HP Ends Confusion: Puts A Halt On Android Based Slate As Well

July 15, 2010

If there is one thing that does some serious damage to anyone’s reputation it is talking about ideas and rolling back on them. It is absolutely immature and unprofessional and HP is doing exactly that by drawing back on its Android bases Slate. This follows the earlier withdrawal of the Windows 7 based tablet back in April.

What’s even more astonishing is the fact that this Android based tablet was set to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2010. Sources state that the tablet might be delayed by quite some time and release much later than expected. Why is this being done?

Primarily all wisdom has come crashing on HP to focus on one operating system at a time, and for now they will be concentrating all efforts on the WebOS based Slate.

Sounds reasonable, given the fact that they are emphasizing more on the research and development for the WebOS, as well as increasing expenditure on the same for both R&D and marketing.

I am just a little baffled on why they didn’t begin with a focus solely on the WebOS; especially when they want to broaden the purpose of the platform to expand beyond smartphones and into notepads/tablets arena. I would have preferred sticking to this strategy alone, experiment the design and interface with one operating system, perfect it and then head forward designing or adding support with the Windows 7 or the Android based device.

This shift in strategy and focus, would also help HP concentrate on the applications for the device which is quite essential for obvious reasons: you don’t want your consumers staring at iPad owners boasting about the countless applications they have while they sit with their Slate and a limited editions for apps.

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Posted by TechPulse 360

The Case For Thin Film Solar

July 15, 2010

Thin-film cells are sometimes viewed as the unloved stepchildren of the solar industry.

Low efficiencies, unattractive yields and technical manufacturing hurdles slowed the industry’s expansion. Plunging crystalline silicon prices last year made competing even tougher.

Vendors and suppliers see module costs falling to 75 cents a watt and below.

Still companies hold out ambitious hopes for the future – and for costs to reach to 75 cents a watt and below in the next couple years. Prices this low should improve thin film’s market position versus crystalline module makers, such as Suntech Power Holdings and SunPower, especially for large-scale utility deployments.

Thin-film leader First Solar sets the benchmark. The company’s cadmium-telluride modules achieved 11.1 percent efficiency in the first quarter of this year and at a cost of 81 cents a watt. The company holds a market leading 18 percent share of the solar module market.

But competitors and suppliers say they see a path beyond this leader and expect to arrive there in the not too distant future. According to John Patrin, director of business development and product marketing at equipment supplier Veeco, a module with 12.5 percent efficiency and a cost of 75 cents a watt is possible.

The biggest way to improve cost per watt is to drive up efficiency, he says.

Liyou Yang, the former head of thin-film research at BP Solar and now the chief executive of Astronergy in China, hopes to outdo this. He sees an opportunity to reduce costs to 71 cents a watt as soon as this year, aided by a jump in production volumes. Yang said at the Intersolar conference that his goal is to expand thin-film manufacturing to 75 megawatts by December, more than double last year.

Breaking the 70-cent level is “what we are driving to achieve,” he says. To accomplish that, Astronergy expects 9.7 percent efficiency by the end of the year and says 12 percent in commercial volumes is possible in 2 to 3 years. If this is becomes a reality, “we will at least put thin film on a viable path,” he says.

Such a path means enhanced competition with crystalline cells. There is a growing conviction that crystalline silicon modules will fall to $1.05 or $1.06 a watt, but no further. Modules need to fall to $1 a watt to compete head-to-head with electricity from coal without government subsidies.

Clearly, though, the industry has a lot of convincing to do. Venture investing in thin-film start-ups dropped sharply in 2009 and 2010, and decision makers appear hesitant to reverse the trend.

In a Perspectives piece published just last month on Greentech Media, clean-tech investor Vinod Khosla offered a downbeat opinion of the industry. “Most current thin-film start-up efforts do not appear differentiated enough to justify the hundreds of millions invested in them,” he said.

