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1. EV Charging In China: ECOtality Secures $300M Credit Line From Chinese Partner
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2. DOE's First Entrepreneur In Residence Program: FAIL
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3. SolFocus Founder Turns Up the Heat with New Solar Startup b2u Solar
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4. VIDEO: Gen. Colin Powell on Bloom Energy & Working for Kleiner Perkins
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5. Earth2Tech Week In Review
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6. Metrus Energy Lands First Contract for PPA-Style Energy Efficiency
EV Charging In China: ECOtality Secures $300M Credit Line From...
Justin Moresco - Automotive
The credit line, offered by the China Construction Bank, will allow ECOtality to finance vehicle charging projects for its customers and reduce the upfront capital they otherwise would have needed to invest to get the projects moving. That, in turn, "will accelerate EV adoption worldwide," CEO Jonathan Read said in a statement. Read said the deal would provide ECOtality with the capital needed "to become the dominant player in the EV marketplace with no current dilution to our shareholders."
The focus on China isn't new for ECOtality, whose subsidiary eTec snagged a nearly $100 million federal stimulus grant last year to support the construction of more than 12,000 charging systems in five U.S. states. The company announced last September that it had formed two joint ventures with Shenzhen Goch to manufacture, assemble and sell EV charging equipment in the country. ECOtality said then that Shenzhen Goch would contribute $15 million for the joint ventures in exchange for exclusive sales and distribution rights for ECOtality's charging systems in China.
ECOtality, at the time of the announcement with Shenzen Goch last year, seemed to emphasize that a major benefit of the partnership would be to sell its charging systems in China, which is expected to account for nearly half of worldwide installations by 2015, according to at least one research report. Today's announcement makes it clear that ECOtality's partnership with Shenzhen Goch is as much about selling into the Chinese market as it is about exporting products to markets worldwide, including to the U.S., which was specifically mentioned in the statement. As Josie Garthwaite has written before on Earth2Tech, there is growing chance that the charge point you pull up to in the U.S. in the future will have a "Made in China" sticker on the back.
DOE's First Entrepreneur In Residence Program: FAIL
Katie Fehrenbacher - Policy
Bauer, who worked in the DOE EIR project at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, tells the Times that the DOE EIR program "[W]as fascinating but also very disappointing. . . I looked at 1,500 invention disclosures and walked away from 1,500 ideas." The original idea for the program was that these chosen entrepreneurs would enter the labs, which are chock full of energy intellectual property that have yet to be turned into businesses, and spin out a cleantech company in 3-4 month.
Two years ago when the program was being developed a representative of NREL's Office of Technology Transfer told me that “We plan to use this program as a starting point for a cultural change and push the entrepreneurial spirit.” Clearly the program didn’t work out as hoped. I haven’t spoken with the EIR from ARCH Venture Partners, but 2 out of the 3 DOE EIRs didn’t deliver companies.
Joel Serface, the EIR from Kleiner Perkins that did the same program in the DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) had a similar experience as Bauer. Serface wrote last year that he "felt like a kid in a candy store,” but that there weren't any companies spun out during his time there.
Serface summed up the problems with the DOE EIR program pretty well and explained that the “DOE's calculus was if they inserted a serial entrepreneur/investor backed by a brand-named VC firm into a lab that magic would happen and that an innovation would turn immediately into a company." Not so much. "Unfortunately, the EIR program was timed too short to reach its full potential and to get the first one of these ideas set up as a company,” he wrote.
I’m curious to know if the DOE will continue the program, with a new round of EIRs, and take some of these suggestions to heart. Clearly the EIRs want and need a much a longer time frame within which to study and work with the technologies.
Random science image courtesy of NREL.
SolFocus Founder Turns Up the Heat with New Solar Startup b2u Solar
Jennifer Kho - Startups
At the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco last week, Conley claimed b2u’s technology can deliver the equivalent of 40 to 60 cents per watt – and 2.5 to 4.5 cents per kilowatt-hour – by generating heat directly, instead of producing energy that is then used to make heat. That makes it potentially competitive with natural gas today, and the economics look even better if the heat is also used for air conditioning, as well as heating, Conley said. (It may sound counterintuitive, but heat can be paired with a chiller to generate cool air).
