Churchill Club’s Top Tech Trends: Millennium Generation, Energy, Mobile And The Next Web

May 20, 2009
This years top tech trends include the millennium generation, cleantech, mobile applications and the web.

This year's top tech trends include the millennium generation, cleantech, mobile applications and the web.

It was a full crowd tonight for the Churchill Club’s 11th annual Top 10 Tech Trends event; maybe because there were actually 12 trends!

This year’s high-powered panel included:

  1. Steve Jurvetson, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
  2. Vinod Khosla, Founder, Khosla Ventures
  3. Joe Schoendorf, Partner, Accel Partners
  4. Ram Shriram, Managing Partner, Sherpalo Ventures, LLC
  5. Ann Winblad, Partner, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners

The event was moderated by Silicon Valley celebrity Tony Perkins, founder of AlwaysOn and Jason Pontin now editor in chief and publisher at the MIT Technology Review magazine. Both were at the helm of the Red Herring magazine during the go-go days!

New this year was the inclusion of 5 trends picked from “crowd sourcing”, scouring the Web and the media for the most discussed and popular trends.

Perkins and Pontin also had the opportunity to pick their favorite trend.

Here’s the list of all the trends discussed.

  1. The Millennials Are Here. Everything is changing rapidly – Joe Schoendorf
  2. The unstructured data deluge creates the next great information leaders – Ann Winblad
  3. “Maintech” not “Cleantech” – Vinod Khosla
  4. The triumph of the distributed Web – Steve Jurvetson
  5. Consumption of digital goods on mobile devices is THE growth story of the coming decade -Ram Shriram
  6. DC will prove to be a poor VC –  Tony Perkins
  7. The rumors of the demise of the reporter have been exaggerated – Jason Pontin
  8. Advanced batteries will be the most popular alternative energy investment in 2009-10 – Crowd idea
  9. Wireless broadband that will one of the only IT sectors to see increased funding this year – Crowd idea
  10. Power and efficiency management services will see a flowering of investment and innovation – Crowd idea
  11. Healthcare administration will see the best growth in B2B software in 2009-10 – Crowd idea
  12. Electronic displays will prove the hottest investment in hardware this year and the next- Crowd idea

More in later posts with videos and additional commentaries. Meanwhile here’s the video excerpt introducing tonight’s event:

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Greater Use Of Semiconductors Could Sharply Reduce Electricity Consumption

May 13, 2009

The increased use of semiconductors to regulate home power use and to manage the electrical grid could sharply cut energy use, a new study finds.

An 11% reduction in power seen in 20 years even as the economy grows 70%

An 11% reduction in power seen in 20 years even as the economy grows 70%

The reduction could be profound enough to whack the need for electricity by 11 percent in 20 years, even as the economy grows 70 percent.

The study was issued Wednesday by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy and was paid for by the Semiconductor Industry Association.

Despite it obvious self-serving nature, the study focuses on improvements widely thought possible. According to a statement from Brian Halla, an SIA board member, chip technologies are available or under development to accomplish these goals.

“Chip-enabled technologies will soon deliver solutions to the complex problems involved in harnessing solar and wind power and integrating electricity from these sources into the nation’s distribution grid. New technologies can also achieve dramatic efficiencies in the use of energy in homes, factories, commercial buildings, and all modes of transportation,” Halla said in a statement.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Better Place Swaps Electric Car Battery In About One Minute

May 13, 2009

Better Place conducted its first public demonstration of a battery swap center on Wednesday, showing that a depleted electric-car battery can be swiftly replaced with a fresh one.

The replacement took about a minute, or less time than it takes to pump a tank of gas.

A plug-in battery charging station from Better Place

A plug-in battery charging station from Better Place

The demonstration in Yokohama, Japan, is a key milestone for the company, which hopes to use renewable power from sources such as solar cells to fuel autos.

Better Place needs to show the battery replacement process is quick and easy and automatic before consumers will warm up to its business plan of paying for electric power. That’s because a fully charged electric car will go only about 100 miles and consumers will need to reply on the stations to drive more than short distances.

Better Place plans to build 200 battery swap stations and 150,000 plug-in charging stations in Israel by 2011.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

European Clean Tech Investing Trumps The U.S. In The First Quarter

May 8, 2009
It is the first time since 2005 that European investments outgrow those in the US

It is the first time since 2005 that European investments outgrow those in the US

The venture-capital industry is in a trough, to put it politely. But not clean-tech investing in Europe, where VCs are apparently looking at the long-term horizon and not becoming overly fixated on today’s low oil prices.

Dow Jones VentureSource found that in the first quarter, energy and utility-industry startups in Europe raised $289 million, an increase of 82 percent. The total was helped in part by a large investment – $192 million – placed in NorSun of Oslo, Norway.

But even still, the rise came as venture-capital investing in Europe overall fell 35 percent, and around the world (not including the U.S.) tumbled 50 percent.

In the U.S., VC funding for energy and utility-industry companies fell 59 percent during the same three-month period. While it came to $457 million, more than what was spent in Europe, the number of deals plunged to 15 from 24 a year ago.

Renewal energy companies took it particular hard. Money going to them fell 73 percent.

The European clean-tech deal count also was down, to 10 from 18 a year ago. But it was the first time since 2005 that European energy-related spending outpaced spending in the U.S., said Jessica Canning, director of global research at VentureSource.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Better Place Ready To Demo Japanese Charging Station And Ignite Build Out In Israel

April 23, 2009

By now it is widely known that Better Place will show off a prototype of its electric car charging station in Yokohama, Japan, on May 13.

2010 is the massive build out for Israel, says Sidney Goodman

2010 is the massive build out for Israel, says Sidney Goodman

But what is less well known is that the company remains on track for a far more ambitious 2010 rollout in Israel, among its first big markets.

Better Place, which intends to develop a business recharging electric-car batteries, said Wednesday it hopes to have 150,000 plug-in outlets for cars in place by 2011. And it forecasts 100 battery swap-out stations also will be live the same year.

At present only 900 charging outlets have been installed and no stations built. A couple of stations are expected by the end of the year, said Sidney Goodman, vice president of automotive alliances, but the massive construction will begin next year.

Better Place is obviously a company with big dreams. The Palo Alto clean-tech enterprise wants to reduce the world’s reliance on petroleum by harnessing renewable energy to charge cars, often at off-peak times.

But to do so, it has to change the habits of drivers, and the minds of carmakers that aren’t always keen to install standardized batteries in electric cars that Better Place can then replace when they run down.

“I don’t think we’re going to have everybody” on board, says Goodman, referring to the world’s major car manufacturers.

And that may not matter as long as drivers are willing to swap batteries instead of fill their cars with gas.

An electric Nissan at Better Places headquarters

An electric Nissan at Better Place's headquarters

Goodman said Yokohama will be an important demonstration for the company. Swapping a battery needs to be done in about the same time as it takes to fill a tank of gas – and Goodman says Better Place has achieved this 5-minute milestone.

The physical removal of a battery from underneath a car, “we already have down to under a minute,” he says. It will be interesting to see the process on May 13.

It also will be interesting to see what Better Place is able to show next. Someday soon, the company will release more information about the complex software it is developing to monitor battery levels and schedule appointments at the swapping stations.

To accomplish this, cars will need to sometimes communicate wirelessly with the Better Place control room – a wonderfully efficient but technically challenging task.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Propel Fuels Plans 500 New Alternative Fuel Stations For California Drivers

April 22, 2009

There is little doubt American drivers have a troubling addiction to oil.

Ninety-seven percent of the nation’s transportation energy comes from petroleum and 70 percent of that is imported. The fallout is not just bad for the environment but for national security. Billions of dollars is pumped into the hands of autocratic Middle Eastern nations.

Demand from drives for alternative fuels is ahead of expectations, says Matt Horton

Demand from drives for alternative fuels is ahead of expectations, says Matt Horton

Dozens of startups hope to turn the tables on this unhealthy but potentially lucrative market, including Propel Fuels of Sacramento.

The 14-person company has 11 filling stations for biodiesel and E85 and plans to build another 500 in California alone.

So far the demand at its Sacramento facility, opened in January, has been ahead of expectations, says Matt Horton, CEO.

Horton, during an appearance at the Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovations conference in Redwood Shores, said the equipment his company provides for filling stations is proving low cost enough to deploy widely. The least expensive offering its about $100,000.

Horton said his goal is to build a consumer brand. It also is to raise another $5 million in venture financing.

The company had 2008 revenue of more than $1 million. But it is just getting started.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Clean Tech Angel Investors Form A Network For Finding Deals

April 22, 2009

Venture capitalists have fled clean-tech investing. This is due to the fall in the price of oil, and to the lingering global recession, which has nailed shut the market for IPOs.

VCs have moved away from early stage clean-tech investing, says Jon Bananno

VCs have moved away from early stage clean-tech investing, says Jon Bananno

In the first quarter, clean-tech investments plummeted 59 percent with only 15 deals completed, down from 24 deals a year ago.

