Green Tech Will Reinvent The Infrastructure Of The World, Says Vinod Khosla

April 30, 2010

It is hard to predict when green energy technologies such as solar, wind and biofuel will be cheaper than oil and coal.

Khosla Ventures will make more money from the Amyris Biotechnologies IPO than it has invested so far, says VC Vinod Khosla

But when they are, watch out. “We will fundamentally reinvent the infrastructure of the world,” says top clean-tech venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. “This is about changing assumptions.”

Khosla, who was interviewed at the GreenNet conference in San Francisco, said that once the cost of green energy is competitive with fossil fuels, Wall Street financiers will pour money into projects, eager for big returns. The reinvention of the infrastructure will take place over 10 to 15 years, he said.

Khosla defended the investment portfolio he’s accumulated since turning his attention to green tech about five years ago. He admitted he hasn’t yet made money with clean-tech start-ups.

But he vowed, just like the Wall Street moneymen, he would eventually rake in big bucks – green from green, you might say. “I’m pretty confident we will,” he said.  Already the book value of the portfolio – an estimate of its market value – is higher than the amount of money his firm, Khosla Ventures, invested.

Earlier this month, Amyris Biotechnologies, one of his biofuels firms, filed to go public. It should be a success, Khosla said. “We will make more money with this than we invested so far.”

He’s equally confident about his other companies. Half will bring positive returns to Khosla Ventures, he predicted, a high hit rate for a venture fund.

So what technologies does Khosla see as ripe for investment? LED lighting is attractive with breakthroughs possible, he said. Clean coal is another area he is investigating.

5 Comments | news | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

ZigBee 2.0 Expected Before Year End

April 30, 2010

The Zigbee Alliance expects to release a new version of the wireless smart-grid standard in the second half of the year with a more polished, commercial edition of the standard by mid 2011.

ZigBee is expected to be included in 100 million radio chips this year

The low-power wireless technology has become increasingly popular in the smart grid, shipping inside 20 million radio chips last year and projected to be included in 100 million this year.

Development of new versions, however, has been slow due to the number of companies and government officials now involved in their approval.

The alliance is now on track to unveil a reasonably solid version of the new standard before the end of the year, said Adrian Tuck, CEO of Tendril Networks and vice chairman of the alliance. A more finalized edition should be complete during the first half of 2011, he said at the GreenNet conference in San Francisco.

Zigbee’s popularity has been driven by its simplicity and low energy use. Batteries in a Zigbee device last for years, not hours. That’s because unlike the wireless technologies Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, it transmits at lower data rates, sending only basic commands, such as on and off. It also is less expensive.

Zigbee is expected to be the protocol used in many smart meters to create home networks and communicate with thermostats, lighting, air conditioners and appliances. The aim is to will let people better manage their energy use even when outside the home.

The new version has an IP-based energy management technology that will expand its use, the alliance says.

The first version of ZigBee became available in May 2008 and is primarily used in commercial and industrial systems, such as alarm and monitoring equipment, and in custom home-automation systems

The alliance has more than 350 members, including Intel and Cypress Semiconductor.

1 Comment | news | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

[Video] Apple vs. Gizmodo: Police Used Excessive Violence, says Ex-Sheriff

April 29, 2010

Gizmodo paid $5,000 for Apple's next -generation iPhone who was "forgotten" in a Silicon Valley bar!

The Apple vs. Gizmodo stand-off, also known as the “lost iPhone” saga is getting murkier by the hour.

On Friday, members of the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT) Task Force raided Gizmodo’s editor Jason Chen and seized all kind of electronic equipments including several computers.

No need to resort to violence !

Surprisingly, the blogger was at the scene when the San Mateo county cops used a battering ram to break into his home.

“The blogger was there, they could have asked him for access… they didn’t have to break into the door, this wasn’t a drug bust. They didn’t need to use violence,” says analyst and former Sheriff, Rob Enderle.

REACT over-reacted ?

According to the task force’s website, REACT is a partnership of 17 local, state, and federal law-enforcement agencies headquartered in Santa Clara County. It was founded in 1997 to address new types of crime directly tied to California’s increasingly computer-oriented economy and widespread use of the Internet.

“This is an organisation that was primarly put in place to catch professional criminals. Catch from people who was stealing from one company and selling information to another one. High profile intellectual property cases like somebody breaking and stealing processors from Intel or sold something of very high value… This is not an organisation that was put in place to keep people from reporting on information,” adds Enderle.

