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1. Life After Fisker: What's Next for EnerDel?
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2. Cali Adopts Nation's First Green Building Code, Not Everyone's Happy
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3. More Cash for Smart Windows: Switch Materials Takes $7.5M
Life After Fisker: What's Next for EnerDel?
Josie Garthwaite - Automotive
Well, this week we learned that EnerDel batteries won’t be on the road in the Karma after all — EnerDel has broken off talks with Fisker, which is now partnering with battery maker A123Systems. So what does EnerDel, a subsidiary of Ener1, have cooking now?
Ener1 has announced a number of deals in recent months, including R&D work with Nissan; an expanded partnership with backer Itochu Corp.; a smart grid/smart charging demo project with Itochu, Mazda and others; and the use of EnerDel batteries in demo versions of Volvo’s C30 electric car. And then there’s the pending request for government loans and the great Norwegian hope, car maker Think. EnerDel has a $70 million supply agreement with Think and holds a 31 percent stake in the firm.
But while Think has dreams of building out U.S. manufacturing and launching its Think City in North America as early as this year, whether that plan comes through, and in what form, will depend in part on how the feds allocate a shrinking pile of funds for green car manufacturing.
EnerDel, too, hopes to win government funds to help it expand manufacturing capacity. Ener1 CEO Charles Gassenheimer said in a November earnings call that he expected to announce federal loans "before the end of the year," but such an announcement has yet to materialize.
In the meantime, Gassenheimer this week told Reuters, “We have some capacity constraints on our side.” The company currently has two facilities in Indiana (a manufacturing plant in Indianapolis and an assembly plant in Noblesville), and earlier this month it scaled back plans to for a new manufacturing facility in the state.
According to Gassenheimer, however, EnerDel plans to pursue higher-volume supply deals than the Fisker Karma project — it’s gunning for the big guys and seems confident it will get the capacity soon enough to meet their demand. While the existing relationships with Mazda and Volvo hardly give EnerDel a lock on future deals with major automakers down the road, they could help pave the way to larger projects.
Even a future deal with Fisker remains a possibility. Ener1 said in its SEC filing this week (informing shareholders that the Fisker talks had ended) that both parties “remain open to exploring possibilities” for working together on “other potential Fisker programs.”
While the Karma represents a relatively low-volume project, as Gassenheimer noted to Reuters, Fisker’s second-gen model is targeted for mass production (the type of project EnerDel has in its sights). A123Systems will collaborate with Fisker on battery systems for this so-called Project Nina sedan under the agreement announced Thursday, but other suppliers may be considered, a Fisker spokesperson told us.
We reached out to EnerDel asking what it sees as the most promising opportunities to pursue now that the Fisker deal is off. Wait until next week, a spokesperson said — that’s when EnerDel will lay out the road map (part of it, anyway) at a press event with Volvo in Indiana.
Cali Adopts Nation's First Green Building Code, Not Everyone's...
Justin Moresco - Policy
Building codes have long been an effective stick for governments to push the construction industry toward higher standards, for example to make structures safer in the event of a fire or earthquake. The new regulations announced this week, dubbed CalGreen and taking effect Jan. 1, 2011, tackle the environmental impact of buildings. They require builders of new residential and commercial structures in California to install plumbing fixtures that reduce indoor water use by 20 percent over current standards, to recycle half of their construction waste, and to use low-pollutant options for interior finish materials like paints, carpet and vinyl flooring.
Nonresidential buildings will need separate water meters for indoor and outdoor water use, with a requirement for moisture-sensing irrigation systems for larger landscapes, and larger commercial buildings will need to have air conditioning, heating and other mechanical equipment inspected upon completion of construction to ensure they work efficiently. Buildings that pass the state's inspection can label their facilities as "CalGreen compliant."
