3p Contributor: Andrew Burger
Recent Articles
A123 Systems’ IPO: Will Clean Tech Pave the Way for the Next Stock Market Bubble?
A promising start-up that’s posted nothing but ever larger losses since inception, but with a high-tech “blue chip” pedigree and a promising product decides it’s time to go public. On the first day of secondary market trading its shares soar 50%. Sound familiar? In what may turn out to be the latest variation on an economic theme that has brought about some of the greatest stock market booms, busts and scandals in financial history, the shares of lithium-ion battery manufacturer A123 Systems did just that yesterday.
Founded in 2001 on the back of pioneering advances in nanoscale materials development at MIT, A123 is riding the still building wave of investor enthusiasm for lithium-ion battery manufacture. The technology of choice for storing power in electric vehicles, and with potential markets in both small-scale distributed and larger scale utility power storage as well, A123 has leveraged this R&D to land well over half a billion dollars of capital in the form of alternative vehicle technology grants from the federal government, Michigan state grants and refundable renewable energy tax credits, private equity investments from the likes of GE, and deals to supply lithium ion batteries to Chrysler and Shanghai Motors.
A123’s IPO may be the type of spark that helps reignite and propel the clean tech/renewable energy and broader financial markets to new heights and the US economy to a “low-carbon” future? Or could it be a sign that the US economy is embarking on yet another spectacular, liquidity and credit-driven cycle of boom and bust?
“Solar Energy Initiatives” Capitalizes on Fed Stimulus
Concerns about employment have become even more prominent in the US in the wake of the bursting of the latest, and arguably the deepest, financial and real estate bubble since the Great Depression.
By way of overcoming the current economic downturn and setting the foundation for healthier, more sustainable development and growth in the 21st century, “Going Green” has become the mantra for those who would like to see the US wean itself off its dependence on fossil fuels. The idea: Stimulate the development and adoption of clean technology and renewable energy.
The message is a powerful one, and companies such as Solar Energy Initiatives are aiming to capitalize on it. Based in Ponte Vedra, Florida, the solar energy systems dealer and integrator’s overarching strategy is defined in its “Renew the Nation” campaign and mission statement—”to help redeploy a portion of the US workforce and focus on reducing the world’s dependence on fossil fuels by selling solar thermal and photovoltaic (PV) technologies.”
Biofuel and Black Earth: Dynamotive Pioneers Updated Pre-Columbian Technology
Improving on an age-old method used in Pre-Columbian societies, Canada’s Dynamotive Energy Systems has developed a means of turning waste biomass into fuel and fertilizer. Significantly, “fast pyrolysis” of the waste feedstock Dynamotive is using also provides a long-term means of capturing and storing carbon.
Small groups of biochar proponents have been gathering together and discussing biochar’s potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve agriculture and benefit agricultural communities for years. They’ve been garnering a larger audience of late.
Language recognizing biochar as a qualified climate change mitigation and adaptation technology has been included in the working draft of a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Similar proposals are being considered in US and Australian climate change pacts. Here in the US for the first time, the North American Biochar Conference was held at the University of Colorado’s Center for Energy and the Environmental Security in Boulder August 9-12, drawing 325 participants and 80 speakers.
Replacing Diesel: Renewables Power Off-Grid Cellular Base Stations
A new generation of wireless broadband network technologies is spreading around the world with WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) and the cellular industry’s LTE (Long-Term Evolution). And that’s led hordes of people rushing to buy the latest generation of smartphones, handheld devices, netbooks and laptops.
Advances in wireless networking has also boosted telecommunications companies capacity to connect all the world’s billions to a network, cellular networks especially. And that’s meant building infrastructure, more specifically, a lot more cellular base stations. In the last few years the number of cellular base stations worldwide has skyrocketed from the hundreds of thousands to the multiple millions, according to Scottsdale-based research firm In-Stat.
All to the well and good it seems, well almost. While many of these base stations are connected to an electricity grid, an already large and still fast-growing number aren’t. And off-grid base stations have traditionally been powered by running diesel generators 24×7. That means they’re pumping CO2, NOx and SO2 into the atmosphere all day, every day. That’s opened up a nice-sized window of opportunity for providers of small-scale, off-grid renewable power technology and systems.
Plextronics: Developing Inks that Convert Sunlight into Electricity
Imagine being able to “print out” solar-photovoltaic cells on to just about any type of base—from electronic gadgets and textiles to walls, windows and roofs. While there are numerous hurdles—technological and financial—to negotiate, the ability to manufacture PV cells from the readily available hydrocarbon feedstock used to make plastics would ratchet down manufacturing costs—possibly as low as $1/watt—while making scaling up production capacity that much easier and profitable, industry insiders and analysts say.