Apple’s undue influence on REACT

“Apple certainly is the one who appears to have pushed REACT into taking this kind of response. And appears they are on their advisory board and they may have undue influence on the group. Also we may have a group that want to prove themselves in some high profile way and assure funding [especially in an election year!]… It looks really questionable.”

No charges are filed yet – against Gizmodo or the poor soul who found the phone and got the stipend – and the seized computers are supposedly left untouched until a judge figures out if REACT had the right to seize them.

Like they say, shoot first and then ask questions !

4 Comments | hardware, Interviews, news | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Google Opens The Kimono On PowerMeter, Says Consumer Use High

April 29, 2010

The easy access to home energy data is a serious constraint to smart grid innovation.

But you would never know it from the success of Google’s PowerMeter, the online software that lets homeowners monitor their power consumption.

Forty-six percent of PowerMeter users check their energy use three times a day or more, says Google's Edward Lu

The growth in the use of the free product is high and consumers find it “sticky,” says Edward Lu, program manager of advanced products at the Internet search titan.

Eighty-six percent of users view their energy use once every three days, Lu said at GreenNet conference in San Francisco. Forty-six percent look at it three times a day or more.

Lu said Google has partnerships with 10 utilities, but expects more from the online product. New features are being tested, including a way to interface with electric cars. Google doesn’t yet have a business model in mind, but that isn’t holding back development, says Lu.

Despite its success, Google is quick to say that the incomplete access to consumer data is slowing its innovation, just as it is constraining development at the more than 100 other established companies and start-ups developing software, home displays and other products for the emerging home energy market.

Lu acknowledges that there is a mismatch between the speed of companies, such as Google, and the slower pace of utilities and regulators. By next year, companies may expect to see the data, he says, but it is likely to be another before many states and utilities finally open the gates.

Other innovators view the landscape in a similar manner. Access to consumer data is a key constraint, says Adrian Tuck, CEO of the smart grid display company Tendril. “Without it, the market will not flourish.”

Tuck says that only 10 of the 50 U.S. states are moving in the direction of open access. On the list are California, New York, Texas, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The others are not.

At Microsoft, the company hopes to sidestep some of the restraints. Last month it struck a deal to put its Hohm home energy management software inside Ford’s electric Focus.

“We see this as a business” selling services to utilities and selling online ads for consumers to see, says Troy Batterberry, product unit manager. More auto partnerships are on the way, he added.

1 Comment | news | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Disruptive Innovation Coming To Clean Tech, Says Steve Jurvetson

April 29, 2010

Steve Jurvetson’s Draper Fisher Jurvetson is the world’s largest clean-tech venture investor, with positions in 42 start-ups.

It is a portfolio this high-octane visionary would like to add to. The energy generation and fuels industries are “traditional businesses that haven’t been radically disrupted yet,” Jurvetson says, with an emphasis on “yet.”

Venture Capitalist Steve Jurvetson said he is excited by investment opportuniites in recycling and reuse as well as water purification

Jurvetson makes a point of looking for disruptive change from technological innovation. He was an initial investor the e-mail powerhouse Hotmail, eventually bought by Microsoft, and put money in the information-technology firms Interwoven and Kana.

His clean-tech holdings include equally exciting companies eager to break down walls in entrenched industries, including electric carmaker Tesla Motors and biofuels developer Synthetic Genomics.

Jurvetson is quick to point out he sees plenty of opportunity in clean-tech, despite the sagging economy. During an address at the Nordic Green II conference, he also had this to say:

*Many clean-tech start-ups are growing faster than information technology start-ups. Aggregate revenue from DFJ’s portfolio of companies was $450 million in 2008. It will be $1.4 billion this year.

*The most exciting investment opportunities in clean tech are recycling and reuse, and water purification. DFJ has not invested yet in geothermal energy. Jurvetson emphasizes “yet.”

*Electric scooters and bicycles are “very interesting,” he added. Sales volumes should be greater than all other electric vehicles combined. Presently they outsell electric cars in China.

*Jurvetson laments that he would love to make an investment in nuclear energy. “We keep meeting with these guys. There hasn’t been an obvious nuclear investment where we can help.”

*Included in the DFJ portfolio are: BrightSource Energy (booked $10 billion in revenue in two years) and EnerNOC (built a sustainable business model with $3.5 million and “this business is still in the early days of its potential”).

*Also on the list are: ScientificConservation (cuts commercial energy spending by 25 percent annually) and Genomatica (can build 4 billion microbes in a day.)

