Google Takes Big Step Into Solar, Wind Farm Finance

November 30, 2009

Google, the online search engine, is taking another big step into the clean-tech business.

Google's target is medium- and large-scale projects, says Google's Dan Reicher

The Internet titan announced on Monday evening that it would begin providing financing for solar farms, wind farms and other alternative energy developments.

Google’s Dan Reicher, director of climate and energy initiatives, declined to say how much money the Silicon Valley company has set aside. But he described the targets as medium- and large-scale projects.

The initiative, which has been the subject of rumors for several weeks, comes as a surprise from a company that makes its money selling online advertising.

Project finance is a potentially risky and negotiation-intensive business that has traditionally been left to major banks and deep-pocketed private investors. Contracts are difficult and tedious to arrive at and paybacks occur over decades, not years. However with many of these traditional lenders having pulled back during the downturn, Google sees an opportunity, says Reicher.

He said the company is reviewing projects and continues to iron out the details of whether it will work in syndicates or as backers of institutions playing a more hands-on role,

“There is a huge range to look at,” Reicher said at a Google-sponsored clean-tech event in San Francisco. “We need to get started.”

The clean-energy markets will certainly welcome Google’s cash, which at the end of the September was $22 billion. Over the past year, project funding has nearly ground to a halt, loosening a bit only recently, and many of the alternative energy farms simply have not been built.

Reicher said the Google program will kick off shortly.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Green Tech Space Race Is Seen, But Private Money Will Be Cautious

November 30, 2009

The concept is simple: more than halt the world’s population lives in cities and towns.

So by focusing renewable energy resources on these concentrations of humanity, the greatest good can be done to combat global warming.

Forget about bringing solar to the village in Kenya or the ranches dotting the Wyoming countryside. Spend money where it will do the most.

Electric car hype will dissipate to a more sober realization that efficiencies are needed across the transportation system

This concept seemed to underscore several 2010 predictions Monday from generally rosy Cleantech Group.  First, the research firm said it sees the unprecedented quantities of green stimulus money being doled out in the United States and elsewhere to spur a “space race” of sorts, with cities and states competing to nurture clean-tech industries.

This will likely be the case following all the government pump priming that has taken place in recent months. And momentum for clever approaches could come from a variety of places:, Singapore, Australia, France, Germany, Israel and parts of the U.S., just as Cleantech Group expects.

But a burst in private-equity and venture capital funding for green companies isn’t as much of a done deal as Cleantech Group anticipates. Cleantech Group calls for a level of funding well in excess of 2009’s. An incremental increase seems more likely given the nation’s continuing credit woes. Large funds will certainly be raised and big name investors will follow Warren Buffett’s move and deploy capital in clean-tech plays.

But a sharp reversal of today’s course isn’t probable

Cleantech Group also believes green marketing efforts will increase, oil will rise in price and the hype surrounding electric cars will dissipate. In place of today’s electric-car hype will come a realism that efficiencies are needed more broadly in the transportation sector, from shipping to urban public transport.

All this seems very plausible – and a positive step for a sustainable effort to turn climate challenges into climate successes. I second the motion.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Capstone Unveils Electric Sports Car With Built In Battery Recharger

November 30, 2009

Capstone Turbine’s latest electric concept car aims to simplify the concept of battery recharging.

Clean burning micro turbine charges batteries and extends car's range to 500 miles

Instead of pulling off the road to plug in and recharge the vehicle’s lithium polymer batteries, the CMT-380 fires up an on-board turbine that does the job on the fly.

The low-emissions turbine generator running on diesel or biodiesel fuel extends the car’s 80-mile battery range to 500 miles.

Capstone announced the sleek, Corvette-styled car on Monday and said it will debut at the Los Angeles auto show Dec. 2.

Capstone is a micro turbine maker and it designed the CMT-380 in conjunction with Electronic Arts Chief Creative Director Richard Hilleman.

The car is said to have a top speed of 150 miles per hour and acceleration that will take it from zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds. The emissions from the 30-kilowatt turbine are so clean they do not need to be treated with a catalytic converter, according to a press release.

Once at home, the car’s batteries can be plugged in to recharge. The company plans limited production run after measuring interest at the auto show.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Windation Approaches Milestone In Urban Wind Turbine Market

November 27, 2009

A key milestone is approaching for Windation Energy Systems,

The Menlo Park wind turbine start-up is about to put its first demonstration product in place, and a lot rides on its success. The roughly 9 foot square unit designed for urban use is about the size of a commercial rooftop air conditioning unit and will go on the top of a parking garage in the Silicon Valley town of Palo Alto.