The challenge for entrepreneurs will be to prove him wrong.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Innovalight To Double Silicon Ink Efficiency

July 14, 2010

Innovalight boasts that it will be able to double the solar potency of its nanocrystalline silicon ink as soon as next year.

By 2012, additional improvements should push the efficiency of a mainstream crystalline solar cell using the ink to above 20 percent.

Conrad Burke, chief executive of the Sunnyvale, CA, company, said the company’s silicon ink today adds 1 percentage point to the efficiency of a mainstream solar cell. So a cell that is 18 percent efficient jumps to 19 percent.

Next year, the ink will add 2 percentage points to overall efficiency, and in 2012, the target is 3. That should push the 18 percent crystalline cell to 20 percent next year.

The company expects to see this level of efficiency in its labs this year, Burke said at the Intersolar conference in San Francisco.

Such a boost should interest solar cell makers fighting for each tenth of a percentage point gain – and challenge efficiency leader SunPower. SunPower’s cell design is more complex than others and may not easily lend itself to a silicon ink.

Innovalight’s silicon ink is made up of silicon particles 5nm to 10nm in size. It is applied using the screen-printing technology typically used by semiconductor lines during back-end metallization.

When applied to solar cell production, screen-printing becomes a front-end process, and a relatively simple one, says Burke. Pattern alignment is not complicated.

Burke said prices for the printing tool have fallen to about $400,000. For this reason, don’t be surprised to see 20 percent efficient solar cell coming out of China sooner rather than later.

Already, Chinese solar cell maker JA Solar Holdings has latched onto the technology. The company this week announced a three-year contract with Innovalight and said its Secium cells would use the technology.

The cells are in pilot production and have achieved 18.9 percent efficiency.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Better Place’s Mainstream Auto Market Grab

July 13, 2010

“Most people give us two more years to prove this vision is a reality,” Shai Agassi quipped Monday evening about his company, Better Place.

The founder and chief executive of the electric-car battery-swapping company offered the levity as he accepted a visionary award from the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. But behind most jokes is a grain of truth.

If Better Place sees any humor in this statement, it is not letting on. The company, which Agassi founded in 2007, is the most radical idea in electric vehicles. It hopes to lower the price of electric cars by selling them separate from their batteries and turning battery charging into a service. No one knows whether it will work. Israel will find out in 79 days when the first trial goes live.

The company hopes to launch its electric car service plans at a price equivalent to $2 to $2.50 a gallon gasoline

Agassi says his goal is to launch the service at a price equivalent of $2 to $2.50 a gallon gasoline. This includes amortizing the cost of the battery. He anticipates the price will be especially appealing in Europe and Israel, where gas is $7 a gallon. The hope is to reach a $1 a gallon equivalent in the next decade.

He also expects battery swapping to appeal to mainstream consumers. The company expects the Renault’s Fluence ZE, the battery swappable car Better Place has ordered 100,000 units of, will sell at a price similar to the electric Nissan Leaf. (The Leaf will start at $25,280 after government incentives.) Renault is to unveil its pricing in September, the same month Better Place discloses the pricing of its Israeli service plans.

Here are several other observations from a Tuesday interview with Agassi:

Agassi says the electric-car market will take off when cars sell for $3,000 to $5,000 less than gasoline cars. This can include government incentives, such as the 5,000 Euro subsidy in France.

What if a $5,000 Chinese-made electric car sold in the United States? “All hell will break loose,” he says. Better Place struck a deal in April to collaborate on electric vehicles with Chinese auto maker Chery. Agassi says he anticipates Chery will sell a battery swappable vehicle in the Better Place markets of Israel and Denmark, but not for several years.

In Israel, Better Place is presently building battery swapping stations and preparing for a 50-car trial to start before the end of the year. Employees will operate the cars. The country will have five swapping stations by then and eventually 70 stations spaced 25 miles apart to provide adequate service across the country.

The investment in Israel: $70 million for infrastructure and $150 million total when adding in sales staff, office space, etc. Agassi rationalizes the cost as equivalent to what Israeli drivers spend in one week on gasoline.