Expect to see more.

1 Comment | news | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Smart Meters And Social Networks

April 28, 2010

Finland has long been a leader with smart meters and smart grids. It is no surprise then the small Scandinavian country has big plans for its smart –power infrastructure: the melding of smart grids, cloud computing and social networks.

The result could be a collection of virtual micro grids and more grassroots power management.

Finland's vision for its smart grid includes micro grids and social networks

Finland’s eagerness to deploy a modern energy infrastructure has much to do with the country’s harsh winters. Energy use per capita is among the highest in the world and domestic resources are limited largely to hydropower.

The desire to give consumers more control over their energy use led the country to require that all homes have smart meters by 2013 – among the most ambitious deployment targets in the world. About half of Finland’s 5.3 million people have smart meters today.

With the completion of the rollout, several new innovative services will become available, including the freedom for citizens to create virtual micro grids to share and manage power.

If a friend has solar panels and produces excess power, he or she can share that power with neighbors, says Seppo Yrjola, principal innovator at Nokia Siemens Networks, which is helping with the rollout.

“That’s really a virtual power plant,” Yrjola said at the Nordic Green II conference. “I think the venture capitalists are very excited” about the investment opportunities.

Finland’s vision goes where few other countries dare tread. Yrjola says the goal is to enable people to create micro grids much as they form groups of friends on social networking sites. In that sense, cloud computing, social networks and smart grids will intersect in 2013 or 2014 after the smart meters and accompanying network infrastructure are installed.

The notion is that villages, districts and communities will be able to form micro grids and negotiate for cheaper power. No one knows how the system will be used, says Yrjola.

The completion of the rollout should enable other services as well. Renewables, such as solar, will more easily plug into the grid and information on real-time pricing will be available. Consumers also will be given more control over their home appliances.

“We are building the infrastructure,” he says. It is up to consumers to decide how to use it.

3 Comments | news | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Analyst: H-P Buys Palm For Less Than $1 Billion, But Integration Is A Challenge

April 28, 2010

Todd Bradley is the man behind HP's decision to acquire Palm. Bradley heads HP PC's consumer division and is the former Palm CEO

What a deal!

H-P said it will pay $5.70 in cash per share for Palm, when only 2-weeks ago, on April 12, the same shares were worth over $6!

And despite the headlines, H-P is really forking less than $1 billion for Palm, as the smartphone maker has roughly $600 million in cash and short term investments, but $387 million in long term debt.

This really shows just how Palm executives felt confident in the viability of their company!

So why would H-P buy Palm, beyond just being a fire-sale? Here’s analyst Jack Gold top 5 reasons:

  1. The key management of HP’s Personal Systems Group is composed of nearly all the execs previously running Palm, including HP’s Todd Bradley. So the business and operations of Palm is well understood.
  2. HPs Windows Mobile phone business is dying a rapid death and HP would have had to totally revamp its product line in order to stay in the smartphone business. It could have designed new devices with Android or Windows Phone 7, either of which would have taken time and would be expensive. Palm brings HP a modern and competitive platform that is already designed, implemented, and in production. This saves HP many R&D dollars as well as dramatically accelerates time to market.
  3. HP can leverage its production capabilities to get large volumes of product into the market at low cost. Palm was not able to quickly reduce its costs and profitably compete in all areas of the market.
  4. HP gets a substantial IP and patent base it can use as a defensive threat against the competition (especially Apple, but potentially HTC and Google as well). This is not a trivial issue as many legal battles lie ahead in the smartphone and mobile/portable device marketplace. A strong IP portfolio that is defensible is important. Indeed, the IP may even eventually result in license revenues to HP form some of its competitors.
  5. WebOS could easily be re-positioned for tablets and other consumer devices to compete with Android, iPad, etc. This is a key growth area for HP. It has already shown a Windows based tablet. And since tablets are primarily front ends to the Internet, it allows HP to deploy many cloud-based services from which it can generate revenues, including those in an app store, streamed services, etc.

However, HP has made acquisitions in the past that did not really work out, and HP has not always been good at integrating acquired technologies in their business.

While the potential for success is there, we will have to wait and see how well HP does at integrating Palm into their mainstream operations before calling this a win for HP.

1 Comment | news, wireless | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Norway’s Bid For World’s Greenest Data Center

April 28, 2010

Local Host’s data-center cooling technology siphons icy water from 984 feet below the surface of Norway’s Nordfjord.