It’s hard to imagine what combination of circumstances led to the discovery of inks that conduct and convert sunlight into electricity, but pioneering companies such as Pittsburgh-based Plextronics are hot on the “organic PV” and printed electronic circuitry R&D and commercialization trail.
Based on research and development of conductive polymers originally done by Richard McCullough and spun off as a commercial enterprise from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002, Plextronics’ subsequent work is attracting more and greater interest from established, mainstream plastics, electronics and solar-PV technology providers. Yesterday, Plextronics announced that Solvay North American Investments LLC—the venture capital arm of an international, Brussels-based chemical, plastics and pharmaceutical group–led a successful, $14 million round of “Series B-1″ financing.
Colorado Solar Systems Provider Pioneers Ethics-Driven Business Model
The stunningly rapid growth of digital communications networks and media convergence has made message-spinning and media saturation relatively easy, and cost-effective. It’s also made it relatively easy to mislead, even deceive, outsiders, the public, even employees and yourself. It’s good to see thought leaders and practitioners in business, politics and civil society push for greater transparency and accountability, along with independent, unbiased access, feedback and widespread public dissemination of information.
“Going green” has fast become a linchpin for public relations and advertising campaigns. That’s led to a lot of what’s come to be known as “greenwash.” While there’s certainly a lot of it out there, it appears certain that there really are a growing number of businesses–large and small–that are honestly and sincerely committed to ethically-driven business strategies and models based on the triple bottom line.
Boulder, Colorado-based Namasté Solar looks like a case in point. Founded in 2004, its ranks are chock full of impressively experienced people with a diversity of backgrounds who are apparently intent on building a company that does good in terms of people, planet and profit. Evidence to date indicates that Namasté’s ethically-driven business model is working, and working very well. The company was one of 14 in Colorado to earn a spot on the latest Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing companies in the US. Revenue has risen 2,243% between 2005 and 2008 to reach $14.5 million.
Smart Grid Gold Rush: Echelon Lands First Big US Contract
Competition among companies that can provide reliable, scalable– and secure– smart meters, automation and control systems has grown to be pretty fierce in recent years, even more so lately given the $11 billion allocated in the federal government’s American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Youngish, entrepreneurial IT-driven companies such as Echelon, Itron, and Silver Spring Networks are now battling it out, competing and, at times, working in conjunction with such IT and power industry equipment heavyweights as IBM, SAP and Landis & Gyr.
The latest potential coup is a long-term contract awarded by Duke Energy, the 3rd-largest utility in the US, to Echelon Corp. An initial order that calls for San Jose, California-based Echelon to supply Duke with $15.8 million worth of its two-way smart meters has the potential to grow to as much as $150 million in revenue, according to news reports. Echelon shares jumped 40% right off the back of the news being released.
The smart grid marketplace was already getting a bit frothy without the large-scale federal stimulus. Now it may be boiling over. As promising as the potential benefits–more efficient use/less waste of electrical power, more flexibility and greater control of grid flows for utilities, incentives for home, building owners and businesses to invest in renewable power systems, and savings to consumers as well as power producers–big questions about the readiness of smart grid technology remain. The apparent lack of strong security measures designed into increasingly IP-based smart grid networks ranks up at the top of the list.
Renewable Power Feed-In Tariffs: Simpler, Cheaper, More Effective
Feed-in tariffs—by which renewable power suppliers are guaranteed grid access and premium, long-term rates—are the surest, most effective and least costly regulatory means of stimulating the adoption and use of renewable power in the U.S., according to a policy paper published by the Heinrich Boell Foundation’s Transatlantic Climate Policy Group.
With the recent change in administration and subsequent Congressional initiatives, the international community is looking to the U.S. government to enact policies that will transform the US into a leader in, and leading market for, the development and adoption of renewable power and energy.
“Unfortunately, American renewable energy policy consists of a byzantine mix of tax incentives, rebates, state mandates and utility programs,” according to the report, hampering “the ability of states and communities to maximize the benefits of their renewable energy resources.”
Plan to Plant GMO Eucalyptus Trees Stirs Up Hornet’s Nest of Protest
The US Dept. of Agriculture’s proposed approval of an ArborGen plan to plant more than 250,000 genetically engineered eucalyptus trees on 330 acres of land across seven southern US states has resulted in a storm of protest and more than 17,400 negative public comments.
The trees have been genetically engineered to be tolerant to cold weather, produce less lignin and altered their fertility characteristics in an effort to produce a fast growing feedstock for cellulosic ethanol. Dubbed “frankentrees,” environmental groups including the regional Dogwood Alliance have quickly put together a STOP GE Trees Campaign.
Industrial eucalyptus tree farming is already a highly contentious and heavily criticized issue. Adding genetic modification to the mix only compounds the high risks and potential costs of the plan. Among the many and varied criticisms of the proposal, environmental groups point out that eucalyptus trees are not native to North America, are highly invasive, reduce biodiversity and push out native species. Yet more disruptive, they soak up large amounts of ground water, are highly flammable and exacerbate drought conditions, critics of the plan point out.
Brazilian Program Results in 90% Recycling of Agrochemical Packaging
Thanks to an environmental law, effective regulatory and recycling systems, and the cooperation of the agricultural industry, Brazil has become a world leader when it comes to recycling the wide variety of plastic and cardboard containers used to store agrochemicals.
Established in December 2001, the country’s non-profit National Institute for Processing Empty Containers (INPEV) has had remarkable success in implementing a shared system of responsibility for collecting, recycling and disposing of agrochemical packaging– from cardboard and plastic drums to cement containers and fuel oil packages.
Up to now, financed 17% by recycling revenue and 83% by the agrochemical industry, the program is costing Brazil R$50 million (~$25.9 million) a year. That’s due to change. Aiming to make it self-sufficient by 2015, Brazil has opened a facility that can produce new, certified agrochemical packages from recycled plastic sourced from used packages–the first of its kind in the world– and earned international certification for the products.
LED Lighting, Smart Grid Tech Take Root in California
With some $4.5 billion in Federal grants spurring project development and investment, LED streetlights and smart grid technology are being combined and systems rolled out in a growing number of California cities.
Creator of the LonWorks open platform standard for smart grid and building/facilities energy management systems and products, San Jose-based Echelon Corp. is at the forefront of this wave of infrastructural change. The emerging market leader is involved in smart grid LED street lighting projects in Palo Alto, San Francisco, San Jose, as well as others in the US and abroad.
Political Compromise Guts Climate Bill as House Vote Looms
Due for a vote on the House floor today, H.R. 2454, the marked up climate change bill proposed by Congressmen Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Edward Markey Jr. (D-MA), fails woefully in terms of meeting the CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets climate change scientists are pushing for. Not to mention failing to lay the foundation for transitioning to a less polluting, low carbon energy and industrial infrastructure, according to environmental group Friends of the Earth.
Initially watered down in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009″ has been weakened further in broader House negotiations as its sponsors have seen fit to acquiesce to the demands of House Democrats pushing for additional changes favorable to the oil and coal industries in order to increase its likelihood of passage.
Closing the Loop: UPS’s E-Waste Disposal Supply Chain
The ever-growing amount of e-waste generated by our increasingly computer-driven, network-connected societies poses significant economic and product design challenges, as well as environmental and health problems, in countries the world over.
The US Environmental Protection Agency reported that electronics, or e-waste, is among the fastest growing components of municipal solid waste streams, accounting for around 2% of them at present. Some 157 million computer products and 126 million cell phones were discarded in the US in 2007, according to the EPA.
Since 2000, air freight and logistics industry giant UPS has been tackling the issue by closing the “production-consumption-disposal” loop and building an e-waste disposal supply chain. More than 25 million pounds of e-waste have been processed since the program’s start, with the annual average falling between 2 million and 3 million pounds, Robert Gamer, UPS’s e-waste coordinator, told Triple Pundit.
*Photo courtesy UPS
Small Wind Innovators: San Diego’s Helix Wind
Incorporated in September 2006, San Diego’s Helix Wind is looking to leverage the novel design of its growing line of vertical axis wind turbines to secure a place in the rapidly growing market for small wind systems. Less efficient than their horizontal axis counterparts, vertical axis wind turbines are nonetheless gaining credibility across a wide range of applications and sites, from densely populated urban areas to rural and remote installations.
Aesthetic, rugged and practical with a small physical footprint, it’s the proprietary, helical design of the company’s small-scale VAWTs–which maximize surface area and capture wind blowing from any direction–that enable them to make the most of light, as well as strong and variable wind conditions, according to the company.
Interest in the company’s products is surging. Management announced two contracts so far this month, its first two production runs have sold out, and it’s sitting on an order backlog of $11.3 million, with forward sales of 4,500 units spread over the next few years.
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