Green:Net: State of CA Open for Green Business
Liz Gannes - Big Green
California might be broke, but it still spends $2 billion on IT (not including salaries) each year. If cleantech companies can find ways to both save money and reduce emissions, they may have a golden opportunity to help the state government, said two State of California program directors in an on-stage interview at Green:Net.
“Saving money in this environment is the greenest green,” said Adrian Farley, chief deputy director for policy and program management for the State of California. But in the long term, he added, a double bottom line is best.
Another benefit to having the state as a customer is exposure, said Will Semmes, chief deputy director of the California Department of General Services. “In aggregate, local governments can do about 10 times the business that states do in a lot of different areas. Being on a state contract could open up interest from municipalities.”
So how can startups get their ideas in front of a cash-strapped government? Farley and Semmes said there are a lot of things they need fixed. First of all, they want data analysis and processes to analyze the efficiency of everything they do, buy, and operate now. Excel can only do so much, said Semmes. And the state needs help understanding what progress it has made on a number of environmental mandates. Beyond reducing carbon emissions from infrastructure, Farley said the state government is also dedicated to preventing activities that have a negative impact on the environment — so companies have an opportunity to help California know that impact.
Some companies may not even realize what avenues exist for them to get in on government projects, the two men said. Companies with less than $30 million in revenue qualify as small businesses in California, qualifying them for all sorts of opportunities. There are also a lot of smaller projects — $1.5 million and under — that are awarded often.
Green:Net Power Grid 2.0 Panel
Stacey Higginbotham - Big Green
We need a two-way communication between our utilities and our homes that can be delivered via a smart grid, according to a panel of experts speaking today at the Green:Net conference today in San Francisco. Andrew Tang of PG&E, highlighted the issue facing the utilities by noting that in the past power companies got their energy from a few generators. “In the past supply just happened,” Tang said. “In this brave new world, we have tens of thousands of generators to control but we still have to keep this balanced system [of supply and demand.]“
Tang brought up the difficulty utilities have when it comes to managing intermittent renewable power, and increasing resource loads from devices such as electric cars. Those problems and others will drive the need for a smart grid. The panelists agreed that when it comes to communications on the smart grid, there are some huge problems to surmount. Utilities cover a huge area, need communications that are more reliable than a cellular network, and have to do it cheaply. Whatever communications are used on a smart grid also need to also be open and standards-based, secure and future proofed — a utility cannot switch out its meters each time the technology changes. Eric Miller, chief solutions officer of Trilliant, claims the grid will require multiple communications technologies, and will require a mesh networking structure.
For startups concerned about finding their place in the smart grid, the panel didn’t offer much hope. Tang said the road to a contract will likely run through one of the existing large businesses who supply the power companies. Sunil Sharan, director, Smart Grid Initiative, GE Energy, said GE is working with startups to bring their technology before the utilities, but Eric Dresselhuys, VP and co-founder, Silver Spring Networks, says the current grid is less secure than the future smart grid will be. Tang said the current grid’s protection is “security by obscurity,” and he credited the mix of proprietary standards and equipment for the current protection.
At the close of the panel, each participant was asked to name three innovative startups. Sharan named Silver Springs Networks; eMeter, an electronic metering startup; and Google (GOOG). Miller named Sustainable Spaces, which does home retrofitting; Arcadian Networks, which provides wireless networking to utilities; and SunPower, which makes photovoltaic cells. Karl Lewis, chief strategy officer of GridPoint, named Control4, a home automation company; a variety of grid storage companies; and GM. Dresselhuys also named Control4; Serious Materials, a sustainable materials company; and Naverus, which offers sustainable flight plans.
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