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January 31, 2012

Utah taps its Colorado River allocation for nuclear power

The surprising move shakes the water status quo and emboldens opposition

By Bart Taylor

Last month, Utah’s State Engineer approved the transfer of an established water right on the Green River, from the San Juan County (Utah) Water Conservancy District to Blue Castle Holdings. In many cases, such a transfer wouldn’t muster a second look from observers in Utah or neighbors around the Western US.

Not so here. Two issues relating to this transfer have set in motion a flurry of activity among water, energy, and conservation interests throughout the region.

For starters, the application approved by Utah officials changed the use of over 50,000 acre-feet of water from steam power generation at a coal-fired power plant to the same use in a nuclear plant. Blue Castle Holdings will use the water on the Blue Castle Nuclear Power Plant Project.  The plant would be built on 1,700-acre parcel four miles west of the town of Green River and be capable of increasing the amount of electricity generated in Utah by 50 percent.

Although the US is the world’s leader in nuclear-generate with just over 100 plants in operation, none have been built in the US since 1977. As many as ten new plants are in various stages of permitting. A Nuclear Regulatory Commission review of Blue Castle’s application is scheduled for 2013. 

The change from coal-to-nuclear has mobilized voices opposed to nuclear power.  The litany of objections is familiar, from cost to disposal of spent fuel rods, to the potential for a “Fukushima-style accident”. 

The one objection sure to rally opposition and unify the fragmented interests that may or may not push back on the idea of nuclear power, is water.  Even though the water right in question had already been established, the project “does constitute a new diversion demand on the Green River, which is part of the (Colorado River) Basin.” (State of Utah, Order of the State Engineer.)

A new diversion - to the tune of 53,600 acre-feet. And here is where the issue transcends Utah and plays to a rapt audience across the Western U.S.

One of the criteria the application had to meet was that a sufficient amount of “un-appropriated” water remained in the proposed source – in this case the Green River.  This is a familiar term for planners in the West who live by the tenets of the Colorado River Compact. I wrote here last week  about the coming battle in the Colorado River basin relating to allocation.

Basically, the system’s out of balance.

It’s thought the collection of Upper Basin states has never used its annual Treaty allotment, and that the Lower has used and now relies on the surplus.

Utah is an upper Basin state, and its share is roughly 1.4 million-acre feet. The State Engineer for Utah decided that indeed, Utah did have a remaining allocation in the Colorado River system (the Green River being a primary tributary) that would allow the state to divert 50,000 or so acre-feet.  The language, though, had to open eyes throughout the Basin. “It is estimated that Utah water users currently deplete approximately one million acre-feet annually, which represents an underutilization of Utah’s share of the Colorado River allocation” (their bold).

Without agreement from other Upper Basin states, and with no data cited as a source, Utah officials acted to divert a substantial amount of water from the River basin – on an assumption.  It’s a gutsy move – at a time when both state and federal interests have been busy trying to measure supply and demand in the River – one sure to make waves in Western water circles.

States like Colorado have been very reticent to make a similar claim – though it’s now clear they’re entitled to more water – or act to develop their remaining share as Utah has done, even as this surplus from the River is sent downstream for use by the Lower Basin.

The fear is “curtailment”, the dreaded Compact “call”, where senior water right holders force junior right-holders to send more water downstream; water being utilized in a nuclear power plant, for example.

Utah’s move may shake up this status quo and embolden the Upper Basin.   

This will happen though in the face of increasingly organized and vocal opposition to any further diversion from the Colorado River. More on the developing battle later.

January 31, 2012

The Blueprint for Western Energy Prosperity

Secure, affordable energy impacts everyone

By Kelly de la Torre

“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”  - Einstein.

In March 2011, the Obama administration released The Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future. (Obama’s Blueprint can be found here.)

This report calls for the development of America’s energy supplies through the use of innovation and technology emphasizing that safe responsible development of our domestic energy supplies is necessary to position the United States as leaders in the global energy economy.  A critical element to reaching these goals: “Expand safe and responsible domestic oil and gas development and production.”

While meeting our energy needs is one of the most fundamental issues for the economy, often there is a gap between public expectations and the realities of exploration, production and development.  The lack of certainty over rules, politics and expectations defines the reality of our energy landscape. This affects the consumer because due to the complexities of the energy landscape, over burdening one industry can cause a ripple effect and negative consequences to the environment, our energy security and our economy.  It is therefore beneficial for the consumer to understand the impact that certain regulations have on development.

Natural gas is a key resource in reducing U.S. energy dependency because we have the supply, it generates low air emissions (natural gas electricity generation produces virtually no mercury emissions, no sulfur-dioxide emissions and no lead emissions), and it is affordable. 

The good news is that unconventional gas discoveries have increased total undiscovered recoverable natural gas resources by 100 percent since 1999.  This statement is truly remarkable because a little more than a decade ago, the nation’s leading energy analysts believed that the United States’ supply of natural gas would be depleted in 57 years.  With that sort of supply outlook, there was no way to broadly integrate natural gas into American markets.  “This revolutionary increase in natural gas supply means that by 2035, less than 1 percent of the nation’s overall natural gas usage is projected to come from foreign imports.”  Importantly, our domestic natural gas supply directly impacts our energy security. 

The bad news is that while Western independent oil and natural gas producers are able to help solve some of our nation’s problems, there are significant impediments to domestic production that negatively impact the full promise of western energy production.  Some of these challenges are explained in the Blueprint for Western Energy Prosperity, a report prepared for Western Energy Alliance by EIS Solutions.

The Blueprint identifies key findings relating to the benefits of Western production:

1. The West is projected to generate 1.3 million barrels of domestic oil and condensate production a day by the year 2020, an amount that exceeds the current daily oil imports from Russia, Iraq, and Kuwait combined.

2.The West has the potential to produce 6.2 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas annually by 2020, an additional one Tcf from 2010 levels.

3. Combined, western oil and natural gas is projected to produce more energy on a daily basis than the total U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Venezuela, Colombia, Algeria, Nigeria and Russia.

4. Investment in western energy development could increase to $58 billion annually by 2020.  This prospective growth is more than double the investment made in 2010.

5. The number of direct, indirect and induced jobs in the oil and natural gas sector is projected to increase by 16% to 504,120 by 2020.

6. Annual state severance tax collections in the West are projected to increase from $2.1 billion in 2010 to $5.6 billion by 2020, generating a significant revenue windfall for schools, infrastructure and other basic services.

According to the report however, government policies are significantly undermining these projections of growth, investment and expansion by increasing risk, uncertainty and regulatory burden.  “New regulations implemented in the last two years have added three additional layers on top of a process that already involved five layers of burdensome regulations.” 

Policies and regulations should be clear and reasonable to prevent introduction of uncertainty.  Uncertainty prevents economic growth, job creation and government revenue. The report recommends specific actions that must be taken if America is to reap the full benefit of western energy:

1. A thorough review and comprehensive reform of the entire federal onshore process, including leasing, project environmental analysis, and permitting is needed.

2. A moratorium on new and expanded layers of regulation is needed.  The industry is committed to continued environmental improvements and best management practices, but through a more efficient, predictable means than the current and ever expanding maze of haphazard federal regulation.  In particular, legislative and administrative efforts to take jurisdiction for regulating hydraulic fracturing away from the states and impose federal restrictions should be rejected.

3. Measures must be taken to limit litigation that unreasonably obstructs domestic energy productions and economic growth. 

4. Renewable portfolio standards should be amended to allow natural gas to compete for electricity generation capacity on the basis of fuel-neutral performance criteria such as cost and emissions profile. 

5. State and federal governments should adopt market-based alternative transportation policies that are fuel and technology neutral to remove barriers that prevent natural gas from fully competing as a transportation fuel.

By working together to identify barriers to energy development in Colorado and the West, we can develop a path forward to the benefit of all Americans.

  

January 31, 2012

ASU, U of New Mexico team up for world-wide Solar Decathlon

The challenge: Build affordable, beautiful solar homes

By Joe Kullman, Arizona State University

Arizona State University has been selected to be part of one of 20 teams from universities and colleges throughout the United States and the world to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013.

ASU will team with the University of New Mexico (UNM) for the international competition to build energy-efficient, solar-powered houses “that combine affordability, consumer appeal and design excellence,” according to the DOE’s announcement.

At a Jan. 26 ceremony on the UNM campus to announce selection of the teams, DOE Secretary Steven Chu met with ASU/UNM team members, including ASU’s Katherine Muto, an engineering education doctoral student; James LeBeau, an electrical engineering doctoral student; and Edward Burgess, who is pursuing a master’s degree in the Solar Energy Engineering and Commercialization program.

Teams will begin a nearly two-year process of designing, constructing and testing their structures. They will reassemble the houses next year in Irvine, Calif., for the Solar Decathlon event at the Orange County Great Park.

Houses will be judged on architectural and engineering features, and how energy for heating and cooling is produced, among other things.

The competition provides ASU an opportunity to combine its educational and research resources in engineering, architecture, design and other disciplines “to tackle the pressing problem of energy sustainability,” says Christiana Honsberg, an engineering professor at ASU.

Read the rest of the story.

January 31, 2012

Residential retrofit programs growing in the Southwest

Utilities in six Western states spend millions

By J.C. Martel, Southwest Energy Efficiency Program

By all accounts, there is significant potential for cost-effective energy savings in existing homes. A study published by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences demonstrates that home retrofits can provide a 25-30 percent reduction in energy use at an average cost of 2.7 cents per kWh.1 Given this very cost-effective energy savings potential, most utility demand-side management (DSM) portfolios include a variety of programs to promote home retrofits.

The purpose of this report is to review the experience of electric and gas utilities in the Southwest in promoting energy efficiency improvements in existing homes, in particular in the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. These six states contained about 8.1 million housing units as of 2009. The report also highlights best practices and makes recommendations for improving energy efficiency retrofit programs in the Southwest.

This report examines the efforts of 12 gas and electric utilities in the Southwest. The combined Demand-Side Management (DSM) budget of these utilities is over $400 million per year as of 2011. Nearly $100 million of this amount is specifically allocated to support residential retrofit programs, excluding programs dedicated to serving low-income households.

Some utilities have significantly increased retrofit program funding over the past few years. From 2009 to 2011, the New Mexico Gas Company’s retrofit program budget grew 568 percent; for Southwestern Public Service Company the growth was 211 percent; for Tucson Electric Power it was 210 percent; and for Arizona Public Service Company it was 186 percent. The funding commitment to support residential retrofit in the Southwest is impressive and steadily growing.

For the purposes of this report, programs are classified into three types: Whole Home, Bundled Efficiency, and Single Measure. The primary difference between Whole Home and Bundled Efficiency is that a Whole Home program requires a home energy assessment and energy upgrades are based on the assessment, whereas a Bundled Efficiency program simply packages measures together unbound by an assessment. Single Measure programs provide rebates for one piece of equipment or building upgrade independent of other building systems. Table ES-2 shows the measures offered by utilities in any one of the three program models.

Read the rest of the story.

January 23, 2012

How electricity pricing boosts solar

An examination of San Francisco

By John Farrell, energyselfreliantstates.org

What if electricity cost more when the sun was shining?

Many utilities are using new electronic "smart meters" to adjust the price of electricity as often as every 15 minutes, to reflect supply and demand.  And charging more when electricity is in short supply can be good news, making investments in distributed solar power pay off faster.

Time-of-use (TOU) pricing is a different billing method for electricity, where the customer pays based on the time of day of using electricity rather than a flat rate per kilowatt-hour consumed.  The premise is that electricity is more expensive when in high demand (e.g. by air conditioners in the afternoon on hot, sunny days) and that pricing accordingly will help reduce demand.

For example, customers in San Francisco on a TOU pricing plan pay more for electricity during peak hours (12 PM to 6 PM).  In the cold months (November through April), the peak rate is 11.1 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), compared to 8.3 cents during non-peak hours.  But in the warm months (May through October), electricity used from 12 PM to 6 PM costs 31 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), while  off-peak electricity is 7.9 cents per kWh.

Read the rest of the story.

January 23, 2012

Barriers persist to low-carbon future

But energy efficiency paves the way

By Mark Golden, Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford

Save money, save the world. The promise and problems of getting people to stop wasting energy was the topic of a Stanford conference that gathered business people, government representatives and scholars from the United States and Australia. By Mark Golden

Former Secretary of Defense William Perry, now a Stanford University professor emeritus of management science and engineering, lists biomass, plug-in hybrid cars, nuclear power, more natural gas and energy efficiency as the only potential near-term answers to easing the United States' emissions of greenhouse gases and addiction to oil.

Of these items, what is the most important?

"I would put energy efficiency as No. 1 on my list," Perry said recently at a Stanford conference. "We should redouble our efforts." Biomass and hybrid cars are still developing, he said, and nuclear power faces too much public resistance, at least in the United States.

Perry said that wiser energy use holds advantages for the economy, as well as for the environment and security. For example, two-thirds of the U.S. trade deficit is due to oil imports, but stricter mileage standards could reduce prices and imports.

Perhaps surprisingly, Perry is not the only former military chief pressing for greater energy efficiency. At the same meeting, Robert M. Hill, Australia's former minister of defense, described his country's renewed attempts to cut waste. The Low Carbon Australiatrust, which finances efficiency improvements in private buildings with public funds, is chaired by Hill, a member of Australia's main conservative party and a professor at the University of Sydney.

"It's quite criminal how much energy we waste," Hill said at the U.S.-Australia Dialogue on Energy Efficiency conference, organized by Stanford's Precourt Energy Efficiency Center(PEEC) and the government of Australia through its consulate in Los Angeles.

Despite the potential benefits to the environment, economy and national security, most governments have not acted decisively to reduce energy waste. "Visionary statements" have been followed up by little real action, said Howard Bamsey, a professor of climate change and energy security at the University of Sydney's U.S. Studies Centre.

Many of those who control energy research dollars are fundamentally hostile to any area but technology, said PEEC Director James Sweeney. "We as a nation talk a damn good game, but we play a very bad one."

Efficiency gains could reduce the burning of fossil fuels in the United States by at least 20 percent. Near term, that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions far more than even the most optimistic projections for the growth of renewable supplies like solar and wind power, said Sweeney, a professor of management science and engineering.

Read the restof the story. 

January 23, 2012

Stanford-Singapore study looks at energy-saving off-peak commutes

Cash will be used as a carrot

By Dylan Loh, channelnewsasia.com

The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Stanford University will carry out a joint study which aims to encourage off-peak travel on the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit system.

The aim is to reduce peak period travel by 10 per cent. The researchers believe between 6.30 and 7.30am, or 8.30 and 9.30am, would be ideal. Some $260,000 is also being pumped into a study that hopes to encourage off-peak train travel with credits-based incentives. The two universities have the support of the Land Transport Authority (LTA.

Called INSINC (Incentives for Singapore's Commuters), the web-based study comprises a reward system where commuters earn credits proportional to the distance travelled on the rail system, with extra credits for shoulder-peak travel.

Credits are earned based on the start times of commuters' trips at the MRT stations and the distance of their journeys on the rail system.

This will be tracked through commuters' EZ-Link cards.The more you travel during off-peak hours, the more credits you're likely to get. You can then use the credits to redeem rewards, or money credited straight into your travel card, for more trips.

A total of $100,000 in redeemable cash has been set aside as a carrot for commuters to make diligent trips over the six-month period of the study.

The entire experiment to induce off-peak travel will cost around S$450,000, with financial support coming from authorities and private companies.

Prof. Balaji Prabhakar, Stanford University Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, said: "If you want to not be in the absolute peak, you really need to move either 20 minutes to the left or 20 minutes to the right, depending on where you are with respect to peak.

"We're not asking you to come at five in the morning, we're not asking you to come at 11 in the morning either. So really is a modest change, not that frequently, one or two times a week."

William Wong, director, Corporate Development and Research Land Transport Authority, said: "If this study proves that it's successful, then of course we will go back and see how else we can look at deploying it bigger, in a bigger manner.
 

Read the rest of the story. 

January 23, 2012

Fight over Colorado River should heat up in 2012

Water will once again be in the headlines this summer as snowpack, Bureau research closely watched

By Bart Taylor

Even on the heels of a record year, water planners in the West have no doubt been fretting about below-average snowpack throughout much of the Colorado River basin so far this winter. The West is always one drought year away from a crisis, and though recent precipitation has planners breathing easier, it’s likely that water supply will once again be a front-page story as the year goes on.

Aside from spring weather, the water community’s focus will also be sharpened by the summer release of the  Colorado River Basin Water Supply & Demand Study, research conducted by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation.  The study, which began in January 2010, “will define current and future imbalances in water supply and demand in the Colorado River Basin and the adjacent areas of the Basin States that receive Colorado River water for approximately the next 50 years, and will develop and analyze adaptation and mitigation strategies to resolve those imbalances.”

Given this language, it’s obvious to the Bureau that in the foreseeable future (if not today) demand for Colorado River basin water will exceed supply. Studies like this, including research recently completed by the Colorado Water Conservation Board, may well eliminate any lingering doubt that even in the wettest years, the collection of Basin states have tapped-out the River. And as data continues to provide more precise quantification of the shortfall, future allocation of water among signatories to the Colorado River Compact, which divides the spoils of the River, will take center-stage in River discussions. 

In 1922, the Compact divided the Colorado River roughly in half, allocating 7.5 million acre-feet to the Upper Basin states – Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico – and Lower Basin – Arizona, Nevada, and California, settling on 15 million-acre feet as a reasonable annual-flow average. (Even though many now believe the Compact was negotiated during a period of abnormally high precipitation, and that climate change will reduce flows even further.)

The nuance, of course, it that actual usage has differed from terms of the treaty.  What’s certain is that the Upper Basin has never fully used its allocation – and that the Lower has been slurping up the surplus. Colorado, for one, is evaluating future projects that would enable the state to fully utilize its River Compact allocation at the same time it quantifies supply, even as opponents of any future diversions of the River seek to safeguard current flows. (Only this week, the Utah State Engineer approved a request for 50,000 acre-feet for a proposed nuclear power plant, from the Green River, based on the  assumption that Utah has water left to develop pursuant to the Compact. More on this later.)

One future showdown will almost certainly pit Upper basin states v. Lower. Climate change may expedite the proceedings: the Compact requires the Upper Basin to send a minimum of 75 million acre-feet, or half the projected total, to Lower Basin states during any ten-year period. If a warming planet reduces precipitation in the Rocky Mountains, any shortfall below 15 million acre-feet will fall squarely on the Upper states. There’s no provision, at this time, for shared sacrifice in the event of a diminished River.

This alone will likely send parties scurrying to reposition their claims after the release of the Bureau’s study. 

In the meantime, the Bureau of Reclamation is seeking input from the public on ways to resolve future water supply and demand imbalances. Deadline is early February; consider this a “last call”. So click here if you’d like to submit a proposal.

Planet-Profit Report will continue to report on the Colorado River Basin Water Supply & Demand Study– and host a Colorado River basin-wide forum in late summer.

Contact me for more information. Bart Taylor, btaylor@planetprofitreport.com, or 303-888-2832.

January 16, 2012

Coal tax could cost Wyoming millions

Legislature looks at giving miners a break

By Jeremy Fugleberg, Casper Star-Tribune

As Wyoming coal producers spend more money to chase Powder River Basin coal seams that slant into the earth, their state severance tax rate climbs.

State legislators are taking a look at breaking that connection, a move lauded by the mining companies but one that will likely cost the state millions of dollars in lost revenue over the coming years.

As the companies follow the coal seams further west, the seams head deeper underground.That means the companies need to spend more more money to strip away the ground above the coal, also known as overburden, to get to the seams.

Under the current formula used by the state to calculate the severance tax, rising mining costs, such as the purchase of a new conveyor system, boost the taxable value of the companies’ work. So companies have found themselves paying a higher tax rate each year, just for pushing further into the basin’s coal seams.

“It’s kind of counterintuitive,” said Craig Grenvik, administrator of the Wyoming Revenue Department’s Mineral Tax Division.

On Friday, members of the Legislature’s Joint Revenue Committee will meet in Worland and consider proposed legislation that will essentially cap the severance tax rate and remove the rising mining costs from the tax rate formula.

Marion Loomis, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, which represents the state’s coal industry, applauded the proposed legislation.

Read the rest of the story.

 

January 16, 2012

Warren Buffett’s big new solar farm

Catching rays in California

By Ucilia Wang, www.Gigaom.com

Warren Buffet’s power company, MidAmerican Energy Holdings, is jumping into solar power and plans to buy up a massive solar farm from First Solar. The planned 550 MW solar panel farm called Topaz is in San Luis Obispo County in central California.

The move is the latest step on the long road to the solar farm actually getting built; it was originally owned by OptiSolar back in 2009. First Solar will build, operate and maintain Topaz, and the sale must be a huge relief for the solar panel maker and project developer, which was able to secure federal loan guarantees for three projects but couldn’t close one for Topaz. It started construction last month and plans to complete it in early 2015.

The project will cost “more than $2 billion,” the companies said, and MidAmerican doesn’t need to borrow money to close the deal.

Read the rest of the story. 

January 16, 2012

Energy Secretary Stephen Chu calls for an active federal hand in innovation

He comes to Colorado to make his case

By Allen Best

After responding to critics in Congress about the $534 million loan to bankrupt Solyndra, Energy Secretary Stephen Chu flew to Colorado in November to make the case for a active federal hand in energy innovation. His prime witness: PrimeStar Solar, a homegrown manufacturer of solar-film technology developed in a federal laboratory and then nudged into the marketplace with a small federal loan.

“The public and private sectors can, and should, work together to make sure clean energy technologies are invented in America, made in America and sold around the world,” said Chu, still wearing safety goggles after touring the PrimeStar’s existing factory in Arvada.

As for the Solyndra bankruptcy, he called it “truly unfortunate,” but would not admit more. Development of technology, he said, has “inherent risk,” a phrase he and other Department of Energy officials have used often in describing the federal loan programs begun in the Bush administration and continued by the Obama administration.

But critics drew a different conclusion, challenging the federal government competence in picking energy technology winners. “In Obamaland, department secretaries run the economy, baby! They swim in a pile of balance sheets—creating, funding and managing America's future, one company at a time,” Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley A. Strassel wrote sarcastically.

The sharp comments were part of a broader, long-running debate about energy subsidies. Solar, wind and other so-called clean energy sectors clearly are benefiting from subsidies such as production-tax credits, federal loans and renewable portfolio standards. But oil, gas and coal producers have also benefited from paternalistic tax policies. Who has benefited the most? It partly depends upon assumptions. For example, should the cost of deploying the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet to the Persian Gulf be counted as a subsidy for oil?

Taking a long view, Nancy Pfund and Ben Healey of DBL Investors concluded that all emerging technologies have benefited from subsidies. “Energy innovation has driven America’s growth since before the 13 colonies came together to form the Untied States, and government support has driven their innovation for nearly as long,” they write in a paper titled “What Would Jefferson Do?” They conclude that comparing support given to technologies during their early, emerging phases is most instructive. In that case, the federal commitment to oil and gas was five times greater than the federal commitment to renewables during the first 15 years of each subsidy’s life, and it was more than 10 times great for nuclear.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration, in a study of direct federal financial interventions and subsidies of electrical production for fiscal year 2010, found that wind enjoyed 42 percent of total subsidies and support, nuclear 21 percent, and coal 10 percent, followed by solar and distribution each 8.2 percent.

Jeffrey Leonard, writing in the January/February 2011 issue of Washington Monthly, advocates eliminating all energy subsidies, “Yes, eliminate them all —for oil, coal, gas, nuclear, ethanol, even for wind and solar,” he writes. “It will be better for national security, the balance of payments, the budget deficit, and even, believe it or not, the environment. Indeed, because wind and solar and other green energy sources get only the tiniest sliver of the overall subsidy pie, they’ll have to a competitive advance in the long term if all subsidies, including the huge ones for fossil fuels, are eliminated.”

if Solyndra is the black market of the federal loan program, PrimeStar Solar and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are the shining stars.

The thin-film solar technology manufactured by PrimeStar was developed a few miles away at the NREL, then licensed in 2006 to a trio of Coloradans – one of them a former employee at NREL, another from the Colorado School of Mines. They got started with a $3 million federal loan. By 2008, they had sold the company to General Electric. In 2011, GE announced plans for a  $300 million factory in Aurora. The new installation will employ 350 people, paying them at least $50,000 a year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

For NREL, this clearly qualifies as a home run. It’s not the only one, says William Farris, vice president, commercialization & technology transfer, at NREL. The lab, which employs 2,000 people, has the prime mission of researching and developing renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. “Like planting seeds, you’re never quite sure which ones will grow into a vibrant plant. PrimeStar is a very vibrant one,” he says.

More may come. Farris cites US e-Chromic, which has a thin-film technology that controls the sunlight and hence heat that is transmitted through a window. He thinks Ampulse, another company deploying NREL solar-film technology, has “high odds” of achieving PrimeStar-type of success.

NREL, he says, is constantly looking for entrepreneurs to take technology, develop it, and get it into the marketplace. He describes the business end as the hard work of technological innovation. NREL, in turn, ask for no royalties, but does get a small slice if the company makes a profit.

“We will never be successful in having an impactful technology by ourselves,’ says Farris. “We rely upon these commercialization partners. We have more technologies than we have skilled entrepreneurs to take these technologies to market.”

America, birthplace of the airplane, quickly fell behind other countries a century ago and had to play catchup, pointed out Chu. The United States, the leader in development of solar technology decades ago, is now losing out to China, which has raced to capture 50 percent of the rapidly growing global market. The United States now has only 7 percent of the market, down from 40 percent in the mid-1990s. The United Sates, he added, should “get in the game and play to win, creating jobs in Colorado and across the country.” 

January 16, 2012

The year renewable investment aced out fossil fuels

2011 will be seen as a tipping point on a global level

By Joan Melcher

Years from now, those interested in sustainable development will likely see 2011 as a tipping point. It was the year global investment in renewable energy technologies surpassed that of fossil fuels.  

In late November,  Bloomberg New Energy Finance team crunched the numbers and found that electricity from the wind, sun, waves and biomass drew $187 billion globally last year compared with $157 billion for natural gas, oil and coal. They also found that accelerating installations of solar- and wind-power plants led to lower equipment prices, making clean energy more competitive with coal.

A Bloomberg report analyzed future investment and found that the value of renewable energy capacity installed will likely double in real terms — from $195 billion in 2010 to $395 billion by 2020 and rise to $460 billion in 2030. The report also predicts an increase of renewables energy production (including large hydro) from 12.6 percent of the whole in 2010 to 15.7 percent in 2030. The Bloomberg New Energy Finance team compiled the report.

Here are some highlights:

• Europe will remain one of the biggest markets for world investment despite economic problems.
• China will take the lead in renewable energy asset finance from Europe in 2014 with an annual investment of about $50 billion.
• The United States and Canada will see no lasting slowdown in projects, together hitting $50 billion of investment by 2020; the U.S.’s total will be about $40 billion.
• Markets outside Europe, the U.S., Canada and China will account for 50 percent of global annual investment by 2020.
• The most rapid growth is expected in developing economies, including India, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
• Solar will undergo the fastest percentage of growth (after offshore wind) largely due to cost reductions. An annual average of $130 billion will be spent from 2010 to 2030 compared with $86 billion in 2010.
• The wind sector (both on- and offshore) will continue to expand, attracting $140 billion in 2020 and $206 billion per year by 2030 from 2010’s $82 billion.
• The bio-energy sector will see renewed activity, largely due to commercialization of second-generation technologies, with investments expected to increase from $14 billion in 2010 to $80 billion in 2020.

The report and analysis drew from 65 technical experts with knowledge across all renewable energy technologies and geographical regions, according to Bloomberg.

Lead author Guy Turner said he was most surprised “by the growth in demand from developing countries — not just China, India and Brazil, but the rest of the world.” He said the results indicate that last year’s record growth is not a one-time thing but is a portent of global growth. “Big winners will be the emerging renewable energy hubs in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa,” he said.

Report findings related to the U.S. include:

• Natural gas prices are likely to increase notably by 2015, which will favor increased investment in renewables.
• Investment in the renewable sector is coming from sources previously not tied to the energy sector, such as Google, and many U.S. utilities have invested more in renewables than is required under state mandates.
• Onshore wind will remain the forerunner in the renewable sector, largely due to its low cost, accounting for 64 percent of total renewable energy capacity by 2030.
• U.S. coal capacity will drop by about 13 percent in this decade and 34 percent between 2020 and 2030, resulting in a 14-percent cut in the total U.S. coal fleet after considering likely new build.
• Natural gas installations will climb 12 percent this decade and an additional 6 percent over the next.
• Nuclear will continue to supply around 20 percent of power generation and capacity will increase by 18 percent over the next 20 years.
• By 2020, 10 percent of U.S. power will come from renewables (excluding hydro) and about 17 percent in 2030.

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January 10, 2012

The bio-based economy: A renewed and renewable vision

Goodbye to Dad’s old ethanol plant – Hello to the Bioeconomy and the new biorefinery

By Brent Erickson
Executive Vice-President, BIO, Industrial and Environmental Section

Ethanol plants are nice, but let’s face it: they represent simple technology that is just the tip of what could be a huge economic engine – a biobased economy. At the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) we have been preaching the gospel of the biobased economy for over a decade. I am gratified to see attention is now being paid to the effort by the White House and others.

This past September, President Obama announced that his Administration will develop a National Bioeconomy Blueprint to help harness research, development and rapid innovation in biotechnology to address grand challenges for future economic development. With the blueprint, the United States will join worldwide efforts to build the bioeconomy – the OECD, for instance, has long recognized the potential of industrial biotechnology to address energy security, climate change and sustainable economic growth.
This blueprint will be rolled out early in 2012.

The policy to support a biobased economy has traditionally been a nonpartisan issue and we hope that it will continue to receive bipartisan support.

The Bioeconomy and the bio-based economy

To be clear, the bioeconomy is the total economic activity from all sectors of the biotechnology industry – pharmaceuticals, food and agriculture and industrial biotechnology. With biotechnology we can help, heal, fuel and feed the world.

Read the rest of the story.
 

January 10, 2012

A Colorado builder’s bold new path

Pine beetle timber helps end the need for out-of-state lumber

By Mike Taylor

It started with an email to Perry Cadman asking the chief operating officer of New Town Builders if he’d consider building a “demonstration” house framed with wood from pine-beetle timber.

A meeting followed, during which, Cadman says, “I just looked at everybody and said, ‘If I’m going to go through the brain damage of one house, why wouldn’t I just build all of them with it?’”

Why not, indeed. While the notorious pine beetle injects a fungus that cuts off nutrients and eventually kills the tree, it does no damage to the wood itself. “And it’s going to create jobs in Colorado,” Cadman reasoned. “It’s Colorado-sourced material. And we need to clean up the forests. So we started down that path.”

Thus, beginning in early October with a three-unit row house, New Town Builders has been framing all its houses - about 20 so far - with beetle-kill timber harvested from Colorado forests and milled into 2 x 4 and 2 x 6 framing studs at Intermountain Resources in Montrose.

New Town Builders was already at the forefront of energy efficiency. In 2009 it became the first production builder in the Denver area to offer solar energy systems standard on all new homes.

The Denver-area homebuilder views the use of beetle-killed timber as an extension of that sustainability mindset. Although the new-home construction business has been anything but robust, Cadman says it is improving for New Town Builders. In all of 2010, Cadman says New Town built 43 homes. As of early December in 2011 it was up to 82 new homes for the year.

“Our goal is to have one of the most energy-efficient houses out there,” Cadman says. “But secondarily, we try to use products that are environmentally ... beneficial, I guess you could say.”

Until New Towns’ initiative, the bluish-gray wood had been put to creative if limited use in the making of furniture, picture frames and even caskets. But that’s an infinitesimally small dent in the more than 3 million acres of Colorado timber that the beetle is estimated to have killed.

“The mountains are such a huge piece of why people move to Colorado and to Denver,” says Cadman, 51, who earned a dual degree in corporate finance and real estate construction from the University of Denver and has worked in the building industry ever since.

Previously New Town Builders sourced 95 percent of its vertical framing materials from out of state. Now all of its framing studs come from beetle-killed lodge pole pines harvested in Colorado. Cadman says that beetle-infested timber still standing can be harvested for up to eight years after the tree dies; fallen timber must be harvested within about three years.

“We’re not paying any more or any less for this material,” Cadman says. “The incentive we have is there’s a state sales tax exemption on this material. That makes it competitive for us to use it.”

The wood is graded by West Coast Lumber Inspection Bureau to ensure it meets construction standards for strength and durability.

The initiative by New Town Builders is of obvious benefit to the Montrose lumber mill, Intermountain Resources, which had fallen on hard times and has been in receivership since May 2010 but has continued to operate. With 90 employees itself and another 100 to 120 contract loggers and haulers, the mill provides about 200 jobs in Southern Colorado.

“We are hoping to find a buyer for the mill’s assets, and we’re well along that path,” says Pat Donovan, managing director at Cordes & Co. and the court-appointed receiver for the mill. “In terms of what it means to have New Town Builders as a customer, it’s great.”

Although Cadman says he hopes other builders will join New Town in using the blue-stained lodge pole pines in their framing, Donovan says that building codes in some Colorado municipalities pose an obstacle.

