meet social entrepreneurs around the world who were developing business models -- some non-profit and some for-profit -- with the goal of changing the world, flipping a system, or addressing a market failure.

What interested Ashoka in me was my combination of expertise and entrepreneurship. Well, the entrepreneurial itch overtook me recently and I've now left Ashoka to scratch it.

I'm developing a green energy investing platform to reduce the barriers to entry for small retail investors who want to catch the wave of the new green economy. It's in the very nascent stages and probably too premature to talk about, which is both exciting and daunting.

Daunting because the "Career-Man" in me is struggling mightily with this new phase, with his alter ego "Entrepreneur-Man."

You see, I've always created things on the side. Now I'm starting from scratch and spending more time on it than just nights and weekends.

Career-Man excels at crafting a vision, building teams, and management, and he's a pretty good at marketing and raising money. Entrepreneur-Man loves starting things.

But this start-up stuff has got Career-Man all tied up in knots. He's used to having the framework in which to operate, while Entrepreneur-Man likes to build an entirely new framework. Therein lays the struggle.

I tweeted about this earlier today, which generated a few comments from followers and friends.

One wrote, "As a note of encouragement, a job is one thing, your work is another. Now you simply have more ability to focus your energies without navigating so many distractions."

Another wrote, "When you figure out how to keep Career-Man at bay, let me know!"

And finally, another friend was reminded of one excellent line in an otherwise forgettable Tommy Lee Jones-Cate Blanchett film, "The Missing."

In the film, Blanchett plays a young woman alone in the wilderness, who must reunite with her estranged father (Jones) to track the mystical, psychopathic killer known as Chidin (Eric Schweig). Chidin and his brutal pack of army deserters have kidnapped a collection of teenage girls, and have taken Maggie's daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) as their most recent prize.

My friend wrote, Jones' "nemesis says something like, 'The wolf and the good dog within you fight. I wonder which one will win.'"

To which Jones replies, "Whichever one I feed the most."

I must keep feeding the Entrepreneur-Man, because a job is one thing, and my work is something completely different. No doubt the path will be bumpy, but the rewards will be the journey.

New Green Economy: Labor Day and the New Green Economy

I couldn't help thinking about the New Green Economy this Labor Day. Labor Day was originated in 1882 to recognize workers and their contributions.

Part of my thinking was in reaction to last week's convention and the rhetoric about manufacturing jobs being shipped overseas and how we have to penalize companies that ship jobs overseas if we want to turn our economy around.

Is that really the solution? It seems to me that manufacturing isn't necessarily the solution to our economy. It may indeed be that manufacturing elsewhere is more efficient or at least cheaper, as long as true costs are not calculated.

But, as I've heard Van Jones and Majora Carter and others say, "You can’t take a building you want to weatherize, put it on a ship to China and then have them do it and send it back. So we are going to have to put people to work in this country — weatherizing millions of buildings, putting up solar panels, constructing wind farms."

Shouldn't our Labor Day and convention conversations be about how we create the new jobs that will fuel a new economy -- a new green economy?

Clean Tech: Wind Breaker; It's All About the Grid

The New York Times has a good piece this morning examining the major obstacle in switching to wind power: the outmoded electricity grid.

What's needed is an electricity transmission superhighway, says one Federal Energy Commission rep.

Read the full article:
http://tinyurl.com/5rjzkl

Clean Tech: WSJ-NBC News Poll Suggests Americans Want it All When it Comes to Energy

US voters want solar and wind energy, but that doesn't mean they are against drilling for more oil, according to a Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll released this week. 

According to a WSJ article by Stephen Power on Thursday, "72% of respondents said developing alternative energy sources could 'accomplish a great deal.'

"When the question was asked another way, 61% of respondents chose 'developing alternative energy sources' as the step that should receive the most emphasis from policy makers."

And yet, "twenty-five percent responded that 'exploring and drilling for oil' in the U.S. should get the most emphasis, and 12% picked 'having Americans conserve and use less oil.' 

"When asked whether expanding areas for drilling for oil off coastal states was a step in the right direction, 63% said it was, with 44% saying it would accomplish 'a great deal.' Only 27% said that allowing more drilling off coastal states was a step in 'the wrong direction.' 

"Asked about building more nuclear plants, 53% said it was a step in the right direction. Thirty-one percent said it was a step 'in the wrong direction.'" 

Congress will come back to Washington in a few weeks and head into a debate about continuing alternative-energy tax credits and lifting the 27-year drilling ban off US coasts.

The poll suggests a need for a balanced approach. Hope Congress is listening.

For more on the poll: http://tinyurl.com/5cf6go

(Composed on BlackBerry; links to come; updated 8/30)

Clean Tech: Unlocking the New Green Economy

"How do we begin reorganizing the industrial economy?" Umair Haque asked in his Edge Economy essay "A Manifesto for the Next Industrial Revolution."

Haque answers his own question: "By using markets, networks, and communities to alter the way resources are managed: to weave a fabric of incentives for sustainable growth and authentic value creation into the economy – a new economic fabric that's meaningful to people."

I've been thinking a lot about this call to action while developing my new idea to "organize" (to use Haque's term) the green energy financing space. And I've been wrestling with the following questions (among others):

What would it take to infuse new DNA into the way green energy is financed?

Can we redraw the boundaries of value creation in the 21st century?

Can we expand the access to participation in this space?

Can we create a company that is based on the values of integrity, openness, transparency, and "a fierce embrace of what's good" (as Haque writes elsewhere)?

Can we create a company that develops incentives for people to reorganize and manage resources in a way that reduces the barriers to entry for most people?

I'm becoming obsessed by these questions and am trying to create a response to Umair's challenge.

I hope that what I'm working on with a few very smart people will help reduce or eliminate the "clear, durable, structural barriers to efficiency and productivity" in this space.

The pursuit of answers to these questions is one of the reasons I'm leaving Ashoka at the end of this month. I need to focus my time and energy on trying to explode the boundaries of value creation and unlock the new green economy.

Call me a fool, wish me luck – or come along for the ride.

Clean Tech: Biomimicry May Unlock the Power of Solar

"In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine."

Read the full story by Anne Trafton from MIT and watch Dan Nocera's video description: http://tinyurl.com/5uu53h

Click To Play

(Composed on BlackBerry; UPDATED with embedded video content.)