Now the start-up hopes the system will power the world’s largest green data center, which it wants to build in an abandoned mine.

The company already attracted the attention of IBM and Tandberg. Next it plans to reach out to Google and Microsoft for the $100 million it needs to complete the project.

Local Host CEO Sindre Kvalheim's goal is the world's largest high security green data center

Local Host CEO Sindre Kvalheim says his goal is to build “the world’s largest, high security green data center.” There are reasons to think he might succeed. The central coast Sogn og Fjordane region of Norway has an abundance of cheap hydro-electric and wind power to run racks of energy-hungry servers.

It also has an endless supply of freezing water in the 66-mile-long fjord, Norway’s sixth longest. “We can cool a data center more efficiently that any where else in the world,” said Kvalheim, who disclosed details of the project for the first time outside of Norway at the Nordic Green II conference. “We know it’s not only doable, it’s feasible.”

The company has been testing its cooling system for two years at a small, 20-rack data center it runs in Maloy, Norway. “We have reduced our power costs by 50 percent” by eliminating the need for an electric chiller to cool the servers, says Kvalheim. The salt water brought from the depths of the fjord is 45 degrees and cools less corrosive fresh water, which circulates among the computers. The fjord water remains pressurized and requires little energy to pump.

Local Host began studying the underground site in October and expects to complete a feasibility study in June. Kvalheim is convinced the findings will be encouraging.

But the challenges facing the project are significant. IBM has funded 10 percent of the feasibility study and the Norwegian government kicked in 50 percent. Finding $100 million in construction costs are beyond the means of the tiny company. That has Kvalheim eager to approach Internet giants Google and Microsoft.

He says the 1.4 million square foot center will have six stories with tunnels and roads for customers to haul in trailer-truck sized portable data centers. The abandoned olivine mine could fit between 2,000 and 3,000 of the portable units, which Kvalheim says he will build, even though vendors such as Hewlett-Packard and Sun offer commercial models.

Construction could start in 2011, with the demand for data intensive Internet services only expected to increase in the years to follow. As the world learns to cope with the need for greater energy efficiency, green centers are likely to draw increasing interest from the online titans of the coming decade. In Kvalheim’s view, that means harnessing the frigid water of a Norwegian fjord.

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

[Video] SF AppShow: How PlayFirst Build iPad Game Sans Device

April 28, 2010

At the SF App Showcase last night, San Francisco-based game publisher PlayFirst showed its first native game ($4.99) for Apple’s iPad, Diner Dash: Grilling Green.

“We [PlayFirst] are considered a leader in making games for women. And the way we do that is we create really emotionally engaging games. What that means is that we’re out there just making simple match 3 puzzle games or these sort mind numbing time waster game,” explains Chris Williams, the director for mobile and console at PlayFirst.

Diner Dash has been downloaded over 500 million times (over 5-years) on PCs and Macs, and 5 million downloads for the iPhone/iPod touch version for which users spend on average 20-25 minutes per session.

iPad game required extensive custom design

For the iPad, the 100+ employee startup started from scratch and had to do a lot of extra work to customise the game for the new Apple device, like full multi-touch support, gestures and both orientation support.

“It’s a very different device… the larger screen, the assets need to be higher resolution, multi-touch… It was quite complex. It took a bunch of people, certainly more people that we have making our iPhone games. A solid 6-weeks to make this game,” adds Williams.

But unlike for other platforms, PlayFirst’s biggest challenge in developing the game for the iPad, was the lack of device!

“We spent 46 days working with cardboard cut-outs and the [iPad] simulator, hoping that it was going to play well on the device… That being said, Apple has a great simulator and we were able to replicate the experience. We were able to simulate the multi-touch and gestures and all those things. Now that we released it, we played it on the device and we’re very pleased with the result.”

3 Comments | Interviews, news, software, startups | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Cisco Makes Two Smart Grid Hires

April 28, 2010

Cisco Systems, hoping to rev up its smart grid business, added two industry veterans to its executive ranks.

The network equipment giant said on Monday it hired Paul De Martini from Southern California Edison, where he was vice president of advanced technology. De Martini will serve as the chief technology officer of Cisco’s smart-grid team.

Laura Ipsen, senior vice president of the unit, also last month named Jeff Taft global smart grid architect. Taft was mostly recently with Accenture and has 25 years of experience in the energy and technology businesses.

De Martini was leading the utility’s smart grid strategy and is charged with accelerating Cisco’s business.

1 Comment | news | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

« Previous Entries
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 29 other followers