“They call for Hemlock fir and Douglas fir as framing material, and we grow little to no Hemlock fir in the state and very little Douglas fir,” he says. “We’re hopeful there will be changes in the building codes encouraging the use of beetle-kill lumber because its properties are the same as the Hemlock fir or the Douglas fir that’s called for in building codes.”

 

January 10, 2012

Smart grid startups to watch in 2012

Not necessarily the biggest, but definitely the hottest

By Katie Fehrenbacher, www.gigaom.com

We brought you some predictions about the smart grid market in 2012, but what are some of the startups you should be keeping an eye on next year? Here are some of the ones that I think will be really interesting to watch in 2012. They might not be the biggest players, or the ones making the most money (some are), but these are companies that could be disruptive with their business models, concepts and leadership.

1). Ecologic Analytics: Now that Siemens snapped up smart meter data management system eMeter, all eyes will be on Ecologic Analytics, and where the company could land. The firm is not exactly a startup — having been around over a decade and with meter maker Landis + Gyr as a minority shareholder — but the company has been quietly cleaning up when it comes to the software link that connects smart meter data to a utilities’ back office (commonly called meter data management systems, or MDMS). Will 2012 see Ecologic Analytics officially land with Landis + Gyr or another large smart grid player?

2). Nest: Yes there’s been a lot of hype around Nest, the startup that’s making a learning thermostat and is backed by Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures and Al Gore’s investment fund. But Nest is definitely a company you should keep an eye on in terms of the smart grid in 2012.

Read the rest of the story. 

January 09, 2012

The 2011 Cleantech investment wrap-up

It was a solid year

By Martha Young

Clean technology industry investments remained solid in 2011, receiving $8.99 billion in venture capital. The investments represent an increase of 113 percent from 2010; a record high of venture capital investment. Since 2005, the clean tech industry has experienced a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.1 percent for venture capital investment.

Mergers and acquisitions in clean tech also experienced strong growth in 2011. With an emphasis on acquisitions, they totaled $41.2 billion in 2011, up 253 percent from 2010. Since 2005, mergers and acquisitions in clean technology have a CAGR of 16.22 percent.

Like the rest of the IPO market, public offerings in clean technology struggled in 2011 with money raised down 58 percent from 2010 to $9.59 billion. Additionally, the total number of IPOs in 2011 dropped from 96 in 2010 to 51 in 2011, a slide of 47 percent.

Two key items to note are the overall investment model shift and migration to later stage investments.  The overall investment model has shifted from many deals with smaller dollars invested in prior years, to 2011 seeing larger investments in fewer deals. Additionally, a larger percent of investments, nearly two-thirds of the total number of investments in 2011, were made in Series B and later stages of a company.

The shift in investment strategies reflects the need to hedge market uncertainty induced by the ongoing lack of an energy policy in the United States, as well as the overall economic softness of the euro.

Cleantech Sectors

The 2011 venture capitalists pursued investments in energy efficiency (150 deals), solar (111 deals) and transportation (61 deals). When examined by the total dollars invested, the sector rankings shift to solar leading with $520 million, followed by transportation with $382 million, and energy efficiency with $378 million.

Geographical Breakdown

North America lead the way in clean tech venture capital raised in 2011 with $6.81 billion spread over 470 deals. This represents an increase of 31 percent in capital raised and a 25 percent increase in the number of deals over 2010.

California received 54 percent of the total funds ($3.69 billion), followed by Massachusetts at 8 percent ($542 million) and Colorado with 5 percent ($358 million).

Europe and Israel clean tech capital investments totaled $1.3 billion in 2011 across 172 deals. This is a 30 percent decline in capital raised and a 33 percent decline in the number of deals from 2010.

Asia Pacific raised $879 million in capital spread across 71 deals in 2011.

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)

There is an interesting phenomenon within the clean technology market that we should expect to continue throughout 2012. The vast majority of investments in these companies come from corporate venture investment groups. This implies that the investing firms are seeking one of two things with their investments:

1. The opportunity to expand into new markets
2. The opportunity to improve existing lines of business

In 2011, corporate investments logged 90 M&A deals while other investors logged 62 deals. As corporations continue to make larger investments in later stage companies, we should expect the second half of 2012 and early part of 2013 to be a banner period for acquisitions.

The clean technology industry is growing in spite of global economic sluggishness. There are multiple reasons for the growth based on the assumption that corporate investors are utilizing the technologies in-house as well as bringing them to market under a line of business, including:

1. Reducing the economic volatility of energy derived from carbon-based fuel sources;
2. Expansion into new markets, especially for traditional energy companies;
3. Business cost savings derived from implementing renewable energy; and
4. Hedging potentially punitive public policies associated with greenhouse gas emissions.

The clean technology industry is a growth market and is expected to continue to be throughout 2012 and 2013.

Thanks goes out to the Cleantech Group for its generous allowance of the use of its market research data. For more details, visit its website and plan to attend its upcoming 10^thannual Forum in San Francisco, March 26-28.  

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January 03, 2012

China pours billions into U.S. shale

Global appetite for U.S. energy investments remains strong

By Matt Daily and Anna Driver, Reuters

China's Sinopec and France's Total SA have made major purchases into the U.S. energy sector, pouring $4.5 billion into deals to buy into booming production from shale rock formations.

The ventures showed that the global appetite for U.S. energy assets remained strong, with foreign oil and gas producers eager to invest in several of the mostly undeveloped fields that are believed to hold billions of cubic feet of natural gas and liquids.

Sinopec's Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration & Production Corp made its first foray into U.S. shale with a $2.2 billion investment to create a joint venture with Devon Energy Corp.

That gives Sinopec a one-third interest in five fields, while Total's $2.3 billion deal with Chesapeake Energy is its second joint shale venture with the U.S. company.

U.S. oil and gas producers have been in a frenzied land-grab in recent years to buy up rights that allow them to tap into the lucrative fields under development in Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states.

That has left many looking for deep-pocketed partners to form joint ventures to help pay for the expensive hydraulic fracturing technology that allows them to crack the brittle shale rocks and extract the natural gas and other products.

Read the rest of the story.

January 03, 2012

The top 100 people in bioenergy

Nation's ag secretary grabs the No. 1 spot

By Jim Lane, Biofuels Digest

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack headed the “Top 100 People in Bioenergy” as voted by the readers of Biofuels Digest and the Digest’s editorial board, just edging out BP Biofuels chief Philip New, and the heads of Raizen, POET, Solazyme and Amyris. In today’s Digest, we profile the Top 25 in depth.

1. Tom Vilsack, US Secretary of Agriculture

A runaway winner in the voting, Vilsack has been driving hard to implement a strong biofuels policy on behalf of the Obama Administration. A key driver of the DOE-USDA-US Navy partnership for commercializing advanced biofuels, and as chair of the Interagency Working Group (comprising the USDA, EPA, and DOE) has clearly been identified by the Digest readership as the key player in establishing policy stability, and pioneering the financing mechanisms to drive bioenergy forward in the 2010s. His key challenges? Maintaining a strong energy title in the 2012 Farm Bill, and making sure that affordable US feedstocks are available at scale for all the technologies that are coming down the bikeway, else we might see the same “rush to China” that has plagued US manufacturing throughout the past 20 years.

2. Philip New, CEO, BP Biofuels; Sue Ellerbusch, President, BP Biofuels America
With BP dropping solar this year, BP Biofuels remains the stellar “beyond petroleum” unit of the company that acquired 50 percent of Vercipia from Verenium, is heading for scale in Florida and Brazil, and ploughed forward aggressively in developing its Butamax biobutanol venture with Dupont. Not to mention its progress on its UK ethanol project with British Sugar in Hull. The company already has 4,000 workers on the payroll – more headcount than some celebrated advanced biofuels companies have in actually gallons of capacity. 

Read the rest of the story
 

 

January 03, 2012

U.S. renewable energy needs new investors and finance models to stay on track

The private sector needs to step up

By Bloomberg New Energy Finance

With electricity demand weak and stimulus funds dwindling, the U.S. renewable energy sector must attract new investors and make use of unique tax-based financing structures in the next 18 months or risk a sharp drop in new project builds, according to new research by specialist research firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance commissioned by Reznick Group.

The clean energy industry has been a major beneficiary of public support from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in the form of over $65 billion in tax credits, grants, and soft loans. But nearly all of those stimulus funds have now been deployed. Unless the private sector steps into the breach with substantial new investment, project development will slow.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a research firm specializing in clean energy, water, power, and carbon markets, has worked with Reznick Group, a national accounting, tax, and business advisory firm, to explore where the US renewable energy financing market stands today and where it may go from this critical juncture. It also explains how tax-based financing structures work and appraises their economics. The resulting report, “The return – and returns – of tax equity for US renewable projects”, can be downloaded at http://www.bnef.com/WhitePapers/download/54 .

With a cash-based incentive which was part of the US stimulus program due to expire at the end of 2011, tax credits are likely to again become the most important federal subsidies supporting renewable project development in the US. 

Read the rest of the story.

January 03, 2012

Dark times fall on solar sector

At least seven solar-panel manufacturers have filed for bankruptcy in recent months

By Yuliya Chaernova

Wall Street Journal

Long viewed as a remedy for the world's dependence on fossil fuels, the solar industry is dimming as makers of panels used to harness the sun continue to fall by the wayside.

Bankruptcies, plummeting stock prices and crushing debt loads are calling into question the viability of an industry that since the 1970s has been counted on to advance the U.S.—and the world—into a new energy age.

Global demand for solar power is still growing—about 8 percent more solar panels will be installed this year compared with 2010, according to Jefferies Group analysis—but it is expected to flat-line next year.

At the heart of the industry woes are swiftly falling prices for solar panels and their components—polysilicon, wafers, cells and the modules themselves. The reason is simple: There are simply too many manufacturers trying to sell their wares.

Over the past several months, at least seven solar-panel manufacturers have filed for bankruptcy or insolvency, including two German companies in the past week—Solar Millennium AG and Solon SE—and, most notably, Solyndra LLC, the Fremont, Calif., company embroiled in a criminal investigation into whether the company defrauded the U.S. government.

Read the rest of the story.

December 27, 2011

Sense of urgency is business as usual in China

U.S. energy and technology firms may be good candidates for Chinese investment

By Bart Taylor

“Be quick.”

We heard this more than once from business contacts we met in China. Our objective – to connect U.S. technology and energy firms with money and partners in China – met with very positive reviews. But change is the rule in China today, and the advice to move fast reflects a sense of urgency that all businesses seem to operate with there.

For China business, now's the time. If you're not moving fast, you're being left behind. And it shows -- everywhere. Fifty years of economic growth have seemingly been compressed into 10.

This frantic pace has created environmental challenges as you’ve heard. Forecasts of China’s ecological collapse are perhaps overstated, but not by much.  As I’ve written, renewable energy development and cleantech are therefore supported by necessity.

Not so in the U.S. The commitment here lacks by comparison. Investors are hesitant as a result. (For more on U.S. prospects for cleantech investment read Michele Chandler’s piece today.) The implications are debatable, of course, but for U.S. firms looking for money and markets, opportunity may be elsewhere. U.S. companies with good technology and patience to form solid partnerships can prosper in China.

If you have the patience, we can help with the connections. Contact me, btaylor@cobizmag.com, or (303) 888-2832.

 

 

December 27, 2011

Top 9 predictions for 2012

Expect mergers and soft demand for energy in the year ahead

By Jesse Berst, www.smartgridnews.com

IDC Energy Insights is one of our sector's top research firms. Each year it issues its top 10 predictions for energy and utilities. I attended this year's webinar and came away with my own version, which I've shared with you below.

I want to emphasize that my version overlaps with IDC's but is not precisely the same. These are my interpretations and reactions to IDC's predictions. In many areas I agree with IDC. In a few others, I feel they may have over- or under-stated the issue. Case in point: I list only nine predictions and they are not all the same as the ones IDC chose to highlight.

To see the "official" top 10 list, go to the link below, scroll down until you see the list of web conferences, and click on Energy - Utilities. You can replay the webinar and/or download the slides.

IDC Insights Predictions 2012

1. Utility mergers will accelerate.
2. Demand will flatten or even fall. After decades of sure, steady growth, consumption growth in North America has flattened and may begin to fall after 2012. This could force a difficult adjustment in an industry that has come to expect growth in consumption.
3. Municipals and co-ops will drive new AMI deployments. Their focus will be communications networks that can handle next territories (urban and rural). And that can handle multiple applications for multi-utilities (electric, gas, water).

Read the rest of the story. 

December 27, 2011

Turbulence ahead for cleantech funding

Solyndra bankruptcy should herald consolidation in the solar industry

By Michele Chandler

Cleantech startups, fasten your seatbelts. There’s going to be financing turbulence in the months ahead as the industry continues to ignite both skepticism and enthusiasm from investors.

Here are just a few of the key predictions for clean technology in 2012, according to Silicon Valley’s green business financing gurus:

With its image still bruised from the high-profile bankruptcy of California solar panel maker Solyndra, the solar industry should be bracing for a massive consolidation from which only the strongest companies will emerge.

Other sectors — particularly LED lighting, energy storage and “smart grids” that automate control of electricity distribution — will be green superstars that continue to capture investors’ attention.

And, with seed and early stage funding expected to be in tighter supply, sustainability-focused startups will turn to strategic alliances with government groups and corporations as sources of cash. 

Despite the financial challenges, investors remain intrigued with cleantech and its promise of game-changing environmental breakthroughs: 14 percent of all venture dollars invested worldwide this year will go to clean technology firms, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.

In fact, during the first three quarters of 2011, venture capitalists invested $3.0 billion in U.S. sustainable technologies, slightly exceeding the $2.9 billion invested in the sector during the same period in 2010, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association’s most recent MoneyTree Report.

All told, green sector firms in the U.S. raised $3.7 billion last year, according to MoneyTree. That’s 8 percent below the $4.0 billion raised in 2008, the industry’s peak financing year so far.
Opinions are mixed on what to expect in 2012.

Silicon Valley’s Mohr Davidow Ventures will be investing more money in cleantech next year, said Josh Green, a general partner with the venture capital firm. “I would describe cleantech funding as still very vibrant” although it is becoming more “discerning,” Green explained. The company will focus on energy storage technologies for the transportation and utility industries, as well as smart grid development, he said.

Some venture capital professionals and chief executives at venture-backed firms aren’t as confident about next year’s financing outlook. A shortage of seed and early stage funding is expected for 2012, according to 58 percent of the venture capitalists surveyed by the National Venture Capital Association and Dow Jones VentureSource between Nov. 30 and Dec. 9. About 55 percent of the VC respondents expect investment levels in clean tech firms to decline next year.

“Externalities are keeping optimism at bay,” said Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, about the results.

Venture funding will be harder for some early-stage companies to obtain, said Ravi Viswanathan, general partner at New Enterprise Associates, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm with numerous clean energy investments.

“There’s just a greater degree of skepticism” about early-stage deals relying on materials science or science-based technologies, Viswanathan told a capacity crowd in December at the year-end meeting of the Environmental Business Cluster, a cleantech incubator in San Jose, Calif.

“Some of those really, really early-stage (things) that seven years ago we would have funded out of the lab, now we are asking the entrepreneurs, for better or for worse, to show a little bit more,” Viswanathan told attendees. That approach might make it harder for some companies to get funding, at least in the short term, he said.

The “ferocious” rise of Asian competitors and the global financial meltdown also have impacted their investment strategy, Viswanathan added.

Another expected trend is the rise of strategic alliances, especially with U.S. government agencies, which can be important lifelines for some young cleantech firms. The U.S. Navy, for example, is investigating new solutions, including the development of electric bulldozers and hybrid-powered backhoes, said Vern Novstrup, an environmental engineer with the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center of the U.S. Navy.

Novstrup explained: “If we can reduce 20 percent fuel consumption on a forward operating vehicle, that’s huge.”

One young company that has prospered using government grants is Leva Energy, a cleantech firm based in California. Last year, the company was a semifinalist in the Cleantech Open, the nation’s top competition for sustainability-focused startups. Since its founding in February 2010, the developer of a high-efficiency boiler that recovers excess heat and converts it to electricity has raised about $3.5 million from various federal and state government agencies. That money has gone to develop its product and install a prototype at Hitachi Data Storage/Western Digital Corp. in San Jose, said Franco Castaldini, Leva’s co-founder and CEO. 

Because of the corporate progress made possible by the government funds, Leva is now seeing interest from venture capital firms and others. “We’re starting to see that level of interest from venture capitalists, now that we’ve also built our product and demonstrated there’s a strong pipeline of customers willing to buy our product. That’s a totally different conversation than the one I had last year,” he said.

Another industry observer, prominent Silicon Valley cleantech venture capitalist Steve Westly, remains enthusiastic about the financial potential of solar energy. He recently told an audience at Stanford University that despite the uncertainties Solyndra raised, now is the “best time to invest” in young solar firms. “Five to 10 years from now, you will see a consolidation and four or five very large global brand names will emerge,” Westly told the group, according to a December report in The Financial Times. 

Westly went on to predict that one day, surviving “solar companies will become household names, almost akin to auto companies today.”

December 24, 2011

Industry interview: Dan Simon of Heliae: Part 2

They've launched their "discovery months"

By David Schwartz

(Editor's note: This is the second part of a two-part interview with Heliae CEO Dan Simon. Read Part 1.)

How did your ethanol perspective play into the new strategy?

When I left my previous company I had learned enough about the biofuel industry to base any decision for starting the next company on five essential criteria. First, I wanted to have better control of the supply and pricing of my feedstock—similar to an oil company owning the oil down the hole. Second, I wanted to have flexibility in the products I made. You don’t control the price of corn or the market, and you don’t control the products you make with ethanol, because the technology only enabled you to make ethanol and ddgs.

Third, I wanted to find a technology that was truly scalable today. Fourth, I wanted to find a technology that was much more sustainable for future production capacity. And then food vs. fuel was the final requirement—I didn’t want to make fuel at the expense of food.

After looking at the cellulosics and not finding one that met all five, algae became the only technology I investigated that met all five conditions. The Mars family had the same perspective—algae had the potential to make a genuine difference.

When you first got together with the Mars family, what was the business model you were looking at?

We were looking at a jet fuel product and a single feed product coming off the back end. Aside from becoming a jet fuel producer, the Board recognized we were going to discover other opportunities as we scaled the system up to the next level, so we literally had the strategy to discuss it again in nine months, after we had completed the demonstration scale-up. That was part of the business plan for 2011.

So the demonstration facility was built to sample different product possibilities, and then the focus would follow?

That’s what we’re doing right now. The whole goal was build a complete strain-to-tank demonstration plant, learn what has the greatest potential on a commercial scale, then define a product mix. Within the last month or so we completed build-out on the full demonstration facility and are now operating it—making algae jet, algae-based diesel, algae-based chemicals, algae-based carotenoids and omega-3s, and all kinds of other valuable products.

Are these being produced with panel reactors on those two acres?

As we evolved through various types of growing systems we saw that the panel reactors were too expensive to be commercially viable, even though we got incredibly high quality algae. So what we’ve done in our fourth generation of design is develop something that is as inexpensive to build as a pond, but has the productivity and contamination values of a panel reactor.

So what is it?

It’s a precision greenhouse, which we call an “oasis.” Think of it like a long, covered, farming trough—and it can be a closed or semi-closed system. No paddlewheel—we’re going as low energy as we can. To agitate the water we’re using a mechanical flow system.

We’ve developed an instrumentation and control system that has an algorithm that tracks multiple variables, including all the nutrients, and continuously harvests. The harvest procedure is quite simple. Based on the density of the algae it pumps it into another tank. We dewater it, then extract it and then we hydro-treat it.

Is this a proprietary technique?

There are three main areas of intellectual property within Heliae at this time. What we did with ASU was strain-related, and we took over about 20 or 25 of those patent filings for the strains and technologies to grow those strains. And then we developed photobioreactor technology that has now translated into our 4th generation oasis platform, which is another area of our I.P., as well the instrumentation and control system have evolved into its own I.P.

The last area where we are targeting I.P. is our extraction system. We have what we believe is a truly innovative extraction system, highly efficient, very low energy use, low pressure, low temperature, no hexane and we do not lyse the cells. It operates for more than just microalgae; it works with macro-algae and other biomass products.

We are becoming a technology platform company. We’re not trying to be the low cost, big volume provider. We’re here to develop the technology around producing commercially viable algae-based products.

So the business model has changed from a production company to a technology services provider?

Yes. Within the last year the strategy has shifted to becoming a technology process provider focused on food, fuel and chemicals.

Who would be a target customer?

We’ve already signed an MOU with Sky NRG, a refiner and marketer of jet fuels to the aviation industry. We have signed an agreement with Azmark, a company that manufactures jets and jet engines for drones for the military. And we are working on a few other fuel-oriented supply agreements.

On the food side, we’re talking to big agricultural, food and processing companies, the ones who’d be interested in investing into an algae facility—we come in and partner with them. We provide them the licenses and the technologies, the design, construction and operation of the facility, whether they choose to take all of that, or just a piece of it. We see a lot of opportunity in that space.

So what is the next step for Heliae?

We are calling the next few quarters “the discovery months.” We’ve now got the full demonstration-scale facility put together. We’re producing samples. We’re running feed trials and fuel tests to confirm that what we believe we have is truly commercially viable. There’s no real technical barrier anymore, it’s down to scale-up and engineering. So for the next few quarters we are optimizing production systems, running trials, and preparing for the next scale up.

So if I ask you what your five-year projection is at this point it sounds like you can’t go there because it depends on the outcome of this phase?

We are 100 percent confident we are going to deliver the productivity, capex, and opex numbers required to sell algae technology platforms. The strategy may shift a little in terms of product stream, but that’s going to be driven by the market. What’s not going to change is in being a technology platform provider. That’s where we think we fit in this industry.

We don’t think you can build a business that is going to be making a commodity and compete against the big balance sheet players out there. We learned this from the ethanol industry. Their cost of capital, ability to hedge and manage their business with a large asset base, versus a small company like us, is just too great. It’s not worth going after that.

What’s your hunch, then, on what Heliae will be doing in five years?

Ultimately, we’re going to be an integrator. I think we’ll be the best in the world at integrating algae technologies—all the pieces from strain selection to optimization, adaptation, growth, dewatering and extraction. We will continue to develop technologies where we think there are weaknesses.

It is not our expectation that we are going to be the best in any one area; we want to be the best at integrating and providing the whole technology package. Think about Qualcomm in the communications field, Microsoft in software, Schlumberger in the oil and gas world. They’re servicing the industry. They make integrating technologies easy, and that’s what we have in mind. We want to put the package together, create the standard operating procedures, and deliver a package that is simple and profitable for a large company or farmer to operate.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about this industry in the year or so you’ve had the high seat at Heliae?

I’ve been founding, developing and building energy and technology oriented businesses for over twenty years, so there’s nothing from the process perspective that’s different to me about developing a proper business model and executing with perfection. What is different for me is that I’ve never been in a business where the market demanded supply so passionately. I’ve never produced any product or delivered any megawatt that was wanted so badly; never been in a business where our prospective customers are coming to us searching for ways to make us move faster. So that’s new for me and says a lot about the potential. I didn’t know that coming on board—I just knew algae met all five conditions and seemed right to me.

When I toured the plant last year, one thing that was impressive was a showcase of about a dozen vials of all the fractionates from algae.

And that’s the unique aspect to our extraction system. We are able to fractionate the cell into multiple streams of lipids, proteins and biomass. We have the option of making two to five products from the process. We end up with soft fractions of different products to leverage the highest absolute value from the biomass.

You seem pretty loyal to Arizona as an algae center.

Arizona should be the technology center of algae. There’s the right climate, the strong support and interest by the government as well as the cities and communities, university partnerships, a lot of non-potable water, over 310 days a year of sun, and available inexpensive, non-arable land. So we see Arizona as becoming a true hub of algae technology in the future. It’s on its way and we want to be one of many success stories – and paint the desert green.

  

December 20, 2011

LEED-certified existing building surpasses new construction

Taipei 101 and San Fran's TransAmerica Pyramid earn platinum status

LEED-certified existing buildings are outpacing their newly built counterparts, according to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). As of December, square footage of LEED-certified existing buildings surpassed LEED-certified new construction by 15 million square feet on a cumulative basis.

"The U.S. is home to more than 60 billion square feet of existing commercial buildings, and we know that most of those buildings are energy guzzlers and water sieves," said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, USGBC. "Greening these buildings takes hands-on work, creating precious jobs especially for construction workers. Making these existing buildings energy and water efficient has an enormous positive impact on the building's cost of operations. And the indoor air quality improvements that go with less toxic cleaning solutions and better filtration create healthier places to live, work and learn."

Historically, USGBC has seen the stock of LEED-certified green projects overwhelmingly made up of new construction projects, both in volume and square footage. That began to change in 2008, when the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (O&M) program began experiencing explosive growth. In 2009, projects certified under LEED for Existing Buildings: O&M surpassed those certified under its new construction counterpart on an annual basis, a trend that continued in 2010 and 2011.

"This new data marks the first time that LEED-certified existing buildings have surpassed LEED-certified new construction cumulatively," Fedrizzi continued. "The market is becoming increasingly aware of how building owners can get better performance through green operations and maintenance, and tools such as LEED for Existing Buildings: O&M are essential to cost-effectively driving improvements in our economy and environment. LEED as a rating system is continuing to evolve an ever greater emphasis on performance, not only in energy, but also water, location, indoor environmental quality, and materials."

Projects worldwide are proving that green building doesn’t have to mean building new. By undertaking a large renovation, the recently LEED-certified Empire State Building has predicted it will slash energy consumption by more than 38 percent, saving $4.4 million in energy costs annually, and recouping the costs of implementation in only three years. The second tallest building in the world, Taipei 101, earned the tallest honor – LEED Platinum. The skyscraper was designed to use 30 percent less energy, reducing annual utility costs by $700,000 a year.

San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid also earned LEED Platinum as an existing building, 39 years after it was originally built. The landmark’s onsite co-generation plant saves an average of $700,000 annually in energy costs.

USGBC is also a strong supporter and working to implement the White House’s Better Buildings Initiative to make America’s commercial buildings more energy- and resource-efficient over the next decade. The plan catalyzes private-sector investment through a series of incentives to upgrade existing offices, stores, schools and universities, hospitals and other commercial and municipal buildings.

A newly issued report by Capital-E found that efficiency financing has the potential to soar from $20 to $150 billion annually, creating over one million jobs, making the American economy more competitive, enhancing national security, and helping slow the impacts of climate change.

In their Green Outlook 2011 report, McGraw Hill Construction found that by 2015, the green share of the largest commercial retrofit and renovation activity will more than triple, growing to 25 percent to 33 percent of the activity by value—a $14 to $18 billion opportunity in major construction projects alone.

To learn more about existing buildings, visit usgbc.org/LEED/EB.

About U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings. With a community comprising 79 local affiliates, nearly 16,000 member organizations, and more than 174,000 LEED Professional Credential holders, USGBC is the driving force of an industry that is projected to contribute $554 billion to the U.S. GDP from 2009-2013. USGBC leads an unlikely diverse constituency of builders and environmentalists, corporations and nonprofit organizations, elected officials and concerned citizens, and teachers and students. For more information, visit usgbc.org.

December 20, 2011

Industry interview: Dan Simon of Heliae

Biofuels company plans to become a global epicenter of algae tech

By David Schwartz

Nestled in the Phoenix, Arizona suburb of Gilbert—a quickly growing community aspiring to be a magnet for algae businesses—Heliae is beginning to emerge from the shroud of secrecy that has surrounded them since being launched by members of the Mars family in October 2008.

So what is Heliae emerging into? “Our goal is to be a world leader in algae technology solutions. Together with the Town of Gilbert and the State of Arizona, we have the capabilities, the vision and the resources to make our state the global epicenter of algae technology,” says Dan Simon, Heliae president and CEO.

Heliae, which just opened its 15,000-square-foot demonstration facility, with a two-acre outdoor cultivation area, already began design on the next scale up, a commercial production facility on 20 additional acres in Gilbert. Their long-range plan is to license their technology and develop, design and manage algae production facilities with partners around the globe. Short-term plans call for building a couple of small production facilities to demonstrate commercial viability.

Dan, who joined Heliae to take the reins from Frank Mars in August of 2010, has a history about as intriguing as that of Heliae, so it is not surprising they found each other in the world of algae.

Dan’s entrepreneurial background dates back to the age of 14, when he started a painting company in San Diego. Perhaps coincidentally, much of his youth was spent surfing near the Scripps’ Pier in La Jolla. After studying economics and finance at the University of Colorado, he continued his economics education in Japan, then after graduation spent two years chasing his passion for horses on the rodeo circuit and leading horse back expeditions as a licensed survival training and hunting guide. After two years in the back country, Dan landed a job as an engineer with an industrial wastewater treatment company.

He spent the next two years designing, installing and servicing industrial wastewater treatment systems for heavy industrial manufacturing facilities and power plants in California and Mexico. “I loved big equipment and learned the industrial world from the water system up,” he says. “Cleaning it when it comes in, cleaning it when it goes out, and taking care of entire water and energy systems—a wonderful way to learn what our weaknesses are in terms of sustainability.”

From that foundation he returned to Japan in an intrapreneurial position, starting an energy services business for NCH Corporation (a NYSE listed holding company) where he merged an engineering and chemical manufacturing business to offer complete water and energy management solutions to large industrial firms throughout Asia. After expanding the company to over 200 employees in 12 countries and moving from Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur, to Bangkok, and back to San Francisco, over a five-year period, Dan left the company to bring his family back to Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

At 29, Dan left NCH and accepted a position with TIC/Kiewit, with the goal of building an international power, refinery, and mining construction company from scratch. He started at the bottom, learning the skills of the various trades as he progressed up the ladder, building cement plants, mines, and various types of power plants.

Seeing the rapid growth in the renewable energy markets, he founded a renewable energy finance and development business as a subsidiary to his parent company. In 2005 he saw the coming boom in the ethanol industry and agreed to purchase the development company from the parent and moved the business into his barn at his ranch in Steamboat Springs. From there, Dan brought in a partner, defined their strategy, and began a capital raise effort to build one of the largest ethanol production companies in the world.

By 2006, they founded BioFuel Energy, LLC, brought in a group of financial partners including Cargill and a few investors from New York, and by 2006, had raised about $150 million in equity and over $230 million in debt to design, build and operate the two largest dry-mill ethanol plants ever developed in the U.S. By 2007, they took the company public, raised another $120 million, for expansion and completed the plants in June 2008. In July 2008, the commodity markets tanked and within a ten day period his company lost almost $50 million on corn contracts.

Most of 2009 was spent restructuring their debt, stabilizing the company’s cash position, and optimizing the ethanol plants. By 2010, the company’s operations were running well and the company had become the fifth largest pure play ethanol producer in the world, producing 230 million gallons of ethanol with over $455 million in revenue.

In June of 2010, Dan was ready to leave the company he had co-founded, knowing it was operating well and would continue to be a leader in the ethanol industry. Dan’s departure was driven by a recognition that the ethanol industry was not going to transition to cellulosic quick enough for his original vision of building a true bio-refinery.

Dan had seen corn ethanol production as only the first stage of the industry. But once the business got going and he saw the cellulosic technology slow to develop, his passion to drive renewable energy and sustainability turned his interests toward alternative technologies. “I realized it was time for me to get out and look for a technology that satisfied my passion for renewable energy and was ready for commercial expansion. After searching a number of sectors, the next generation of biofuel technologies offered the greatest potential,” he says.

So he started looking at projects in the cellulosic world including sugar models, switch grass, wood waste, seaweed, new natural gas technologies, and then began focusing on algae with a few venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. While that search was happening, he received a cold call on his cell phone from Frank Mars. “I didn’t know anything about Mars, Inc.” he says. “I knew their brands, but didn’t know the Mars Incorporated story. They asked me to come in and look at the business and give them my perspective. Once I looked at it carefully the potential became clear, and I was ecstatic when they asked me to come on board as the President and CEO to take the company to the next level.”

We met Dan at the recent ABS and spent some time talking about his “coming to algae” story, and how it ties in with the evolution of Heliae.

What attracted the Mars family to algae in the first place?

They recognized impending constraints for both food and fuel that are going to fall upon all of us within our lifetimes. They wanted to target a strategy, something that was going to both support investments of members of the Mars family, as well as be part of a bigger solution to how we were going to get to the next decade, and the next century.

They spent a while looking at various technologies and ended up focusing on algae, recognizing that it had the most potential because of its flexibility and benefits for both food and fuel. They started the company looking for the right climate and the best technology base, which is how they got to Arizona. There was a great public-private partnership potential there, as well as the technology and expertise from Arizona State University, the Science Foundation of Arizona and the University of Arizona. They invested with the Science Foundation of Arizona into Arizona State University’s algae technologies, which was called LARB, working with Dr. (Qaing) Hu and Dr. (Milton) Sommerfeld to develop algal strains specifically for jet fuel.

What was their incentive to develop jet fuel?

Dr. Hu had done enough analysis on the strains that he was working on through chemical mutagenesis that they could make C-15 and C-16 chain links of carbon, and that fit very well with jet fuel. In addition, members of the Mars family are also pilots, had been in the military, recognized the importance of oil independence, and so they thought if they were going to create a strategy out of this, it should be making jet fuel from algae in a sustainable manner.

