21st Century Regenerative Technology

1. Daily Sprout
2. Lockheed on the Hunt for Clean Energy Tech Partners
3. Controversial Duo: Nuclear Pod & Canadian Tar Sands!

Daily Sprout

2009-02-20 20:00

Josie Garthwaite - Misc

Senate to Tackle Climate Change by Summer: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing for a climate bill by the end of the summer. “We have to take a whack at it,” he said in an interview. — Associated Press

How ’bout a Hummer Tax?: Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has floated the idea of higher registration fees for SUVs, prompting backlash from Beantowners worried about a possible burden for commercial truck drivers. — Wired’s Autopia

Algae’s Bloom, Bust, Boom Cycle: A new system called Supersucker lets scientists harvest invasive, abundant algae from coral reefs for use as fertilizer. — NYT’s Green Inc.

Pentagon Battle Over Green Ammo, Protectionism Looms: The Pentagon’s efforts to get greener have begun to collide with its mandate to support U.S. businesses, which currently can’t compete with foreign makers of nontoxic, non-dud producing rounds. — WSJ’s Environmental Capital

EPA’s Stopgap Solution for Regulating Carbon: Observers say the EPA is unlikely to pursue small emitters in any carbon regulation, instead focusing on big sources like power plants and automobiles — with momentous consequences for the scores of new coal power plants that have been proposed nationwide. — Time

Green your IT. Save Money. Save the Planet » Register at $295 / $495 regular »
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.

Top

Lockheed on the Hunt for Clean Energy Tech Partners

2009-02-20 19:00

Josie Garthwaite - Big Green

searching If cleantech startups want to get into government contracting — an option with increasing appeal given the state of today’s private markets and the size of projects covered by stimulus spending — why not ride the coattails of one of the giants? That’s the route opened up this week by Lockheed Martin; the defense behemoth has launched a search for partners with which to develop smart grid, energy storage, high-efficiency photovoltaic conversion and carbon nanotube technologies .

Lockheed is looking for companies to present at the firm’s Special Innovation Symposia at the Nanotech Conference & Expo in Houston this May, but there’s more at stake than a seat at the roundtable. In its call for submissions, Lockheed said it’s looking for “joint R&D, licensing and partnering opportunities towards applied research, intellectual property and early-stage companies focused on” those four areas of clean technology.

Lockheed’s own R&D resources are not insignificant — the company employs some 146,000 people worldwide, most of whom are tasked with the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced technology systems, products and services. But Lockheed has already turned beyond its own ranks for help with cleantech. This latest partner search comes a little more than a year after the company said it plans to test stealthy startup EEStor’s supercapacitors on the battlefield as part of its effort to achieve “energy independence for the Warfighter.” The defense contractor also recently partnered with Starwood Energy Group to build a New Jersey facility for testing utility-scale solar technologies, slated to open this spring.

Photo courtesy Flickr user petercastleton

Green your IT. Save Money. Save the Planet » Register at $295 / $495 regular »
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.

Top

Controversial Duo: Nuclear Pod & Canadian Tar Sands!

2009-02-20 16:42

Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups

hyperionlogosmall Don’t feel so comfortable with a hot-tub sized nuclear power generator buried under your feet? Perhaps those that mine and process Canada’s tar sands deposits will feel differently — at least that’s the hope of Hyperion, a startup developing a modular nuclear device. Hyperion floated the idea this morning: Hey, why not use Hyperion Power Modules to clean up the power used to produce oil from the tar sands?

Yeah, it’s an unusual target market — and Hyperion is an unusual company. Hyperion claims that those mining an average oil field could save as much as $2 billion a year if they used the company’s technology instead of natural gas to power the process. Oil fields are also remote locations, where the costs of transporting fuel for power cut into the bottom line. Tar sands developers, like the military, which Hyperion is also targeting, could also be, for lack of a better word, less squeamish about controversial forms of power — the industry is already routinely the target of attack by environmentalists.

hyperionunderground

But Hyperion also appears to be trying to distance its marketing from the “nuclear” elephant in the room. The term nuclear does not appear once on its latest news release — surprising, given it’s the crux of the technology. Instead it’s using terms like “thermal battery,” explaining the module as one that utilizes the “energy of low-enriched uranium fuel.” We figure anyone who’s going to plunk down $25 million for the device would figure it out.

The company also appears to have pushed back the date for when the nuclear pods will be available. Hyperion was previoulsy shooting for as early as 2013, but this morning says: “The company expects to begin delivery of the units in 2014.” It probably has to do with the difficult capital markets, as CEO John "Grizz" Deal told us last October that the company was in the process of raising a Series B round.

For all of Hyperion’s controversy, the team has managed to raise funds from venture and private equity firm Altira Group and signed up its first customer, TES Group, which they call an investment company focused on the energy sector in Central Eastern Europe. If the device can overcome the regulatory and financing hurdles and a likely public backlash, it could provide a large amount of emissions-free power for off-grid communities and industries.