Other solar companies that are developing ways to utilize the sun’s heat include Sopogy, which installed its first commercial project in Hawaii last year, Focal Point Energy, which is developing systems that produce hot water and steam for industrial applications, HelioDynamics, Chromasun, and the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology.
These solar heat systems are generally based on the same type of technology as the big projects that BrightSource Energy, Abengoa Solar and others are installing in the desert. A reflector directs the sun’s heat to a tube in which fluid circulates, and the hot fluid then provides heat for other applications.
But companies like b2u Solar are working to make the systems viable for applications that can use the heat directly — and at smaller sizes so the systems can be installed where the heat is used, avoiding transmission losses. In b2u’s case, the design utilizes an evacuated tube collector, normally used for hot water heating, and Conley claims the system can capture and convert diffuse light, not just direct light like most concentrators.
B2u’s technology generates heat of between 135 and 200 degrees Celsius. But one issue with these types of technologies has been the difficulty of using all of the heat. Even though making heat is cheaper than producing electricity, “if a system generates more heat than [a customer] can use, that’s not a payback,” said Jenny Chase, lead solar analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Solar-thermal cooling has proven more difficult than expected, with Chase saying she has yet to see a company make it work on a commercial scale and volume.
b2u believes its ability to use diffuse light will allow it to tap into the elusive cooling market. A case study comparing production on a cloudy day with a sunny day found only 16 percent lower production on the cloudy day, Conley said. And a demonstration project has been cooling successfully since Dec. 1 at a third of the current electricity cost for air conditioning during the day, he added.
With that ability, along with its temperature range, b2u believes its technology has plenty of industrial applications, including concrete curing, paper finishing, wastewater treatment and commercial cooking. “ConAgra drying onions and garlic for McDonald’s – that’s the temperature range you need,” Conley said. The company also hopes to replace some of the natural gas used to inject water for oil production, he said, and has just bid on one such project in the Middle East. All together, b2u estimates its technology could potentially address 30 percent, or $90 billion, of the market for industrial process heat and commercial heat.
B2u, which is seeking $6 million to $8 million in its first round of funding, is in final negotiations with contract manufacturing partners and plans to begin shipping commercial collectors in the second quarter of this year, said Conley. The company already has several demonstration projects installed in China and the United States, including one at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. that has been running for nearly two years. B2u also has formed a partnership with the Gas Technology Institute, a nonprofit to develop new energy technologies, and, together with its partner, won a $400,000 grant from the California Energy Commission for a demonstration project in Southern California.
Image courtesy of Sopogy.
VIDEO: Gen. Colin Powell on Bloom Energy & Working for Kleiner Perkins
Katie Fehrenbacher - clean power
At the launch event of fuel cell company Bloom Energy last week General Colin Powell, who is on the board of directors for Bloom Energy and a limited partner for venture firm Kleiner Perkins, talked about his experiences of working with Bloom and his vision for Bloom’s server for the developing world. Powell called the Bloom server “a breakthrough product,” and said that 5 years ago he met with Bloom’s founder KR Sridhar in his garage and joked that nowadays he still gives Sridhar the occasional lecture — I still act like a General, Powell quipped.
To see the complete video of Powell’s speech watch this clip from The Auto Channel and move ahead to 25 minutes, 40 seconds. After Powell’s speech he joined a media Q&A and I grabbed this really short video clip of Powell talking about what it’s been like to work with Kleiner Perkins. It’s not the best camera work and he gave me about a minute before he left the room, but I thought I’d post it anyway:
Here’s a clip that Mashable took of Powell answering a question during the media Q&A on whether Powell had talked to the military about using Bloom’s server:
Earth2Tech Week In Review
Katie Fehrenbacher - Misc
Bloom Energy Week: Here’s my live coverage of the Bloom Energy unveiling, my thoughts on why Bloom Energy is and isn’t the Google of greentech, Bloom Energy By the Numbers, 10 Things to Know About Bloom Energy, and how Bloom Energy's Carbon-Neutral Claim Relies on Scarce Biogas.
Report: Silver Spring Seeks Mid-2010 IPO, Valuation of $3B? Dow Jones Clean Technology Insight reported Friday that Silver Spring has picked a banker for an IPO scheduled for mid-2010, and is aiming at a market valuation of $3 billion.