In 2008, they started developing the strains and spent a full year improving the growth, adaptability, optimization of the strain and increasing lipids. Then in 2009, they decided to scale it up and make sure they could do it commercially. They built panel reactors and a pilot facility with dewatering and extraction right on the Arizona State University campus, working out of a 10- by 20-foot closet and 5 acres of open land.

They scaled up to about four acres of panel reactors and ponds and worked on increasing production as much as possible on site there until, by the end of 2009, they realized they needed to expand. So they built a headquarters building in Gilbert, Arizona and moved into it in October of 2010. That’s when I came on board, starting as a consultant in November.

We began looking at the strategy and realized that while we now knew enough about the strain and what it was going to take to process, there needed to be more value than just jet fuel. Jet fuel was ultimately going to be the minority portion of the biomass we were growing and, coming from the ethanol industry, I recognized that was not the way we were going to build a profitable business. So we started to build the demonstration facility to learn what mix of algae products offered the greatest return to shareholders. 

December 19, 2011

UCLA partners with Korea on smart grid R&D

Funding comes from DOE and Los Angeles Water and Power

By Jesse Berst, www.smartgridnews.com

UCLA's highly regarded Smart Grid Energy Research Center (SMERC) has partnered with the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) to collaborate on research and the development of new technologies with the goal of developing a strong smart grid at the international level.

SMERC, part of UCLA's engineering school, was created to develop and test new smart grid technologies, with major funding from DOE and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. "UCLA is like a little city – Pasadena, Burbank and Glendale are not much bigger," said Rajit Gadh, SMERC director and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering specializing in wireless smart grid technology. "With a city like UCLA, we can test our concepts very quickly, as well as conduct very interesting tests."

The 10-year partnership with the South Korean institute will involve using three campus buildings as an experimental lab to evaluate how wireless sensing and control systems can help with the development of a smart grid. The facilities are being retrofitted with cutting-edge sensors and smart meters that can, among other things, determine and adjust the amount of power a room will need during specific times of the day – as well as manage appliances, lighting, heating and air conditioning equipment in response to energy prices or power availability on the grid.

Dr. Jung-in Choi, a Korean university professor who came to UCLA on sabbatical, said "I think UCLA's Smart Grid Energy Research Center is one of the most active research institutes in the smart grid field today. In particular, I have been most interested in the open architecture platform for the smart grid – Dr. Gadh's WINSmartGridTM in particular. KIER needs an open architecture platform technology, and I thought a partnership between KIER and SMERC would be beneficial for both."

Read the rest of the story.

 

December 19, 2011

China’s winds of change

Subsidies help level the playing field with fossil fuels

By Bart Taylor

The ongoing debate about energy policy often overlooks the reality that in addition to coal and natural gas, U.S. renewable energy resources are world-class. Take wind. The top global wind energy resource resides squarely in the American heartland.

  This isn't lost on global wind companies including Goldwind, China's top private producer of wind-power technologies. For Goldwind and other global wind-technology leaders, the U.S. is a land of opportunity.

It's also a source of visible frustration for Wang Haibo, Goldwind Vice President and clearly the expert in the room as we discussed global wind opportunities. We met with Mr. Wang in Beijing.

Wind may be plentiful in the U.S., but for those who would invest in wind-related projects, confidence to do so may be at an all-time low. The industry remains some distance from being able to compete on a cost-per-kilowatt hour with carbon sources. This translates into separate challenges for Mr. Wang in his two largest potential markets.

In China, Goldwind competes with state-owned wind-technology company Huarui. And it's a semi-rigged game. From what I gather, price-breaks, subsidies and influence give the state-owned business a leg-up in a wind economy in China that benefits from a fixed price for wind-sourced electricity. One gets the impression that Mr. Wang believes Goldwind would win more business in China if the playing field were evened.

Yet price-certainty in China for wind-power is precisely what provides Goldwind time it needs to achieve parity with coal - 'black energy' in Chinese vernacular (the Chinese dispense with any political correctness when describing carbon sources). Wind-power is more expensive than coal. But Goldwind and others are able to sell power to China's users at coal-power rates. The Chinese government subsidizes the difference. Through 2019, Goldwind is assured of price-parity, buying it the time it needs to refine its business, lower its price and compete on even terms with black-energy producers.

It's the type of price-certainty that's missing in the U.S. Without it, investors shy from wind development. And the policy climate for future financial support isn't promising. Facing losses with no clear path to profitability, investment capital will continue to be a barrier to wind-power development. And the world's best wind-energy will continue to be considerably under-utilized.

Will U.S. sentiment change? Will money be found to fund the price subsidies and other means to establish price-certainty for wind-energy providers? Mr. Wang and his competitors can only hope. But the answer is fairly obvious - at least in the short-term.

Meanwhile, China's market for wind-energy is strong - if not expensive - and growing. Policy-makers are hyper-aware of the ecological challenge - and the implicaitons for not acting. We experienced a coal-induced haze for 500 miles traveling south from Beijing to Shanghia on China's superb bullet-train service.

For those with the stomach to compete with at least one government-owned business, there's opportunity. (Our meeting came to an abrupt end when Wang fielded a call from a potential Chinese customer to finalize a deal.)

Those who find a partner operating in China should prosper.
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December 13, 2011

Planet-Profit Report in China

It's a land of cleantech opportunity

By Bart Taylor

My first thought on landing in China was that we'd come for the right reason.

We've flown here to finalize a content partnership with China Dealmaker magazine. After flying 6,000 miles, we'd descended to a thousand feet or so, and I still couldn't make out terra firma in the thick soup of fog and smog out the airplane window.

The primary mission of our content partnership is to profile U.S. cleantech solutions and markets to China's financial and M&A community. With China slated to invest many times the resources as the U.S. in the coming years to clean and green their economy, and my window view testament to their challenge, I'd say we're on the right track.

The short drive from the airport also begins to confirm my suspicion that I've really no concept of how engaged, how awake China now is, and U.S. media headlines have proven inadequate in communicating the profound changes taking place here – good and bad. Driving into this bustling city, past a phalanx of modern office buildings topped with corporate logos from around the globe, is an immediate eye-opener.

One accurate characterization is that China has money – and markets – that potentially can benefit U.S. cleantech firms and startups. And as I read today from Beijing about the push in the U.S. to couple approval of the Keystone oil pipeline to a tax credit for business, I'm reminded that our political dialogue may be doing no favors for U.S. research and commercialization interests in cleantech and renewables.

Firms seeking capital and waiting for US capital markets to improve may be taking a risk. China's moving fast. This from last weeks PPR and renewableenergyfocus.com:

China is creating 16 national energy research and development centres intended specifically to drive innovation in the clean energy sector, and by the end of 2011, national Chinese R&D expenditures are targeted to rise 11 percent over levels recorded just earlier in the year. Eight of 10 companies with the largest R&D budgets have established R&D facilities in China, India, or both. There has been a 600 percent increase in the number of college graduates in science fields in China between 1995 and 2005. 

More later from China on Planet-Profit's content plans with China Dealmaker, opportunities for U.S.-based firms that should develop as a result, and developments from meetings we have lined up with a cast of energy, water and policy officials in Beijing and Shanghai over the next several days.

 

December 13, 2011

Clash over solar panels from China heats up

Chinese plan to shift some production to defuse trade case

By Keith Bradsher, New York Times

Chinese solar panel makers plan to shift some of their production to South Korea, Taiwan and the United States in hopes of defusing a trade case pending against them in Washington, according to industry executives.

But at the same time, the Chinese industry is considering retaliating by filing a trade case of its own with China’s Commerce Ministry.

The most likely target would be American exports to China of polysilicon — a prime ingredient in solar panels — Chinese industry executives and officials said. American manufacturers exported about $873 million of polysilicon to China last year, nearly as much in dollar terms as the value of the solar panels that China shipped to the United States.

The Chinese moves come after the United States Commerce Department opened a trade case against China’s solar panel makers earlier this month, at the request of SolarWorld Industries America and six other American solar companies.

Read the rest of the story.

December 13, 2011

If it works in buses, why not trains?

Biodiesel gets a trial on the rails in Montana

By Joan Melcher

Fuel savings could approach 1 billion gallons if just 10 percent of the nation’s freight was shifted to rail, according to Environment Protection Agency (EPA) estimates.

All modes of transportation, however, have room for improvement, according to a Beau Price, shop superintendent of the Burlington-Northern Santa Fe Railroad in far-flung Havre, Montana, close to the Canadian border. He saw how Montana State University-Northern’s Bio-Energy Center, along with area non-profit Opportunity Link, were making and using a biodiesel blend to power a fleet of area buses. Why not try it in trains, he asked.

So they did. BNSF came on board — the first time the railroad giant partnered with an outside entity to do this kind of testing — and a trial was set up, using older rebuilt locomotive engines that were hooked together so they experienced the same conditions over a year of operation.  One was a control and the other used a B20 biodiesel blend.

The center received a $50,000 grant from the Montana Department of Agriculture and a $121,000 grant from the state Department of Environmental Quality to fund the project, along with in-kind BNSF support.

The idea was to test biodiesel in general operations over a year where extreme weather is the norm, said the director of the Bio-Energy Center Jessica Alcorn-Windy Boy. Northern inland states that BNFS serves can experience temperatures from 40 below zero to above 100 degrees.

Amtrak completed a one-year trial of B20 (20 percent biodiesel) last year in warmer climes that used beef tallow as a feedstock for biodiesel. The project was funded by a $287,000 grant from the Federal Railroad Administration and involved trials run over a year in runs between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City.

The feedstock for biodiesel in Havre is oilseed crops grown by local farmers — canola, safflower and camelina. Alcorn-Windy Boy said much of the oil seed used at the center is provided by Earl Fischer Biofuels, a nearby farm and biofuel operation; supply is determined by what crop is available at a given time.

The seed is pressed at the Bio-Energy Center and blended with diesel. One interesting finding over the course of supplying the North Central Montana Transit bus fleet with B20 is that when the blend is first used, oil filters tend to plug up, but eventually, because of the lubricating properties and solvency of the biodiesel, “the biodiesel starts to clean up your fuel lines — all that junk that accumulates over the years — biodiesel will clean those up,” said Nestor Soriano, lead research scientist at the Bio-Energy Center.

The BNSF trials included removing and replacing fuel injectors every three months; as part of the test, the injectors are being analyzed by BNSF. Emissions testing equipment was supplied by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which provided a portable emissions monitoring system.

Early results show little to no difference in performance of the two engines. Emissions were analyzed in eight notches, from early warm-up and idling conditions to a high speed. Results showed a general reduction in both nitric (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Soriano said, in the warm-up phases and at the higher levels with the biodiesel blend, but the middle notches showed an increase in NO and NO2 with the blend.

Carbon monoxide emissions followed the trend, with lower notch readings 10 to 12 percent less with the biodiesel blend and higher notches showing an increase of 18 percent with biodiesel.

Soriano cautioned that there could be a different trend with a newer engine and that emissions will vary with how the train is run. For example, a train could spend more hours idling in a yard than running in the middle range; hence emissions could be much less in real conditions than if all notches of operation are projected to be used equally. “We are very happy overall,” he said. “There are some avenues to continue testing.” He said they are interested in seeing results from the fuel injectors, including possible coking deposits, adding that the center might be able to develop an additive that would clean the injectors.

As to cost, as with the Amtrak trial, cost of a biodiesel blend may still be a factor. Alcorn-Windy Boy noted that at this point, converting oilseed to biodiesel is not cost effective, with current costs running as much as $7 a gallon. She said BNSF would be interested in using a biodiesel blend, but it would have to be economically feasible. 

However, she noted that BNSF “goes through 30 to 32 million gallons of diesel a year at the Havre shop” and “even a B5 blend of biodiesel would support a 2-million-gallon-a-year plant.” One idea the Bio-Energy Center and Opportunity Link are considering is a program of using oilseed crops grown locally to produce a cooking oil and then using the waste oil to create a biodiesel blend. Early results have shown they can create that biodiesel for a cost of $2.20 a gallon, she said.

 

December 13, 2011

Sustainability Spotlight: Petroleum from renewables

ASU researchers engineer bacteria to create styrene

Styrene is one of the major building-block chemicals used to make many of the rubbery polymers and plastic materials we use today. More than 6 billion tons of it is manufactured each year in the United States alone, most of which goes into producing insulating materials, automobile tires, footwear, medical devices and hundreds of other widely used products.

The problem is that all styrene is currently derived from a dwindling resource – petroleum – and its production requires one of the most energy-intensive processes in the petrochemical manufacturing industry. More than three metric tons of steam is necessary to produce just one metric ton of styrene.

That excessive energy consumption also produces significant amounts of carbon dioxide, contributing to the detrimental buildup of greenhouses gases in the atmosphere.

At Arizona State University, David Nielsen and Rebekah McKenna are seeking ways to make styrene – and other common petrochemicals – using renewable resources. They want to produce materials that are more sustainable, require less energy to produce, and alleviate negative environmental impacts when they are manufactured.

Nielsen is an assistant professor of Chemical Engineering in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transportation and Energy, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. McKenna is studying to earn a doctoral degree in chemical engineering.

They’re experimenting with engineering microorganisms to act as catalysts for making styrene from renewable resources – in this case biological materials, like sugars from plants.

The bacteria they have genetically engineered for that purpose has drawn attention from peers in their field. A report on their work was first published in the international science and engineering journal Metabolic Engineering, and then later appeared in Nature Chemical Biology as a featured “research highlight."

Read the rest of the story.

 

December 06, 2011

Sustainability Spotlight: ATI Clean Energy Incubator

Focusing on electricity in Texas

Founded in 2001, the ATI Clean Energy Incubator (CEI) is one of the longest-established clean energy incubators in the United States. This is appropriate: our parent institution, the University of Texas, does more energy research than any other university in the world.

Our primary focus within CEI is on electricity. We have strong partnerships with the local electric power company, Austin Energy, which allows our companies to test their products on the local grid.  We are also founding participants in the Pecan Street Project, which is running a $30 million smart grid/smart premises demonstration project in Austin.  And the CEO of Luminant, Texas’ largest electricity producer, serves on our Board.

We are also expanding our liquid fuels service line.  Currently, CEI is working successfully with companies in both algae-based and fungal biofuels.  This allows us to leverage UT’s historical ties to the Houston-based petroleum industry.

Our Clean Energy team also invests heavily in building the clean energy/clean tech ecosystem in Central Texas.  With Austin Energy, CEI hosts the annual Clean Energy Venture Summit, the premier clean energy investment conference in Texas.  The team also partners with the CleanTX Foundation to host CleanTX Forums and Solar Energy Entrepreneur Networking (SEEN) events in Austin.

Read the rest of the story.

December 06, 2011

The cleantech Academy Awards

And the winners are...

By Michele Chandler

As venture spending in cleantech continues to fall in the wake of a stagnant American economy, 800 energy entrepreneurs, investors and government representatives gathered at the Cleantech Open in San Jose, Calif.—the nation’s Academy Awards for green startups.

Held on Nov. 16-17, the national business competition drew dozens of young companies involved in creating everything from smart power systems and renewable energy sources to green building materials.

Several firms were recognized for leading-edge energy efficiency solutions.

Colorado’s US e-Chromic, launched in May, was founded to commercialize technology developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The product: a reflective electrochromic thin film for retrofitting existing windows in buildings that is expected to reduce air conditioning costs by 30 to 40 percent.

Energy management products developed by Smart Office Energy Solutions of Texas gives companies the tools needed to wirelessly monitor power consumption and adjust energy use in real time, reducing electricity usage in pilot projects by up to 25 percent.

Indow Windowsof Oregon won the Pacific Northwest Region prize for its thermal window inserts that fit inside window frames, instantly creating a double pane window that conserves energy at a lower cost than conventional double-pane windows.

And making data centers more efficient is at the core of technology developed by Arctic Sand Technologies, a spinout of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Their product stores power electronically rather than magnetically, boosting storage capacity and lengthening battery life. Company officials believe data center operators, which they say spend $200 billion annually running facilities, will be one of several potential markets.

These and other firms will face a tough funding environment as overall cleantech investment from venture capital firms continue to decline, falling to $890.7 million in the third quarter of 2011, down from the $1 billion invested in the sector during the second quarter of this year, according to data from the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association’s MoneyTree Report..

Even so, some sustainability-focused startups seeking industry exposure and cash to transform their ideas into reality received both at Cleantech Open’s event, the capstone of a mentoring and training program designed to “find, fund and foster” the next generation of green technologies. The California-based Cleantech Open programconnects startup entrepreneurs with mentors, investors, national laboratories, corporations and foundations.

The top national prize—worth $250,000 in cash and services—went to Atmosphere Recovery, a Minnesota-based maker of laser-based gas analyzer systems for efficient manufacturing and advanced energy process control.Ron Rich, the company’s CEO and a veteran aerospace and environmental engineer, said prospective customers are already calling. "We're really grateful for all the national connections and funding —anything that can help us grow," Rich told the Minneapolis (Minnesota) Star-Tribune after beating out 20 other finalists for the prestigious award.

More than $5 million in a combination of marketing and public relations services, legal and management advice and cash have been awarded to Cleantech Open winners since the program began in 2005. The program’s 473 alumni firms have gone on to raise more than$300 million in external funding and create 2,500 new jobs, according to the group.

“This is truly a real hotbed of optimism,” said Marc Gottschalk, who chairs the organization’s board of directors and is a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Cleantech opportunities will abound in the future, keynote speaker Dan Reichert, executive director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University, told the gathering. With an estimated $33 trillion expected to be spent on energy infrastructure during the next two decades, green firms will be indispensible to the U.S.’s bid for energy-efficiency. But, he added, the companies will require strong policy and government support to reach success.

Promising cleantech firms will also need enough money to bridge the "Valley of Death"—an industry term for the critical and capital-intensive stretch between a technology’s invention and its commercialization, a period that can take years. “There’s a big distance between where we are and where we need to get, but again I think it’s a very exciting moment,” Reichert said.

In addition to Indow Windows, regional Cleantech Open winners from the Western U.S. included b2u Solar, a San Jose, California-based developer of solar heat systems for businesses, and Veritek Coal Processing of Littleton, Colorado, creator of a less expensive process to remove impurities from coal.

Several startups focused on air, water and waste also made it to the final round. Arbsource, an Arizona State University spinoff, seeks to transform wastewater treatment byproducts into a valuable resource. Their process generates hydrogen gas—a versatile commodity—rather than produce harmful methane gas. Launch of a pilot project is planned for the first quarter of 2012.

Another air, water and waste finalist was Kiverdi of California. The company has figured out a way to harness microscopic organisms that consume waste gas and turn it into useable oil-based chemicals. The process uses a low-temperature, low-pressure manufacturing system. The resulting chemicals can be used in detergents, fabrics and surgical materials, replacing more expensive compounds typically derived from petroleum or plant or animal fats.

Smart power was another popular category in the competition. Founded in 2009, Qado Energy of Massachusetts uses modeling and analytics to track information needed by the computer-based smart power grid. The company has built relationships with leading utility firms and public utility regulators.

Focusing on transportation, Gridtest Systems of California produces portable test equipment that ensures that electric vehicle charging systems work safely and properly. Their testing systems are designed for use by electric vehicle makers, installers and utility firms.

Other companies that made it to the final round of the 2011 Cleantech Open National Business Competition include:

• cycleWood Solutions, Arkansas. Four University of Arkansas students formed the company in 2010 based on biodegradable shopping bag technology developed by a University of Minnesota biochemist. cycleWood Solutions’ bags biodegrade in 150 day, rather than sitting for decades in landfills. Founders plan to expand their technology to other applications.
• ECO Catalytics, California. Fuel cells using its catalyst ink contain 20 times less platinum per the same power output compared to current technologies, the company says. That’s made possible by a unique coating process incorporating less expensive metals with pricey platinum.
• EnFocus Engineering, California. The company’s window panels admit “cool” sunlight to illuminate building interiors while converting harsh, “hot” sunlight into power at the same time. EnFocus says its technology allows sufficient offload from the power grid to achieve a payback in five years.
• FORTECO, Wisconsin. This maker of lightweight composite framing says it uses eco-friendly, recycled and nontoxic materials. Their steel product is made from 100 percent recycled content, while its concrete uses fly ash as well as recycled fibers and aggregate.
• GridMobility, Washington. Their technology enables real-time reporting of the source of electricity that consumers use. Armed with that knowledge, businesses, industries and households can decide whether to shift consumption to off-peak hours.
• HM3 Energy, Oregon. This three-year-old startup has developed a replacement for coal using non-food sources including forest and urban wood waste to produce cellulosic ethanol. HM3 Energy received $241,000 from the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities to open a pilot plant now producing biomass pellets used as a clean energy source.
• Load IQ, Nevada. Its management software enables users to reduce power consumption by showing exactly where their energy dollars are being spent. Scientists at the Desert Research Institute founded the company in 2007, with initial funding also coming from state governments in California and Nevada.
• PK Clean, Massachusetts. The company’s plan is to convert carbon-containing waste, including plastics from landfills, into hydrocarbon fuels, such as diesel. The company developed a specialized process that is now being used in a 20 ton per day pilot facility in India. Future plans include raising $20 million to build a processing plant near Logan International Airport, according to the Boston Herald.
• Silicon Solar Solutions, Arkansas. A University of Arkansas graduate school team developed technology that seeks to create solar cells using less material and containing increased power than is currently available. By eliminating processing steps and material needed in manufacturing, the company’s technology has the potential to reduce the cost of silicon-based solar cells by 42 cents per watt.
• Whole Trees Architecture and Construction, Wisconsin. The company’s founders believe building with trees is more earth-friendly—and cheaper—than building with steel, concrete or engineered wood. The four-year-old startup uses whole timber from trees thinned as forest waste, a product company officials say is 50 percent stronger than conventional milled lumber.  

December 06, 2011

Colorado: At the center of the renewable vs. conventional energy debate

Feeling conflicted about energy? You're not alone

By Andrew Lillie

If you feel conflicted about energy, you’re not alone.  Although renewable energy will drive the future, Coloradans must accept and plan for—not merely tolerate—continued responsible use of fossil fuels. 

Gov. John Hickenlooper and other Colorado leaders asked General Electric to build one of the nation’s largest solar-panel manufacturing plants in Colorado, and GE has taken them up on their offer.  In this sun-drenched state prideful of its “new energy economy,” the governor’s invitation to GE naturally finds widespread support. Yet the governor’s embrace of Colorado’s rich traditional energy resources—natural gas, coal-bed methane, and coal—as opportunities for economic growth has been criticized as an attempt to be everything to everyone.  Some say fossil fuels have no place in Colorado’s energy future.

What some see as the governor’s equivocation, however, is a reflection of deep, well-founded, and unavoidable ambivalence many people feel about energy.  For example, you might be an advocate for renewables, but the sleek computer on which you’re reading this likely was produced in Asia from oil-based plastic, along with metals and rare-earth elements extracted with giant machines, then shipped across the ocean on huge freighters—all thanks to fossil fuels.  And don’t get me started about all the wonderful outdoor gear on which we Coloradans depend and where it comes from.  Although an economically sustainable renewable-energy world is tantalizing and will become necessary, we cannot ignore fossil fuels:  they are abundant, technologically available, and economically viable. 

Of course, fossil fuels eventually will be depleted or beyond retrieval, and they can create environmental and health problems that in some countries are barely addressed, and that are rarely fully captured by market prices anywhere.  Energy, like any other consumer product, has associated externalities.  But that does not mean we should abandon fossil fuels.  It means we should responsibly manage unwanted side effects.

Natural gas, widely viewed as a “bridge fuel” to replace dirtier coil and oil while large amounts of renewable energy slowly come on line, is abundant in Colorado.  The natural-gas industry’s use of hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) to remove gas trapped in rock thousands of feet below the surface, however, is the source of heated controversy.  While regulators including the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and the U.S. Department of Interior have stated that fracking can be and has been for decades performed safely and responsibly, the public remains unsettled.  Perhaps this is because few understand the highly technical aspects of gas production or the emphasis most companies place on health and safety.  Perhaps it’s because there is no popular consensus on the effects of fracking.  Only recently has the practice been widely used so close to residential areas, and nobody wants to live near industry.

 

But such sentiment is not limited to natural gas.  Every energy source can create problems, even the “clean” ones.  Wind farms can be loud, obstruct views, and kill birds.  Solar projects often occupy land that could be used for agriculture or homes, and could affect endangered species.  Dams can fundamentally change rivers.  And miles of transmission lines essential to bringing electricity to users always run through someone’s backyard.  No source is immune from conflict.

This conflict—which boils down to how to fuel our modern existence while respecting each other and the planet—is one of the most important issues humans face today. We dream a lot about fixes. Think about wafer-thin solar panels sprawled over rooftops in a brilliant sci-fi scene, electricity generators gathering energy from tides, raptor-safe wind farms whose neighbors welcome rotor whines and transmission lines, rivers energizing cities while salmon run free, and beetle-kill trees transformed into clean electricity.  We all want a pristine world.  And most of us (admit it or not) are terrified of climate change.  Those time-lapse videos of glaciers melting away are horrifying.  Still, we love our flat-screen TVs, leave the fridge open and lights on, admire energy-saving tips but easily forget them, drive like crazy, and generally take energy for granted. 

Thank fossil fuels.  When you pressed your computer’s power button, you expected it to crawl to life, and it did.  Because of diesel-powered coal trains.  They lumber south through downtown Denver every day toward power plants that burn coal dust to boil water into steam to drive generators, using technology reminiscent of the nineteenth century to power your laptop.  Good or bad?  Maybe that’s not the issue.  Everyone—regardless of political or environmental stripe—demands that the lights go on when the switch is flipped.   

Our hunger for energy is insatiable and growing, and the tension between renewable and conventional energy sources is at a fever pitch.  Colorado is in many ways at the heart of this debate, and we need to think carefully about its implications for all of us.   

December 06, 2011

China’s renewable energy spending outpaces U.S.

U.S. think tank analyzes the data

By Kari Williamson, www.renewableenergyfocus.com

U.S. think tank Third Way says China has surpassed the United States as the top nation in total clean energy investments, attractiveness for renewable energy investment and overall patents filed since 2010.

"Our country is sitting on the sidelines as the equivalent of 16 percent of our GDP is up for grabs," says Joshua Freed, Third Way Vice President for the Clean Energy Program.

Freed and his co-authors say China is adopting policies to slowly gain ground against the US in the areas of finance and innovation, particularly in clean energy. The report shows China has the highest public market financing in the clean energy sector, while the United States ranked third in total clean energy investment in 2010, behind China and Germany. In 2008, the United States ranked first.

China has secured $47.3 billion of asset financing in 2010 for clean energy projects, while the United States attracted $21 billion in 2010. Some 60 percent of all clean energy technology IPOs in the world in 2010 were from Chinese companies, the analysis says.

Read the rest of the story.

December 01, 2011

A message for Western governors: Small business relies on the Colorado

Keep it flowing to keep the economy afloat

Dear Western Governors:

As you gather to discuss the important issues facing the West, we hope you will recognize the Colorado River and its contribution to the recreation and tourism sectors of the western economy, as part of your Get Out West! initiative.

The Colorado River fuels our economy in the seven Basin states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Thirty million people, from Denver to Los Angeles, drink its water. It enriches 3 million acres of farmland. And the economic value of the River goes far beyond the consumption of its water. It supports a way of life that keeps people coming out West. Millions of tourists flock to the banks of the River and its tributaries each year for boating, fishing, birding, hunting and hiking, which adds up to a multi-billion dollar recreation economy. According to the Outdoor Industry Association, the recreation industry in the River Basin states supports some 320,000 jobs.

Our coalition represents more than 270 small businesses from the seven Colorado River basin states that rely on the Colorado River for our livelihoods.  We urge you to keep water flowing in the River so the revenue it supports keeps flowing into our local economies.

Until 1998, the River stretched all the way from its source in the Colorado Rockies to Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. Now, it dries up in the Sonoran Desert miles before it reaches the sea; water levels in the River have dropped by 35 percent over the last 10 years. This trend will continue to move upstream to the basin region communities and severely impact local businesses if mitigation strategies are not put in place.

The Bureau of Reclamation, in coordination with representatives from the seven Basin states, is conducting a study on the future of the River to address increasing strain upon the River’s water supply. The Colorado River Supply and Demand Study began in January 2010 and, upon completion, will define current and future imbalances in water supply and demand in the Colorado River Basin over the next 50 years.

Protect the Flows members plan to submit a proposal during the Options and Strategies phase of the study.  The proposal will create more jobs in the recreation and tourism industry, be guided by common sense spending versus multi-billion dollar pipe dreams, and protect the unique recreation opportunities and multi-billion dollar recreation industry the Colorado River fuels.

To achieve these objectives, we need practical policy that brings supply and demand back into balance.  That’s why we are supporting policy recommendations that employ efficiency, flexibility and voluntary sharing of water between users as a means to provide the water we need to consume while keeping enough water in the river to support our recreation economy and the health of the river itself.

Our business coalition would like to see solutions that will allow for voluntary sharing and cooperative arrangements between major users, like municipalities and agricultural districts; use water more efficiently and conserve in urban areas, such as addressing lawn watering and pool filling practices; and create more leeway and options for existing water storage and diversion projects to allow for keeping more water in the River.

Our economic future is tied to a Colorado River that flows strong and beckons people to our communities. Let’s seize this opportunity to keep this lifeline in the West flowing for generations to come.

Sincerely,

Molly Mugglestone
Protect the Flows

 

November 29, 2011

Leveling the playing field for biofuels

Look to the balance sheet

By Jim Lane, Biofuels Digest

Should biofuels have its own reserve accounting system and accompanying balance sheet booster, just as the oil & gas industry has?

At the Advanced Biofuels Markets conference earlier this month in San Francisco. Richard Hamilton, CEO of Ceres, advanced the proposition that biofuels companies – on the “level playing field” theory advanced by opponents of government mandates and subsidies, should  have the right to book their reserves of crude renewable oil production, in a parallel to the reserve accounting system which forms the bulk of the oil & gas industry balance sheet.

About proved reserves and balance sheets

Most investors understand proved reserves. Under specific (and generally conservative) SEC rules, proved reserves (that is, which have a 90% or higher probability of being feasibly extracted) can be added to the balance sheet.

These reserves currently total 44 billion barrels for the top six oil exploration companies (ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Total, ConocoPhillips and Chevron), and when we speak about the massive oil company balance sheets, this is very much in the mind of the investors when they value each company, especially in terms of their predicted future ability to produce revenues.

Read the rest of the story.

November 29, 2011

From the bottom up: The future of renewables

An Idaho energy policy conference focuses on the consumer

By Joan Melcher

Whether you want to call it consumer-driven, a bottoms-up approach, or using demand as a resource, much of the policy talk at the recent 11th annual Harvesting Renewable Energy conference in Boise, Idaho, centered on sustainability being propelled by the end user.

In two plenary sessions of the conference, the news from diverse quarters pivoted on a theme that the consumer is central to what’s happening with renewables — from demanding sustainably produced goods to providing a hot water tank for energy storage to taking companies to task for not embracing energy efficiency.

Haven Baker, vice president of New Market Initiatives for JR Simplot Co., a food and agribusiness company, spoke of his company’s approach to energy efficiency. Simplot actively seeks ideas from employees for saving energy, calling it “bottoms up ideas.”

He said the company realized in the early 2000s that there could be more than $100 million in potential savings “if we just had someone to chase these projects.” Simplot created a business plan, put a man in charge of projects, dedicated resources to it and “went after the low-hanging fruit,” Haven said.

Between the top-down commitment and ideas and initiatives put forth by employees, the company has saved 1.3 trillion Btus of energy since the program began about five years ago and about 95 thousand metric tons of CO2, he said. The goal is to reduce energy intensity of Simplot food processing plants by 25 percent over 10 years. “Four to five years into it, nine of 16 plants have already made the goal,” Haven said.

In a twist not often considered in the labor efficiency equation, Haven noted: “It looks like sustainability, particularly energy savings, is correlated with labor utilization and regulatory efficiency. And that’s important.”

Donald Schriver, a dairy industry consultant who works with the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, spoke about the efforts the recently formed group is undertaking. Noting that dairy producers have long understood the importance of sustainable practices, he said in recent years the need for upping the ante has increased with rising energy costs.

The opportunities for innovation and efficiencies in agriculture are “huge,” he said. “The bottom line is consumers care about sustainability and they’re the ones who buy all the things that we produce. The retailers are asking what we’re doing in agriculture — dairy in particular — to provide better use of resources.”

A study by the Innovation Center of best practices in dairies nationwide has shown that $238 million could be saved by dairymen by 2020 if the practices are put in place. Among them are ideas outlined in the Dairy Fleet Smart section: restricting the amount of gasoline available in trucks that only go on short runs (to limit the weight of stored gasoline), taking out the passenger seat on trucks that do short runs, and limiting the weight of the person driving the truck. “If you’re a 350-pound guy who likes his beer and sausages, you probably won’t be driving one of these trucks,” Schriver said.