Some groups, however, such as the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), which develops the popular green building rating system LEED, have expressed concerns about certain provisions in the new code (while also supporting many of its measures). The USGBC’s Northern California chapter posted a statement on its web site saying that the code contains a "voluntary quasi rating system" that "will likely create significant market confusion." The comments were referring to provisions in CalGreen that allow cities to adopt more stringent goals such as around water use and waste diversion, effectively creating two tiers for the new code.
Elizabeth Echols, director of the chapter, rejected the notion that her group has reservations because it's trying to protect its position as the country’s leading rating system for green buildings, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Echols declined to comment for this article, instead referring me to USGBC's Washington, D.C., office because this has become a "national" story. She wrote in an email today that the statement on the chapter's web site is now "out of date."
Jason Harkey, vice president of national policy for the USGBC, told me that the group has "long supported improvements in regulatory code" and that California's move is a "great achievement." He said the USGBC still has some concerns around "implementation," but the group looks forward to working with the state. Harkey also said that LEED, a voluntary system, attempts to "push the ceiling" of the green building industry while codes set the "floor." LEED, for example, has much more expansive requirements related to energy efficiency and the use of recycled materials in construction than California’s new green building code.
Still, state officials clearly feel the need to defend CalGreen against the criticism. The Governor’s office released a memo that includes a chart specifically contrasting California's green building code with "point-based systems" such as LEED and GreenPoint Rated, a separate system which is focused on homes. The memo effectively criticizes point-based systems for a lack of transparency and high certification costs compared with CalGreen (the memo mentions LEED in particular), and it emphasizes the state's "stringent, successful and cost-effective" methods for building inspections.
"We wanted to highlight the differences and show that some things being said weren't true," Dave Walls, executive director of the California Building Standards Commission, which is responsible for administering and adopting the state's building codes, told me. He said he didn't believe CalGreen would cause market confusion.
California's new code will likely bring more attention to sustainable practices in the construction industry, and it tells innovators and investors that green building is now a mandatory feature when it comes to the state's building infrastructure. It's too soon to say with certainty if CalGreen will muddle the market for LEED. In the meantime, the USGBC should be happy with the existing rule that requires all new construction of larger California state buildings to achieve the group's certification.
Image courtesy flickr user Wonderlane.
More Cash for Smart Windows: Switch Materials Takes $7.5M
Josie Garthwaite - Startups
Smart windows are based on a simple idea: decrease the amount of heat taken up from the sun, and you can rely less on energy intensive air conditioning. But it’s executed with sophisticated technology. Switch, which plans to use its new funding for research, development and product commercialization, says it’s developing new materials based on “organic molecules that 'switch' optical properties on command.”
Put simply, Switch says its windows “darken when exposed to the sun and rapidly bleach on command when stimulated by electricity” (a combination of ”photochromism” and “electrochromism,” while it claims competitors rely on only one or the other).
Windows often account for a tremendous amount of heat loss or gain, forcing heaters or air conditioners to work harder and consume more energy depending on the time of year. And if dynamic controls get paired with high insulation, windows could also help minimize heat loss during cold days.
It’s fertile ground for the green building industry, and according to a recent report from venture capital firm Nth Power and the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems, companies that develop better predictive and adaptive algorithms, faster response times and interconnectivity with a building's automated systems will have an advantage in this space.
Companies working on smart window tech include Soladigm, a tight-lipped startup in Milpitas, Calif., as well as Sage Electrochromics and EControl-Glas, which already sells smart window systems.
A big hurdle to growing the market for this technology comes down to cost. That’s part of why the Department of Energy awarded a $4.9 million grant a few months ago to ITN Energy, for R&D focused on reducing the cost of manufacturing electrochromic films by using "roll-to-roll production."
Switch sees this challenge as an opportunity: developing more affordable option (for both buildings and automotive applications) holds the key to a large chunk of the market. BDC Venture Capital Director Geoff Catherwood predicted in the company’s announcement that Switch will be able to “gain a leadership position in a large untapped market” by producing smart windows at a lower price point.
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