-
1. Energy Star Finally Gets Teeth, Bummer for LG
-
2. The EPA's Answer to Vehicle Emissions Modeling: MySQL
-
3. Solar Thieves!: Solar Security Is the Latest Business Opp
-
4. Daily Sprout
-
5. Codexis IPO: Why It Needs Shell & Other Fast Facts
Energy Star Finally Gets Teeth, Bummer for LG
Katie Fehrenbacher - Green IT
To that I say: good. It’s about time that the DOE and the EPA take appliance energy efficiency and its voluntary Energy Star program more seriously. While I applaud the Energy Star program, it pales in comparison to the energy efficiency programs of many countries in Europe, and the EU is working on even tougher regulations. I can’t forget Guardian columnist George Monbiot’s sneering response to a speech from Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu at the Copenhagen climate negotiations in which Chu pointed to appliance energy efficiency as a new avenue for green technology in the U.S.
Over the past year the DOE and the EPA have come under criticism for failing to properly track and audit the Energy Star program. Under the DOE’s own audit of the Energy Star program it found that the Energy Star ratings for some products were "not accurate or verifiable" because of weak oversight by the agency, reported the New York Times in October.
So the fact that DOE has now turned its attention to LG’s fridges is part of a larger attempt to beef up the auditing for Energy Star. The DOE says that manufacturers of certain Energy Star appliances have until January 8, 2010 to show they are in compliance, and after that “the DOE will begin aggressively enforcing these reporting requirements, including seeking civil penalties or fines.” I hope the trend continues as appliances that don’t actually deliver energy savings but carry the Energy Star label are just plain detrimental to the whole program.
But there are, and will continue to be, growing pains for a new Energy Star program with teeth. LG, of course, says the audit is unfair, because the DOE has started asking for a specific test that LG wasn’t aware of (for a good description of the details see Green Inc’s piece), and LG has responded with a lawsuit. If the DOE issues more bans and fines, expect to see a lot more of these lawsuits in 2010. Note to appliance makers: Just spend the extra money to make these products clearly in compliance with Energy Star — it’s really bad PR to file lawsuits over greenwashing a product. And you don’t want Greenpeace up in your grill.
Image courtesy of law_keven’s photostream Flickr Creative Commons.
The EPA's Answer to Vehicle Emissions Modeling: MySQL
Josie Garthwaite - Automotive
It’s the tenth update since the original model came out in 1978, and the first update in five years. The new modeling system is meant to provide more accurate picture of how much pollution will be produced or prevented as a result of different initiatives and emission control strategies.
This latest update — called MOVES2010 (for Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator) — represents a few “firsts” for the EPA modeling system. It’s written in Java and based on MySQL’s open-source database software, which is commonly used by web companies (Om has called it “the real broadband brain“), and it includes a graphical user interface. MOVES2010 enables analysis of emission impacts across multiple scales, according to the EPA, from the national level down to county transportation projects.
As the EPA explains in its user guide, MOVES2010 will help answer “what if” questions, such as, ”How would particulate matter emissions decrease in my state on a typical weekday if truck travel was reduced during rush hour?” or “How does the total hydrocarbon emission rate change if my fleet switches to gasoline from diesel fuel?”
With the new system, the agency says it will be able to incorporate large amounts of data about vehicle emissions from a variety of sources. Meanwhile, the states and local governments that use the modeling system to inventory their emissions (as part of requirements under federal air quality regulations) will be able to view emissions in several output formats. For example, the system can provide an estimate for the total mass of pollutants (e.g. tons or grams of CO2), or emissions for specific areas and time periods. That contrasts with previous versions, which only offered a grams-per-mile output.
Overall, the upgrades in this latest version — in particular the new database approach — are meant to make the system much more flexible than previous models. The 2004 version, called Mobile6.2 was written in the programming language Fortran and ran on DOS, while many of the data elements were hardcoded and difficult to modify. Systems like MOVES2010 (released in draft form earlier this year) help inform “decisions about air pollution policy and programs at the local, state and national level,” according to the EPA.