In Israel, Better Place says it is seeing interest in its service from 700 to 800 drivers a month. That many people are signing up at the Better Place visitor’s center saying their next auto will be electric.

In Japan, Better Place says its trial with four Tokyo taxis has lasted for 75 days so far. Each vehicle has logged more than 10,000 miles, a healthy amount for an electric car. Battery swaps take 59.1 seconds. Better Place calls the trial a success and ha earned its first revenue, though it did not release figures.

In Denmark, Better Place’s second target market, trials will start at the end of 2011. Some charge spots are available to electric car drivers already. The electricity for the market will come from 600 windmills.

Australia is still on track for a trial at the end of 2001, followed by Hawaii and California in 2012.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Venture Industry Is In A Trough

July 12, 2010

The venture-capital industry is less a harbinger of things to come for the clean-tech industry than it used to be.

In the early years of this century, private money from venture investors helped defined which companies lived and died, which expanded and which did not.

Markets for solar panels, biofuels and smart meters have grown substantially since then. Market-place demand, economic trends and government spending now wield bigger influences on company prosperity.

So the news Monday morning that venture industry fundraising has swooned will have less impact on clean-tech companies than it would have four years ago. But it is still not good.

The National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters announced that the amount of money going into new venture funds fell 49 percent in the second quarter to $1.9 billion. The quarterly total is the lowest since 2003.

Clearly the industry succumbed to the financial turmoil stirred up by the debt crisis in Europe and the corresponding fears of a slower United States economy. NVCA President Mark Heesen says the fund raising trough is likely to continue through the year.

The challenge for venture firms is they raise their money from big pension funds, endowments and financial houses that are sensitive to changes in the broad investment environment. Add that to fears of a continued slow IPO market, from which venture funds make money – and the mixture is catatonic.

A few successes in the IPO market could change this. If Tesla Motors holds onto a gain, or Amyris gets a warm reception, big money could loosen up.

But on the present course, there will be less money for clean-tech companies and more willingness to invest in smaller rounds.

Is this a sign of a long-term change in venture capital? Probably not. Is it a sign of short term slowing of investments. Yes.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Roving Biofuel Refinery Solves Some Problems, Adds Others

July 9, 2010

One of the persistent problems facing biofuels is transportation.

Cellulosic ethanol might be made economically in South Dakota, where corn stover is harvested. But trucking the biomass to a central refinery (or the finished fuel to Seattle for consumption) partially defeats the carbon savings and adds to cost.

Purdue University researchers say their hydrogen-consuming, high-heat process out performs convention biofuels plants

How to solve this dilemma? Researchers at Purdue University believe they have an answer. They plan to test a roving bio-refinery and claim it does a miraculous thing; it processes a broad range of source materials, from corn stover to switch grass, wheat straw and wood chips in the same tank using high heat and the addition of hydrogen.

The process is called fast-hydropyrolysis-hydrodeoxygenation. It makes use of a high-pressure reactor, injects hydrogen and heats the mixture to as much as 900 degrees in less than a second. The resulting liquid is less costly to cart to a finishing plant than the bulky plant material.

But the process adds several production problems, even as it promises to solve the biomass transportation dilemma. First, it relies on hydrogen, which require significant energy to make. Second, it fails to eliminate the need to transport the finished fuel to metropolitan markets hundreds, or thousands, or miles away.

Finally, heating the chamber to 900 degrees Fahrenheit in less than a second requires a lot of energy.

The researchers described their work in a paper published in June in the Environmental Science & Technology journal. Purdue has applied for a patent.
The scientists claim their technique produces more fuel than conventional biofuel processing. When hydrogen is derived from natural gas, yields will be twice as great. When it comes from the biomass itself, yields will rise 1.5 times.

“The biomass will break down into smaller molecules in the presence of hot hydrogen and…catalysts,” says chemical engineering professor Rakesh Agrawal.  “The reaction products will then be subsequently condensed into liquid oil for eventual use as fuel. The uncondensed light gases such as methane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen and carbon dioxide, are separated and recycled back to the biomass reactor and the reformer.”