Windation says 30 potential sales await the results of the first field test of its urban wind turbine

If it does what its supposed to do – generate 1 to 2 KW of electricity – more than 30 other sales could follow. They are awaiting the results of the Palo Alto project, says CEO Rez Sheikhrezai.

The spurt of sales would be a welcome event for Windation – and for the micro-turbine industry. Big hulking 300-foot tall turbines for commercial farms have caught on everywhere from China to Scotland. But the home and commercial buildings market remains small, despite the potential for generating energy in windy cities such as Chicago, Buffalo and Oklahoma City.

Sheikhrezai says there are signs of market interest. There have been 3,000 hits on the company’s unadvertised Website in the past month and 90 product inquires, he says. “There is public interest, for sure.”

The big drawback has been cost. Windation’s product is easier than many to permit because its turbines are contained in a box instead of exposed as propeller blades, considered more dangerous in an urban setting. But its cost is about $30,000 installed, meaning payback can be five years or so.

Nevertheless, Windation is upbeat. Sheikhrezai says it is possible the company can sell 1,000 units a year, which at a discounted price of $23,000 each, would translate to $23 million in revenue.

Hospitals, which have high energy demands, are part of his first target market. “Very positive people are looking” at buying, he says.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Wind Turbine Blades Take A Cue From The Humpback Whale

November 27, 2009

WhalePower fan blades are inspired by the bumps on the fins of a humpback whale

WhalePower’s catchy marketing slogan has got lots of mileage in technical trade publications: “A Million Years Of Field Tests.”

Now the Toronto company’s first product is coming to market. And its claim is a 20 percent boost in wind turbine performance. It also reduces turbine noise.

WhalePower’s Tubercle technology is the company’s ambitious bid to redesign the blades used in turbines, fans, pumps and compressors. It is inspired by the bumps on a humpback whale’s flippers, which increase its ability to power through water and correspondingly the ability of a blade to spin quicker in the air.

The first Tubercle product will be marketed through Envira-North Systems Limited for a high-efficiency ceiling fan. Envira’s claim is the blades can reduce the cost of a ceiling fan by 93 percent

The market reception will be an interesting test the wind industry should be watching closely.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Not All Clean Tech Start-ups Need $200 Million; The Other Side Of Venture Investing

November 25, 2009

Clean tech investing is often thought of as big money, big scale, speculative returns. But not all green start-ups require venture capitalists to write large checks.

The misconception is that every clean-energy project requires the hundreds of millions of dollars that have gone to Solyndra or Bloom Energy to construct manufacturing plants or take on complex technical problems.

Clean tech investor John Doerr says he crawls through university labs looking for early stage start-ups

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner John Doerr says he has two templates for clean-tech investments. The big-scale businesses do get the big money, he says. But others firms wrestle with scientific breakthroughs and products that are still as many as 10 years out – and don’t require as much cash.

“We crawl through labs trying to find them,” says Doerr.

Other start-ups more closely resemble the young software companies of 10 years ago, which might have been working on enterprise products and needed just a couple million dollars.

These companies might be developing energy conservation software or products to spark new grid efficiencies. They require money “the same way the software companies were funded back in the 1990s,” says Scott Wornow, a partner at the law firm of Baker Botts.

One such company is Reality Mobile, whose software helps field workers and office staff communicate more effectively. The better communications helps avoids unnecessary repair trips.

Another is Consolidated Green Services, with offerings as varied as waste collection and carbon tracking.

It is not a capital-intensive business, says Wornow, and in that way is like many other green startups.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Solar Execs Reject Plant Standards With Market Dominance Still Up For Grabs

November 25, 2009

Unlike semiconductor manufacturing, where producers adhere to similar technologies to make their silicon chips, solar production is the Wild West.

Manufacturers develop their own factory techniques that can have relatively little in common with those of a competitor. Several divergent streams of manufacturing are running full steam: polysilicon and thin-film, for example.

Survey finds 52 percent of solar execs aren't ready for manufacturing collaboration

Producers appear to have no intent to bring this to an end. Instead they seem to see factory differentiation as a potential advantage in a young industry with intense technological rivalries and rapid improving product efficiency.

Many acknowledged that the lack of standards can get in the way of project finance. How is a lender, including the government, to determine whether one process is better or more sustainable than another?

Still, the industry’s propensity for rugged technological individuality isn’t likely to go away soon. With plant techniques evolving quickly and the cleverest engineers stand to win big.

This was evident in a survey by the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International trade group of chip manufacturing companies. The survey, which pointed to the many similarities between solar cell manufacturing and chip fabrication, found 52 percent of solar industry execs unwilling to collaborate on production standards while 48 percent were in favor.