Balance Energy Quietly Building a Web of Microgrids: Balance Energy — a San Diego-based offshoot of British military contractor BAE Systems — sees the bigger promise of microgrids in the private sector, not as islands of power unto themselves, but as trading partners, making and sharing electricity with each other and the grid at large.
Microsoft Hohm to Connect with Devices this Summer, One Day Offer Its Own? Microsoft has just released the software developer kit for Hohm to third party device makers and is expecting Hohm to connect with devices –- likely smart meters first — this summer. Microsoft "might" even one day develop its own Microsoft-branded energy hardware, but for now is focused on connecting with third party gadget makers.
The Future of Smart Grid Transmission: Superconducting High-Voltage Power Lines: To deliver the promised benefits of the smart grid –- stability, seamless interconnectivity, real-time information for customers and grid operators –- the country's aging, isolated AC grids will have to be replaced by a robust new transmission network. And that future dream looks like it will be tightly connected to a technology called superconducting high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power lines, which are super-chilled to boost capacity and can carry gigawatts of electricity.
Metrus Energy Lands First Contract for PPA-Style Energy Efficiency
Jeff St. John - smart grid
Bob Hinkle, founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Metrus, says the $1 million project is the first of multiple projects for BAE that his company wants to own and manage. Under the ESA, BAE pays only for a fraction of each "avoided unit of realized energy savings," he says, with Siemens, BofA and Metrus collecting an additional fraction of the savings. That means BAE doesn’t have to pay anything up front, which removes the conflict between spending on energy efficiency versus other projects — a big barrier to spending on better efficiency for the private sector.
Hinkle, a former vice president of energy efficiency at MMA Renewable Ventures, had seen the way that power purchase agreements (PPA) helped investors put money into renewable power projects, and figured it could be applied to energy efficiency projects as well. After all, replacing lights, HVAC systems, windows and other energy efficiency measures are cheaper and pay for themselves faster than renewable energy projects. If they could be financed in a way that took the up-front costs out of the equation for building owners, both they and the investors could reap the financial rewards in the form of reduced energy bills, while helping the environment.
“The unifying theme is removing first-cost hurdles for customers,” he said. There would appear to be an untapped market for making buildings and factories more energy efficient. The National Association of Energy Service Companies pegged the energy services industry as a $3.6 billion business in 2006, with about $2.5 billion directly related to energy efficiency. But the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy predicts a $250 billion market for commercial and industrial sector efficiency upgrades over the next decade. The Department of Energy says that buildings consume about two-fifths of the country’s total energy and represent a big target for saving power and cutting carbon emissions.
Energy services companies, or ESCOs, such as Siemens, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Schneider Electric and Chevron Energy Services would certainly like to find more ways to reach that market. So would startups like Pulse Energy, Lucid Design Group, and others seeking to break into the market for more efficient commercial building energy management systems, or demand response companies like EnerNOC that are buying their way into building efficiency services. New regulations at the federal and state level could help push energy efficiency, such as California's proposed statewide building code.
But at present, most energy efficiency projects are done for government or institutional entities like colleges and hospitals, which can justify the longer-term investments. They've also got stimulus money to spend — DOE is directing $4.5 billion in stimulus to retrofit federal buildings and $3 billion to grants for state energy efficiency programs, and plans to spend $80 billion over the coming years on retrofitting federal buildings for energy and water efficiency and renewable energy.
Commercial and industrial clients have shorter payback times for energy efficiency upgrades — about three years tops, as a rule of thumb. Metrus wants to overcome this challenge with its new ESA model.
Further down the road, “I could see Metrus securitizing or putting into larger funds projects that we've financed and owned,” Hinkle said. “But starting out of the gates, it's not going to be a securitization play… it's going to be more traditional project financing. We're not at the pooling structure stage quite yet.”
Pooled energy efficiency investment is just one of the innovative paths to more energy efficiency investment Hinkle has studied as an entrepreneur in residence at the California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF), which is providing support to his company. Others include Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, programs being implemented by cities and counties that allow costs for solar panels or efficiency improvements to be paid back through property taxes — startup Renewable Funding raised $12.2 million in October to develop, administer and finance projects through PACE programs. (For more examples of innovative programs, check out a white paper Hinkle co-wrote for CalCEF.)
As for Metrus’s financial backing, it’s received an undisclosed amount of investment from European VC firm GoGreen Capital, Hinkle said.
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