But power is an issue. Agrawal conceives of obtaining the hydrogen using solar power to split water instead of relying on natural gas or the biomass itself. In the meantime, he sees the process as economical during periods when oil prices spike.

On the other hand, mobile units are less capital intensive than permanent plants, he says.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Renault DeZir Electric Concept Car (Think Tesla)

July 9, 2010

Car is said to go from 0 to 50 in two seconds and have a top speed of 112 mph. No production dates.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Tesla Targets 50 Stores, Hires Former Apple Retail Exec

July 8, 2010

Tesla Motors said Thursday it hired George Blankenship, the former architect of Apple’s successful retail store rollout, to lead an ambitious retail expansion that targets 50 showrooms over the next few years.

Blankenship, 57 and a 20-year GAP veteran, is to build out the carmaker’s global network of stores to coincide with the launch of the Model S sedan in 2012.

The Palo Alto carmaker, which last month launched a $211 million IPO, presently has 13 showrooms with eight located in the United States. Its retail strategy has not been widely reported. But the strategy is an ambitious effort to control its own sales and service operations and capture the revenue and customer feedback that traditional auto manufacturers cede to a network of dealers.

Tesla's Newport Beach store opened this month. The company hopes to have about 20 stores by the end of the year and about 50 over the next several years

Tesla said Blankenship should be a crucial piece of the puzzle. He comes to Tesla from Microsoft, where he landed last year to emulate Apple’s retail strategy. His service with Apple began in 2000. As vice president of real estate, he started to identify and acquire retail locations. A year later, the company opened its first store.

Prior to that he was responsible for opening more than 250 stores a year at the GAP.

At Tesla, Blankenship’s  first job will be to open stores in Tokyo, Toronto and Washington, D.C. That is the tip of the iceberg. The company’s plan is to have about 20 showrooms in operation by the end of the year and about 50 in place over the next several years. Tesla stores today are in major metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles, New York, London, Chicago, Monaco, Munich and Menlo Park.

The company claims its retail strategy is one of efficiency. “We believe we will…be able to better control costs of inventory, manage warranty service and pricing, maintain and strengthen the Tesla brand, and obtain rapid customer feedback,” it says in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Further, we believe we will avoid the conflict of interest in the traditional dealership structure inherent to most incumbent automobile manufacturers where the sale of warranty parts and repairs by a dealer are a key source of revenue and profit for the dealer but often are an expense for the vehicle manufacturer,” the filing continues.

Because Tesla does not need to carry a large inventory, the stores don’t have to be large or include extensive floor space. That by itself will be a major departure from the traditional model. Still, they aren’t cheap. In 2009, the average cost was $500,000. Costs could rise to between $500,000 and $1 million. This should give Blankenship plenty of room for creativity.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Can Energy Monitoring Save Las Vegas $150,000?

July 8, 2010

Las Vegas’ Tom Perrigo wants energy to pay for itself.

The city’s sustainability officer plans to install 1 MW of solar panels on 17 municipal parking garages this year and invest $3.5 million in LED, or induction, lighting to replace 20 percent of Sin City’s more profligate street lamps.

He also expects to allocate up to $4 million to retrofit 17 of the city’s 100 buildings. The money he saves on energy will be plowed back into new energy-efficiency programs. But knowing exactly how much is no easy calculation.

City expects one-year ROI on its choice of Hara’s energy tracking software

That’s where a separate investment will come in: licensing the four modules of Hara’s Environmental and Energy Management software. The software will track the city’s $15 million of annual electricity and natural gas use, and establish an accurate baseline against which to measure savings. The more the city saves, the more it can spend on future projects.

But the software will go another step toward Las Vegas’ energy-reduction targets. It will save money through energy monitoring and management. This Perrigo estimates will be 1 percent of the city’s annual bill, or $150,000, giving the software an ROI of one year.