In a time when the agency and Congress are considering regulations for greenhouse gas emissions — and years after databases first became, as Om put it back in 2004, the most crucial piece of software in “a broadband enabled life” — improvements in accuracy, capacity for deep data analysis, aggregation and disaggregation, and speedy updates can’t come too soon.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Dr. Keats
Solar Thieves!: Solar Security Is the Latest Business Opp
Katie Fehrenbacher - clean power
That statistic also suggests that the problem may only get worse as more and more organizations, companies and people install solar panels on roofs, at schools and next to vineyards. It sounds like the ground-mounted systems were the big target in the Napa County thefts, so I wouldn’t start worrying about your bolted-down rooftop panels just yet. But for all you entrepreneurs out there, solar security maybe be a hot topic of 2010.
The KQED report interviewed a Santa Rosa, Calif.-based startup called Gridlock Solar Security, which is a little over a year old and sells a $1,000 alarm system solar security device. The system will make eight phone calls in 10 seconds to warn of a potential theft, and blare a 120 decibel alarm system. Seems like they’re doing well, telling KQED that they’ve been generating 36 orders a month from a national distributor, and working with school districts and wineries.
Another interesting tidbit from the KQED report is that police in Napa County speculated that thieves may be finding solar panels using online tools like Google Earth. We’ve followed quite a few companies that map publicly available solar info onto Google Maps. When it comes to online data, unfortunately security concerns are just the price of doing business in the world of transparent and free information. Listen to the KQED clip below:
Image courtesy of Grid Lock Solar Security.
Daily Sprout
Josie Garthwaite - Misc
Munich Re Calls for Climate Action: German reinsurer Munich Re warned today that a lack of big earthquakes and hurricanes this year should not lead to complacency about climate change. — Financial Times
Concerns About Hong Kong Water Security: A series of droughts in China has raised concerns that Hong Kong's water supply is threatened by climate change and pollution, has growing demand from surrounding industries, so it might not be as secure as first thought. — NYT’s Green Inc.
Senate Climate Fight: Tough as Healthcare Reform: Assembling a climate and energy package that can be shoehorned into the election-year calendar will be every bit as tough for Senate Democrats when they return in January as crafting the healthcare bill. — The Hill
Abengoa Considers Billion Euro Bond Sale: “Abengoa SA, Spain's largest developer of solar-thermal power plants, is considering selling as much as 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) of bonds to finance more installations and reduce its dependence on banks.” — Bloomberg via BusinessWeek
Pacific Lake Opens Eyes Fund for Young Entrepreneurs: Palo Alto, Calif.-based venture capital firm Pacific Lake Partners is looking to raise $35 million for a fund that will specifically target recent business school grads looking to buy and turn around other people's startups. — VentureBeat’s GreenBeat
Codexis IPO: Why It Needs Shell & Other Fast Facts
Josie Garthwaite - Startups
Reliance on Shell: Codexis has a lot of chips riding on its work with Shell. If the startup succeeds in developing viable biocatalysts for biofuel production, it would rely on Shell (or other companies selected by the oil giant), “to design and build the commercial scale fuel production facilities and to distribute the final fuel product.” If the fuels take off, Codexis could reap big rewards: ”If Shell commercializes our biofuels technology, we will collect a royalty for every gallon of fuel that Shell produces using our technology.”
Time to first revenue: Founded in 2002 as a spin-out from drug developer Maxygen, Codexis focused on building its team and developing its technology for three years. The company saw its first revenue from product sales in 2005.
Handful of customers: During 2008, just five customers accounted for 79 percent of Codexis’ total revenues. For the first nine months of this year, the startup’s top five customers accounted for an even larger portion of Codexis’ revenue: 90 percent. Shell alone accounted for 60 percent or revenue in 2008 and 75 percent of revenue in the first three quarters of 2009. Codexis emphasizes that it’s working in a variety of industries and markets (including the U.S., Singapore, India, Japan, Hungary and others), but it acknowledges that its dependence on a limited number of customers is risky: “The loss or reduction of business from one or a combination of our significant customers,” Codexis writes, could hurt the company’s revenue and financial condition.
R&D, the fickle cash cow: Codexis says “a substantial portion” of its revenue so far has come from R&D agreements with collaborators like Shell, and it expects to continue that trend. Here’s how it works: Shell makes bi-monthly payments to Codexis based on the number of full time employee equivalents that work on the collaborative research (different rates are set for employees working in the U.S. and Hungary). If Shell decides to cut the number of people working on that project, Codexis’ cash stream will likely shrink. And starting in November 2010, Shell can pull the plug on the project “for any or no reason,” as long as it provides nine months notice.