Ken Dragoon, senior resource analyst for the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, a quasi-government organization that serves the Northwest region, gave a recap of the surprising growth of wind in the region — from none in 1998 to 6,000 megawatts installed at the end of this year, about 6 percent of the region’s electricity. Then he compared it to Denmark, which garners 20 percent of its electricity from wind and is targeting 50 percent by 2020.

He spoke of a recent trip to Denmark: “I met with the executive director of the national laboratory and he said they’re moving from a power system where supply responds to demand to a system where demand responds to supply.”  Dragoon said an example is district heating systems where waste heat from power plants is stored in huge hot water tanks that can be tapped to supply electricity when its needed. “The storage capacity of those tanks is equivalent to [battery storage] of a quarter of a million electric vehicles,” he said.

Speaking of hot water storage, Peter Christensen, commercialization manager at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, wants consumers to look at their residential water heaters — and eventually their electric cars — as mini regulators of the electrical grid.  “We can take advantage of the fact that both of these devices store energy — and adjust the rate at which we charge these devices,” he said.

Christensen has worked in the smart grid and transmission field for several years and believes incorporating computer devices in appliances that monitor and react to the grid will allow balancing supply with demand and provide an answer to peak loads and intermittency problems associated with wind and solar power.

In a sense, residential appliances, particularly water heaters, could be part of a widespread frequency regulation service, Christensen said, adding, “It’s all driven by customers — autonomously.”

He said he and other researchers at the lab analyzed a few projects on the East Coast that used appliances outfitted with the computer interface to rate “the value of this regulation service.” He said, “In some areas it’s as a high as $155 per water heater per year.”

Christensen said the technology is available today that would turn residential appliances into mini-regulators, but the policy to make it happen lags behind, partly because several levels of stakeholders are involved and it has to be determined how each will benefit. “Demand response technology enables the use of demand as a resource,” he said, adding, “There’s an enormous potential value for all stakeholders.”

 

 

  

November 29, 2011

Rooftop solar and dirt law

Remember the real estate fundamentals

By J. Marcus Painter

Not much will excite a commercial real estate owner more than low cap rates, cheap financing, and the offer of something for nothing.  While the first two are still elusive in this anemic economy, the abundance of federal, state and other incentives in the renewable energy sector has created the opportunity for commercial and apartment property owners to truly receive something for nothing. But only if all parties are careful. 

The vast array of renewable incentives has spawned an entire industry commonly referred to as “distributed solar generation.”  In general terms, distributed solar is electricity generated from photovoltaic solar panels installed on or near the building where the electricity is used.  The vast flat roofs of commercial, office, industrial and apartment buildings are perfect locations for such solar installations under the predictable Colorado sun.

A distributed solar system is typically owned by a solar investment company, installed on the commercial building at the solar company’s cost, and through a power purchase agreement with the building owner, the solar-generated electricity is sold to the building owner for consumption on site.  The “something for nothing” component is that the building owner doesn’t pay anything for the system, gets electricity cheaper than utility prices, and usually has a right to buy the system later for an affordable amount.  The solar developer makes a little money on the ongoing sale of electricity, but the big investment return for the solar developer comes in stripping out the tax rebates and other incentives for the cost of the system.  This incentive arrangement drives the success of many sustainable projects. 

Unfortunately, all too often, owners and solar providers become enamored of the projected savings and forget about some important real estate obstacles that can turn the “something for nothing” element into major, expensive problems for all parties.  For instance, virtually all commercial buildings have significant mortgages on them through standard bank financing, conduit or insurance company loans, or bond financing.  And most solar developers must finance the solar equipment they install.

The solar equipment loans are typically secured with a lien on the installed solar panels and racking attached to the building’s roof, which begins to look a lot like a “fixture” or a part of the real estate covered by the building mortgage.  The solar developer’s lender does not want a foreclosure on the building to result in a loss of the solar system, so it wants an acknowledgement that the solar equipment isn’t covered by the real estate mortgage.  On the flip side, the building owner’s mortgage almost always has a prohibition on allowing any other liens against the property.  So just allowing the solar developer to give a lien to its lender can result in a default on the building’s loan, which is a bad thing for all parties.

There are solutions to this problem, but they are not always easy and they take time to work out.  Many commercial real estate loans are handled by distant loan servicers who have no interest in making exceptions to their standard operating procedures.  Solar may not be new, but it is new enough that many loan servicers are reluctant to “approve” the installation of a solar system that is subject to another lender’s lien.

Further, even if the loan servicer does consent, the language of the consent may not be enough to satisfy the solar company’s lender.  That’s when the deal slows down and the negotiations get very delicate.  Both parties want to avoid pushing their respective lender too hard.  Some loan servicers simply refuse to respond.  Others will only respond when someone advances them money to cover their legal fees for even reviewing the matter.  In the end, the art of the deal is having sophisticated parties and sophisticated counsel who know how to probe the lenders’ areas of flexibility and match those to the other’s true needs.  And there is no substitute for creativity in finding ways to finesse the lenders’ objections and concerns, such as using a long term license (not a real property interest) instead of an easement (a real property interest), or using a subordination and non-disturbance agreement in a new way that satisfies both parties.

Obtaining mutually acceptable consents from lenders is generally the most time consuming hurdle, but it isn’t the only significant hurdle. The parties are well advised to obtain a full title search on the underlying real estate to uncover any other parties with rights to the real estate that might have a say in the installation. Also, not all distributed solar goes on the roof.  Sometimes it is installed on adjoining land, and electrical connections must cross streets that are subject to utility or access easements, parking rights or other similar interests.

Or a title review may reveal that the building is actually on a long term ground lease and the underlying owner must also give consent. The development rights of adjoining owners that may result in overshadowing of the system are important considerations, as may be anchor tenants’ rights to approve modifications to the appearance of the property (a big issue with many shopping centers).  Glare problems for adjoining airport flight paths, height restrictions, zoning or planned unit development limitations also must be considered.

These issues are but a few of the details that need to be considered and resolved to ensure that the benefits of a solar installation are part of a true “win-win” for the parties and the sustainability of the project.  With proper care and due diligence, building owners can install distributed solar without violating mortgage covenants and other property rights, and truly enjoy significant utility cost savings, a lower carbon footprint, and a more socially responsible and marketable project. 

November 29, 2011

Industry interview: Syed Isa Syed Alwi: Part 2

More from a key player in the Asian algae world

By David Schwartz

(Editor's note: This is the second of two parts. Read Part 1.)

What do you see as commonalities among the various algae operations around the world that would be good for all to understand in order to drive the progress of the industry?

What’s common is that algae culturing involves four main steps: preparation work, which includes what the scientists do, like cell isolation, strain developments, and other things to propagate pure cultures.

Then we have to do the actual culturing, which can be done in PBRs, in ponds, in bags onshore or offshore, or in whatever containers you can have. And then there is harvesting, where you have centrifugation, flocculation etc., and processes such as quantum fractionation, etc.

Lastly, we have to refine the harvest and make it into biomass ready to be used further. It can be dried or frozen or in any form that the industry wants, even cracked directly for oil.

Based on these things, we should try to share this information and not have to reinvent what others are doing.

You mentioned earlier that you had a problem with the act of patenting technology in this industry because it more often than not slows down progress for the industry as a whole. Do you believe that an “open source” algae world can exist?

One of the main messages that I would like to suggest is to share everything. There are a lot of small companies out there that are looking for a big breakthrough. And when the breakthrough comes, for example a company puts some algae in particular plastic bag, and they grow the algae in that bag, and they patent it… The moment that they patent it, that means that anybody else who puts algae in that kind of plastic bag and grows it will have to pay them. Otherwise they are not allowed to do it this way.

I’m not a believer of that approach. I think the business of algae should not be the business of selling patents, or securing patents. I think it should be an open source where everybody can grow algae in plastic bags, or in photobioreactors, or whatever, and do it wherever they want.

Now, there are some processes that perhaps should be patented, some black box ideas, but I think the main things—like culturing and harvesting methods—these are all open processes that anybody can do, and everybody should be allowed to do it. For all those people who patent something they think is unique, all they have to do is go to China and they’ll find a thousand people doing the same thing, but nobody knows about them.

Like I said earlier, I think it’s like cooking. Everybody can cook, but not everybody can cook well. Everybody can grow algae, but… How good or bad they become is the meter of how successful they become.

I think a special algae board or association should be created where all the common knowledge would be shared among the stakeholders. There is no single key to culturing algae. You can’t have one company that says, “We have the key and you’ll have all the answers with my company.” I don’t think such a company exists.

What we say is, “We have a couple of answers and, if you want more, we can talk to other people who can give you more answers. And the more answers you have, the more successful your project is going to be.

What we do is, we try to find scientists and researchers who have little breakthroughs, and then put them together into a bigger picture. To look at it another way, we’re not really the musicians. We are more like the orchestra leader conducting the musicians. There are so many musicians, and somebody has to put them together and make music. That is how I see what we do.

What do you see as international stumbling blocks or obstacles that need to be addressed, perhaps on a multi-national basis?

Money—real money for the real people doing the business. I think that grants should be given to both companies and academics. One talks about the technology and the other about business. Each has its own specialty.

Lots of grants are given to big professors from big universities, because they have names like Yale, Harvard, Oxford. I think that’s a little bit misleading. I have nothing against professors, but I think that professors and doctors think like professors and doctors. And I think that a businessman who has very little money….and if a small device had to be created, the professor would go to an engineering workshop and ask for it to be made and he might end up paying $5000. But the businessman, with very little money, will be more resourceful and probably get the same thing built for $500. People who are desperate tend to do what they have to do to make things happen.

A lot of young companies with great ideas can’t move forward because their funds are too limited. Someone should be there to help them, and maybe put them all together, like a Google Development Centre sort of model.

Then there is this really bad attitude of many of the huge multi-nationals of “show me, first.” They want to see it already up and running at scale before they will consider buying it. Now, if you were building a powerplant, you could take the customer to see an operating plant and they’d know what you were talking about. But when you tell them about a 5000-acre algae farm, where are you going to bring them?

They do not want to give small algae companies a chance to prove themselves. They want a big company to come and solve their problems at one go—which will not happen this year, or next year. They need to believe, and invest in the future. As a good friend of mine rightfully said, some people want to be the First Second—let someone else prove the concept, and be the first to copy it.

If you were pleading a case to the United Nations about the place for algae production in the world of the future, what would you say to stir action?

We are in the year 2011, and there should be no more malnutrition and hunger in the world. When we are no longer fossil oil dependent, everything can go back into its natural place. People can eat and live in harmony.

I think that if there is anybody who is going to help us do this, it would be the really rich people of the world—the sheiks of the Arab countries, the Sultan of Brunei—putting aside 1% of their fortunes to create what would be the world’s largest algae farm in the desert of North Africa, and be able to feed all the poor people in Africa. And all they’d need to feed them is five grams of spirulina a day!

And we must stop CO2 emission immediately and drastically. Global warming is not like being a diabetic, it’s more like having a brain tumor. We have to make right what we have done wrong for more than 100 years 

November 21, 2011

Western community college launches smart grid tech courses

The classes might well be the first of their kind in the nation

By Marsha W. Johnston

What might well be the U.S. West's first in-depth, college-level courses to certify technicians for smart electric grids take off soon in Colorado.

Funded by the Workforce Development Council, the three technical courses were developed by Front Range Community College in partnership with Colorado State University, the University of Colorado, the cities of Fort Collins and Fountain, Xcel Energy, Schneider Electric, Telvent and Spirae. Three more professional, engineering design oriented courses are being developed with CSU.

“We have a two-year degree program called Clean Energy, and this will be a great add-on to that," says Lynn Vosler, director of workforce development for Front Range.

The first of the three technical courses, “Introduction to Smart Grid Power Technologies,” provides an overview of the elements of a smart grid, examines the critical role of information technology and telecommunications, and assesses the limitations and constraints of the existing power grid.  The course instructor is Conwell Dickey, former director of Front Range’s Clean Energy Program.

Currently, the course is a non-credit, continuing education program rather than a degree credit course, but that may change, Vosler says.

"We will run the pilot, and then it does take awhile to get course approved for credit in the community college system,” she says, noting that a non-credit program, however, can be often updated more quickly, allowing it to stay abreast of technology changes more easily.

Vosler says the three technical courses are “for people working with smart meters, and utility and city office people who are dealing with customers.” 

The professional courses, she said, will be targeted to current grid engineers and new electrical engineering graduates who are entering the industry.  They should begin next September.

To offset the $950 price tag for the first course, the State Energy Sector Partnership is providing American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to train up to 200 Coloradans in the emerging technology in which Colorado is quickly taking a lead.

Front Range and its partners are not certain the course is the first in the nation, but, says Vosler, “From other courses we have looked at, these are more in depth than other general courses and it is one of the very few offered at technician level.”  

Beginning in January, the second technical course, “Components of the Smart Grid,” will discuss the technical and operational aspects of the following smart grid components, as well as other select elements:

• Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)
• Meter Data Management Systems (MDMS)
• Distribution Management Systems (DMS)
• Distribution Automation (DA)

The third technical course, “Application of Smart Power Grid System Technologies,” set for March, will cover how to integrate the various technologies to make the power grid truly smart, focusing on the information technologies, networking and software tools, applications and smart grid components covered in Course Two.  Course Two must be completed prior to taking this course.

The second and third technical courses will include a lab component that will be held at partner Spirae’s lab facilities.

The first course will meet every Wednesday from 8am-5pm at Rocky Mountain Innosphere, a small cleantech and bioscience business incubator, through December 21.  At press time, it had only a few places left.  For more information, either call or email Becky Troyer on (970) 204-8130, rebekah.troyer@frontrange.edu.

   

November 21, 2011

Promising young cleantech startups vie for a piece of the VC pie

The NREL Industry Growth Forum attracts the best and brightest

By Martha Young

The most promising clean technology businesses came together with investors, partners and policy makers at the 24^thAnnual NREL Industry Growth Forum earlier this month in hopes of getting both guidance and funds.

The top three firms receive a capital infusion and business guidance from NREL and this year’s Growth Forum partner: Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich, & Rosati, a national leader in corporate governance including technology licensing & intellectual property, joint ventures and alliances, and various financing transactions.

Since the Growth Forum’s inception in 2004, presenting startups have raised a cumulative $4 billion in growth financing.

Being selected to pitch at the Growth Forum is a highly competitive process, with more than 250 firms competing for 30 pitch spots. Business plans were closely examined and scored by 120 investors. The top 30 ranked startups were coached in developing and delivering a 10-minute pitch, which they delivered to a panel of topical experts at the Forum. They competitors were then subjected to 10 minutes of intense questioning from the panelists.

This year’s Forum had five startup companies in each of six tracks: Storage, Hydro Power & Transportation, Built Environment, Fuel & Chemicals, Solar & Water, and for the first time Intelligent Energy, an IT-specific category. The companies selected to pitch ranged from research lab conceptual to early stage entities with existing cash flows.

The startups were competing for three prizes: two Outstanding Venture Awards valued at $17,000 in cash and in-kind services from law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, NREL and the Cleantech Investor Summit; and a grand prize valued at $32,000 in cash and in-kind services.

This year’s Outstanding Venture Awards went to ICR Turbine Engine Corporation of Hampton, New Hampshire (icrtec.com) and Limelite Technologies of Maxwell, Texas (limelite.com).

ICR Turbine has developed a gas turbine engine that replaces diesel engines at comparable price points. Limelite Technologies has a line of products that optimize electroluminescent lighting most frequently found in security lighting systems.

The grand prize went to Arctic Sand of Cambridge, Mass. (arcticsand.com). This company is planning on changing the consumer electronics market and global IT data center market with a smaller, more efficient battery for energy storage. Its technology, still in the early stages, uses switch capacitors instead of magnets to reduce energy losses in computing and consumer electronic devices.

In addition to the one Best Venture and two Outstanding Ventures awarded, all of the competitors are given an opportunity to meet with potential strategic partners and investors. There are no losers at the Industry Growth Forum.

The NREL Industry Growth Forum is an intensive, concentrated study in what is coming down the line to address the expanding global energy demands from the clean technology sector. The research comes from major laboratories and research institutions, commercial enterprise laboratories, and garage tinkerers. Go to the NREL site to see who else was competing this year and the technologies they are working on bring to the marketplace.  

November 21, 2011

Industry interview: Syed Isa Syed Alwi: Part 1

A key player in the Asian algae world

By David Schwartz

From AlgaeIndustryMagazine.com

When Syed Alwi speaks about the algae industry, you get the feeling that he really has his finger on what’s going on globally. He gets around, and is a bit of a kingpin in the Asian algae world, orchestrating much of the disparate algae talent and intelligence throughout his 12-country region.

Syed Isa Syed Alwi is the CEO of the Algaetech Group of companies, based in Malaysia, and comprised of Bio Herbal Extract, Sasaran Biofuel, and PT Biomac Batam, all algae-based renewable energy and bio-technology companies.

The Algaetech group’s business activities include research, development, consultancy and commercialization of microalgae for biodiesel feedstock production and processing, as well as microalgae for other applications and high value products, such as anti oxidants. Located within the Malaysia Technology Park, Algaetech operates a 17,000 sq. ft. R&D and processing center, with a state-of-the-art microalgae laboratory, and some microalgae ponds.

Algaetech International Sdn. Bhd. was founded in 2004 by Syed to specialize in microalgae research and development, as well as consultancy services, for the Malaysian and Indonesian markets. Algaetech’s consulting services are based on its trademarked Algae Integrated Management System (AIMsys), which provides real-time monitoring of an algae cultivation facility, including computerized automation control system of the process’s conditions, customized reporting and analysis.

We spoke with Syed recently while he was in Seoul, Korea—to sign an MOU with the owners of one of their powerplants—just before he headed back home to Kuala Lumpur..

What was the stimulus that got you involved in algae research and production?

I started with the renewable energy business looking into the cultivation of Jatropha in Indonesia and Malaysia. We purchased a lot of equipments, and on one of those buying trips to the Netherlands, the supplier told us about algae. We started doing a lot of research and eventually received a grant from the Malaysian Government through the Ministry of Science and Technology. The Techno-Fund allowed us to do further research on algae for biodiesel. And, of course, this led us to dedicate more effort and resources on further research into algae.

Tell us about your educational and employment background?

I started off my career in Europe as a chef, and then worked in Malaysia in the hotel industry, and returned to Europe after that to work in the food industry.

We produced meals for KLM, SABENA, and the top supermarket chains in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. When we produced food in Europe, the laws and regulations were very stringent, and there were hundreds of pages of checklists when we do production. That was really good for me as a processing person, and prepared me for the laboratory scenario today. I also worked in a few publically-listed companies in Malaysia—in food processing and food services—which also helped me gain knowledge and experience in those processes.

Describe the operation you currently run in Malaysia, and what your long-term goals are for the company?

The Algaetech operations now have a few offices. Our head office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, runs the operations for our Batam, Jakarta and Guangzhou, China offices. We have started some activities in Korea, and most recently Brunei. The Brunei Government, through its body the Brunei Economic Development Board, are showing us keen interest to have us set up facilities there.

We manage five core activities: R&D for algae in our lab, where we do all tests and fine-tuning work for our ongoing algae projects.

Second, we run a consultancy and project unit, which basically deals with clients that have an interest in looking into algae, such as for CO2 sequestration, wastewater treatment using algae, and algae culturing. Currently we are completing a project in Indonesia that, I would say, is the largest PBR for Nannochloropsis in the world – and comes with a CO2 sequestration model.

We have recently signed an agreement with Pahang Biodiesel Corporation, a Pahang State-owned algae farm in Malaysia, which is planning a US$400 million project that would be one of the largest algae farms for biofuel in the world. It’s still at the planning stage. There will be a global incubator program with other algae experts, in the Malaysia Integrated Algae Valley.

We also created AIMSYS, an integrated algae farming process and system that will assist algae businesses. This system will define and automate the entire set of project parameters—sort of like conducting an orchestra.

Then we have our primary production: our farm in Thailand, a spirulina farm in Jakarta, Indonesia, and we are currently planning an acquisition of a 70 hectare algae farm in Nakhon Ratchasima, in Thailand. In the pipeline are the farms in Korea and also in Brunei.

Lastly we operate the PREMIA brand, which markets our own brand of consumer goods. The PREMIA ex Spirulina, is already on the market in Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan. We are planning to expand into Korea and the Middle East soon, as it goes along with the planning of the primary production in our new farms.

What are the current milestones you are dealing with at Algaetech, and how do you feel about the progress you are making?

Preparation wise, 2011 is when we will liftoff to become a global player for the algae industry. We started in 2004, and it was not an easy ride for us. Literally speaking, at first it was like trying to sell ice to Eskimos. Many people never heard of algae the way we talk about it, and trying to explain to people who had no idea what it’s all about is a big challenge. However, thanks to the huge leap made by a few larger companies, many people are beginning to see algae as the saviors of our world. Many years ago, at an exhibition in London, I saw a postcard that read, “Can algae save the world?” And that little image always pops into my mind. I really and truly believe that it can!

As a company, one of the most important breakthroughs that we made is when we completed the “Algae for Biodiesel” project. Because of that we are now working hand-in-hand with EADS (the x

Progress-wise, I wish we had more money to do more research, but based on what we have done and achieved, I am especially thankful to my wonderful team of young, energetic people. It proves that if we set our minds to it there is nothing we can’t achieve.

As someone who travels the world observing developments in the global algae industry, please share some of your observations about how you see the industry developing around the world?

Everyone in the world that matters is talking about algae—many for energy and biofuel, and some for chemical resources. As the world shies away from chemicals, more and more companies are looking into algae as the source for many products. I once met an Ajinomoto representative who wanted a different alternative to tapioca as the source of monosodium glutamate fermentation. Another time I met a lady from IKEA, and they were looking for alternatives to oil for making candles. It’s amazing—all of the applications that are out there!

What is your view of the algae industry’s development In Asia?

Asia is emerging; I think that South East Asia will be the new Middle East of the world. We have land, water and plenty of sunlight.

It has been a dream of mine to create the Asian Algae Institute; a body that will regulate algae research in the 12 Asian countries, and move on with mega projects of millions of acres of algae—both offshore and onshore. Yes, I must say, Asia is the place to be, and the time is now!

What about algae in Europe?

Weather is a main issue. Clever people are there, and they will try to prove a point, but eventually it will make sense, if we all agree, that we must do it in a place where the land, labor, and other resources are cheap. Europeans are very determined, and from the point of view of technologies, I think that in the long run, the idea to work together will benefit all. Having said that, however, issues such as wastewater and agriculture waste for algae are not bad ideas, and could be something that can be further developed there.

These PBRs, located in Indonesia, are part of a CO2 sequestration project. There are 5 modules, each capable of holding 400,000 liters.”
What about North America?

I think there are a lot of clever people in the USA as well. I think they are going to make some great breakthroughs in algae soon, with Aurora and Sapphire and Exxon Mobile putting millions and millions into algae research. The sad part is, though, that if the same amount of money could be put into Asia, they would be able to do 10 times more here than what can be achieved over there. I think we must create consortia to bridge the algae technologies across the continents. I am glad that we are already doing this with some of our fellow colleagues in the US, Europe, Middle East and other parts of world.

My main concern with American companies is with their eagerness to patent, which means that if a company discovers something, no one else can use it. It’s like creating a monopoly.

I think that algae technology, to a certain extent, should be for all to use—it’s for mankind. It’s something like cooking. Everyone is allowed to cook food, even though not everyone can cook well. These “breakthroughs” in the lab don’t guarantee that an end user will get anywhere near the same results, for so many reasons. So why have such a restrictive system?

 

November 20, 2011

Sustainability Spotlight: Boyer’s Coffee

A Western java maker benefits from its investment in sustainability

By Graham Russell

(Editor's note: This is the second of two parts. Read Part 1.)

Boyer's Coffee CEO Jim McManus realized that the company’s packaging should be a major part of an effort to rebrand the company’s coffee and that its packaging processes were inefficient, using 11 different types of film for its coffee bags.

Operations Manager Len Smith and Roastmaster Mark Morrison attacked these issues and, by eliminating the material-intensive 16 ounce bags and working with an outside firm to redesign the remaining bags, they reduced the number of film types from 11 to just 4. Each time the packaging machinery is switched from one film type to another, 12-15 bags are wasted, so the longer production runs of each new film type not only cut the labor involved in the changeover process, but drastically reduced the volume of wasted film material.

Converting over to the new film types is still a work in progress but the company estimates that the combination of lower prices on larger orders for each film type, labor savings, and reduced film waste will eventually reduce packaging costs by 20-30 percent. Inventory carrying cost has been reduced by over $200,000. The new films also allow the machinery to run at temperatures 50 degrees lower than formerly required, thereby generating a measurable energy saving.

The reduced volume of film waste, coupled with a program to recycle worn out delivery boxes and cartons holding incoming supplies, has reduced the volume of trash Boyer’s is sending to landfill such that waste pickups have been reduced from 3 to 2 per week. “That saves nearly $2,000 a year” says Smith.

Another small but effective energy-saving move was to replace the company’s in-store display cases with new ones made out of local beetle-kill pine that each hold 50 percent more coffee bags, thereby reducing the number of truck trips required to each store to replenish supplies.

In keeping with the principle of working closely with WalMart on sustainability initiatives, McManus and Hayes attended its Annual Sustainability Summit in February, 2011. Here, seeking a use for waste coffee bag film, they found ITW Angleboard, a manufacturer of products used for sustainable protective packaging. ITW agreed not only toremove – free of charge - 6 tons of old packaging film which had been taking up badly needed space in Boyer’s warehouse and would have cost a great deal to dispose of in a local landfill, but also to take waste film from Boyer’s plant on an ongoing basis. This further reduces the volume of waste going to landfill and may eventually reduce trash pickups to one a week.

Jill Dugas, who runs an interior design firmin Maine, was commissioned to redesign and reconstruct Boyer’s on-site coffee shop using as much recycled wood and other material as possible so that the company could provide a visible demonstration of its commitment to sustainability. Old gymnasium flooring and bleachers were purchased at a small fraction of the cost of new lumber from a local high-school undergoing renovation. Even after accounting for the labor cost of refinishing, the final cost of the flooring and shelving made from the recycled wood came in no higher than it would have been if all new materials had been used. Serving counters were constructed from old cabinets from a Denver bank that was remodeling. Recognizing that community service is also a part of a sustainability-based strategy, Boyer’s created a conference room above the coffee shop that is open for use free of charge by any company or non-profit organization in the local community. 

Boyer’s employees have responded enthusiastically to its sustainability initiatives. The Green Team is constantly receiving new ideas for enhancing them and is now working on persuading Boyer’s office coffee customers to collect the empty 2oz “pillow packs” used in coffee machines so that they can be picked up by drivers, added to the waste film generated at the plant and recycled by ITW. This won’t generate or save any money for Boyer’s, but Phil Harbison, who is responsible for the office coffee business, explains: “Many of our customers are interested in starting green initiatives and respond eagerly to this type of suggestion. It reduces the volume of waste the customer has to dispose of and reinforces our efforts to be a responsible company.”

Another example of how Boyer’s sustainability thinking inspires customers to expand their own green initiatives concerns Oppenheimer & Co., a major mutual fund and financial brokerage house with a large operation in Denver. In discussions with Harbison, the company realized it could cut waste and save money by providing employees with reusable drinking mugs, thereby significantly reducing the volume of disposable cups it was purchasing.

Boyer’s is now examining how to make use of the chaff or waste organic material from the roasting process, which amounts to over two tons annually. Possible uses would be for wood stove pellet production or as compost material for organic soil production. Either way, it will further reduce the volume of waste Boyer’s is paying to landfill. Management also thinks that replacement of old fluorescent lighting in the production shop with LED lighting will yield an excellent ROI. That’s on the agenda for 2012.   

November 13, 2011

ASU engineer helps shape Arizona water policy

He's also involved at the federal level

Among certainties about life in the desert Southwest are that the supply, use, conservation and management of water will always be pressing issues.

So it’s certain that Arizona State University and Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering alumnus Michael Johnson will have a hand in shaping Arizona’s future.

After earning his master’s degree in 1997 and a doctorate in 2000 in civil engineering, Johnson went to work for the Arizona Department of Water Resources. Today he’s chief engineer and assistant director for the agency’s division of engineering and water-use permits.

“What I like about this job is that I don’t have a narrow focus. I have the opportunity to get involved in almost all aspects of water management,” Johnson says.

In addition to the engineering duties and administration of the use-permit system for surface water and groundwater, his division oversees dam safety, flood warning and floodplain management operations.

The division also aids state courts in adjudicating the nature, extent and priority of more than 96.000 water-rights claims filed within the Gila River and Little Colorado River systems and sources.

Headline-making events

Johnson is helping to provide a road map for meeting the state’s long-term water development and management needs. He and other Department of Water Resources staff are supporting the Water Resources Development Commission established last year by the Arizona Legislature. The commission recently completed an extensive analysis of Arizona’s projected water needs for the next century.

He’s also involved in water management at the federal level. Johnson is a member of a national review board that advises the Federal Emergency Management Agency on dam safety and security priorities. He was recently elected to the board of directors of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials. The nonprofit organization supports dam safety efforts and works to raise public awareness of dam safety issues.

Read the rest of the story. 

November 13, 2011

Renewable energy from Wyoming could benefit the entire Southwest

The project is in development now

From the Wyoming Energy News

A deal that could eventually transport renewable energy generated in Wyoming  to Southwestern states has been agreed to by the Western Area Power Administration. The WAPA agreed to fund the TransWest Express Transmission Project’s development phase with TransWest Express LLC.

The TWE Project development phase will determine the feasibility of constructing and operating a 725-mile, 600-kilovolt, direct current transmission line that would would interconnect with the existing transmission grid near Rawlins and the Marketplace Hub in the vicinity of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Western Administrator Tim Meeks said, “This agreement is a significant step for the TWE Project, which is intended to deliver reliable, cost-effective renewable energy from Wyoming to the major energy markets of the Southwest.”

He added, “I want to express my appreciation to TransWest Express and to my staff for all their dedication and hard work in bringing us to this point on the project.”

“The TWE Project will create jobs, strengthen the nation’s electrical grid, and add 3,000 megawatts of capacity for clean energy. Our effective, efficient collaboration will help Western and TWE achieve our common goal of delivering these important national benefits,” said Bill Miller, president and CEO of TransWest Express LLC.

Western is providing its share of funding through the 2009 borrowing authority amendment to the Hoover Power Act. Under the terms of the development agreement, TWE and Western will each pay up to $25 million to complete the development phase.

If Western continues its participation in the project into the construction phase – a decision that will be made when the environmental analysis is complete – additional borrowing authority would be used to help fund the project.

Western and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management are joint lead agencies for the ongoing preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement for the TWE Project.

Read the rest of the story. 

November 13, 2011

Boyer’s Coffee: Getting a financial jolt from sustainability, Part 1

A Denver-based company finds that green is golden

By Graham Russell

When Jim McManus took over as CEO from founder Bill Boyer in 2009, Denver-based Boyer’s coffee was struggling to deal with a 140 percent spike in the global price of coffee beans. McManus realized he would have to initiate major changes to set the business back on the road to prosperity.

The company had always tried to do the right thing, especially with respect to its employees, but did not have any green programs in place. McManus had no special predisposition toward sustainability, but he knew that it was becoming the norm in the coffee roasting business. Moreover, Boyer’s was a supplier in much of Colorado and parts of Wyoming to WalMart, which McManus knew was ramping up its green supply chain initiative. He saw that sustainability could be a key driver of the new strategy he needed.

“I settled on the idea that the company’s activities must always benefit consumers, benefit the company and benefit the environment,” he says.

WalMart and Sam’s Club represent a significant percentage of Boyer’s business. Dan Hayes, who handles the account, says: “We felt it made sense to show that the company understood WalMart’s green supply chain initiative and was proactively seeking ways to get ahead of the curve and build a productive relationship with them around sustainability.”

Working on the principle that most successful sustainability initiatives start with an effort to improve resource productivity, Boyer’s first called upon local sustainability consultants Renewable Choice Energy. The firm measured Boyer's carbon footprint and determined that the company was generally fairly energy efficient, recommending only that an air curtain be installed at its loading dock.

It did, however, identify significant issues concerning the amount of waste the company was paying to dispose of in landfills. McManus formed a green team and called in Boulder-based ClearGreen Advisors to help identify priorities and create a sustainability action plan.  

Boyer’s policy is to ship coffee within a few days of roasting using large cardboard cartons to deliver coffee bags to stores. The practice was for drivers to restock the in-store display units, break down the cartons, and leave them for WalMart to recycle - a one-time use of the cartons.

Even though WalMart gets paid for the cardboard it recycles, Boyer’s persuaded store managers to let the company bring the delivery cartons back out for reuse. This change increased the number of trips a box could make before wearing out from 1 to an average of 5-6, reducing the company’s carton costs by over 50 percent, an annual savings of $50,000. Many of Boyer’s office coffee customers are now also allowing drivers to restock their cupboards and bring the delivery cartons out for reuse.

Building upon this successful effort, the company recognized that there might be boxes made of sturdier material that could be reused many more times for coffee delivery. It eventually located Technology Container Corporation (TCC) of Shrewsbury, MA which manufactures corrugated plastic boxes that can be reused as many as 300 times and assemble/collapse quickly with a simple arm movement, thereby also eliminating the labor-intensive process of  assembling/taping and disassembling cardboard cartons.

Although each one costs about five times as much as a cardboard carton, TCC estimates that their use will save Boyer’s more than $450,000 over a five-year period. The payback on the initial order investment of about $50,000 – scheduled for early 2012 – will therefore be just a few months.

Further, the dramatic reduction in the total number of boxes manufactured by TCC and shipped to Boyer’s over five years will reduce energy consumption by an estimated 87 percent or 5.8 billion Btu, eliminate more than 400 tons of CO2 equivalent, and reduce solid waste disposal by 97 percent or more than 70 tons.  

November 13, 2011

Solar investment, Texas-style

A report compares the Lone Star State against five other leaders, four in the West

Of the six states compared in this report, California is the clear solar venture investment leader. Between 2008 and 2010, California-based companies racked up nearly $4 billion in solar VC investments, reflecting the state’s high concentration of solar development and activity. The next closest state, Colorado, came in second with $264 million in solar venture investments and Texas came in third with $78 million in venture investments related to solar thin-film manufacturing, advanced cell and module design, and concentrated PV technology development.

This report, commissioned by a private State Clean Energy Leadership Index subscriber, aims to provide insight about solar PV energy in Texas, including market share, overall investments, R&D, job creation, policy landscape, and other key measures. Data and analysis compares solar activity in Texas against five other leading solar PV states: California, New Jersey, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. The report is built on research and analysis contained in Clean Edge’s State Clean Energy Leadership Index.

Texas made it into the Top 10 states for solar PV installations in 2010, but just barely. Its 25.9 megawatts (MW) of installations put it in 10th place, far behind such solar leaders as #1 California (252 MW), #2 New Jersey (132.4 MW), and #3 Nevada (65.3 MW).

U.S. grid-connected PV installations grew an astounding 103 percent last year, from 435 MW in 2009 to 882 MW in 2010. In a world of increasingly low-cost solar and supportive policies in select states, many analysts predict continued high-growth rates in the U.S., with some projecting another doubling of new installed capacity in 2011. However, while Texas added 25.9 MW in 2010, bringing its total installed capacity up to 34.5 MW, it still trails the other states compared in this report, most by significant margins. Currently, the top 10 states for cumulative installed PV capacity in the U.S. include five of the states evaluated in this report – California (#1), New Jersey (#2), Colorado (#3), Arizona (#4), and New Mexico (#10). Texas doesn’t make the top 10 list, coming in at #13.

An additional barometer of a state’s overall technology leadership comes in the form of venture capital activity, which primarily represents equity investments in early-stage companies. Of the six states compared in this report, California is the clear solar venture investment leader. Between 2008 and 2010, California-based companies racked up nearly $4 billion in solar VC investments, reflecting the state’s high concentration of solar development and activity. The next closest state, Colorado, came in second with $264 million in solar venture investments and Texas came in third with $78 million in venture investments related to solar thin-film manufacturing, advanced cell and module design, and concentrated PV technology development.

While solar jobs exist in all 50 states, California is the leader with approximately 36,000 solar jobs and more than 1,000 solar companies, or 30 percent of all solar firms in the U.S. Texas ranks third, behind second place Pennsylvania (6,700 jobs), with approximately 6,400 solar jobs. Yet despite its current strong standing, Texas has substantial room for growth. Only .08 percent of the total Texas labor force is currently employed in solar jobs – compared to .30, .29, and .20 percent in California, Colorado, and Arizona respectively. If Texas were to reach par with other leading states in terms of solar jobs market share, thousands of additional Texans could be employed.

Read the rest of the story. 

November 08, 2011

Filling the gap

Aravaipa Ventures focuses solely on Colorado companies

Robert Fenwick-Smith might seem like an unlikely champion for Colorado cleantech companies, a Brit whose career includes running a company whose holdings were in pharmaceutical packaging and processing machinery. The kind of job that had him traveling to the company's factories and distribution centers on five continents.

Thing is, Fenwick-Smith doesn't think running a company whose holdings are scattered around the globe is the most efficient way to run a business. He'd rather be able to meet with his managers whenever they need to see him.

Three years ago, the Harvard Business School MBA founded Aravaipa Ventures, named for a canyon in Arizona that made him fall in love with the West. By venture capital standards, it's a modest fund, but its focus on early-stage companies is helping to fill a gap left by the larger players.

The fund's seven companies include four that are clearly in the cleantech camp: Lightning Hybrids, which develops hydraulic hybrid systems for light trucks and is now working with General Motors; RavenBrick, a maker of thermochromic windows that control how much of the sun's heat enters buildings; and SUNDOLIER, which offers the first off-grid commercial solar lighting solution.

"They're all in Colorado. They're all green and sustainable, and they're all low capital-intensive," says Fenwick-Smith, who built a LEED Platinum home in Boulder that was the first in the city to use gray water. "But the last element is they all have founder manager teams that I felt I could work with and help take them forward. It's the unwritten criteria, but at the end of the day, it's almost the most important one. If I like the people and I feel that they are prepared to work under constructive criticism and a brainstorming environment, then I want to work with them."
For these fledgling companies, finding someone who will work with them is not generally an easy task.

"There is a huge funding gap in Colorado for early-stage funding. It's really a funder's market," Fenwick-Smith says. Skeptics who question the wisdom of the fund's local focus simply don't understand, he says. "There really is a huge amount of deal flow."

Fenwick-Smith's partners in Aravaipa are Tim Reeser of Cenergy, Colorado State University's Clean Energy Commercialization Arm, and William Shutkin, president of the Presidio Graduate School. But Fenwick-Smith is the only full-time member of the management team. And because of the structure of the fund - it does not take a management fee - he spends much of his time consulting with the companies in Aravaipa's portfolio, and the companies pay him for his time instead.

"Anyone who wants to start a traditional VC fund today is forced to shoot for $100 million minimum. The equation is very simple. You have a 2 percent management fee. You want five or six partners. And $2 million a year is about right to cover salaries and expenses .

"But it doesn't help fill the gap. To get into the gap, unfortunately, you can only really have a fund that is maximum $20 million or $30 million because otherwise you can't afford to deploy the smaller amounts," he says.

Aravaipa typically becomes the lead investor in a startup's early stage with an initial investment of $150,000 to $500,000. It invests only in companies expecting to need less than an additional $5 million to reach profitability. Aravaipa actively seeks strategic investors for its companies.

With that approach, Fenwick-Smith sees his fund as an alternative for angel investors.

"If you want to do angel investing, you should do it through something like Aravaipa," he says. "First, you get a portfolio. For your $100,000 investment you are immediately invested in seven companies and not one, and in addition you get a manager who is actually following it for you day to day so you can be a pure angel."

November 07, 2011

Fostering the next generation of biofuels innovators

The industry has a responsibility to help nuture them

In our country’s spirited debate over energy, innovation and the economy, perhaps no phrase has been uttered more often than “green jobs.” While the precise meaning of “green job” continues to be a topic of debate, I would submit that jobs in the algae industry are indeed at least a little shade of green.  Or maybe blue-green.

In today’s biofuels industry, most of the growth has centered on jobs for those workers who have already been trained in the fields of construction; engineering; chemistry and biology; sales and marketing; legal and administrative and others. The industry now supports tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs across the country and up and down the value chain – from Ph.D-level microbiologists to plant personnel to legal counsel to metal fabricators and truckers; from the labs of San Diego to the ethanol plants of Iowa to the offices of Silicon Valley.

That is something we rightly celebrate as an industry. It also something policymakers in Washington D.C. would be wise to recognize as they continue to seek ways to create jobs and spur economic growth.

The next generation of green jobs

Much less has been said, however, about the tremendous need to develop the next generation of biofuels innovators. Regardless of technology, feedstock or business plan, this is something that is a concern of the industry as a whole. Because a new generation of experts will be required to help today’s companies continue to prosper and innovate; it will also be necessary to ensuring that tomorrow’s advanced biofuels companies have access to a highly-trained workforce. As an industry, we have the responsibility to help foster the creation of that new generation of biofuels innovators.

Read the rest of the story.

November 07, 2011

The power struggle over the West’s best wind

In Wyoming, an industry with fabulous potential grinds to a halt

The best wind in America is in Wyoming. It is a door-snapping, heart-pounding wind that barrels in from the west, chasing the truckers along Interstate 80 as they race to make Omaha by nightfall.

It is sometimes described with words ordinarily associated with dark chocolate or exceptional pinot noir. It has been called dense, world-class, consistently extraordinary, special and fabulous.

There’s good wind across the nation’s midsection, but Wyoming’s wind is given an extra boost by a 100-mile stretch in the state’s southern half, where the Continental Divide all but disappears and the wind gathers force as it pushes through from the west. Beyond power and speed, Wyoming has consistency – what’s known as capacity. At many places in the state, the wind blows more than 40 percent of the time.

Along the highways around Cheyenne and Casper, plenty of turbines rise out of the sagebrush and scrublands. Wind energy here is already generating about 1,400 MW of power, but that’s perhaps one-tenth of the state’s potential. And in the past year, the industry has come to a dead halt.

Read the rest of the story

  

November 07, 2011

Sustainability Spotlight: Xanterra Parks & Resorts

The nation's largest park concessioner treads softly across the West

By Lisa Ryckman

It isn't easy being green. Xanterra Parks &
Resorts just makes it look that way.

The nation's largest park concessioner is committed to ensuring it leaves the softest possible footprint at its 31 hotels and lodges, 55 retail stores, 68 restaurants, three marinas, 10 golf courses, about 1,700 campsites and its latest acquisition, a cruise line.

So the steam-powered engines of the Grand Canyon Railway now run on clean-burning, 100-percent-recycled vegetable oil. There's a ban on the sale of plastic water bottles at Zion Lodge and Zion National Park, but newly installed hydration stations make it easy for guests to use their own refillable bottles. The largest solar photovoltaic system in the tourism industry at Death Valley National Park in California generates enough electricity to supply the Furnace Creek Resort with 100 percent of its power during the day.

The company installed a wind turbine at Maumee Bay State Park Lodge in Ohio, replaced all those little plastic shampoo and lotion bottles in its hotel rooms with fully biodegradable cornstarch-based containers and now uses only sustainable Green Seal-certified cleaning products at all Xanterra properties.

It's no surprise that its aggressive sustainability agenda has earned Xanterra more than 70 national and international environmental awards in the past 11 years. But its environmental goals aren't about tooting the company horn, President and CEO Andrew Todd says.

"It's not just PR or green wash, it's actually established programs at each property," he says. "All the employees take it to heart. It's a priority, and everyone knows it."

Xanterra, which was acquired by the Denver-based Anschutz Co. three years ago, continues the legendary hospitality established by Fred Harvey, who began developing upscale hotels and restaurants along the Santa Fe Railroad in 1876. Xanterra acquired the Fred Harvey Co. in 1968, and just completed the purchase of Windstar Cruises, whose three ships are known for their luxury.

"The national park system offers the opportunity for guests and visitors who want to have a relatively less expensive vacation, and we provide that service," says Chris Lane, vice president for environmental affairs. "And we've also flipped this on its head and looked at acquisitions during these times, with a strong emphasis on quality management, with a strong emphasis on environmental protection, and a growth agenda."

At its heart, Xanterra is about helping to make memories - the camping trips to Yellowstone or Rocky Mountain National Park, that first glimpse of the Grand Canyon or Mt. Rushmore - and making sure that these places are every bit as special for generations to come, Todd says.

It's a stewardship Xanterra takes very seriously.

"Two of our core values are corporate citizenship and environmental protection," Lane says. "These kinds of programs, which we've had for years, make every employee feel really good about the work they do and makes them realize that Xanterra is not just about making money.

"We're human beings, and we want to enjoy our lives," he says.
"And we want to do the right thing along the way."

 

October 31, 2011

Energy mandates touch off rush for open farmland

Developers increasingly look to ag regions for solar installations

By Christine Souza

Editor's note: Many California farmers and ranchers have invested in solar power to serve or supplement their electricity needs. Meanwhile, government renewable-energy mandates have put new pressure on productive farmland that developers want to convert for utility-scale energy projects.

As energy planners and utilities look for ways to meet a California mandate that one-third of the state's electricity come from renewable energy by 2020, developers increasingly look at productive farmland as sites for large-scale solar installations.

In one of the state's most productive agricultural regions, the Central Valley from San Joaquin County to Kern County, about 33,000 acres worth of solar projects have been proposed to the California Energy Commission.

California Farm Bureau Federation Director of Taxation and Land Use John Gamper said most of the utility-scale solar projects would be built on farmland.

Gamper said Farm Bureau does not oppose locating utility-scale photovoltaic solar projects on marginal or physically impaired farmland, but does oppose taking prime farmland out of production specifically for solar development.

"What is important is we don't allow this 21st century 'Gold Rush' to get out of hand and jeopardize our food security, our watersheds and habitat areas," Gamper said. "We just have to be thoughtful. There's plenty of public land, desert land and non-productive farmland, so we don't have to put large-scale solar on prime farmland just because it is close to a substation."

Much of the farmland targeted by developers has been conserved through the California Land Conservation Act, or the Williamson Act. Some public officials have opted to take land out of the Williamson Act to install solar, including Fresno County, where the board of supervisors recently voted to remove 90 acres of prime farmland from its Williamson Act contract.

"There are some big promises being made out there. We have about 33 solar projects proposed for our Westside, and 17 are enrolled in Williamson Act contracts, so this is a big deal," said Fresno County Farm Bureau Executive Director Ryan Jacobsen.

Chris Scheuring, California Farm Bureau managing counsel for natural resources and the environment, said the organization strongly supports a landowner's property right, but believes the integrity of the Williamson Act must be protected.

"As an agricultural organization, we believe farmland is a crucial environmental resource and we have strong feelings about the future of agriculture," Scheuring said, re-emphasizing the belief that utility-scale solar projects should be directed to marginal lands.

One project that would be located on physically impaired land involves a large-scale solar development in Kings County known as the Westlands Solar Park. The project is proposed on 30,000 acres of land owned by three private landowners and Westlands Water District. The land includes properties affected by lack of drainage facilities to remove water runoff containing high levels of selenium.

Daniel Kim, a principal partner in Westside Holdings, a pre-development organization planning the Westlands Solar Park project, said the project is unique among others in the Central Valley because the land has been given a state designation as a competitive renewable energy zone and the project is unanimously supported by agricultural and environmental organizations.

"The Westlands Solar Park lies on farmland that is no longer as productive as before due to a combination of diminishing water supplies in the Central Valley and the lack of drainage infrastructure for removing selenium from the soils," Kim said. "The land within the Westlands Solar Park also has the advantage of being under existing transmission, which makes it an ideal location for a large solar park."

Mark Shannon, a third-generation diversified grower who farms near Lemoore, is one of the landowners who has agreed to partner in the Westlands Solar Park project, although he acknowledges that his family would rather be farming the ground.

"If we had drainage and if we had a reliable water supply, we can farm this property. But the likelihood of the federal government stepping up and providing a drain, that's not going to happen," Shannon said. "Looking at this realistically over the next 10, 15, 20 years, it is going to be a battle for water every year. So if you can't farm all of your property, you have to look for an exit strategy. Obviously, solar is a realistic exit strategy."

Farmer Ted Sheely, who has also elected to take part, said this year provides a great example of why the solar project works for his family.

"I've got 1,000 acres I didn't farm again this year because of an unreliable water supply. All of the indications were there, but by the time the water supply was announced, there was no crop I could plant," said Sheely, who farms cotton, wheat, lettuce and garbanzo beans. "This is a good place for solar, as opposed to some of the other places that are being talked about."

October 31, 2011

Interior aims to build a solar development program on public lands in the West

The latest impact statement represents months of work

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has released a plan to develop a comprehensive and environmentally responsible roadmap for solar development on public lands in the West, which national environmental groups, leading solar industry organizations and utility companies agree is urgently needed.

The supplemental draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for solar is the most recent effort by the Obama administration to guide development to appropriate areas on public lands to achieve a successful solar energy program while also minimizing potential impacts to wildlife and sensitive lands.

The supplemental draft PEIS is the result of months of work by the Obama administration to address the concerns and recommendations submitted by the conservation community, solar energy industry groups and utilities, and in more than 80,000 comments from people and organizations across the nation earlier this year.

Read the rest of the story. 

October 31, 2011

A chat with Arizona sustainability scientist Bruce Rittmann

Had he not grown up during the time of the first Earth Day and the Vietnam War -- and had those events not pushed him to want to make major improvements for society -- Bruce Rittmann might have used his degree in engineering to design bridges and other civic structures. Instead, he is working as the director of the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, and trying to find replacements for the fossil fuels we're quickly running out of. A leader in managing microbial communities (more on that later), Rittmann is also working to treat water and clean up pollution.

Here, Rittmann discusses a revolutionary innovation that directs photosynthesis to make fuel molecules as a potential substitute for petroleum; the ideal win-win situation, a partnership between microbial workers and human managers; and how working out in the gym has turned him on to country music videos and Reba McEntire.

What do you say when people ask you, "What do you do?"

As the director of the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology, I start by explaining environmental biotechnology. The description goes like this: I manage microbial communities to provide services to society. The services are at the core of water and energy sustainability. The water side involves improving water quality. Microorganisms clean up contaminated water so it can be used by humans or returned to support natural systems. The energy side means producing truly renewable forms of energy in ways that don't harm the environment. The "workers" in our service business are a wide range of microorganisms. Microorganisms are everywhere: on your skin, on your teeth, on river rock, and deep below the sea. Their normal metabolism -- eating and metabolizing what they've eaten -- provides all sorts of services that humans need. For them, biodegrading pollutants or producing fuels is simply part of their normal life. What we want to do is manage the microorganisms so that they provide the services reliably and at the necessary rate.

Read the rest of the story. 

October 31, 2011

Cleantech investment: Energy storage leads the pack

And California leads U.S. for dollars invested

By Martha Young

Cleantech Group recently released its Q3 2011 global clean technology investment numbers. Investments were up 12 percent over Q2 2011 to $2.23 billion. Recall Q2 had dropped 33 percent over Q1 2011. (See Q2 2011 article here.) These investments represent a modest 5 percent increase in the number of deals to 189 around the globe with the largest dollar volume going to energy storage ($514 million).

Energy efficiency, the leader in dollars invested in Q2, placed third in terms of dollars invested, but had the greatest number of deals in Q3 at 34.

Similar to Q2 investments, Q3 investments leaned toward established firms with 59 percent of the deals (111) being made in Series B or later rounds and 81 percent of the dollars ($1.81 billion) going this way.

There were 14 IPOs in Q3 compared to 11 in Q2. The majority (11) of the IPOs came out of China.  Four of the Chinese IPOs raised a total of $812 million for solar cell/panel manufacturing.

Geography

On a geographical basis, North America represents 75 percent of the total venture investments at $1.69 billion. These dollars are up 17 percent from Q2 and 59 percent from the same quarter in 2010. The number of deals hit a record high for a quarter at 128 transactions for the region.

Within North America, California continues to lead in venture investments at 39 percent ($654 million), followed by Massachusetts and New Mexico at 10 percent each ($175 million).

AsiaPac was a distant second in terms of dollars raised and number of deals at $303 million and 21, respectively.

Europe and Israel brought up the rear, raising $230 million across 40 deals.

Technology

In terms of dollars invested, energy storage captured the largest volume at $514 million. It was followed by solar ($350 million), energy efficiency ($223 million) and transportation ($177 million). As the alternative energy market continues to grow across the globe, storage inevitably needed to see an uptick in investments.

In terms of number of deals by technology sector energy efficiency was the quarter’s leader (34) followed by solar (33), storage (19) and transportation (15).Two of the top three energy efficiency deals were directly related to the high technology industry. Fusion-io focuses on servers and workstations; SynapSense focuses on data center efficiencies.

We are starting to see the influence of high technology in the transportation sector with two of the top three deals going to software companies. INRIX provides predictive traffic services and solutions, raised $37 million. SmartDrive Systems provides fleet management solutions, raised $10 million.

At the “Sharing of the Minds” conference in September (see article here), there were numerous discussions addressing technology as a way to improve transportation issues including sensors in the vehicles to avoid collisions and sensors in the streets to enhance traffic flows.

Undoubtedly, technology and software will be at the core of the clean technology industry as it provides a proven method for measuring, monitoring and managing performance metrics.

Market Opportunity

Clean technology continues to be a volatile industry for investment, up one quarter and down the next. However, year-over-year the industry has demonstrated a slow and steady upward trend. This is one industry no one can claim is developing an investment bubble.

All of the numbers in this report have been generously provided by CleanTech Group. Spend a few minutes on its site to explore the depth and breadth of research and analysis the firm provides its customers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

October 23, 2011

Industry interview: Stephen Mayfield

Catching up with an algae geneticist extraordinaire

By David Schwartz

Prof. Stephen Mayfield is someone you should probably know about if you want to keep up with the key players in San Diego’s burgeoning renewable energies sector. Algae geneticist extraordinaire, Mayfield was the scientific founder of Sapphire Energy, now building a mass production facility in New Mexico, and co-founder of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology, the hub of commercially targeted algae research in the US. SD-CAB, as it’s called, is leading the effort to connect commercial enterprises with the best available science in the pursuit of scalable, fungible algae-based biofuels.

Mayfield is also designing and implementing bioenergy training programs — both at the community college and university levels – that will educate and prepare the future workforce of the bioenergy sector. Recently, as part of the Green Innovation Challenge, the Department of Labor in California funded a grant program called the EDGE Initiative (Educating and Developing workers for the Green Economy), to give a head start to the effort of attracting scientific and technical talent and educating them to fulfill the anticipated labor demands in this new domestic energy economy. The very first EDGE participants are now completing internships and graduated with certificates.

A year after his first interview in the Algae Industry Magazine, I sat down with Mayfield to get the update.

What’s the story behind how the EDGE Initiative got started?

It all began when the Secretary of the California Department of Labor came down to visit us and find out why algae bioenergy was growing so fast in San Diego. Before leaving, she asked, “If I had one message to take back to the governor, what would it be?” I said, “You should tell the governor to plan for success.”

By that, I mean, if the pilot facilities being built today that will come online in the summer of 2012 are successful, the next iteration of that won’t be to build another pilot facility but to build commercial facilities – many commercial facilities. And we need to have in place a training program for all the people who are going to work in those commercial facilities. So rather than wait and see if the pilot programs are successful, let’s anticipate that they’re going to be and stay ahead of the curve by building a training program now.

So she went back to the governor, and apparently he thought this was a good idea, and they came up with this program called the Green Innovation Challenge to start the process for bioenergy training. They actually funded six different programs under this initiative in addition to ours in bioenergy. They also funded projects in solar energy, biogas, and energy efficiency, among others. Of the $19 million in total awarded, EDGE got $4 million.

Would you call this need for a ready workforce the primary bottleneck in bioenergy?

It is not today, but it will become that. Of course, when you relieve one bottleneck, that causes yet another one.

Right now, the biggest bottleneck is to actually build a demonstration facility; we don’t have one anywhere on the planet that is really demonstration facility size. We do have small, pilot projects that people have built. We know we can grow algae, we know we can harvest it, and we know we can extract oils and turn them into fuel. So that part of the process is done.

The next question is: can we take that to scale? That’s what’s being built right now: Sapphire’s building one in New Mexico, General Atomics is building one in Texas, Synthetic Genomics is building one in Texas, and there are also plants going up in other parts of the world including France and Australia.

The minute those come online and we relieve that risk factor of can we go to scale, then instantly the bottleneck becomes: who’s going to work in those once we get them built.

Obviously, the energy sector is so large and so rich that, once these work, the money will be there to build them. Then it becomes do we have the capacity to man these facilities with a trained workforce. We’re not thinking ahead several moves; we’re thinking ahead one move.  And that’s about as good as we can do.

How would you define a ready workforce? What positions need to be filled?

The most positions that we employ right now are the research scientists – about 600 people just here in San Diego. That’s doing the basic research in Biology, Engineering, and in Chemistry.  But that will not be the biggest number of employees.

The biggest number of employees will be on the production side of things: so-called “green collar” jobs. These jobs will be a fusion, part agriculture and part energy sector. They won’t exactly be roughnecks. There won’t be oil wells out there and drilling rigs for them to work on. But they won’t exactly be agricultural workers either, because there won’t be plows and tractors to drive around. It will be kind of an interesting combination of those two.

To what extent has the EDGE Initiative, then, been implemented?

Well, there are three parts already in operation:

The first is a certificate program run here at UCSD that also includes some faculty from San Diego State University, and that program is to train the scientific technicians. Those are the folks who are partly in research and development, and also partly in the analysis side of production. Because when we start to do production, we’re going to need people who have a scientific background. For example, they’re going to have to be able to measure the water chemistry; they’re going to have to be able to look at the pathogens and look at the nutrient utilization and availability.

So there’s a science part to growing algae that is not just agriculture. And even in agriculture there is a lot of analysis that is not done by the farmers, but by ancillary companies that come along and help them on specific tests. The certificate people that we’re training here at UCSD will fill those roles.

Second, there is another certificate program being run at Mira Costa Community College, and this program is the sort of boots on the ground, actual physical production of the algae: the people out there in the ponds, inoculating the algae, caring for and feeding the algae, and making sure that stuff grows well. They’ll also be part of the harvesting, but they won’t be part of the processing, at which point it becomes more of an industrial process and less of an agricultural process.

The program at Mira Costa, once fully developed, will be rolled out in the Imperial Valley, Allen County, and elsewhere in the agricultural areas here in California.

Third, EDGE funds industry internships at SD-CAB, Sapphire, General Atomics, Carbon Capture, and others. Along with this work experience comes a 40-hour online immersion program designed to orient participants with the industrial biotech sector, particularly in terms of how to transition into it and move up the career ladder once inside.

The final aspect of the certificate program will be a Masters of Advanced Study, and this last part of the program will come online in 2012. The MAS program is being developed at UCSD with the idea of training the energy entrepreneurs that will build the ancillary companies that will help drive the entire bioenergy sector.

EDGE certificate students got hands on experience growing algae in the v-bag system in SD-CAB's greenhouse. Shown above is Phaeodachtylum tricornutum growing in the same system.

How will the EDGE Certification program be expanded to reach additional candidates?

Part of our agreement with the California Department of Labor is to make this a web-based program. So this means that in California, from the community college level to the university level, institutions will be free to pick this up and teach it. We will set this up as a turn-key operation, meaning all the lectures, all the lecture notes, all the slides, all the practical, all the laboratories, and so forth will all be in one package that we can deliver to colleges and universities. Now that’s a big challenge, because we’re both developing these programs and developing the packaging of these programs for distribution.

Fortunately, we get two tries at it. This year was sort of practice round number one. We concentrated much more on the developing of the curriculum, developing of the course work, developing of the labs – we have those in pretty good shape now. This fall and winter, we’ll be refining those, making them better, and teaching them again. Next summer, we’ll be packaging this for distribution.

What roles are the BIOCOM Institute and CleanTECH San Diego playing?

BIOCOM and CleanTECH are affiliates in this along with San Diego Workforce Partners.  Their job is really to integrate us with the commercial operations to make sure the course work stays relevant. So unlike most courses that we build at the university that are designed by faculty with the assumption that this basic training will be required for our students, vaguely for some job that they might have in the future – that could be Calculus, that could be History, that could be Organic Chemistry ­– this one’s a little different because in this program, as we are building the curriculum, we reach out to our commercial partners and specifically ask for input into curriculum design. BIOCOM and CleanTECH asked them, “What do you want as an employer? What should new employees come with?”

We took that basic information in, used that to build the syllabus, and then gave that information back to our commercial partners, and they looked at it and said, “This looks great. Add this. Take away this.” It’s been an iterative process, between the feedback from the commercial partners and us to build this training program and curriculum, and BIOCOM and CleanTECH are the two groups who facilitated that.

What feedback has been received in respect to the certificate programs and internships?

We haven’t received any feedback yet from our commercial partners, but we except to receive that soon on how they view the interns.

The students, however, have expressed just how very thorough the certificate program is, and nothing like a survey course or general exposure as with some certificate programs. Between the 180 contact hours in the classroom and 320 contact hours in internships, it’s an ideal combination of real world experience and scientific knowledge. And that’s not to forget that it’s all paid for by the State of California.

Shortly after this interview, I got in contact with General Atomics for this article. They offered this candid feedback on their first four EDGE interns:

This program attracted a diverse pool of candidates and truly challenged the staff in the selection process. A variety of experience level and scientific backgrounds made it a bit difficult to choose only 4 candidates but the selected candidates seem to be doing well overall. They have been trained in several laboratory techniques for outdoor algal cultivation. It is interesting to note that different interns have varying degrees of ‘learning curve’ or ‘runway’ and differing views of what it means to be an intern at a biotech industry lab. Two of the interns are stellar with respect to reliability, enthusiasm and seriousness of this opportunity. Overall, the program is going well.

What’s next for the EDGE Initiative?

First and foremost is to refine what we’ve already got.

Second is to build the third tier of the biofuels training certificate programs [(the Advanced Training in Biofuels Production Certificate – M.A.S.), which combines advanced science training and business training in coordination with the Rady School of Management here at UCSD. They will learn not only about what’s involved with the primary producers of biofuels, but also about the ancillary companies that play equally vital roles.

So it’s not just technical training, it’s training entrepreneurs to go out there and start one of these companies. This master’s level program presents at once the biggest unknown with the most enormous opportunity.

 

October 23, 2011

Find out which Western states are the most energy-efficient

And which one lost first place

A sour U.S. economy, tight state budgets, and a failure by Congress to adopt a comprehensive energy strategy have not slowed the growing momentum among U.S. states toward increased energy efficiency, according to the fifth edition of the annual ACEEE State Energy Efficiency Scorecard released by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

Available online at http://aceee.org/research-report/e115 , the ACEEE Scorecard shows that the top 10 states are: Massachusetts (taking the #1 position for the first time); California (slipping from the top spot it held for the first four editions of the ACEEE Scorecard); New York State; Oregon; Vermont; Washington State; Rhode Island; Minnesota, Connecticut; and Maryland (making its first appearance in the top 10 and also one of the six most improved states in the 2011 ACEEE Scorecard).

The 10 states most in need of improvement (from dead last to #42) are: North Dakota; Wyoming; Mississippi; Kansas; Oklahoma; South Carolina; West Virginia; Missouri; Alabama (also one of the top six most improved states); and South Dakota. The six most improved states include Michigan, Illinois, Nebraska, Alabama, Maryland, and Tennessee.

"Energy efficiency is America's abundant, untapped energy resource and the states continue to press forward to reap its economic and environmental benefits," said ACEEE Executive Director Steven Nadel. "The message here is that energy efficiency is a pragmatic, bipartisan solution that political leaders from both sides of the aisle can support. As they have over the past decades, states continue to provide the leadership needed to forge an energy-efficient economy, which reduces energy costs, spurs job growth, and benefits the environment."

"Thanks to our investments in innovation and infrastructure, Massachusetts is now leading the nation in energy efficiency," said Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. "Through our Green Communities Act, we set aggressive goals and laid the foundation for greater investment in energy efficiency -- and now we are proud to be a model for the nation and world."

"I am thrilled that Maryland is being recognized as one of the top ten states and one of the most improved states for energy efficiency," said Malcolm Woolf, director of the Maryland Energy Administration. "As a result of Governor O'Malley's vision in establishing one of the nation's most aggressive energy efficiency goals, Marylanders have already saved over 700,000 MWh of electricity and over $91 million dollars since 2009, and our peak demand program has helped us avoid major blackouts during our record-setting summer heat wave."

"Illinois is a purposeful leader in the area of sustainability, investing more than $600 million in energy efficiency projects over the last four years alone," Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Director Warren Ribley said. "By supporting aggressive policies including the state's energy efficiency portfolio standard and advanced building industry training and education, we are creating jobs, building more sustainable communities and securing our place in the new energy economy."

"We are excited that Michigan's positive action on energy efficiency is being recognized nationally," said Valerie Brader, the chief energy policy officer for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The ACEEE report observed that Michigan's improvement is particularly due to the implementation of energy efficiency programs advanced in state legislation P.A. 295.

The fifth edition of the ACEEE State Energy Efficiency Scorecard presents a comprehensive ranking of the states based on an array of metrics that capture best practices and recognize leadership in energy efficiency policy and program implementation. The Scorecard benchmarks progress and provides a roadmap for states to advance energy efficiency in the residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation sectors. A new, diverse set of states has followed a group of leading states by adopting significant energy efficiency policies, which will lead to innovative and effective programs. Tremendous potential remains for energy efficiency savings in all of the states should motivate decision-makers to advance energy efficiency.

"Clearly, 2011 has not been kind to our economy, but energy efficiency remains a growth sector that attracts investment and creates jobs," said Michael Sciortino, ACEEE senior policy analyst and the report's lead author. "With even higher energy savings possible, we expect leading states to continue pushing the envelope next year and inspire those at the bottom of the rankings to embrace energy efficiency as a core strategy to gain a competitive advantage by generating cost-savings, promoting technological innovation, and stimulating growth."

OTHER KEY FINDINGS

Facing uncertain economic times, states are continuing to use energy efficiency as a key strategy to generate cost-savings, promote technological innovation, and stimulate growth. The ACEEE Scorecard documents the following trends:

Total budgets for electricity efficiency programs increased to $4.5 billion in 2010, up from $3.4 billion in 2009. Combined with natural gas program budgets of about $1 billion, total energy efficiency budgets in 2010 equal about $5.5 billion. Given the increasing regulatory commitments to energy efficiency, this growth will likely continue over the next decade.
Twenty-nine (29) states have either adopted or have made significant progress toward the adoption of the latest energy-saving building codes for homes and commercial properties - up from twenty in 2010 and ten in 2009.

Twenty-four (24) states have adopted an Energy Efficiency Resource Standard (EERS), which sets long-term energy savings targets and drives utility-sector investments in energy efficiency programs. States that adopted EERS policies in 2007 and 2008 are now realizing significant energy savings and moving ahead in the Scorecard rankings.
States continue to improve policies to reduce financial, technical, and regulatory barriers to adoption and deployment of combined heat and power (CHP) systems, which generate electricity and thermal energy in an integrated system. Tremendous potential remains for CHP, particularly in states with heavy industrial and manufacturing bases.
A group of leading states remains ahead of the curve in adopting policies to reduce vehicle miles traveled and promote the purchase and manufacture of efficient vehicles. A major gap exists, however, as over half the states have minimal or no policies to encourage efficiency in the transportation sector.
Methodology

This ACEEE Scorecard provides a comprehensive assessment of policy and programs that improve energy efficiency in our homes, businesses, industry, and transportation sectors. The Scorecard examines six state energy efficiency policy areas and presents these results in six chapters: (1) utility and public benefits programs and policies; (2) transportation policies; (3) building energy codes; (4) combined heat and power; (5) state government initiatives; and (6) appliance efficiency standards. States can earn up to 50 possible points in these six policy areas combined, with the maximum possible points in each area weighted by the magnitude of its potential energy savings impact.

ABOUT ACEEE

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy acts as a catalyst to advance energy efficiency policies, programs, technologies, investments, and behaviors. For information about ACEEE and its programs, publications, and conferences, visit www.aceee.org .

 

October 23, 2011

In Boulder, rock-solid sustainability

GSA's managers weren't sure what to do, but they made it work

By Graham Russell

The Geological Society of America (GSA) is a 501 C-3 non-profit based in Boulder, Colorado. It owns its head office building which houses about 45 staff. In 2008, Director of Publications Jon Olsen and IT Director Todd Berggren were asked to take over management of the building. Neither had much experience in facilities management, but they readily undertook the task, figuring they would learn what they needed to know.

Olsen had just returned from a trip to China where he had seen the results of explosive economic development, pursued without regard for environmental and natural resource considerations. He discovered that the GSA building, which had been constructed in the 1970s, was about as eco-unfriendly as it could be! He and Berggren resolved to rectify this and bring its operation into alignment with one of the key elements of the GSA’s mission and the philosophy of its members – Earth stewardship.

Like many successful sustainability initiatives, GSA’s began with a focus on waste reduction.  Olsen and Berggren started with a program to reduce electricity consumption on lighting by replacing all incandescent bulbs with CFLs. They recognized that most of the offices were overlit, so they implemented a “delamping” program resulting in the elimination of 600 conventional fluorescent tubes (WITHOUT a single employee complaint!).

With a little encouragement, employees learned to turn off lights and computer monitors when they were not in their offices, and arrangements were made to shut off the HVAC on weekends when staff were rarely in the building. Settings were changed to send computers and printers into sleep mode more quickly. 1970s vintage refrigerators were replaced with Energy Star models. The electricity bill quickly fell by about 25 percent, saving about $600 per month.

Olsen & Berggren were aided in their efforts by 10 for Change, a Boulder-based energy efficiency business coalition, and by a free energy audit from Xcel Energy, the local utility.  Utilizing $7,200 from the electricity savings, the building was retrofitted with low-flush toilets and waterless urinals, which reduced monthly internal water consumption from 17,000 gallons to about 7,000. Working on the sustainable business principle that information drives action, a real-time water usage monitor was obtained from the City of Boulder and helped to keep monthly consumption of irrigation water in the lowest pricing tier (Boulder has a steeply progressive water tariff and currently makes available these water monitors for $75 - www.bouldersaveswater.net). Next step in the water conservation program: replacement of much of the existing landscaping with xeriscape.

An aggressive recycling effort has reduced waste pickups from three per week to just one. A program to compost paper towels and organic waste from the kitchen areas led to the establishment of a community garden in the building’s grounds that is run by a cadre of 13 employees who benefit from the fruit and vegetables grown there. Surplus produce is donated to local food banks. With all these waste reduction initiatives now in full swing, GSA is migrating from a 4 yard dumpster to a 96 gallon container. Waste handling costs have been reduced by over 50 percent, saving $2,500 per year.

Significant savings have been made in the consumption of paper (now 100 percent recycled), largely through an attack on excessive document printing. Ubiquitous desktop printers were replaced with a much smaller number of printers distributed strategically throughout the offices such that their distance from most employees tends to discourage their use! Printers are set to default to double-sided, black-only printing. Closer attention to the organization’s purchasing process has reduced consumption of other office supplies. Paper and throw-away materials have been eliminated from all meetings, which are now essentially zero-waste. 

Consciously looking at operations “through a sustainability lens”, while something of an overworked phrase, is absolutely critical according to Olsen. GSA has a formal green team, which presents its progress to monthly all-staff meetings. This helps to maintain visibility for the program and its accomplishments, and stimulates the flow of ideas for additional sustainability measures. Olsen notes that the vast majority of staff have embraced sustainability with an enthusiasm that has become contagious so that one initiative leads to another, sometimes in almost serendipitous fashion.

One example of this occurred when a plan was developed to install a 66.6 kWh solar array on the building. Even with rebates from Xcel energy, an additional $140,000 was required to purchase the equipment. Casting around for fundraising ideas, the team learned that the City of Boulder was interested in using a portion of GSA’s land to improve flood control arrangements. Negotiations led to an arrangement under which the City came up with the additional funding. GSA now obtains 35 percent of its required electricity from its own solar system and is banking the renewable energy credits in a fund to be used for equipment replacement years hence. This sort of “luck” is obviously not something most organizations can count on, but Olsen’s point is that consciously using the “sustainability lens” tends to throw up opportunities that would otherwise remain hidden. GSA complements its solar electricity generation with the purchase of wind energy and is now 100 percent powered by renewable energy.

Some might argue that GSA is a non-profit and, as such, can perhaps afford to pay less attention to the rigorous financial criteria that drive decisions in for-profit enterprises, thereby allowing sustainability initiatives to be more values or mission-driven. However, it’s worth pointing out that the past three years have been some of the worst in living memory from a funding standpoint for non-profits. GSA’s leadership would certainly not have pursued these sustainability initiatives unless they had been contributing to the financial well-being of the organization. Case closed.

October 23, 2011

Cleantech Spotlight: Veritek

A promise of cheaper cleaning of coal impurities

By Allen Best

THE COMPANY:Veritek Coal Processing

STORY IN BRIEF:Wondrous in its abundance, horrible in the repercussions from its burning, coal is a pickle. Can the sulfur, mercury, and other pollutants unleashed into the atmosphere from its burning be removed more easily? Veritek proclaims a breakthrough process in which the impurities can be removed prior to burning. It would seem that coal-producers and electrical utilities would be beating a path to the door of Veritek’s Denver-area offices. But the company first has to move the technology from the laboratory into a pilot-scale demonstration. To accomplish that, it seeks $1 million from investors.

THE PROBLEM:The foundation for our modern quality of life, coal provides about half of our electricity, and is the basis for steel-making and as a source fo ingredients used in everything from aspirin ot the kidney dialysis machine. But it has 25 impurities, including sulfur, mercury and arsenic, not including the carbon dioxide produced when it is burned. A recent Harvard Medical School study estimated 2008 emissions of air pollutants cost society up to $187.5 billion in health and other impacts. while mercury cost impacts may have cost up to $29.3 billion. The Clean Air Act requires utilities to take steps to reduce emissions of these impurities. Many impurities can be removed through extremely expensive scrubbers that filter emissions before exhausts are released into the atmosphere.

THE SOLUTION:Veritek founder and chief technology officer Jim Wilkinson, an engineer, had a laboratory experiment that went awry, but with interesting results: a nanotechnology process that uses low-energy electrogmagnetic fields to rearrange the molecular structure of the coal, aggregating the impurities that can then be extracted from the carbon, but without sullying the energy values of the coal. CEO Dale E. Zink (watch an interview) says that scrubbers to clean emissions from a 350-megawatt coal-fired plant would cost $74 million for installation plus $24 million to operate annually, not including disposal of the arsenic-laced coal ash. Veritek claims it can accomplish the same thing for $9.7 million in upfront costs and $4.6 million in annual operations.

BUSINESS PLAN:The company needs to prove the technique in real-world application, starting with a pilot demonstration project involving a specialty coal producer. Veritek then wants to work with coal producers such as Peabody, Arch, and Rio Tinto, at the companies’ mining sites in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin and other locations. The efficacy of Veritek’s process will be tested at Standard Laboratories in Casper, Wyo. “There will be a stampede to our door when the next-generation machine is completed,” says Zink. It has a provisional patent filed, 13 patents in process, and seven professed trade secrets.

MARKET CHALLENGES:Proving the technology – and then scaling up. “After awhile you get skeptical,” said one evaluator at the CREED Finance Accelerator “pitch night” held in Denver in late August. He said he had heard what seemed like several dozen presentations over the years from entrepreneurs who professed new and better ways to process coal.

THE TEAM: Wilkinson, the inventor, had a hand in creating the map-light technology found in cars. Zink had a background in accounting but six years ago joined a firm that gave him a broad exposure to electrical utilities. Others include: Shashi Kanth, a department head in the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; J. Hessenbruch, a geologist; and Robert Martin, a former ombudsman for the Environmental Protection Agency, plus a chemist, a geologic and a statistician.

FINANCING:Veritek seeks $1 million from investors who can stay with the project for five to seven years. “That’s really when the revenue hits the road,” says Zink.

  

October 18, 2011

Cleantech Spotlight: Blue Marble Biomaterials

The company's drop-in chemicals can add "natural" to other consumer product claims

By Joan Melcher

The Company: Blue Marble Biomaterials of Missoula, Mont.

Story in Brief: Biochemist James Stephens believes he has the answer to producing chemicals required in consumer products in a post-petroleum world: drop-in replacements identical in chemical structure to petroleum-derived substances but derived from plant and other organic wastes. Blue Marble, which relocated from Seattle to Missoula in March, is attracting companies looking to use the drop-in chemicals to add “natural” and “environmentally-friendly” to their product claims.

The Problem: Much of the research aimed at transitioning from fossil fuels is directed to the energy sector. As the United States and other countries begin to reduce their demand for petroleum, about 96 percent of consumer goods will still require petroleum-derived chemicals for manufacture. As that happens, because there will be less petroleum needed for refining fuel, there will be growing waste in the chemical sector. “While we’re focusing on transportation fuel replacement, we need to also focus on replacing petroleum for chemicals,” Stephens explained. “There could be a great deal of waste left if petroleum is only tapped for chemicals.”

The Solution: Blue Marble first extracts oil from a waste, such as coffee grinds, and then ferments the grinds with a polyculture of 60,000 different organisms (bacteria, archaea and yeast), to create esters that are identical to the synthetic chemicals used to provide flavors and scents for various products. Stephens said that Blue Marble’s processes typically require fewer steps and less time than synthetic methods to produce the same chemicals. “Our products take material from the coffee grinds, chew it up, react it, and then produce the product (chemical replacement) as a by-product,” Stephens said. “It [the chemical] is effectively a waste of those organisms eating it.” Because the drop-in is identical to the synthetically derived chemical, there are no “switching” costs for the client. The company could potentially make hundreds of chemicals using feed stocks as varied as brewery waste, woody biomass and food wastes. It is focusing first on the $45 billion-a-year flavor and scent industry.

Market Challenges: Currently, Blue Marble cannot compete for the lower end of the market, partly because of its size and partly because many chemicals can be stockpiled, Stephens said.

Business Plan: Formed in 2005, Blue Marble originally researched uses for algae but turned to research and development of drop-in chemicals in 2008. Currently the company is focusing on creating 12 products from its 19,000-sq-ft facility and is capable of producing 200 at the site. Stephens described a plan that “starts at the top of the pyramid” and explained: “This site is focused on higher end chemicals. As we scale up we’ll get into the lower value stuff.” He plans to add 14 employees to the 11 currently employed at the site by the end of the year. Stephens’ long-term vision includes developing partnerships to build Blue Marble facilities at several major breweries to create drop-in chemicals from the waste created on-site.

The Team: Stephens, who has ten years of experience in the industry and has produced biological and chemical systems used by fortune 500 companies; Kelly Ogilvie, CEO and President, former deputy director of Seattle Major Greg Nickels’ office and aide to Washington Gov. Gary Locke; and Colby Underwood, VP of Business Development, who worked in the financial and environmental arenas for both Nickels and Locke.

Financing: The company has raised $4.1 million since 2005 and received a  $30,000 matching grant from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to study possible use of woody biomass in its processes.  

October 17, 2011

Texas wind exec wonders: What happens when the turbines wear out?

Disposing of aging parts can be problematic

Like all mechanical creations, turbines eventually wear out, and their parts need replacement. The old parts will need to be disposed of, but few companies have created end-of-life strategies for aging wind turbines, which could lead to logistical problems down the road, said Richard Williams, president of Houston-based Shell WindEnergy Inc.

“I don’t believe it’s been addressed because the industry is still young,” Williams said. “So people are thinking about ‘How do we get them up and running,’ not thinking about what you do when 20 years are up and the blades need to be replaced. It’s not an issue now, but it’s going to be an issue pretty soon.”

Wind turbine blades aren’t so easily cast aside in a landfill — the average blade is about a football field in length. When Shell has to replace any malfunctioning blades, those blades are chopped up into 10-foot sections before being put in a landfill, Williams said.

Read the rest of the story.

October 17, 2011

Bay Area’s Alphabet Energy grabs $12 million in VC

Thermoelectric firm plans to speed up product development

Alphabet Energy, a firm focused on thermoelectric materials for waste-heat recovery, has closed $12 million in Series A financing. TPG Biotech, the venture arm of TPG, led the round, with participation from existing investors Claremont Creek Ventures and the CalCEF Clean Energy Angel Fund.

The funding enables Alphabet Energy to accelerate product development, deploy initial pilot projects, grow the team, and relocate to a new facility in the San Francisco Bay Area. Alphabet Energy raised its Series A round after successful completion of technology and product milestones achieved during its $1 million seed financing from May 2010.

In preparation for the next phase of its growth, Alphabet Energy recently added talented scientific and entrepreneurial advisors to its team. Dr. Lon Bell, an inventor in the field of thermoelectrics, joined as a technical and strategic advisor, while Eric Ries, the Lean Startup expert, will advise on how best to optimize the company’s technology and products for market opportunities.

Alphabet Energy's first product, currently in prototyping, is a simple, turnkey solution for the generation of electricity from wasted heat. Alphabet's goal is to become the leader in the potential $100 billion global market for products that convert medium- to high-grade waste heat into electricity — part of an existing $75 billion annual market for energy efficiency and a $6 billion annual market for industrial equipment.

Read the rest of the story. 

October 17, 2011

“Meeting of the Minds” was a sustainable success

The focus: transportation, buildings and technology

By Martha Young

Urban Age’s fifth annual Meeting of the Minds, a sustainable city conference, was held in Boulder, Colo.,  in late September. The three-day conference brought together more than 250 participants from around the globe to share innovative ideas and best practices aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of cities. If you were unable to attend, most of the presentations are available on line here.

The conference focused on three key topics: transportation, buildings and technology.

The second panel discussion of the conference, Changing Cities-Changing Cars addressed real world solutions for immediate carbon reduction capabilities. Executive representatives from research and development at Toyota, along with MIT Labs, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Mercedes Benz and BYD America stole the show with their vehicles. The conversation went beyond electric vehicles, examining broader issues associated with cars, buses and fleets such as short and long term parking, car sharing, utility truck idling  and social usage of mass transportation. The global conference perspective provided cultural insights into why some regions of the world are faster to adopt transportation technologies than other regions.

As the largest producer of carbon in an urban environment, the transportation challenge must be addressed. The one-person-per-vehicle model is unsustainable. In addition to taxing the environment with excessive tailpipe emissions hundreds of hours of personal time are lost each year for each driver due specifically to vehicle related issues including traffic snarl ups, maintenance and repair, even locating a parking space.

Solutions offered to the transportation challenge included expanding mass transit opportunities; smaller, lighter vehicles; vehicle sharing models instead of ownership, batteries to support the bucket portion of utility vehicles rather than idling all day; and smart vehicles that drove themselves allowing the navigator to continue to work as the vehicle carried the passenger to the destination. The creative transportation solutions presented in this panel demonstrates the innovative thinking taking place around the world necessary to develop a comprehensive portfolio of solutions to meet the urban transportation dilemma.

Buildings are another high carbon producer. Representatives from Deutsche Bank, Jones Lang LaSalle, Philips and Urban Land Institute addressed the positive impacts of building retrofits. As has been noted numerous times, energy efficiency is the most effective way to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.

The Empire State Building is the poster child of retrofitting, having received Energy Star certification in 2010 and LEEDs Gold certification in 2011. For details on the retrofit, the financials, and free replicable tools and processes, go here. According to the panelists, each building must be closely scrutinized for retrofitting candidacy. Financing is available for retrofits when structured decision tools are used to determine the energy efficiency gains relative to the proposed improvements.

The technology thread came up in every conversation and panel discussion.

The conference organizers used Cisco Systems’ high definition TelePresence for panelist participants in Washington D.C., Rome, and Amsterdam. Meeting of the Minds also enabled web streaming for many of the sessions to allow anyone to participate from anywhere with an Internet connection.

Other examples of technology at the conference included: sensors and GPS embedded in smart cars to automatically prevent collisions and find the most efficient routes; smart meters on the home to educate homeowners on power usage by appliance and time of day; sensors on windows to allow or block sun light to reduce heating and air conditioning requirements. Technology devices, software and applications are enablers to monitor, measure and modify power usage from the personal level up through an urban environment.  

October 17, 2011

“Meeting of the Minds” co-founder talks about the conference

California, Colorado governors have set the sustainable tone in their states

By Martha Young

Meeting of the Minds, an annual smart city conference hosted by Toyota with global sponsorship from Cisco Systems, Deutsche Bank Group-DB Climate Change Advisors and Philips, recently took place in Boulder – a city embroiled in numerous sustainability controversies. Gordon Feller, co-founder of Meeting of the Minds, and Director, Urban Innovations Internet Business Solutions Group at Cisco Systems, explains the decision behind the city selection and more about the conference. (Read more about the conference.)

PPR: Knowing the extensive negative press Boulder has received regarding its Smart Grid City initiative, why did Meeting of the Minds select this city?

Feller: Boulder was first city in the U.S. to tackle the integrated grid. It was looking to link together alternative energy sources (wind, solar), electric vehicles, homes and the power grid. This had never been done and Boulder took on the challenge.

It is easy to write negative press, but there were many successes from the program that can be shared with city leaders from around the globe who are preparing to participate in Meeting of the Minds. That’s a key component of the conference, to share what works and what doesn’t so we aren’t making the same mistakes city to city.

Boulder is forward thinking. It has exceptional resources in and near the community like the University, federal research laboratories and an educated workforce. It also has a robust technology industry. That’s going to be extremely important for the sustainability industry to grow.

PPR: What are the incremental steps in building a sustainable city?

Feller: Success will be in those cities that look at the infrastructure, the city’s framework first and build on that. Does it have great wired and wireless coverage? Are the sensors and management tools in place? Are the network policies sound? The network is the enabler of smart cities. These are the tools that will get a city started on the path to success.

PPR: How does the lack of a federal energy policy effect cities looking to become sustainable communities?

Feller: We have a thousand blooming flowers. What I mean by that is each community can plan and operate based on what the local people want first, then second and so on. Some communities might want transportation to be their marquee initiative; others might seek water, or waste management or a host of other areas to be their highest priority.

The lack of a federal energy policy is a good thing in that it allows decisions to be made at a local level. The governors of California and Colorado have set the tone in those states. Other governors will follow when they see the benefits sustainability affords them, like companies and people wanting to be in those healthy places.

Consider the European Union. Germany has one of the strongest economies in the E.U. It also has its eye on making sustainability a part of every new project it undertakes. Germany shares the economic system of its sister countries, but it sets its own goals and objectives. Here in the U.S. the States share an economic framework. But the country is too big, too diverse to have a one-size fits all energy policy. Each state needs to think for itself, set its own direction based on what the citizens want.

The goal of Meeting of the Minds is to share information, programs and tools. Boulder is a good location, a good test city for this conference. There are lessons to be learned and take aways to be shared that will help others considering similar smart grid initiatives. 

October 10, 2011

Cleantech Spotlight: Dragonfly Solutions

Schools are the first target for electricity-saving units

THE COMPANY: Dragonfly Solutions

STORY IN BRIEF: Co-founder L. Brent Ivie has 31 years in the electronics field and a 2002 sale of a company to Honeywell. He and Dragonfly co-founder Jaqueline Zielenski have a joint provisional patent on energy-saving technology that results in more efficient use of electricity in schools, businesses, and homes. Dragonfly arose from the ashes of a company called Perpetual Green. Since 2009, when the technology was introduced, 1,000 units have been sold. The units makes electrical systems operate better and hence more efficiently. With its most updated package, the firm hopes to first sell to schools, then expand into other sectors. The patent-pending technology reduces energy consumption an average 20 percent, with a pay off less than two years.

THE PROBLEM: Voltage and amperage continuously get out of sync in electrical systems, causing electrical systems to work harder. This inefficiency makes motors and transformers run hot, shortening equipment life spans. Electricity rates have been rising 5 percent annually, many utilities – including Rocky Mountain Power in Utah and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power – project 10 percent annual increases for the next several years.

THE SOLUTION: Dragonfly claims to combine six types of energy-saving technologies into one system – at one-tenth the cost – as compared to other solutions. The company’s promotional material says the system monitors all energy data continuously and adjusts the electrical system automatically. The hardware and software components of Dragonfly systems regulate voltage, mitigate harmonics, and filter surges and spikes.

MARKET CHALLENGES: Other systems address the same problem, but Dragonfly insists it has several distinct advantages that collectively add up to 1 + 1 = 3.
Zielenski, the co-founder and president, says the firm sold 1,000 units of its Version 1.0 System to everybody from gas stations to homeowners to yogurt stores, but found it difficult to service such a diverse market. Investments were smaller, but so were gains in the small business and home market, and the different environments too diverse.

BUSINESS PLAN: “The CleanTech Open really helped us understand the value of focusing on and owning one market,” says Zielenski. Dragonfly now intends to focus first on K-12 schools. Some federal grants to schools stipulate efforts to improve energy efficiency by 20 percent or more, but after changing out light bulbs, the task becomes more difficult. “Every school we’ve spoken to has asked for a second meeting or a pilot,” she says. Schools are attractive because they can absorb the up-front investment in the units, especially given what a huge reduction in energy costs they achieve. Dragonfly’s installs the product and leases the product for 5 to 10 years with third-party financing. “It’s a no-brainer,” says Ivie. From schools, Dragonfly intends to expand into municipal and other governments and then homes and industry “silos,” such as yogurt shops or convenience stores with gas pumps.
 

October 10, 2011

South Korean refiner invests $50 million in struggling Texas firm

Asian conglomerates are looking at a U.S. cleantech shopping spree

Although U.S. investors have become somewhat skittish about green technology, Asian conglomerates are at the start of what could become an extended shopping spree.

SK Innovation, the largest refiner in South Korea, today announced it would invest $50 million into HelioVolt, an Austin, Texas-based company that has been struggling to bring its copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cells to the mainstream. HelioVolt has been searching for an acquirer since April, according to various reports. SK Group, the parent company, says it will invest up to $15.6 billion into clean technologies by 2020, including expanding its interests in batteries and silicon.

The announcement is the latest in a series of transactions between large Asian conglomerates and American start ups. Call it a marriage of industrial convenience. Large conglomerates have the capital, factories and customer contacts required to get new technologies like next-generation solar cells to market. These companies also understand how to function on sometimes single digit margins.

Many have already unfurled grand plans. Samsung says it will grow its solar manufacturing capacity from 150 megawatts now to 3 gigawatts by 2015, a size that would let it rival established solar specialists like First Solar and Suntech.

Read the rest of the story. 

October 10, 2011

GE’s energy venture capital invests in the West

They're already having a record deal year

The goal that guides the investment decisions of Kevin Skillern, managing director of the venture capital unit within General Electric Energy Financial Services, is deceptively simple.

"We want to work with the best of the best, because the scale of the opportunities and the scale of the challenge is very significant," he says.
Skillern, who will deliver the keynote address at the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association Industry Awards Celebration on Nov. 7, has had a busy year. Through early August, his venture capital unit had done 16 deals. That beats the previous high for any one year of 11.

Over the longer term, his unit has backed 35 companies, including four that have conducted IPOs.

Also this year, in January, General Electric went together with two other major players, ConocoPhillips and NRG Energy Inc., to create what they call the "premier investor and commercial collaboration partner for emerging and innovative energy technology companies."

Through their joint venture, Energy Technology Ventures, the three companies together committed $300 million in capital with which they intend to fund approximately 30 venture- and growth-stage companies during the next four years.

The new venture is reviewing everything from renewable power generation to smart grid, energy efficiency and emission controls, but also oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear energy. They will be looking primarily in North America, Europe and Israel.

Among their first investments was a Colorado-based company, Ciris Energy. Ciris, which is based in Centennial, aims for technology innovation that more effectively extracts fossil fuels. Most prominently, the company has developed technology to biochemically convert coal into pipeline-quality methane, the key constituent of natural gas. Natural gas, when burned, produces half the carbon dioxide of coal, and emits almost none of the other pollutants, such as mercury.

"The world needs new energy technologies," Skillern said, after mentioning the triumvirate of heavy-hitter investors. "Oil prices are high. There are increasing regulations in the transportation and power-generation industries. People are concerned about the environment all around the world. And it has unleashed a wave of innovation all around the world."

He added: "We want something that matters."

An extra dimension for GE in making investment decisions is whether the emerging technology could benefit from GE's hefty technological expertise.
GE is heavily invested in wind and also solar, biofuels and other sectors, but takes a broad view, as is evident by its interest in technology that can deliver less polluting coal.

"We believe in taking a portfolio approach," says Christa Bowers, spokeswoman for GE Capital. "We see a good future for renewable energy, and we stand by it. But for a long time there will be a need for fossil fuels, so why not try to make those clean as well?"

The venture capital unit of GE Energy Financial Services has also invested in Glori Energy, which is delivering breakthrough technology that improves recovery of oil from existing reservoirs.

Skillern grew up in Houston and worked for more than a decade in the oil industry. He has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's in business administration from Stanford University. In a 2009 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Skillern said there are three main drivers of valuation: Is the market large and compelling? Is the technology transformational? And are there an adequate number of A-players in the management team who will build an enduring business?

GE's energy investments have not always paid off. "What we have learned from prior VC investing is that we should be prepared to hold energy technology investments through multiple stages of the business cycle and to focus on companies with sustainable business models generating revenue and profits, and in many cases with strategic value to GE," Alex Urquhart, president and chief executive of GE Energy Financial Services, told Fox Business.

Morningstar analyst Daniel Holland said technology needs to increase as conventional energy sources are depleted. But again, he sees GE being broad in its interest, and sure to stick around. After all, it's been in the energy business for 130 years.

"No matter which way the world shifts in terms of energy policy and no matter how the world thinks about consuming energy, GE will have a position in that market," he told Fox Business.

October 10, 2011

Demand from abroad keeps Western ranchers afloat

But higher energy prices take their toll

For California cattle ranchers like Luke Reimers, beef exports play an important role in their marketing strategy.

Reimers, who ranches with his father Del Reimers at Black Butte Ranch, is raising a large group of steers that in a few months will be processed for beef to be shipped to Japan.

"The Japanese particularly look for black, naturally bred cattle. They will be fed out here in California, processed and shipped to Japan. They will be processed at about 15 to 16 months of age when they weigh about 840 pounds," he said.

Reimers said there are more challenges involved in raising cattle for the Japanese market because the buyers want only black cows that are raised naturally.

For a number of California beef producers, exports are very important, says Kevin Kester, a Monterey County cattle rancher and president of the California Cattlemen's Association.

"For 2011, exports equal about 13 to 15 percent of U.S. beef production, so they are really helping prop up our beef markets right now," he said. "California producers do source and age verification on their cows, which makes them eligible to go overseas to countries like Japan and South Korea, which are two of our best markets."

Kester said U.S. beef exports this year will probably exceed $5 billion for the first time ever, after setting a value record of about $4.2 billion in 2010.

While prices being received by beef producers are strong for both domestic and export markets, input costs are taking their toll, both Reimers and Kester acknowledged.

"We are self-contained and our entire operation is run on private ground that we own. We raise our own hay. Our biggest cost is diesel fuel. There are other things that also go up," Reimers said.

Read the rest of the story. 

October 03, 2011

Wyoming water is in Colorado’s sights

State water officials decide to take a close look at Flaming Gorge

By Bart Taylor

Two numbers frame the decision last month by the Colorado Water Conservation Board to fund further study on a project to pipe thousands of acre-feet of water every year from Wyoming’s Flaming Gorge reservoir to users along Colorado’s Front Range.

The CWCB forecasts that a 20 percent water supply shortfall – the so-called “supply gap” – will materialize for the state's municipal and industrial users within a couple decades; and additional CWCB research completed last year indicated that Colorado may be entitled to as much as 400,000 acre-feet of additional supply from the Colorado River, water that's not currently being stored or used here.

The unanimous decision to take a hard look at Flaming Gorge underscores the reality that Colorado has no choice but to determine whether the project, the brainchild of  Fort Collins businessman Aaron Million, is the best approach to fully develop the state's Colorado River Compact allocation and address this supply gap. Lower Colorado-basin states might differ, but it would have been irresponsible for the CWCB, steward of the state's water resources, not to further explore Flaming Gorge.

Since Million brought attention to Colorado's right to file for water permits on the Green River, and proposed tapping Flaming Gorge for the state's benefit, the project has become a lightning rod in the regional competition for water in the West. Opponents of the project are primary concerned that the Colorado River is tapped-out – over-appropriated and not nearly able to sustain the diversion of thousands of additional acre-feet of water from the main-stem of the river or its primary tributaries like the Green River.

This may be the case – but it may not be either. No one is really sure. The CWCB has been busy trying to find out. Phase one of the “Colorado River Availability Study,” released last year, identified a ”range” of undeveloped water remaining in the River basin for the state’s use. Officials won’t commit to a number – but on the upper-end of the range, scenarios forecast as much as 400,000 acre-feet available per year.

It’s therefore possible that Colorado is currently getting the short end of its Colorado River Compact allocation of roughly 3.8 million acre-feet of water per year, and that lower-basin states like Arizona and California are the beneficiary – and have been for decades – of Colorado’s largesse, of its inability to measure and store a more precise amount.

With state and local governments under pressure to reduce debt, the multibillion dollar price tag of a 500-mile pipeline has also raised eyebrows. But water projects in the West were once conceived and built as public-private partnerships, a model Million has proposed and one that planners may well revisit with regard to water infrastructure. In fact it’s difficult to envision any public works project of considerable size becoming a reality without embracing a new financial model. And at this juncture, it would likely be easy to find municipalities in Colorado and throughout the West, for that matter, who would be willing to trade long-term water security for a private-sector partnership.

Flaming Gorge is an intriguing if controversial project. Immediately this massive impoundment would double Colorado’s storage capacity if brought online as an infrastructure asset – addressing an acute need in the Centennial State. The Green River rises in Wyoming near Jackson Hole, providing in effect a redundant drainage to the Colorado main stem for the state’s users. And for those who value the contributions of agriculture, and fear the impacts of its diminution as water rights throughout the region are sold to urban interests, Flaming Gorge could effectively slow the transfer of ag water and allow Colorado’s industry to reinvent itself without a proverbial gun to its head.

Will a Flaming Gorge pipeline ever be built? It may not – but this decision will ensure it gets a closer look. It also won’t be the last proposed water diversion in the West that ends up at the center of a heated discussion about availability, growth, and economic development. Buckle you seat belts. We’re only getting warmed-up.

October 02, 2011

Quantifying the impact of Oregon’s forest and watershed restoration

University of Oregon resources aim to help predict the local economic impact

A new set of resources from the University of Oregon are intended to help forest and watershed restoration leaders predict and monitor the local economic impacts of ecological restoration in the state.

The Ecosystem Workforce Program at the UO developed the "Economic Impacts of Restoration Calculator for Oregon Counties" to help restoration practitioners better forecast the economic impacts of field-based restoration spending. Using the calculator, project managers can translate proposed project spending into predicted county-level employment, earnings and overall economic impact of proposed restoration activities. A second tool will measure the ongoing economic impact of restoration. 

"In Oregon, substantial investments have been made in forest and watershed restorations projects over the past 20 years, but the impact of that work has been measured for its ecological value, not as economic impacts," said Cassandra Moseley, director, UO Institute for a Sustainable Environment and the Ecosystem Workforce Program, who led the development of the tools.