“It’s a major change in the way we do business,” says Mayor Oscar Goodman. “It makes us smart.”

On Thursday, Las Vegas became Hara’s 35 customer, expanding a roster that includes corporations such as Apple, Coca Cola and Hasbro, which it added last month. The Redwood City start-up is on the front lines of the rapidly emerging environmental-management market. Its software lets managers track resources going in and out of an organization – inputs such as energy and water and outputs such as carbon and waste – and is attracting growing corporate and municipal interest.

Among its earliest customers is Palo Alto, which projects savings of more than $2 million on electricity, water and gas bills over three years. The savings will come primarily from reduced use.

According to Hara CEO Amit Chatterjee, the company’s biggest competitor is the spreadsheet Excel (though vendors such as SAP, CA and ENXSuite play in the space). About 80 percent of customers record environmental data in Excel before buying Hara, he says.

This includes Las Vegas. The city presently enters data from energy bills and nearly 4,000 meters manually into a spreadsheet. The process is time consuming and misses anomalies that come up due to equipment failure or billing errors. Responding to the anomalies will produce the $150,000 of savings.

Las Vegas says it will ultimately move to more sophisticated energy monitoring systems that include sensors and building-management software to examine data in real time. But the systems are expensive and don’t easily fit into older buildings. When buildings are retrofitted, they can be added.

Until then, Hara is a first step – and an important one.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

PACE On Life Support

July 7, 2010

Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse  – more bad news for the home energy retrofit program PACE.

PACE was already under pressure from mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Now the Federal Housing Finance Agency has weighed in with its opinion of the program, and it isn’t good.

FHFA statement could bring PACE residential retrofits to a halt unless Congress steps in

The national mortgage regulator claims PACE, or Property Assessed Clean Energy, creates “risk management” challenges and “significant safety and soundness concerns” to mortgage lenders and investors in mortgage securities. The “FHFA urged state and local governments to reconsider these programs and continues to call for a pause in such programs so concerns can be addressed,” according to a statement the agency issued on Tuesday.

Response from the PACE community was uniform. “Unless this guidance is change or Congress overturns it, PACE in the residential sector cannot go forward,” says Cisco DeVries, president of Renewable Funding, an Oakland company that administers PACE programs across the country.

“I think it is going to keep things on hold,” agrees Ethan Elkind, a climate change research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA schools of law. “It makes everything a lot more expensive,” including Fannie Mae loans and the bonds municipalities sell to raise PACE money.

PACE is the experimental retrofit program that has spread to 23 states and which allows homeowners and businesses to borrow government money for home-energy improvements. Homeowners repay the money as assessments to property tax bills, and municipalities use the cash to repay the bonds they issue.

California is the largest PACE state, with two-thirds of communities preparing to have programs by the end of the year. PACE has been plagued by several challenges since its founding in Berkeley in 2007. For one, managers in municipalities such as San Francisco, which rolled out the nation’s largest PACE program in April and now has it on hold, have struggled to keep interest rates low enough to attract residents.

The FHFA statement may poise the greatest challenge. The statement claims the liens PACE loans place on properties distort the mortgage market and strain the finances of Fannie Mae and other lenders, who have to wait in line for their money in the case of default. The statement suggests Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac respond by lending less money or requiring homeowners to have higher incomes.

It also argues PACE programs lack underwriting and consumer protection standards as well as energy retrofit standards to assure that the work being done will reduce energy consumption enough to improve the value of a home.

On this last point, standards do need to evolve, concedes Elkind. But market place data are needed to help set them. And without a PACE program, that experience will be hard to come by.

Supporters of PACE say the program’s last chance may rest with Congress and with litigation, as state attorneys general argue for a community’s right to levy property tax assessments.

“There is strong support in Congress to overturn this decision, and there may well be litigation, so residential PACE isn’t dead,” says DeVries. “However, it is on life support waiting for an organ transplant.”

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Posted by Mark Boslet

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