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1. The Daily Sprout
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2. Ostara Raises $10.5M to Turn Wastewater into Fertilizer
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3. Applied Materials Eyeing Solid-State Lighting
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4. West Coast Green, Our Smart Home Report, & Party!
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5. Despite Clean Power Trend, Business As Usual for ConocoPhillips
The Daily Sprout
Craig Rubens - Misc
RGGI Auctions, But Will it Work?: The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative started selling carbon credits in the Northeast today but don’t get too excited because it’ll probably start off slow, undermining the whole point of scheme which, in case you forgot, is to encourage utilities to generate cleaner power - WSJ’s Environmental Capital.
Al Gore Calls for Civil Disobedience to Stop Coal: Speaking yesterday at the Clinton Global Initiative yesterday Gore said: “I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants.” Thoreau would be proud - Reuters.
Pelamis Wave Energy Project Snakes Through Waves: Wave energy startup Pelamis has put its 140m-long tubes in the water off the coast of Portugal which could at peak produce 2.25 megawatts of clean power - Guardian.
Duke and AREVA Form JV for Biomass Plants: Under the newly formed ADAGE, AREVA will design and build the biomass power plants while Duke Energy will manage operations. They will jointly negotiate power purchase agreements, fuel contracts and select sites - Renewable Energy World.
Win a Hybrid, Solar Panels or CFLs from TXU: Texas utility TXU Energy is looking to give a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, a 2 kilowatt photovoltaic system from Standard Renewable Energy, TXU energy credits and CFLs! You can enter online or, if you’re a TXU customer participating in one of their energy saving programs, you’ve been entered automatically - TXU’s Good For Texas Sweepstakes.
Ostara Raises $10.5M to Turn Wastewater into Fertilizer
Craig Rubens - Startups
Founded in 2005, the company has been operating its system at a commercial-scale water treatment plant in Edmonton, Alberta, since 2007. Ostara says its technology can process sewage sludge liquids in a way that reduces operating costs, increases overall plant capacity, complies with environmental regulations and produces revenue from the cleaned-up byproduct.
Ostara licensed its technology from the University of British Columbia. The technology uses a proprietary fluidized bed reactor which mixes the wastewater and a catalyst at high velocities. The reaction pulls out 85 percent of the phosphates, which form into granules, the company says. Ostara’s system can be implemented at plants that use biological phosphorus removal and anaerobic sludge digestion and helps boost capacity and reduce operating costs by pulling out the crystalline phosphate, which could otherwise clog the system and take additional energy to pump. The end result is sold to golf courses and farmers under the brand name Crystal Green.
The next step is implementation at the Durham Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility in Tigard, Ore. The facility is operated by Clean Water Services, which signed a contract with Ostara earlier this month to construct a $2.5 million reactor at the Durham facility with the aim to get the reactor operating by spring 2009. Clean Water Services expects that between the expanded capacity and revenue generated by fertilizer sales it will see a return on its investment within five years.
Applied Materials Eyeing Solid-State Lighting
Stacey Higginbotham - Big Green
Applied Materials is taking its solar equipment manufacturing expertise and moving it indoors. The company plans to focus on solid-state lighting as a line of business, said Annette Finsterbusch, a partner with Applied Ventures, speaking at the Rice Alliance Energy and Clean Technology Venture Forum in Houston on Thursday. Finsterbusch, who works for the corporate venture arm of Applied Materials, said the semiconductor and solar equipment maker, “is moving toward a third tier of business which is lighting — solid state lighting.”
When asked for details, a spokesman for Applied said, “While we haven’t officially announced any products, our EES (Energy and Environment Solutions) group is looking at various ways we might participate in the solid state lighting area. Nothing to talk about really yet, other than it shares the same dynamic as many an emerging markets: huge potential, currently too costly for consumers and looking for a technology solution that involves Applied’s thin-films expertise.”
Applied, which spent more than $1 billion buying solar equipment companies over the last few years, has bet big on the space, and is the largest supplier of thin-film and PV manufacturing equipment in the world. However, the solar section isn’t yet profitable, in part because of charges related to acquisition costs. Adding lighting to its portfolio might be risky up front, but the opportunity for organic light emitting diodes could be large if production costs go down.
Last year, Applied Ventures, participated in a funding round for Group IV Semiconductor, which makes solid state lighting on silicon — the same material most semiconductors are made on. In addition to the funding, Applied has offered to help Group IV develop a process for placing its light-emitting films on silicon wafers, which plays to Applied’s thin firm and chip equipment expertise.
Applied is also participating in the lighting industry through the European Organic Phosphorescent lights for Applications in the Lighting market 2008 Program. The organization aims to develop an OLED production technology capable of achieving the cost target of a few euro cents per square centimeter for a white OLED device. Members of the consortia include Aixtron, Osram, Philips and BASF.
West Coast Green, Our Smart Home Report, & Party!
Katie Fehrenbacher - Energy
The Earth2Tech team is here at the show as a media sponsor, and we’re hanging out in the exhibitors hall at booth #236, if you want to come by and say hi. We’re also throwing a party in conjunction with West Coast Green near the convention center tonight and inviting all the hot entrepreneurs, innovators and investors in the green building space. We’ve got just a couple spots left on the party list, so if you really want to party with us and the green building innovators, get in touch with us (katie at gigaom dot com).
Despite Clean Power Trend, Business As Usual for ConocoPhillips
Stacey Higginbotham - Energy
Brand spent all but two minutes of the 30-minute speech highlighting how technology — from supercomputers to biotech — will aid in the capture and refinement of fossil fuels at a commercially acceptable price. Of course it’s no surprise that Brand would focus on how to bring down the cost of using fossil fuels for power — ConocoPhillips is the second-largest oil and natural gas refiner in the U.S. and the fifth-largest non-governmental controlled refiner in the world.
Faster supercomputers make it easier to analyze seismic data quickly to “see” where to dig, he said, and biotechnology could create bacteria to rid fuels of contaminants prior to extraction. Nanotechnology was also given a lot of play for its theoretical value, but other than saying the oil giant plans to buy an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer, Brand didn’t talk about specific efforts at the company. He did, however, note that ConocoPhillips has two ethanol refineries and said it’s interested in later generations of the technology rather than corn ethanol.
When asked about algae and geothermal, Brand said ConocoPhillips was interested in algae and revisiting geothermal programs the company had started in the ’70s. Beyond the role technology could play, Brand said the government should get involved. He called for comprehensive federal legislation that would tackle both climate change and create a national energy policy. As for the legislation:
- It should broaden the diversity of supply, bringing in solar, biofuels, etc.
- It should call for greater energy efficiency
- It should include environmental stewardship, notably a focus on carbon emissions
- It should encourage innovation, particularly on the technological and research and development side
So this is all pretty standard stuff from a company that makes its money from the discovery, extraction and refining of fossil fuels. Other than recognizing that a greater diversity of energy sources means oil companies will find ways to differentiate themselves from one another, it sounds like it’s business as usual for ConocoPhillips.
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