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October 02, 2011

Across the West, cities and states begin rating building energy performance

A labeling system is almost in reach

For more than a generation, EPA fuel economy labels have allowed consumers to compare the potential environmental impact of a large selection of vehicles. CAFÉ standards have provided a complementary, regulatory platform (albeit a leaky one) to improve vehicle performance. While energy codes have been a regulatory effort to effect building energy performance, building owners and occupants have not had a comparable labeling system. Those missing labels are now almost in reach, beginning with the implementation of a few localized building rating systems that strive to use market-based forces, providing opportunities for:

•Owners and operators to compare buildings

•Potential buyers or tenants to review rating labels and documentation and gain additional insight into facility value and potential long term operating expense

•O&M staff to make better informed decisions about maintenance activities

Early in 2010, the Seattle mandated building performance ratings and is phasing in program implementation through 2013 . The rating mandate covers public buildings greater than 10,000 square feet, private non-residential buildings over 50,000 square feet, and multi-family buildings of more than five units. Washington State has a very similar program with the same timeline. Portland has proposed launching a program to rate commercial buildings larger than 20 thousand square feet. New York City, Austin, Texas and California are all in the process of implementing programs. The great majority of these programs rely upon EPA’s Portfolio Manager to assess operating performance.

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October 02, 2011

Cleantech Spotlight: Triumph Marketing Group

Can secret enzyme sauce rid feedlots of their odor?

By Allen Best

THE COMPANY:Triumph Marketing Group

STORY IN BRIEF: Serial entrepreneur Ted Hoster promises a secret sauce whose recipe every feedlot operator should want – as well as those places who live downwind. The enzyme-based technology has been used at nine locations, all successfully, he claims. He wants money for scientific studies that confirm testimonials from operators, and to provide the “education and communication” muscle needed to deeply penetrate this huge market.

THE PROBLEM:  Livestock – cattle, hogs and poultry – produce 13 times as much manure as humans, creating a smelly and costly problem at feedlots and other CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations). Of the 150 million protein animals in the United States, 80 million are in CAFOs, collectively producing one trillion pounds of manure waste each year. Mechanical remove of waste, mostly commonly to spread on fields, is expensive and requires large volumes of flushing waters. Anaerobic decomposition is slow. Odors from CAFOs have become a political issue in some areas.

THE SOLUTION: Dr. Len Bull, a professor emeritus of agriculture science at North Carolina State, developed a technique that Hoster describes as an “on-site turbo-charged digestion” that employs enzymes to accelerate decomposition. “Our technology will clear air in days, clear water in weeks, and clear solids in months,” said Hoster at a pitch to venture capitalists in August. The technology has been deployed at nine operations, mostly in North Carolina, Alabama and Australia.Hoster says the enzyme technology will reduce the cost of material handling at CAFOs by 50 percent, reduce disease vectors by 90 percent, and improve the efficiency with which the penned livestock convert feed into meat, reducing feeding costs, by far the largest cost of any CAFO. He also claims benefits to water quality. Finally, he says the process can reduce the emission of methane, a greenhouse gas with a shorter but more potent (22 to 23 times) heat-trapping effect than carbon dioxide.

MARKET CHALLENGES:Simple “sloth” and inertia of existing CAFOs is the key challenge, says Hoster. He sees his key challenge is to prove to those groups who inform opinions of others that the technology works and can provide a major benefit.

BUSINESS PLAN:Credible scientific experiments that confirm the enzymes work are crucial to persuading state and government regulations but also non-government organizations, such as powerful environmental groups. That evidence and support in hand, he sees the effort then transitioning to more direct sales and work with industry publications and viral information sources. Within five years, according to the plan, the business will be sold to a “bigger, stronger” agribusiness such as Cargill or Conagra.

THE TEAM: Hoster, based in metropolitan Denver, describes himself as a serial entrepreneur. His company’s most prominent product is Approach odor eliminator (www.approachit.net), which can be used to ameliorate unpleasant odors associated with cats and dogs, and also nursing homes and hospitals. In addition to Bull, the professor, he has enlisted engineer Bill Scruggs to transfer the idea from the laboratory into real-world settings, Gary Baise, a Washington D.C.-based lawyer with experience in environmental issues, and writer and educator Jim Kocot, with a chief operating officer still to be named.

FINANCING: Self-financed, Hoster is seeking $1 million to $1.5 million in grants, to conduct the experiments to test his claims, and then begin advertising and other marketing efforts.

  

September 23, 2011

In Idaho, advanced nuclear fuel sets a world performance record

The goal: robust, safe energy

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) scientists have set a new world record with next-generation particle fuel for use in high temperature gas reactors (HTGRs).

The Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) Fuel Program, initiated by the Department of Energy in 2002, used INL’s unique Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) in a nearly three-year experiment to subject more than 300,000 nuclear fuel particles to an intense neutron field and temperatures around 1,250 degrees Celsius.

INL researchers say the fuel experiment set the record for particle fuel by consuming approximately 19 percent of its low-enriched uranium — more than double the previous record set by similar experiments run by German scientists in the 1980s and more than three times that achieved by current light water reactor (LWR) fuel. Additionally, none of the fuel particles experienced failure since entering the extreme neutron irradiation test environment of the ATR in December 2006.

"This level of performance is a major accomplishment," said Dr. David Petti, Director of the Very High Temperature Reactor Technology Development Office at the U.S. Department of Energy's INL.

The purpose of the fuel program is to develop this particle fuel, produce experimental data that demonstrates to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the fuel is robust and safe, and re-establish a U.S. fuel manufacturing capability for high temperature gas reactors. INL has been working with Babcock and Wilcox Inc., General Atomics, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to establish standards and procedures for the manufacture of commercial-scale HTGR fuel. The overarching goal of the AGR Fuel Program is to qualify coated nuclear fuel particles for use in HTGRs such as the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP). Developing particle fuel capable of achieving very high burnup levels will also reduce the amount of used fuel that is generated by HTGRs.

"An important part of our mission is the development and exploration of advanced nuclear science and technology,” said Dr. Warren F. "Pete" Miller, assistant secretary for Nuclear Energy. “This achievement is an important step as we work to enable the next generation of reactors, decrease fossil fuel use in industrial applications, make fuel cycles more sustainable and reduce proliferation risks."

Read the rest of the story. 

September 23, 2011

Western Sustainability Exchange promotes best ag practices in Montana

More farms and ranches are embracing sustainability

Sixty million acres of mountain meadows, grasslands, riparian areas and river systems. 60 million acres of open space, wildlife habitat and migration corridors. 60 million acres, or two-thirds of the state of Montana, are under the stewardship of Montana farm and ranch families who produce food for the state and the nation.

Montana’s environment and food production are inextricably linked.

Much of this agricultural land base is managed conventionally with practices that often rely on herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers, the use of hormones to promote livestock growth and antibiotics to preempt disease outbreaks.Traditional grazing paradigms have often led to overgrazing which has hampered range condition, wildlife habitats and the land’s water storage capacity.  In short a myriad of environmental and health problems may result from these practices, from water pollution to unproductive land to antibiotic resistant bacteria and food contamination.

A small number of farmers and ranchers, however, are embracing an alternative approach that uses techniques to protect air, soil and water from contamination and actually improve range health and biodiversity. These “sustainable agricultural practices” significantly reduce chemical use, eliminate hormones and genetically engineered seeds and feeds, reduce antibiotic use, employ low-stress animal handling techniques and manage livestock to prevent overgrazing.

Read the rest of the story. 

September 23, 2011

Cleantech Spotlight: Focused Sun

Hybrid solar system has a rapid payback

By Allen Best

THE COMPANY:Focused Sun, of Las Cruces, N.M.

STORY IN BRIEF:Former MIT professor and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Shawn Buckley contends that mini-concentrated solar units can more cost-effectively allow solar to broadly invade the residential marketplace, delivering both electricity and heat and with four times the return on investment of PV panels.

THE PROBLEM:Photovoltaic technology for production of electricity remains heavily subsidized through tax credits or the state-mandated renewable portfolio standards, which have caused utilities to offer rebates. While costs of panels have dropped by half in the last two years, further reductions, operating efficiencies, or both, will be necessary to achieve broad penetration of the residential home market. PV solar is just too expensive for most homeowners, the pay-off (even with subsidy) taking 20 years.                              

THE SOLUTION:Buckley’s idea is to use mirrors that rotate as they follow the daily and seasonal trajectories of the sun to reflect the maximum amount of solar energy into a collecting bar above the mirrors. Concentrated solar power takes this same approach, but the idea embraced by Focused Sun adapts the idea to a smaller, lightweight assembly that can be mounted on rooftops. The basic technology was developed at Chevron subsidiary HydroSun, of which Buckley was a co-founder, but with new modifications that Buckley is not yet ready to disclose. The assembly can produce both electricity but also heat that can be used inside the house. The heat is gained through exchangers that tap the water heated by the collectors.

BUSINESS ADVANTAGE: Buckley says the key advantage of his solar collectors over other hybrid (both heat and electricity) solar collectors is that it’s much lighter and hence can be installed on roofs, a crucial placement if the heat is to also be used.

By using the heat, in addition to generating electricity, the hybrid systems deliver a much better return on investment: 20 percent, with an average payback of five years, as compared to 20 years for PV solar. This assumes average differential prices in electricity of 15 cents per kilowatt-hour. In some places, such as in California, the differential is actually higher.

MARKET BARRIERS: As with any new product, the product has to be accepted. The quality must be assured. “They must last for 20 years,” Buckley says. Venture capitalists also question how deep the market is.

THE PLAN:For test markets, Buckley has chosen 10 areas, all with cooler climates at least part of year, so as to enjoy the heat generated by the solar collectors most with populations of 50,000 to 200,000: Duluth, Minn.; Las Cruces, N.M.; Chico, Calif; South Bend, Ind.; Utica, N.Y.; and then five towns or regions in Colorado: Pueblo, Castle Rock, Chaffee County, Thornton, and Durango. He envisions smaller factories, which can be scaled up easily, with perhaps two in Colorado.

THE TEAM: Shawn Buckley has been in the solar world for 40 years, first as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He later co-founded Chevron’s solar subsidiary, HydroSun, and also three Silicon Valley startups. He has a group of about 12 on the team who he says are experienced startup specialists.

FINANCING:Buckley is seeking $5 million to move the project to pilot production and beyond with commercialization and certification of the product. He forecasts revenues of $220 million within five years.

  

September 23, 2011

Industry interview: Sandia’s Ron Pate

The man who helped develop a national biofuels roadmap

By David Schwartz

Principal Member of the Technical Staff of Albuquerque-based Sandia National Laboratories, serving in the Earth Systems Analysis – Energy, Resources, and Systems Analysis division, Ron Pate has been on M&O Contractor assignment in Washington, DC with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) in the Biomass Program for the past two years, bridging the gap between the science community and the DOE’s policy and financial support of algal technology development.

At Sandia, Ron has worked for more than 25 years on a variety of technology and systems engineering research, development, testing, and analysis programs spanning the areas of national security, defense systems, sensors, energy systems, and critical resource issues. In recent years he has focused on biofuels and the interdependencies of energy, water and other key resources, and has led and contributed to Sandia teams engaged in program development and R&D projects in these related topic areas.

Ron was part of the core national team that facilitated the development and publication in 2010 of a National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap report, under the auspices of the Office of Biomass Program (OBP) in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) at the DOE. Ron’s two-year assignment with the DOE, providing technical support to OBP’s emerging algae biofuels program, concludes at the end of FY11, after which he will return to Sandia in October 2011.

Since Ron is one of those rare scientists familiar with both the commercial and regulatory sides of the complex algal landscape, we had been looking to get his unique insight and predictions since the earliest days of A.I.M. We appreciate his sharing of not only these, but some extremely valuable documentation that should be studied by anyone serious about the future of this industry. Please note also that his comments reflect his personal and professional opinions, and do not represent an official position of the DOE or Sandia National Laboratories.

Regarding the recent announcement of $510 million to be invested by the government over the next three years in advanced biofuel development, how much of that do you think will go in the direction of algal biofuels, and what part of the process will get the most support?

Based on information released thus far, algae will likely have an opportunity to compete under the initiative. The operative word is “compete”, since there will certainly be detailed objective requirements and criteria that will have to be met. Among those will be the fact that the main goal is to produce drop-in hydrocarbon fuel. Also, a substantial cost-share from industry will be required, which, according to the public announcement, is likely to be at least a one-to-one match (≥50% industry cost-share). An additional goal that will no doubt get translated into some form of requirement under the program will be to get the costs of the biofuels down to a level approaching being competitive with petroleum fuels, at least when cost offsets that may be provided under the program are factored in.   There will also be some level of requirement for GHG reduction relative to conventional petroleum fuels.

The recent (August 16) announcement basically says that there is a joint Navy-DOE-USDA biofuels initiative getting underway, at the direction of President Obama, that plans to invest up to $510M over the next three years toward the production of advanced “drop-in” biofuels. The official document backing this up is a short MOU signed by the Secretaries of the Navy, DOE, and USDA, which is in response to the President’s directive issued this past March as part of his “Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future."

The MOU document gives brief background on why the development of a robust domestic market and supplier industry for advanced drop-in biofuels is an important element of our national energy security, and describes the objective of the initiative simply as: “… the construction or retrofit of multiple domestic commercial or pre-commercial scale advanced drop-in biofuel plants and refineries with the following characteristics:

*Capability to produce ready drop-in replacement advanced biofuels meeting military specifications at a price competitive with petroleum;
*Geographically diverse locations for ready market access; and
*No significant impact on the supply of agricultural commodities for the production of food”

This was recently followed by the public release of a request for information (RFI) from industry to help inform the expected call for proposals. The RFI has a list of what the government believes will be important considerations.   This includes the maturity of technologies proposed for commercial scale deployment, and the feasibility and economic viability of proposed biomass feedstocks to meet commercial scale biofuel production volumes.

Commercial scale biorefinery production volumes are characterized as being on the order of 10 million gallons per year. The challenge for algae is whether it will be able to successfully compete head-on under this program with other more mature biofuel production technologies and feedstocks.

How much investment has gone into algae research so far from the DOE?

Well, first of all, there was the original DOE investment of about $25 million for the Aquatic Species Program that ran from 1978 – 1996[5]. The recently renewed interest and funding for algae biofuels RD&D at DOE has primarily been through DOE/EERE’s Office of Biomass Program (OBP). This began early in FY2009 with the initiation of the National Algae Biofuels Technology Roadmap effort[6]. Investments in algae took a big leap during the FY2009- FY2010 period with the addition of stimulus (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: ARRA[7]) funding on top of DOE’s normal program budget funds.

Total OBP investments in algae from FY2009-FY2011 add up to about $183 million. Of that, about $146 million was ARRA funding and about $37 million was program funding. The ARRA funding was invested in three algae-related Integrated Biorefinery (IBR) projects cost-shared with industry, two of which are pilot scale (Algenol, with $25M in DOE cost-share, and Solazyme, with $22M in DOE cost-share) and one demo scale (Sapphire, with $50M in DOE cost-share). The NAABB Algae Biofuels R&D Consortium project was also a cost-shared effort with industry, university, and national lab partners funded through DOE with $49M in ARRA contribution. Program funds from OBP have gone toward the support of three other cost-shared algae R&D consortium projects, and a number of additional algae-related projects with industry, universities, national labs, and the National Academy of Sciences.

Besides the OBP investments, DOE’s ARPA-e Program, Fossil Energy Program (through NETL, with focus on carbon capture), and the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program have each also invested additional funding recently in algae-related RD&D projects. As of last December, the total investment in algae by OBP, ARPA-e, Fossil Energy, and SBIR was about $236 million. I’m not sure what the total funding is as of today. DOE’s Office of Science also makes significant investments in biological sciences, technologies, and tools that are being leveraged for, and contribute to, algae biofuels R&D. Again, I don’t know exactly how much additional investment that adds up to and it is difficult to map and attribute how much of those investments contribute directly to algae R&D, since it represents the development of supporting technical capabilities and knowledge base that has broader applicability.

I think it is safe to say that DOE’s combined investments in algae since 2009 exceeds $240 million. This is a relatively modest figure in the grand scheme of things, especially in comparison to both public and private sector investments that have been made in other fuel alternatives, both fossil and renewable. Investment of a few hundred million dollars over several years is also small in comparison to the strategic importance of fuels to our economy and national security. When you consider that we spend something close to a $1 billion per day on petroleum imports alone, it puts things in more perspective!

What role do you see for the DOE going forward, with respect to algal biofuels R&D or infrastructure building?

I expect to see DOE continue to play a role in making key investments in biological science and technology at the more fundamental levels, mainly through the Office of Science, that will contribute to the knowledge base and development of tools that can benefit algae R&D. This is true regardless of whether or not the Office of Science actually invests significantly in work on algae, which it currently does not. At the more applied level, I expect to see continued direct investment in algae biofuels RD&D and support for infrastructure building through OBP, with maybe continued support through ARPA-e for research and technology development that falls somewhere in between. All of this is contingent on what happens with future budgets.

Investments by both ARPA-e and OBP can play an important role in supporting U.S. technological innovation and reducing industry risks with new applications development. In my opinion, algae biofuels fall into the “high risk / high reward” category of investment that is difficult, if not impossible, for the private sector to undertake and support on their own at the levels and breadth of effort needed to really advance the field. My own experience is that the so-called “valley of death” is a very real place when it comes to taking a technology idea from concept to commercial product, and it usually takes much longer time and requires much more investment than most people think. This is especially true in mature and relatively conservative industry sectors like energy and fuels and their associated end-use application markets.

I believe that DOE, both through its investment funding and by providing access to it’s network of national R&D capabilities, can play an important role collaboratively with industry and academia to help address some of the more critical and higher-risk technical and economic challenges facing biofuels generally, and algae specifically.

It’s important to keep in perspective that we’re talking here about strategic investment in U.S. innovation and technical improvement for the longer-term future of reliable and sustainable domestic fuel supplies critical to the nation’s economic and environmental health and security. This, in my opinion, brings national security and national economic well being arguments to the table for why federal investments are needed and appropriate to support critical RD&D involving longer lead times and technical risks that can’t be borne by, or left entirely to, short-range bottom-line market-driven industry decisions. We also need to be working on reducing demand through more efficient use of energy and fuels, but developing more secure and sustainable supply side options can’t be ignored.

How about funding from other governmental agencies, like USDA, EPA, DARPA or others? Where do you see the most support for algal biofuels coming from in the future?

These and other federal agencies, including DOE, communicate and coordinate at high levels though an interagency bioenergy R&D board and related biofuels working group. Each of the federal agencies come at this from the perspective of different missions, roles, responsibilities, authorities, and budgets. Agencies like EPA have a regulatory role that is clearly different from the scientific and technology research, development and application roles of agencies like DOE and DARPA.

Read the rest of the story.

 

September 19, 2011

Cleantech Spotlight: EcoMaxAC

A Texas company taps the coolness of the ground to cut AC costs

By Allen Best

THE COMPANY: EcoMaxAC of El Paso, Texas

STORY IN BRIEF: Entrepreneur Rocky Bacchus proposes to capture 1.7 percent of the $15 billion annual sales for air conditioners by delivering improvements to an old technology that draws on cooler temperatures in the ground to radically reduce annual electrical costs, with benefits to be shared by homeowners, contractors and electrical utilities – and investors, who he predicts will get tenfold returns within a few years.

THE PROBLEM: Cooling air is enormously expensive. In Arizona, the hottest summer days drive electrical demand that is twice that of other peaks demands. Even in Ontario, Canada, peak annual demand occurs in summer – because of air conditioning. To meet these peak demands, electrical utilities must add expensive electrical generation at costs easily 10 times as high as compared to other periods. This results in high costs to the utility, the consumer, and usually both.

THE SOLUTION: Geoexchange technology taps the steady 55 degree temperatures found below ground for both heat in winter and cooling in summer. EcoMaxAC seeks only to draw on the coolness in summer with 400 feet of coated-copper tubing buried in trenches 2 feet below ground and filled with circulating refrigerant. That cooling mechanism is combined with a water-cooled air conditioner, largely needed as a backup. Annual energy savings have ranged from $200 to $2,500, but altogether have averaged 50 percent, as compared to a conventional air conditioner.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY: The technology makes basic business sense, but the pot has been sweetened with a federal tax incentive of 30 percent for geoexchange systems plus various state and local incentives. New Mexico offers the most attractive incentives with a 30 percent state tax credit, a utility incentive, and the ability to sell renewable energy credits (RECs). EcoMaxAC sees its first primary market being Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California and Florida.

With all these incentives, a homeowner’s $23,000 system can be reduced to just $3,000, comparable to a conventional air conditioner, but with radically reduced energy costs for the next 15 to 30 years. The savings also allow room for air-conditioning contractors and dealers to achieve 50 percent higher profit margins.

MARKET CHALLENGES: The need to train contractors at scale to install such systems, and to gain their comfort in doing so. To achieve scale, and reduce manufacturing and installation costs, before the tax and other incentives expire. Several patents are needed for the mechanisms that make this hybrid system different from others. Capital for scaling. Overcoming consumer skepticism about numbers that are “too good to be true.”

THE TEAM: Rocky Bacchus has 35 years experience in air conditioning, and has operated solo since 2007. He created several inventions during his career to improve air conditioning. Robert Dunlop is a manufacturing manager that took a Square D plant from start up to $100 million sales in three years. Ron Bacchus has worked in multiple aspects of air conditioning for 33 years.

FINANCING: Self-financed, Bacchus is seeking $500,000 this year and ultimately $5 million. Once tax credits expire he envisions selling to one of the nation’s top seven air-conditioning manufacturers, who collectively build 98 percent of air conditioners, for market expansion inside the Untied States and around the world.

  

September 18, 2011

U.S. West key to energy independence and prosperity

Study shows that six states have the power to rebuild the economy

 The Blueprint for Western Energy Prosperity finds that by 2020, the West will produce as much oil and natural gas on a daily basis as the U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Venezuela, Colombia, Algeria, Nigeria and Russia combined.

The Blueprint, conducted by EIS Solutions with data analysis by ICF International, provides evidence that just six major oil and natural gas producing states in the West have the ability to help rebuild the economy and create jobs while displacing foreign imports.

The study concludes that if western producers are allowed to develop the vast domestic energy resources found on public lands, investment in the region will double to $58 billion annually by 2020, and direct, indirect and induced jobs will increase by 16 percent.

Federal government policies, however, are significantly undermining these projections of growth, investment and expansion. The Blueprint identifies government policies that are making western energy development increasingly more difficult, time consuming, and expensive, and recommends policies to overcome those obstacles.

“Western producers are gravely concerned that government policies are significantly undermining these projections of growth, investment and expansion,” said Western Energy Alliance President Tom Sheffield of Pioneer Natural Resources. “The West is supplying an increasing amount of America’s energy with a smaller environmental footprint, but while technological advancement has opened the door to a century’s worth of new oil and natural gas, misguided government action is preventing achievement of the region’s full energy potential.”

Read the rest of the story.

  

September 18, 2011

ASU takes a lead role in speeding solar energy advances

Engineering faculty will direct national research center

Arizona State University will lead a new national Engineering Research Center (ERC) supported jointly by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Department of Energy (DOE) to solve challenges to harnessing solar power in economically viable and sustainable ways.
 
The ERC for Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies – or QESST – will be led by faculty from ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

ASU researchers will work with colleagues at the center’s partner institutions – the California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Delaware and the University of New Mexico – to provide a staging ground for major innovations in solar energy devices and systems.

The NSF and DOE will jointly provide funding of $18.5 million for the first five years of the center’s operations.

The center’s mission includes accelerating commercialization of solar energy technologies through partnerships with industry and expanding opportunities for education in energy engineering.

Engineering Research Centers sponsored by the NSF focus on areas of research considered vital to national interests in science and engineering innovation, technological advancement, economic expansion and education of future innovation leaders.

Read the rest of the story. 

September 18, 2011

Clean energy financing: time to get creative

Chevron is looking for good ideas

By Martha Young

The entrepreneurial path has two critical financing points that can make or crush a clever idea.

The first point comes between the laboratory and the launch of a company. The prospective entrepreneur holds only the idea and maybe a prototype, lacking everything from industry advisors and guidance to development facilities and basic business infrastructure. Good ideas languish in research labs around the globe due to tight capital markets.

Should a developer have been able to bootstrap an idea, or been fortunate enough to obtain funding to launch a startup, the second significant finance point comes at what is graphically labeled “The Valley of Death.” This is the period of time between company launch and achieving commercial success.  Both of these financing points are considered extremely high risk. So high, in fact, that in today’s fiscally constrained environment, obtaining funding at either of these points is challenging.

What is the solution?

Partnering with industry leaders is a creative way for prospective entrepreneurs to obtain the resources needed whether they are seeking to come out of the lab or are further along and ready to pursue commercialization.

The sustainable energy industry is particular volatile, a classic sign of significant opportunities hindered by an exceptionally wide chasm to commercialization. The capital markets are not inclined to take on this much investment risk. With the recent bankruptcy of Solyndra, government loan guarantees will become harder to obtain. Entrepreneurs in this market must look to the industry leaders for support.

But who are these leaders? The oil and gas industry are the leading investors in alternative and renewable energy solutions. (See previous article on this topic here.)

Call for business plans

Chevron Energy Solutions has a call out to entrepreneurs seeking business support. The firm will bring pre-screened entrepreneurs to San Francisco on Nov. 10 to present their business plans and meet one-on-one with members of the Chevron Energy Solutions strategic alliance team. The deadline to apply is Oct.11. To learn more on how to participate in this event, click here.

“Chevron has invested over $200 million in emerging technology companies since 2000," Chevron spokesman Ken Pimental says. "We are constantly seeking innovation in existing energy technologies as well as emerging solutions to address the world’s energy needs.”

The firm is seeking clever ideas across the entire business spectrum from still in the laboratory to ready for commercialization. Chevron Energy Solutions offer a wide breadth of support for selected companies including:

• assisting in defining market needs and requirements,
• research and development  support,
• strategic partner and
• financing.

Chevron Energy Solutions has over 90 percent of its business located in the U.S. This is a good opportunity for U.S.-based entrepreneurs to meet with an energy thought leader that is willing to assist and guide the start up.

The program is in partnership with the Environmental Business Cluster, a clean tech incubator that was ranked the leading clean energy incubator in the world based on the number of technologies that it has successfully brought to market.

You have everything to win and nothing to lose to apply, so go for it.

 

 

  

September 12, 2011

Carbon storage drilling underway in Wyoming

But finding it is only half the battle

On a mid-June afternoon in the dusty plains of southwest Wyoming, a team of oil drillers got the final thumbs-up to begin boring deep into the earth. By August, they were more than 90 percent of the way to reaching their goal of drilling a test well 2.5 miles below the surface.

But this is not any old well.

The crew from Baker Hughes, a Houston, Texas-based oil services company, is not even searching for oil, but for something far more elusive: a leak-proof place to permanently store carbon dioxide emissions from coal-burning power plants to curtail global warming pollution.

The effort is part of the Wyoming Carbon Underground Storage Project,(WY-CUSP). Fourteen years in the making, the project is being closely watched to see if it can overcome the financial and technical challenges that have plagued other carbon capture and and sequestration (CCS) plans in the United States.

Up until last month, American Electric Power’s Mountaineer CCS plant in New Haven, W.Va., had grabbed the lion’s share of industry attention. It was the nation’s most advanced attempt at capturing CO2 from the 31-year-old coal plant’s exhaust gases and burying it in the deep-rock sandstone there. But on July 13, citing an uncertain U.S. climate policy and the continued economic downturn, AEP shelved the project.

Ron Surdam, director of the University of Wyoming’s Carbon Management Institute (CMI), which manages WY-CUSP, believes his team’s project is worthy of a different fate than AEP’s pilot. “We think we’ve got a world class place to store CO2,” he said.

But while the focus of attention may be shifting to WY-CUSP, it, too, faces enormous hurdles, and commercialization of CCS—touted by many as a critical national energy policy—remains a distant and uncertain prospect. Even if WY-CUSP succeeds in identifying a massive underground storage location for CO2, that is only half the battle, and perhaps the easier one to win for this technology.

Read the rest of the story. 

September 12, 2011

New Mexico pension fund performance dependent on oil and gas

A healthy energy industry means good news for jobs and revenue

A new Sonecon study released by API shows oil and natural gas holdings are key to the performance of New Mexico’s public pension funds. State pension fund investments in oil and natural gas companies are providing strong returns for teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public pension retirees in states across the country.

Study results were based on New Mexico’s largest public pension funds: Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico (PERA) and the State of New Mexico Educational Retirement Board.

Returns on oil and natural gas assets in these funds averaged 41 cents for each dollar invested compared to just 2 cents for other assets in these funds from 2005 to 2009. During good economic times – or challenging ones – oil and natural gas investments far outperformed other public pension holdings in the state. While oil and natural gas stocks made up an average of 4.5 percent of holdings in New Mexico’s public pension funds, they accounted for an average of 14.7 percent of the returns in these funds, according to the Sonecon study.

A healthy domestic oil and natural gas industry is good news for jobs and government revenue, and it also provides stability to the nest eggs that millions of Americans are counting on for a secure retirement.

Read the rest of the story. 

September 12, 2011

The electricity sector holds a key to quality of life in the West

It all depends on how it invests $200 billion by 2030

By Kelly de la Torre

A new report says that quality of life in the West will be significantly impacted by the investments made by the Western electricity sector in the next 20 years. The report, Western Grid 2050: Contrasting Futures, Contrasting Fortunes, issued by the Western Grid Group (WGG) with support from the Western Clean Energy Advocates (WCEA), is designed to inform policy and investment decisions for the Western electricity sector. Former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter has joined advocacy groups in calling for Western state leadership to work towards achieving the report's vision.

The report anticipates that the Western electricity sector will need to invest more than $200 billion by 2030 to replace aging coal, gas and nuclear facilities; meet increased electricity demand; continue reduction efforts; and add new electricity generation and transmission. The question is not whether hundreds of billions will be invested, but rather how they will be invested.

 To explore and evaluate the relative economic, environmental, energy security and public health consequences of the different investment choices, the report examined two trajectories: "Business as Usual" ("BAU") and "Clean Energy Vision" ("CEV"). In the study, the BAU trajectory focuses discretionary investment on retrofitting, repowering and adding coal generation and on meeting any incremental needs with new gas fired generation and the CEV trajectory focuses discretionary electricity resource investment on energy saving and renewable energy technologies.

One of the goals of the Report was to encourage an open dialogue on electricity system investment priorities in the West. In comparing the two trajectories, BAU and CEV futures will require different regulatory and policy mechanisms. The BAU paradigm is based on the existing infrastructure.

The utility regulatory structure in place today was chosen more than 50 years ago to induce utilities to invest in large, base load utility-owned generation. The cost based, rate of return regulation paradigm created incentives that are well-suited to the 5 to 10 percent annual growth in electric demand seen in the 1950s and 1960s. A BAU future is intertwined with the perpetuation of the 1950s regulatory paradigm, and thus no significant changes in institutions, regulations or policy are needed in the BAU future.

On the other hand, the report provides that the CEV trajectory will require different infrastructure, different planning and different regulation to support it.

A CEV future depends on aggressive amounts of electricity demand reduction, customer demand response and customer sited distributed generation. The cost of service, rate of return paradigm does not induce investor owned utilities to invest in customer side of the meter resources thus the regulatory paradigm must change in a CEV future.

Furthermore, a CEV trajectory requires much greater regional coordination and cooperation to build the infrastructure that access and efficiently utilize the best renewable resources in the West. Conventional regulation does not adequately induce investor owned utility participation in regional projects, and so once again the regulatory paradigm must change.

While Publicly Owned Utilities (POUs) do not profit from generation and grid investment in the same way that investor owned utilities do, POUs have also focused on developing resources within their own boundaries to serve their own need and efficient implementation of a CEV trajectory will require these POU policy choices to change.

The report is the first in a series of planned reports by the WGG and WCEA. In September, the WGG and WCEA intend to release the second phase of the report, "Clean Energy Vision Policies" describing mechanisms that can be used to guide transition to the CEV trajectory.

 

September 12, 2011

Bioenergy ready to edge out Hollywood in Kansas

It could be the world's first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol producer

By Allen Best

Hollywood move over. Cutting-dge bioenergy may become the new claim to fame of Hugoton, Kan.

Wikipedia says the most noteworthy person from this town of 4,000 in the state’s southwest corner is actor Billy Drago, whose most prominent role was as henchman to Al Capone in Brian de Palma’s 1987 film, The Untouchables.

Now, Abengoa Bioenergy plans construction of plant in Hugoton that could become the world’s first location for commercial-scale production of cellulosic ethanol.

Plans call for completion of a plant in 2013. It will capacity to produce an annual 23 million gallons of advanced cellulosic ethanol. The residue from the pant processing, called lignin, is to be burned, producing heat and power for the plant.

Andy Aden, senior research engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, reports that roughly 40 plants for processing cellulosic biomass are either in design or construction in the United States.  That alone “seems to say that the technology is here, and it’s on the cusp of becoming commercially ready and economic,” he says.

Aden doesn’t expect all technologies to succeed, but he does believe Abengao has a leg up over those who hope to leap from the workbench to commercial scale. Abengoa Bioenergy, he says, has “taken its time and looked at this in a number of different scales.”

A subsidiary of the Spanish company known for its work in the solar sector, Abengoa Bioenergy has been developing its technology for 10 years. From the laboratory it first tested its technology at a pilot plant in York, Neb., followed by evaluation at a demonstration-scale facility in Spain.

In 2007, Abengoa got a commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy for up to $100 million toward construction of the Hugoton plant. It was one of six second-generation facilities chosen for support in the DOE’s biofuels initiative. In August, the DOE announced a conditional commitment for a $134 million loan guarantee.

Officials in Hugoton said they thought the plant would cost more than $400 million. Abengoa officials did not return repeated phone calls to confirm costs, feedstock and other details.

“After we demonstrate the commercial viability of our proprietary enzymatic hydrolysis technology in Hugoton, we then plan to incorporate the technology into many of our other existing facilities by adding cellulosic production to the existing starch ethanol facilities that we currently operate,” said Manuel Sanchez, chief executive of Abengoa, in a press release.

Abengoa has production capacity of 380 million gallons of ethanol in the United States, including New Mexico, Kansas and Missouri, and 460 million gallons in Europe and Brazil.

Feedstock for the Hugoton plant is believed to be both residue from wheat and corn stover, which consists of the stalks, leaves and husks after ears have been stripped to feed livestock.

Hugoton normally has plenty of corn, a result of center-pivot irrigation systems that plumb the Ogallala Aquifer 500 feet below ground. Neal R. Gillespie, who directs Stevens County Economic Development, said scientists estimate the aquifer can deliver water for 200 years at current consumption. However, intense heat this year has wilted the corn crop, and drought is also evident: just 3 inches of precipitation so far. Hugoton’s average annual is 18 inches.

Corn-based ethanol has been widely criticized as being water intensive and with a huge investment of fossil fuels. NREL’s Aden says a lot of analysis – both by Abengoa and other researchers – shows cellulosic ethanol can deliver energy with much fewer greenhouse gases as compared to both fossil fuels but also conventional corn-based ethanol. 

September 01, 2011

Rare earth rising: Part 2

The twin fates of vanadium and uranium are inextricably linked

By Rob Reuteman

Editor's note: This is the second of two parts. Read Part 1.

The ore containing uranium and vanadium was first found in 1881 inwestern Montrose County. The discovery led to more than 100 years of boom and bust in the highly productive Uravan Mining District, named for – you guessed it – uranium and vanadium.

But the ore’s initial commercial use was for its small concentrations of radium, found in trace amounts as small as a seventh of a gram per ton.

“Just after the turn of the century, the use of radium in medical applications attracted considerable attention,” writes Telluride historian Paul O’Rourke. 

In Paris, Madame Marie Curie and her husband Pierre conducted various experiments on radioactivity from uranium ore, some of which came from Colorado. Radium is a byproduct of the radioactive decay of uranium. In the early 1900s, it was thought to be a cure for cancer and other ailments. Hot Springs such as the Indian Springs Hot Springs in Idaho Springs advertised themselves as radium springs.

“Revolutionary ‘Curie Therapy,’ together with traditional surgery was the only means then available for treating deep-seated cancers,” wrote O’Rourke, a former Bureau of Land Management historian. “By far the most precious substance in the world at the time – a gram retailed for $180,000 – demand for radium skyrocketed as news spread about the element's curative powers.”

From 1913 to 1926, a Colorado company, Standard Chemical, put 200 grams of radium on the open market, half going to hospitals for cancer treatment. In 1924, significant deposits were discovered in the Belgian Congo, and the Colorado market dried up. Another reason for the domestic market’s demise was the costly process of separating small amounts of radium from large amounts of vanadium that was separated and discarded. Also, the notion that radium was helpful in the treatment of cancer was largely discredited.

But as O’Rourke writes, “As is often the irony in the mining industry, a mineral once the outcast soon becomes the darling.”

 In 1905 the first U.S. vanadium mill was built along San Miguel River, capitalizing on its growing use as a steel alloy. The mill was soon connected to the Rio Grande Southern railroad. In 1913, the nearby town of Newmire was renamed Vanadium and its population tripled to 350. A few years later, the mill was dismantled and most residents left as it was unable to compete with larger vanadium operations near Rifle.

As the world gradually moved toward World War I, vanadium was increasingly used to harden the steel in cannons and other weaponry.

“Vanadium steel was very impact-resistant and made great armor plating,” said Jim Burnell, a senior minerals geologist with Colorado Geological Survey. “It became very valuable during the war, setting off another boom. “

Through the 1930s, the old radium mines were reopened for vanadium. In 1936, the settlement that grew up around one mine was named Uravan. By the early 1940s, Colorado was producing nearly 50 percent of the world’s vanadium.

At the same time, the U.S. government was quietly involving itself in the Uravan mines and mill. The U.S. Geological Survey sent teams to examine vanadium tailings for their uranium content as America secretly worked on the atomic bomb.

The project was kept secret even from workers and engineers who oversaw the mines. The mill was retrofitted for uranium extraction, and small containers of ore were surreptitiously shipped from Uravan to Grand Junction. From there, it went to atomic scientists in Oak Ridge, Tenn., Hanford, Wash., and Los Alamos, N.M. It was used — along with uranium from Canada and the Congo — to produce the warheads that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

By 1950, Uravan — once the hub of radium and then vanadium mining — was again propelled into industrial prominence as a source of uranium.

From then until now, the area’s fortunes rose and fell with those of nuclear power. Declining demand and increased foreign supply led to the closing of the mill and the abandonment of the town in 1984. Then the global spread of nuclear power led to a rise in uranium prices, prompting the reopening in 2004 of four Uravan mines, which also sold the vanadium from the ore. The mines were closed in 2005.

Today, the world’s 435 nuclear reactors need 180 million pounds of uranium a year. But worldwide mine production yields only 110 million pounds, with the remainder reclaimed from existing stockpiles of ore and even retired nuclear weapons. For instance, the 18-year-old Megatons to Megawatts program recycles bomb-grade uranium from dismantled Russian nuclear warheads into enriched uranium used to produce fuel for American nuclear power plants. But the program expires in 2013.

Legal challenge

Since vanadium and uranium originate from the same ore, their twin fates remain inseparable. Vanadium will not be mined in Colorado anytime soon unless uranium is.

In March, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment issued a radioactive materials license to Energy Fuels, allowing the company to proceed with its Pinon Ridge mill.

The Sheep Mountain Alliance promptly sued the state, claiming Colorado regulators failed to follow federal and state law in permitting the mill. State regulators and Energy Fuels moved to have the suit dismissed, but a Denver District judge rejected their arguments in May, clearing the way for Sheep Mountain’s legal challenge to proceed.

Sheep Mountain, among other things, asserts that many tons of uranium ore waste will be dumped without proper emissions limits, releasing radioactive radon from the tailing piles. Radon is a radioactive gas that increases the risk of cancer when inhaled. It can impact the health of communities beyond a 50-mile radius, Sheep Mountain says.

“Their opposition has everything to do with an opposition to nuclear power, which they regard as a Pandora’s Box,” said Brian Wilson, Montrose County public works director. “They regard radiation as a kind of boogeyman thing. We need to mature past those kinds of things as a nation if we are going to have energy independence.

“By importing all our uranium, we’re simply pushing the problem into the Third World, where there is little regulation of the mining,” he added. “We’d rather go kill people in some foreign country. Here, we have regulatory oversight where we can do it well and lead the world.”

Cognitive dissonance is defined as an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously.

It’s the feeling shared by West Slope environmentalists who oppose the Pinon Ridge mill, said Energy Fuels' Moore. “Nuclear power in general puts ‘enviros’ between a rock and a hard place. Uranium’s use in nuclear energy is the best way to produce large-scale electricity that doesn’t have carbon emissions. Even a lot of environmentalists are saying that if we’re worried about carbon we have to increase our use of nuclear power.”

Says White, of the Sheep Mountain Alliance, “Unfortunately, at current levels of energy use, no, I don’t see a way around an increase in nuclear energy. And yes, the technology has improved, but there remain ongoing environmental concerns. And even if they were doing it safely, what would we be sacrificing to do that?”

 The region’s health and long-term economic vitality could be severely damaged from dangerous radon emissions from the mill, she said. “We cannot afford the dangers of uranium milling and mining of the past to be repeated again on the Western Slope. Some of us look into the future. We don’t want to leave a legacy for the next generation that is toxic or uninhabitable.”

Said Burnell, of the Colorado Geological Survey: “Even in alternative energy technologies, there are many natural resource demands. A recognition of those requirements will create conflict in some individuals. They’ve got to resolve that themselves.”

Wilson, who worked as an engineer cleaning up uranium tailings in the Grand Junction area in the 1980s, said, “Until man is perfect, there will be unintended consequences. That’s mankind’s progress.”  

September 01, 2011

New tool calculates value of California solar homes

Homeowners can run the numbers

A new online tool launched today by the California Energy Commission now helps the housing market evaluate the value of solar on California homes. The Solar Advantage Value Estimator (SAVE) will give the industry a long term and cost-effective method for calculating the added value of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems on new and existing solar homes.

"This changes the perception of solar in the housing industry that benefits homeowners. California solar homes are essential to meet California's New Solar Homes Partnership goals and renewable energy mandates. Today's changing real estate market requires a credible method to determine a home's value with solar and this tool is an example of California's leadership to develop new methods to cultivate clean energy," said Energy Commission Commissioner Carla Peterman.

SAVE calculates the value of a solar PV system on a new or existing solar home including the estimated value in annual energy savings. The tool uses the homeowner's unique address and zip code, the solar system size, specific climate zone data, and local electric utility rates. The solar PV system information is captured from existing solar rebate data including the Energy Commission's New Solar Homes Partnership (NSHP) and the Emerging Renewables Program. The information can also be entered by the user.

Read the rest of the story. 

September 01, 2011

Of swans, wolves and bears

The challenge of sustainable ranching

The owner and staff of the J Bar L in Montana had been pursuing some recent dramatic changes in their management, which they wanted to share with others.They wanted to discuss the results they were seeing on the land and what they meant. It did not take an expert to know that some of their biggest changes were beneficial to both the environment and human health.

First, they are now producing 100 percent grass-fed cows (read: no corn, unnecessary drugs, or hormones). With an abundance of grass available in winter on a lower elevation ranch near Twin Bridges, they have been able to eliminate their previous reliance on hay, which greatly reduces their energy consumption and carbon footprint.  They are also not selling their cows to feedlots, many of which are horrible from the standpoint of chemical and hormone inputs to the cows, which in turn are not healthy for the people who consume them. Feedlots are also notorious causes of air and water pollution, as well as inhumane for the cows.

J Bar L’s  program of frequently moving cows around the landscape means that there is a lot of grass, sagebrush, and other plant cover and forage left over for birds, foxes, coyotes, bobcats and other wildlife that use the area. In my brief time there, I saw coyotes, fox, three black bears, numerous moose, pronghorn, elk and an abundance of birds, including bald eagle, harrier, sandhill cranes, great blue heron, lesser scaup, coots, bluebirds and meadowlark.  And I heard of a grizzly bear that they saw occasionally on a nearby mountain. 

Read the rest of the story. 

September 01, 2011

Colorado oil & gas working to become more transparent

Former Shell president warns that the industry must talk to the public or face more regulation

By Martha Young

Colorado's oil and gas industry is taking major strides to become more transparent to the public. Mission Possible, the theme of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association's (COGA) 23^rd annual Energy Epicenter Conference, reflected its awareness of the need to improve communications and get in front of issues before they become emotional flashpoints.

In a keynote address entitled Cutting through the Contradiction, former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister lambasted the industry for talking to itself and its associations.

“The burden is on the industry to answer the who, what, whys," he told the conference. "In a democracy, if the public is fearful, then the government is forced to regulate.” 

Other issues discussed at the conference included the following:

Groundwater

Groundwater safety is a major concern for communities near drilling pads. Once the water is contaminated it is extremely difficult to clean. The O&G industry has repeatedly been charged with contaminating ground water. However, groundwater contamination can occur naturally as the rocks decompose releasing a variety of gases including methane and radon.

At the conference, COGA announced a voluntary groundwater sampling program. The program is in partner with the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and Gov. John Hickenlooper. The voluntary program has been embraced by over 90 percent of the oil and gas companies doing business in Colorado. The data will be compiled in a database and made publically available at the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission website. More details on the program can be found here.

Hydraulic fracturing fluids

Hydraulic fracturing has only recently become a flashpoint topic. The oil and gas industry has been doing well fracturing since the 1940s. The bulk of the fluids, over 90 percent, used in fracturing are water and mud. It is the remaining 10 percent of undefined chemicals that concern citizens. There is a public outcry for disclosure of the chemicals being used. This is not an unreasonable request, except that companies within the industry consider this information a trade secret that provides a firm one of its sustainable competitive advantages.

Two exciting solutions were presented at the COGA conference. First is the endorsement of the website FracFocus.org. The website is a joint project of the Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. The site provides fact-based information on the chemicals used by site, as well as clarifying information that explain the fracturing process.

The second solution was presented by Halliburton during the luncheon keynote. The firm demonstrated the safety of its newest fracking fluid, CleanStim, by drinking it! The new formula is made of food-grade products.

Energy policy

Panel after panel noted the need for a national energy policy. This topic comes up at every energy conference. The only way we will get an energy policy is by demanding our representatives take action.

Without an energy policy that focuses on developing our own resources, from wind and solar to oil and gas, the country will continue to be in the clutches of OPEC. There is a direct correlation between GDP and energy consumption. If our legislators really want to get the country back onto an economic growth trajectory, then they must make developing an energy policy a top priority.

National security

First and foremost, energy availability and reliability is a national security issue. As was noted at the COGA conference, and across numerous other conferences, the United States is funding both sides of the Iraq and Afghan wars. The money sent abroad for a barrel of oil gets transferred to our enemies. The impact of importing oil is extremely detrimental to the security of the country.

The international political situation is extremely complex, but at the end of the day Washington has an obligation to take care of its own constituents first.  Energy issues are spun a dozen different ways including as a climate issue, healthcare issue, or environmental issue; but the only one that really impacts every single person in the country is the national security issue.

August 30, 2011

California awards more than $29 million for biofuel, natural gas technology

It's part of the state's commitment to cleaner transportation

The California Energy Commission has approved more than $29 million for projects that advance biofuels and demonstrate California's commitment to develop cleaner transportation fuels. The seven awards are funded through the Commission's Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, completing the first two years of the program funding cycle.

"This is a major milestone for our program because it means we have awarded all $175 million from the first two years of the AB 118 program, plus another $14 million from the 2010-11 funding cycle," said Energy Commission Vice Chair James Boyd. "We have awarded more than 82 grants, public agency agreements and program support contracts totaling $189.4 million in AB 118 funding, leveraging more than $425 million in private match funding and creating or retaining about 5,600 jobs. "

These seven awards will infuse more than $44.5 million into the California renewable industry. Recipients estimate the awards will create or retain 616 construction, engineering and management jobs over the next three years. The proposed projects focus on reducing petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, providing jobs by advancing biofuel technology and installing alternative fuel infrastructure for fleets.

Read the rest of the story. 

August 30, 2011

Energy efficiency finance 101

Understanding the marketplace

The number of energy finance programs has increased dramatically in recent years. As the variety of programs expanded, so too has the diversity of financial institutions participating in local programs. Each of these different types of financiers has specific strengths, weaknesses, and areas of focus. Only by understanding these unique attributes can the best partner for each individual program be identified. In Energy Efficiency Finance 101: Understanding the Marketplace, an ACEEE white paper, we highlight the types of financing partners in the marketplace and offer a guide to their individual interests, risk tolerances, and place in the financial services industry. This is one of a series of papers from ACEEE that offers tools to make it easier for states, municipalities, utilities, and private lenders to learn from past experience and develop more effective energy efficiency programs.

Understandably, when beginning a financing program, a program manager’s first thought often is that a commercial bank would be the most logical financing partner. Since banks are the largest lenders, this reaction makes sense. In some cases, banks can play an important role in these local initiatives. But banks represent just one of the many different types of institutions involved, and often are not the best fits for a program, especially early on. While banks may be eager to participate, as regulated financial institutions they must maintain strict credit standards and avoid high risk lending. This aversion to riskier loans can make them poor fits for programs targeting a broad spectrum of participants. Interestingly, credit unions, which are also regulated, have been far more active partners in energy initiatives than banks, especially for programs targeting homeowners. 

Read the rest of the story. 

August 26, 2011

Fossil fuels, foreign trade and foreign investment in the U.S. West

The global influence on Western energy production

The United States’ economy is heavily dependent on fossil fuels: coal, natural gas, and oil. Most contemporary discussion of American fossil fuel use centers on the country’s dependence on theimportation of foreign oil, which has been the subject of economic policy analysis since the American oil crises that bookended the 1970s. While the fervor of this narrative suggests that almost all of America’s carbon energy is procured beyond its borders, this is incorrect.

In 2010, 71 percent of fossil fuel energy consumed in the United States was produced domestically. Most of this fuel production happens in rural America, especially in the 18 Western states that straddle or sit to the west of the fabled 100th meridian. However, since almost 80 percent of Americans live in urban centers, many remain unaware that the rural West serves as America’s own “Carbon Colony.”

The story of how fossil fuel extraction is changing the rural West is one that receives little national attention. If the importation of less than 30 percent of fossil fuel consumption in the United States is an important economic story, then a thorough investigation of the economic situation that drives the other 70 percent should be just as vital. This economic policy brief aims to tell this story, with a focus on production in the American West. However, the United States does import a significant amount of its fossil fuel energy, suggesting that fossil fuels have become a global commodity to a large degree.

Thus, the second area this brief intends to examine is the effect of globalization on the fossil fuel economy of the American West. The United States economy has become increasingly globalized over the last sixty years. In 2010, 28.6 percent of America’s economic activity was the result of international trade, compared with 20.4 percent in 1990, 11.1 percent in 1970, and just 8.2 percent in 1950.

Foreign investment in the United States economy has similarly been increasing. In 2007, just before the recent recession, foreign investment as a percentage of American gross domestic product was 15 percent. In the 1980s and early 1990s, this number hovered just above 2 percent, and in the 1960s foreign investment was virtually nonexistent, consistently falling below 1 percent.

At the same time, the United States economy is currently $14.9 trillion, which means a huge segment of domestic production and consumption exists. Oil and gas contributes about 7.5 percent of American GDP, while coal adds just less than 1 percent. However, in many Western states abundant in fossil fuels, the percentage of GDP contributed by oil, gas and coal production is much greater than the American economy as a whole.

For instance, in Wyoming, fossil fuel production contributes almost 40 percent of state GDP. Even a state such as Texas, which has a large and diverse economy, relies on oil and gas production for almost 25 percent of its GDP. This sampling of economic data demonstrates the globalized nature of the American economy within the scope of strong domestic demand and at the same time indicates the importance of fossil fuels to economic activity in the American West.

Read the rest of the story. 

August 26, 2011

Rare earth rising: Part 1

Vanadium’s potential
for energy storage is
helping to drive push for uranium mining’s return in Colorado

By Rob Reuteman

For the past 20 years, scientists have been researching its use in new-age batteries. But until recently, they’ve been plagued by the vanadium redox battery’s limited storage capacity and inability to operate effectively in any temperature extremes.

Along with other obstacles, the added expense of maintaining expensive cooling systems has rendered the battery infeasible outside the research lab. But new government-funded research surmounts some of those obstacles, and could trigger a game-changing renewable energy breakthrough.

The quandary?

Vanadium exists side by side with uranium, in the same controversial ore that has spawned so many blessings and curses around the world for the past 70 years, first in atomic bombs and next in nuclear energy reactors.  You can’t mine one without the other.

“That certainly would be ironic,” said Hilary White, executive director of the Telluride-based Sheep Mountain Alliance (www.sheepmountainalliance.org).

Sheep Mountain has three lawsuits pending against Energy Fuels Inc., a Canadian company with offices in Lakewood that has received state approval to open the Pinon Ridge Uranium Mill in Montrose County.

On its website (www.energyfuels.com), Energy Fuels refers to itself as “an advanced uranium and vanadium development company.”

The company has spent $11 million in the past two years developing its plan to process up to 500 tons of ore per day, producing 850,000 pounds of uranium oxide pellets, each one generating the same amount of electricity as 100 tons of coal.

If built, the projected $150 million Pinon Ridge plant would be the first such U.S. facility constructed since 1980, when the White Mesa Uranium Mill in Blanding, Utah, opened. White Mesa is currently the only active uranium mill in the country.

“Vanadium represents a significant part of what we will produce,” said Curtis Moore, director of communications and legal affairs for Energy Fuels.  “We expect vanadium to represent about 25 percent of our total revenue. “

At current commodity spot prices, uranium brings about $68 per pound, while vanadium brings $7 per pound.

The ore that will be processed at Pinon Ridge contains four to five times more vanadium than uranium, Moore said. “At this point we plan to sell it for its use as a steel alloy (its main use since the early 1900s). At the same time, we remain very interested in vanadium-lithium batteries and the vanadium redox battery, which may at some point provide large-scale, communitywide electrical storage.”

“I don’t know enough about the processing of vanadium to say much about it,” Smith said. “This is the first time it’s come up. I do know that Energy Fuels’ main goal is to get uranium out of the ore and use the vanadium as a side market.”

Breakthrough

For 20 years, vanadium redox batteries have been regarded as a promising large-scale energy storage device, hampered by its high cost and inability to work well in a wide range of temperatures.

Public officials in Telluride, for instance, toyed with the idea 10 years ago of using utility-scale vanadium redox batteries as a way to get the town’s electric power “renewable and totally off the grid,” Smith recalled.

The project was abandoned as “not economically feasible,” she said.

But earlier this year, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., published research on their experiments that increased the batteries’ energy storage capacity by 70 percent and expanded the temperature range in which they operate.

In a paper published by the journal Advanced Energy Materials, lead author and PNNL chemist Liyu Li wrote, “Our small adjustments greatly improve the vanadium redox battery. And with just a little more work, the battery could potentially increase the use of wind, solar and other renewable power sources across the electric grid.”

Perhaps the biggest criticism of solar and wind energies is that its power is unreliable because it is intermittent. A traditional power plant generates electricity in a reliable, consistent stream by controlling how much natural gas or coal is burned. With wind and solar, no reliable storage exists that can store the energy for use at times when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.

The new research into vanadium redox batteries may change the equation. By tinkering with the electrolyte chemistry in the batteries, researchers were successful in getting them to work in both warmer and colder temperatures, between 23 and 122 degrees Fahrenheit. That breakthrough eliminates much of the need for costly cooling systems. The refurbished batteries also were able to maintain more than 85 percent of their efficiency for more than 20 days – more than enough time between bursts of sunshine and gusts of wind.

The new-energy financial news website EnergyBoom.com wrote about the research in March, with the headline “Is Vanadium ‘the Next Big Thing’ for Renewable Energy Storage?”

“Proponents of the metal vanadium believe it will improve the economics of wind and solar power enough to make them cost-competitive with fossil fuels,” the trade publication reported. “Batteries using vanadium have the right combination of scalability, power and discharge/recharge characteristics to store wind and solar power until it can used during peak demands when prices are highest.”

Vanadium also is being tested on a smaller scale for use in electric cars. President Obama pledged to put 1 million plug-in hybrid electric cars on the road by 2015, and has pushed a $2.4 billion grant program to develop next-generation batteries. Vanadium-lithium batteries have scored important successes in the lab, but more research is needed.

“We will not have electric cars without lithium and vanadium for batteries,” said Joe Martin, chairman of Cambridge House International, a Canadian company that conducts annual conferences for resource investors.

Martin also cited vanadium’s importance “in better and stronger metal alloys, as well as in larger next-generation batteries. Maximizing the existing electrical grid demands storage and more generating capacity, so critical materials include uranium (in reactors), lithium and vanadium (for storage).” 

August 22, 2011

Montana company believes it has the energy storage answer

Zinc Air says it's up to the challenge

By Joan Melcher

“Energy suffers from a distribution challenge,” said Greg Hayes, a startup entrepreneur and adviser to Zinc Air Inc.

Many would consider that an understatement, especially when it comes to renewable energy.

“The market is desperately seeking a storage solution,” Hayes said in a recent interview. “As soon as we can get the doors to the store open, we’ve got customers lined up outside.”

Clearly, Zinc Air believes it has the goods to address the energy storage problem. A Zinc Redox battery will be powering Zinc Air’s research and development facility outside of Kalispell, Mont., by the end of the year.  And the battery is scheduled to make its commercial debut in December as a one-megawatt storage system at Juhl Wind’s Woodstock Hills wind farm near the company headquarters in Woodstock, Minn. Juhl Wind is a major player nationally in small-scale and community wind development.

Zinc Air, based in Kalispell, is running with the zinc flow technology funded by the U.S. Defense Department and developed at the Lawrence-Livermore Laboratory.  The company has been developing the Zinc Redox battery for the last two years.

Hayes, who lives in Sacramento, noted the strengths of the zinc battery: zinc is abundant in the United States at relatively low cost and it’s nontoxic. “You could send it down the sewer system,” he said, noting that companies making the lithium battery are dependent on supplies found mainly in China and Afghanistan.

Hayes, who currently is involved with five start-up companies, is bullish on Zinc Air, partly because of what he sees as the storage system’s performance and also because the company has been able to keep costs down. “The initial costs are ridiculously lower” than current-use technology, he said.

He said small-scale wind developers are the most interested at this point. “Both wind and solar have the variability issue, but the smaller commercial wind projects are the ones most interested in finding a solution,” he said. “We’re looking at the one- to ten-megawatt wind operations.”

Dan Juhl, chairman and chief executive officer of Juhl Wind, was quoted in Kalispell’s Daily Interlake as saying his company chose the Zinc Air battery because it offers the combination of being the most advanced technology, along with being the most environmental safe option.

“If we can build a combination wind farm with storage for the cost of a new coal plant, we are confident we can deliver totally clean electricity that can compete head-to-head with the wholesale energy market today and into the future,” he said.

Zinc Air landed in Kalispell partly because one of the founders lives there and also because the company has been able to capitalize on the expertise of former Semitool scientists and physicists, Hayes said. Semitool, a Kalispell-based semi-conductor company, was acquired by Applied Materials in 2009.

“I can’t overstate the value of Semitool’s presence there. There’s tons of resident expertise,” Hayes said. “The state has been very helpful as well.”

Zinc Air has built a 10,000-square-foot headquarters on U.S. Highway 2 West, north of Glacier Park International Airport and currently employs 14 people. Hayes said there is a possibility the company will build a plant to manufacture the batteries in the area at some point in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

August 22, 2011

AREDAY brings alt-energy visionaries to Colorado

It's about more than putting the green in green

By Martha Young

The theme was Putting the Green in Green – Monetizing Carbon in the Global Economy. But the 8th Annual AREDAY (American Renewable Energy Day) conference in Aspen turned out to be so much more than that.

The conference started off fast and hard with Jigar Shah of the Carbon War Room asking the audience to call out family, friends, community members and political leaders on their lies and lack of support for alternative energy solutions. As an example of his point, Shah drew the audience’s attention to an Obama quote on the inside cover of the program: “To truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy.”

Shah took exception to the word ultimately, saying it lacked strength, determination and commitment.

Shah went on to cite other examples of failed energy policy leadership in the United States, noting this country is the only industrialized nation without an energy policy, yet every president from Nixon to Obama has called for energy independence.

The remedy to poor leadership is for constituents to demand action, supporting leaders who propose and vote for energy independence solutions and ensuring the removal of those who do not.

The failure in political leadership ended up being a major theme throughout the conference. The military-centric panel, assembled to discuss energy and national security, was especially vocal on failed leadership across the decades. Ret. Gen. Wesley Clark and Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn, along with T. Boone Pickens and Jim Calaway identified instance after instance of poor decisions across the political spectrum that have had immeasurable costs to the country in terms of lives, dollars, K-12 education, and science and technology leadership.

The bottom line call to action is to support those politicians who strive for energy independence and remove those who do not.

A second major theme of the conference focused on the financial side of alternative energy. The call to eliminate all subsidies across all energy solutions was voiced numerous times. Spokespeople in the wind, solar, and biotech industries believe they can effectively compete with the oil and gas industry if all energy industry players gave up all subsidies and tax breaks.

This sound bite needs to be pushed to all our political leaders as hard and often as needed to get them to take appropriate action.

The idea that there isn’t adequate funding available for alternative energy startups received a hardy thumbs down. Several investment groups participated in the panel discussions and each concurred with the others: money is available when a solid business plan is demonstrated. Gone are the days of a scientist working in a garage approaching the capital markets for funding. The scientist must now have a strong core business team to assist with executing on the idea. The investment community has returned to business fundamentals.

Another theme that ran throughout the conference was communication. The alternative energy sector has done a poor job in communicating its value proposition. The natural gas industry has done an equally poor job. With an emphasis on climate change, which is too nebulous for the average person, the message to get off of coal-based electricity is widely ignored.

Several ideas were put forth on what it would take to improve the clean energy, including natural gas, communications program. An emphasis on personal health and linking the increase in respiratory problems to coal emissions would bring the message to a more personal level. Other ideas were pushed around, but in the end it came full circle to the country’s desperate need for strong leadership at all political levels willing to develop and implement a long term energy independence plan.

Many of the keynotes and panel discussions were recorded and are available for viewing from the AREDAY website (click here for access).

 

 

  

August 19, 2011

Energy efficiency champs: A Colorado utility and a Pacific Northwest program

Xcel, Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance take top honors

A Colorado utility and a Pacific Northwest program for innovation in the design of industrial energy efficiency programs have been named Champions of Energy Efficiency in Industry by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. The awards, presented at the Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Industry, go to outstanding leaders involved with advancing industrial energy efficiency and recognize leadership and accomplishment in the field. Winners were selected based on demonstrated excellence in leadership, program implementation, energy policy, and private sector initiatives. Two of the four 2011 winners are:

• Xcel Energy Industrial Programs for creativity and persistence in delivering exemplary energy efficiency programs to industrial customers, and for providing leadership and support to the electric and natural gas utility industry in the design and implementation of industrial energy efficiency programs. The Xcel Energy industrial programs, led by the efforts in Minnesota and Colorado, have for many years been noted as among the best designed and most responsive to industrial customers' needs.
• Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) Industrial Program for innovation in the design of industrial energy efficiency programs, and collaboration with industrial customers in the Northwest to transform the market for industrial energy efficiency, charting a path for other regional programs .Almost a decade ago, NEEA embarked on an industrial program path different from most other programs in the country by establishing long-term working relationships with key industrial groups in its region.

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August 19, 2011

“Changing Planet” town hall features future of water in the Southwest

Arizona State panel draws big names

The future of water in the American Southwest and around the world will be the topic of a town hall discussion at Arizona State University hosted by NBC Learn, the National Science Foundation and Discover magazine. On tap for the Aug. 25 event will be a panel of nationally-recognized scientists and public policymakers who will address the changing patterns of freshwater resources, as well as questions on how to develop more efficient and sustainable water practices.

This event is the third in a series of “Changing Planet” town halls that are videotaped at U.S. universities and televised on The Weather Channel. Town hall panelists will include: Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico; Grady Gammage Jr., senior sustainability scholar with the ASU Global Institute of Sustainability and senior research fellow with the ASU Morrison Institute for Public Policy; Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority; and Heidi Cullen, host of “Forecast Earth” and research scientist and correspondent with “Climate Central.” The conversation will be moderated by Anne Thompson, NBC News chief environmental affairs correspondent.

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August 15, 2011

California study counts up green job trainees

But do they actually end up employed?

Politicians love to talk about the number of jobs a green economy can create. Jobs in solar installation, home energy retrofits and wind farm construction, to name a few.

But how do people get those gigs?

A report issued Thursday counted 298 green-job training programs in California, most of them created within the last five years. They train between 12,600 and 15,100 students per year -- numbers that are probably too low, because the study's authors couldn't get complete enrollment data for most of the programs.

Community colleges and technical schools accounted for many of the programs. But some were offered by labor unions or community groups or private education companies.

"Over the last couple of years, we've been hearing about this university, that organization, this labor union -- everyone seemed to be doing some kind of program," said Bernadette Del Chiaro, co-author of the report and director of clean energy programs at the non-profit Environment California Research & Policy Center. "We wanted to count them up."

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August 15, 2011

Texas researchers on biofuels cutting edge

At Rice University, they've developed a lightning-speed process

In Texas, researchers from Rice University have developed a genetically modified e.coli bacteria that can produce butanol, from glucose and mineral salts,  about 10 times faster than any previously reported organism.

“Rather than going with the process nature uses to build fatty acids, we reversed the process that it uses to break them apart,” said Ramon Gonzalez, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Rice and lead co-author of the study, which appeared in the most recent issue of Nature.

The team reversed the beta oxidation cycle by selectively manipulating about a dozen genes in e.coli. They also showed that selective manipulations of particular genes could be used to produce fatty acids of particular lengths, including long-chain molecules like stearic acid and palmitic acid, which have chains of more than a dozen carbon atoms.

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