Milestone payments in the pipeline: Codexis says its agreement with Shell includes milestone payments of an undisclosed amount if it meets certain technical and commercial goals, starting in 2009.
Exclusive agreement: When it comes to converting cellulosic biomass into sugars for biofuel production, Codexis has agreed to work exclusively with Shell until November 2012. But Shell can have other partners. “For example,” Codexis says, “Shell is currently working with Virent Energy Systems to develop a thermo-chemical approach to developing biogasoline.”
Manufacturing build-out: Codexis needs to expand its production capacity, and it’s looking at two means of doing that: establish long-term supply contracts with contract manufacturers and invest in its own manufacturing facilities.
How many people?: As of September 2009, the company had about 300 employees, up from just 40 employees at the end of 2002.
Eye on oil prices: If and when Shell opts to commercialize biofuels with Codexis’ technology, the average price of oil in coming years will affect how much revenue Codexis gets from the product. As Codexis explains, its royalties under the agreement with Shell are indexed to the price of oil and will generally increase as the price of oil increases. But the index is based on average prices between November 2007 and the date of first commercial sale.
History of losses: Codexis has seen major net losses for each of the last four years: $18.7 million in the calendar year 2006, $39.0 million in 2007 and $45.1 million in 2008. For the first nine months of 2009, Codexis reports a net loss of $15.1 million, and an accumulated deficit of $154.4 million.
Payments to Maxygen: Codexis has had to make fat payments to Maxygen as part of its technology licensing deal. Codexis paid Maxygen $7.8 million in 2007, $1 million in 2008 and $4.2 million during the first three quarters of 2009. These are taken as a percentage of payments from Shell development project.
Who owns what?: Maxygen owns about 21.6 percent of outstanding shares and Shell owns nearly 20 percent of outstanding shares. Biomedical Sciences Investment Fund, CMEA Ventures, CITV Investments and FirstMark Capital all own between about 6 and 12 percent of the shares.
Key CEO: CEO and President Alan Shaw took a salary of $425,000 in the calendar year 2008, up nearly 10.5 percent from 2007. He earned a total of $950,000 including option awards and an approximately $150,00 bonus. Codexis says the loss of Shaw could prevent it from developing and commercializing its products for target markets and entering into collaborations or licensing arrangements.
The competition: Competitor Novozymes also licenses technology from Maxygen, an agreement that may restrict Codexis’ use of the tech.
What happened to the CFO?: Robert Breuil held the post of Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer at Codexis starting in early January 2006. But he turned in his resignation and ultimately left in June 2009. He had been the only executive officer earning a salary above the 50th percentile for the life sciences industry — a reflection, according to the prospectus, of “his significant individual contributions to our company during 2007 and the critical nature of his skills and expertise for our company at its stage of development in 2008.” (Breuil earned a total of $540,558 last year, including bonus and option awards.)
The prospectus does not say why Breuil resigned, but his departure seems to have been on good terms: Codexis says Breuil “agreed to be available to consult with us on a paid and as-needed basis for three months following his termination of employment, and has continued to consult for us beyond that three-month period.” Robert Lawson, a former Intuit executive, joined Codexis as CEO last month.
Reality check on cellulosic biofuels: “As of the date of this prospectus, we believe that there are no commercial scale cellulosic biofuel production plants in operation,” Codexis writes. “There can be no assurance that anyone will be able or willing to develop and operate biofuel production plants at commercial scale or that any biofuel facilities can be profitable.” Among the remaining hurdles for the industry is an infrastructure buildout. According to Codexis, additional rail capacity, storage facilities, truck fleets for transporting ethanol, refining and blending facilities, and vehicles capable of running on ethanol blends are needed in order for the ethanol market to grow.
What’s next?: Codexis says it is “actively pursuing opportunities in other bioindustrial markets” beyond biofuels and pharmaceuticals, “including through self-funded research in carbon management and the pursuit of funded collaborations in carbon management, water treatment and chemicals.”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment