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1. Thanks to Our Earth2Tech Sponsors!
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2. Why the Government Should Not Be A Green VC
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3. Cali Regulators Hail End of Startup Phase for Clean Energy Projects
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4. Military Gets All the Fun Stuff: SFC Selling Mobile Fuel Cells for Defense
Thanks to Our Earth2Tech Sponsors!
Katie Fehrenbacher - Misc
We'd like to say thanks to this month's Earth2Tech sponsor:
* Green IT Tools: Download The Green IT Guide and Toolkit for Sustainable Businesses 
Why the Government Should Not Be A Green VC
Katie Fehrenbacher - Policy
The notion that the federal government should be creating a sort of venture capital fund to invest in green technologies was an idea that was floated during the Obama campaign. A report from New Energy Finance back in August 2008 LINK? noted that the Obama administration was considering allocating $50 billion for a government-controlled Clean Technology Venture Capital Fund to be dispersed over 5 years, and the report pointed out that that plan showed a “certain naivete” about the administration’s understanding of the VC clean tech sector. While the administration seems to have dropped that idea for now, we whole-heartedly agreed with NEF back then, and we also agree with an interesting article posted this week from Benchmark Capital partner Bill Gurley.
Gurley points out six reasons why the federal government should not create a green VC fund, including: there is no lack of venture capital funding, good startups are still being funded by VCs, VCs don’t need a bailout, excessive funding hurts markets, and a government VC fund likely would end up backing the end-of-the-road less qualified companies. Gurley’s post is in response to a poor idea that Thomas Friedman noted in one of his recent New York Times op-eds:
I would have loved to have seen the stimulus package include a government-funded venture capital bank to help finance all the start-ups that are clearly not starting up today — in the clean-energy space they're dying like flies — because of a lack of liquidity from traditional lending sources.
Green tech startups might be struggling — like everyone is — in these difficult economic times, but tens of billions of dollars allocated from a government-backed VC is just not the smartest use of funds. Governments should stick to providing money through traditional methods of funding: subsidies, tax breaks, grants, etc. The Obama administration has appeared to back away from that $50 billion in green VC dollars, and so should Friedman.
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Cali Regulators Hail End of Startup Phase for Clean Energy Projects
Josie Garthwaite - Energy
California’s aggressive Renewable Portfolio Standard program has finally started to put a dent in the state power grid, more than six years since its launch and just around the corner from the first major deadline: 20 percent renewable energy in every utility’s portfolio by 2010. The California Public Utilities Commission reported this week that 870 MW of new clean generating capacity has been added since the start of the program — with more than 500 MW coming online in 2008 alone. That’s more than four times the amount added in any other year since the program was launched in 2003. As commissioners noted in their quarterly report this week:
Clearly, 2008 was a turning point for the RPS program and contracted projects are beginning to deliver in large numbers. This may represent the end of the start-up phase of the RPS program, as contracts signed in the earlier years of the program are now built and the renewable market begins to mature.
It’s not just the amount of energy that marks the turning point, but the type. Geothermal and small hydro projects currently make up the bulk of those certified by the utility commission as qualifying under the portfolio standard. But in 2008, solar projects accounted for the majority of the 24 GW worth of bids submitted for contracts with California’s PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric. According to the utility commission’s report, utilities were offered 30 percent more solar energy in 2008 than in 2007 (meaning solar companies said they could commit to selling the utilities that much more energy).
This hardly gives utilities a chance to rest easy with their current energy portfolios, however. PG&E, for one, has announced a steady stream of contracts: Just today, the utility commission announced approval for two new PG&E contracts that are slated to add up to 103 MW of additional wind capacity by the end of 2009 and 210 MW of additional solar capacity (generated at a plant owned by SunPower to the utility’s portfolio by the end of 2012.
But state regulations require actual power deliveries, not just contracts. The RPS mandates utilities to consistently increase the portion of renewables in their total generating capacity — adding an additional 1 percent of annual sales from renewable sources every year — until clean energy makes up 20 percent of their portfolios. They have until 2010 to meet that target, and another decade to make it to one-third renewables.
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Military Gets All the Fun Stuff: SFC Selling Mobile Fuel Cells for...
David Ehrlich - Big Green
The wearable fuel cell, about the size of a hardcover book, isn’t exactly pocket-friendly, but it could help lighten the load for soldiers who SFC said typically have to carry multiple battery packs to keep all their gear running during long missions.
There are already some other companies that have portable fuel cell systems on the market for the military, at least for demonstration sales, including UltraCell and Jadoo Power, but SFC has the distinction of winning top spots in the U.S. Department of Defense’s first Wearable Power Competition last October. SFC took both first and third place, with the M-25 Portable Fuel Cell, which it co-developed with DuPont, taking the top spot, and the Jenny coming in at No. 3.
All of SFC’s fuel cells, from the small to the large, use direct methanol fuel cell, or DMFC, technology, with replaceable liquid methanol fuel cartridges. Some of the company’s bigger fuel cells, which can pump out up to 1,000 watts, are already sold for use in mobile homes, cabins, and boats, as well as for backup power and remote sensor applications.
The Jenny, which generates 25 W of power, has already made it out into the field, according to SFC’s 2008 third-quarter report. In the first half of last year, the company said it delivered an unspecified number of Jenny fuel cells for use in an international peacekeeping mission. Depending on how hot the weather was, and how much power was used, the Jenny should have been able to provide anywhere from 11 to 20 hours of power on that mission before needing a new methanol cartridge.
As for when the technology will trickle down to the consumer, Medis Technologies has come out with a small fuel cell charger for cell phones and other portable devices that you can buy right now. But their fuel cell runs on sodium borohydride, generating a waste product — borax — and costing more energy to produce than it provides. Of course, methanol isn’t so safe either, and the byproducts from methanol fuel cells are carbon dioxide and water.
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
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