“The clean-tech investing business is somewhat in the doldrums,” says Dan Adler, president of the California Clean Energy Fund. “We’re back to where we were in 2005.”

Adler and several of his colleagues hope to see this change, and on Tuesday formed a network of angel investors to back clean-tech startups.

The aim of the Cleantech Angel Network of Networks is to close a funding gap that Adler and others say exists for the earliest of clean-tech companies. A lot of VCs moved away from backing early-stage startups in the category, says Jon Bonanno, chairman Keiretsu Forum’s Cleantech Investment Committee.

Along with the California Clean Energy Fund and Keiretsu, the network includes Kuwait Petroleum Energy Ventures – firms that together represent as much as $40 million in investment capital, says Mark Nydam, managing director at PCG Asset Management. The hope is other members will join.

The announcement of the angel network was made at the Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovations conference in Redwood Shores.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Tough Times Continue For Solar Industry

April 17, 2009

Solar prices are down and utilities can’t get the financing to build large-scale solar installations.

A change in Spainish tariffs have slowed the market

A change in Spainish tariffs have slowed the market

Times have never been tougher. Solar-cell producers have responded by reining in growth projections and cutting production.

One big reason for the industry’s turn of fortune is the Spanish market. Spain soaked up about 50 percent of worldwide solar demand in 2008. But a change in tariffs has slowed the market.

As a result, there is excess inventory – despite better incentives in the U.S. and Japan. France and Italy also have attractive investment climates.

ISuppli on Friday offered a projection for the troubled market. It estimated the average price per solar watt will fall 12 percent this year and revenue generated by photovoltaic systems will fall 40 percent to $18.2 billion.

That’s a sharp contrast to the $30.5 billion in 2008.

That means globally the industry will install 3.5 gigawatts in 2009 compared with 5.3 GW last year. That’s a 32 percent decline.

The number of new suppliers will fall and the addition of new production capacity will slow, says Senior director Henning Wicht. It will be a little like the PC market shakeout of the mid 1980s, when the industry excess disappeared.

The question is whether this will lead to a more stable and mature market in the years to come. Don’t count on it.

Photovoltaic projections from iSuppli

Photovoltaic projections from iSuppli

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Spam Contributes To Global Warming

April 16, 2009

Spam is more than a nuisance. It is contributing meaningfully to global warming.

A study shows each spam is responsible for 0.3 grams of CO2

A study shows each spam is responsible for 0.3 grams of CO2

This observation may come as a surprise to most people. But here is the argument laid out in a study commissioned by McAfee and completed by climate researchers ICF International.

More than 63 trillion spam e-mails zipped across the world’s computer networks in 2008, enough to overwhelm the mailboxes of most Internet users.

ICF researchers found that the energy required to transmit, process and filter all this spam adds up to 33 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, or enough to generate 0.3 grams of carbon dioxide for each message sent and received.

That mean together, this onslaught is responsible for the emissions of 2.4 million homes or 3.1 million passenger cars.

With power plants spewing massive columns of smoke and the emissions from million of vehicles wafting over the nation’s highways, unwanted e-mail may seem an insignificant drop in the bucket.

But if driving around the world 1.6 million times is insignificant, them dismiss the contribution of spam. Otherwise, hope for a more effective way to filter these digital pests.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Sustainable Spaces Could Benefit From Government Stimulus

April 9, 2009

For five years, Sustainable Spaces has been retrofitting homes for greater energy efficiency – and growing at 100 percent a year.

The government stimulus making its way into the coffers of towns and cities could give that growth a boost.

The startups presently retrofits 20 to 30 homes a month

The startups presently retrofits 20 to 30 homes a month

The 60-person San Francisco startup boasts that a $10,000 retrofit can save a homeowner 20 percent to 40 percent of his or her electric and gas bills. A more extensive work-over can save even more.

At present, the company completes 20 to 30 homes a month. The government’s goal is to retrofit 128 million homes by 2030, and the federal stimulus bill is targeting an initial wave of 2.5 million, says Matt Golden, president and founder of the company.

“The stimulus incentive is just a jump start,” he says.

Golden says one benefit of the government initiative is that it could provide retrofitting jobs for idled construction workers in California.

But it also could spark greater demand among homeowners. Consumer interest in retrofitting is up, but lower home values makes home-equity refinancing more difficult to get.

The government money could help, says Golden, whose company typically adds insulation to a home and wraps heating and cooling ducts to prevent leaking.

1 Comment | Alternative Energy, Clean Tech, news | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

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