Collaboration opponents argued technology roadmaps can’t be put into place in such as dynamic industry.

At the same time, many recognized standardization could reduce the costs of plant automation, design software, technology integration and performance testing – and the survey did find some holes in the resistant armor.

Twenty percent did say some areas of manufacturing might benefit from standards and another 15 percent agreed a roadmap to overcome fragmentation would be useful.

Clearly solar manufacturing will someday come together on standards the way chip manufacturing has. But not today. Too much is at stake for the winners of the technology race.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

China Seeks Hegemony In Solar

November 24, 2009

China’s solar intentions are nothing short of world dominance – industrial hegemony in manufacturing, distribution and generation.

This seems evident on a number of levels as the nation’s planned economy and entrepreneurial spirit appear aimed at the same target.

From polysilicon manufacturing to solar farm installation, China wants to be the world's full-service solar store

Domestically numerous solar projects are being unveiled by one corporate subsidy or another. The internal Chinese solar market is expected to increase as much as six fold in 2010 to as much as 1.5 GW from 250 MW this year, according to an estimate from FBR Capital Markets. (It was only 70 MW in 2008.)

Government officials have recently approved 294 solar projects at a cost of $2.9 billion over several years. More are on the way. In total, they add up so far to 642 MW, only a sliver of the country’s projected annual production capacity of 4.5 GW.

That means looking abroad, even while construction at home is running at full steam.

This was evident in Tuesday’s announcement from GCL-Poly that it accepted a $710 million investment from a subsidiary of the state-owned China Investment Corp. According to FBR, GCL-Poly has already hired a San Francisco team eager to build farms in the United States.

In its sights are 300 MW of projects in the U.S. and Europe for potential investment, says FBR.

The challenge at least internally for Chinese companies is that domestic contracts have slim margins. Feed-in tariffs are low in China and government subsidies cover only about 50 percent of construction. This suggests money will need to be made abroad to fuel the industry.

Perhaps that is why the expansion fuse is burning so quickly.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Energy Dept Earmarks Another $620 Million For Smart Grids

November 24, 2009

The federal government dug into its pockets for a second round of smart grid funding, this time sending $620 million on 32 demonstration projects in 21 states.

The announcement came Tuesday from Energy Secretary Steven Chu and brings the department’s smart grid funding to more than $4 billion this year.

Steven Chu's Energy Department has now allocated more than $4 billion for smart grids

Smart grids promise energy savings and efficiencies by giving consumers greater access to information about and control over their energy use. They also hope to create more resilient electric grids capable of accepting large quantities of renewable energy from solar and wind farms.

However, fully capable smart grids are years away, with demonstration projects just getting underway.

On Tuesday, Chu said the public money will be matched with $1 billion of private funding. Sixteen of the awards, $4535 million in funds, will go to regional demonstration projects involving 50 utilities and 100 million consumers. These efforts include installing smart meters and improving the flow of information about electricity usage and power outages.

A second funding push will underwrite energy storage projects to enhance the reliability of the grid, such as advanced batteries, compressed air systems and flywheels.

Chu said smart grid technologies should be able to reduce the nation’s electricity use more than 4 percent by 2030, saving $20.4 billion.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Critical Wave Energy Trial Begins In Scotland

November 23, 2009

On Friday, Scotland embarked on one of the wave-energy industry’s most important product trials.

Aquamarine Power's Oyster is billed as the world's largest hydroelectric wave energy device

The world’s largest hydroelectric wave energy device, called the Oyster, was switched on. Power jolted into the energy grid, and manufacturer Aquamarine Power took a sigh of relief.

It is estimated the waters around Scotland hold about 10 percent of Europe’s wave energy. So the location of the trial is a critical test of the nation’s ability to harness the power of its local waters.

But more broadly, the in-water operation of the device is a key step for an industry still trying to prove that mechanical equipment can survive the harsh, corrosive offshore environment.

In a ceremony near the ocean’s edge, Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond proclaimed the moment as a renewables milestone for Scotland, which also has been an active developer of wind power.

The device was put in place on the seabed near Stromness  this summer in 30 to 40 feet of water. It works when a cylindrical arm – referred to as a wave energy converter – rocks back and forth in the ocean’s waves and pumps high-pressure water to an onshore hydroelectric turbine. The turbine makes the electricity, feeding it into the electrical grid.

Because the wave converter has few moving parts, the company believes it will stand up well to storms and foul weather.

It is estimated that 20 Oysters in an offshore farm can supply enough energy to power 9,000 homes. But not until the first shows itself well in the rough waters of the Scottish coast.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

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