Solatube

ZuumCraft

Portable Farms LLC

D&K Engineering

Elliptigo

EcoATM

DriveCam

On Tuesday the California Department of Labor awarded the San Diego region a $4 million grant to implement new workforce training programs for jobs in the emerging biofuels industry.  The San Diego Biofuels Initiative, a collaborative effort including CleanTECH San Diego, BIOCOM, San Diego Regional EDC, San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology (SD-CAB) and the San Diego Workforce Partnership, captured the grant.  The San Diego Biofuels Initiative’s proposal, titled the Educating and Developing Workers for the Green Economy (EDGE Initiative), will provide education, training and placement services to unemployed and dislocated workers within San Diego and the Imperial Valley.

Also on Tuesday the Governor’s Office of Economic Development designated the San Diego region as a California Innovation Hub.  The designation clears the way for the San Diego iHub Consortium to apply for stimulus funds from the Federal government.  The consortium has identified biofuels, wireless health and solar power/energy storage as the three areas of greatest job growth potential.

On Monday the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology (SD-CAB) announced that the region will receive funding of $9 million from the Department of Energy for algae R&D.  A team of seven companies including locals Sempra Energy, General Atomics and Sapphire Energy are adding another $3 million to support the R&D effort.

CleanTECH San Diego’s website lists 37 Biomass Energy & Biofuel local companies in their company database. 

On July 20^th CONNECT presents Algae Biotechnology: Working to Transform Fuel, Food and Medicine with Stephen Mayfield, Director, San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology and John Dove Isaacs Chair of Natural Philosophy Department of Biological Sciences, UC San Diego.  Click here for details.

Two new algae resources

National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap, a 140 page report just released by U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office of the Biomass Program.  (This PDF file is 7 MB).

Also new is a report from the Milken Institute, Scaling Enterprise Finance, The Future of Biofuels, which addresses the question, “How can we facilitate the flow of private capital into the production of biofuels?”  Please e-mail me at glenn@glennmosier.com for a PDF copy of this 40 page report.

CleanTECH San Diego’s database of cleantech companies include 47 solar innovators and 129 solar facilitators. 

The networking hour before the CleanTECH San Diego Showcase is a unique opportunity to get face to face with the captains of industry, futurists, venture capitalists and propeller heads who play in the clean tech space.  All you need to do is register and show up with a fistful of business cards.  Click here to make your reservation.

This week’s SCRUB showcased four distinctly different clean tech businesses.  350 Green intends to provide developmental infrastructure for electric vehicle charging stations.  Butler Sun Solutions has developed a solar assisted hot water system, featuring “do-it-yourself” installation options.  Home Town Farms plans a vertical organic urban farming model that has the capacity to reduce water and energy consumption.  WaterSmart Systems provides resources to water utilities to help optimize water conservation.

In January the SCRUB featured Shrink NanoSolar, Eco ReBox, and Vari-Ro Technologies.  In the past six quarterly SCRUB sessions CleanTECH San Diego has provided advice, introductions and critical evaluations to 21 future clean tech stars.  If you have a clean tech enterprise that would benefit from a good SCRUB you should forward your business summary to Shaina Brown at shainab@cleantechsandiego.org

Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you.  Just one word.

Benjamin: Yes, sir.

Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?

Benjamin: Yes, I am.

Mr. McGuire: Plastics.

Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?

Mr. McGuire: There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?

Dustin Hoffman as Ben spent the rest of the movie being distracted by the archetypical cougar and never got around to seeking gainful employment.  A current-day sequel would find a 65 year-old Ben advising his grandson to seek his fame and fortune in the ripe opportunity of energy storage. 

The certainty of long-term expansion of energy storage as an industry segment is driven by huge needs which exist on both the supply and demand side of the equation.  Giant utility companies are mandated to dramatically increase the production of electrical power from alternative sources of energy.  The two largest sources, solar and wind, share the problem of intermittency.  Unlike coal and natural gas generated power, solar and wind have an uneven output which is to varying degrees challenging to forecast.  Until recently this was of manageable consequence for most utilities because wind and solar were a small percentage of their total input.  But what happens when these uneven sources move towards 20% as mandated in California?  For many utilities the peaks of need are satisfied by natural gas “peaker plants” which are fired up to meet demand on the electric grid.  During periods of low demand wind turbines can be idled to avoid excess power into the grid.  Both of these alternatives underutilize the production capacity of the capital equipment.  With efficient energy storage a higher portion of power produced can be utilized and production capacity can be designed to more closely approximate average demand rather than peak demand.  Just these two important needs present a life-time of opportunity for the development of energy storage. 

Ben Braddock’s grandson will also find a target rich environment of opportunities for energy storage on the demand side of electrical consumption.  As smart grids are installed, electrical utilities will be able to flatten out consumption using technology to influence consumption behaviors via pricing and information.  The Nissan Leaf automobile in our garages will be used as a reserve of electrical power to be sold back to the utility.  Excess electricity from PV solar panels on the roofs of our homes will flow into energy storage for future use or to sell into the grid.  Energy storage systems in cars, homes, businesses, substations and in the field become a stabilizing buffer to smooth out the variations of both production and consumption.  It’s a business proposition as compelling as plastics were 43 years ago.

Energy storage systems are as big as Lake Meade and as small as a AAA battery.  Included are:

Pumped-storage hydroelectricity
Superconducting magnetic energy storage
Flow batteries
Conventional batteries (e.g. rechargeable electricity storage system)
Gas holder
Grid energy storage
Fuel cell and hydrogen technology
Gravitational mass
Capacitors (e.g. rechargeable electricity storage system)
Electromagnetic mass
Mainspring
Thermal energy storage
Solar chimney
Compressed fluids (e.g. compressed air)
Flywheels
Vacuum storage (in rush generation technology)

CleanTECH San Diego’s database of cleantech companies lists nine companies in the energy storage sector.  Sempra has stated their interest in compressed air as a large capacity energy storage system for wind and solar.  San Diego is one of only five cities in the U.S. selected to participate in the EV Project.  1000 Nissan Leaf automobiles owned by San Diego business and individuals will be driven and monitored in the best possible test lab, the real world.  Maxwell Technologies is a leading producer of ultracapacitors and power systems for consumer and industrial electronics, transportation, telecommunications, and electricity generation industries.

The wealth of opportunity in energy storage which young Ben Braddock III faces is supported by a simple but enormous truth.  The amount of electricity produced by any utility is substantially greater than what is ultimately consumed.  Some is lost in transmission.  A greater amount is wasted because of the mismatch in time of supply and demand.  Energy storage addresses the mismatch.  As the cost of electricity escalates the economic advantage of “waste not” becomes more compelling.

There are frequent meetings in San Diego about smart grid, smart meters, energy storage, etc.  On April 22^_nd the San Diego EDC and CleanTECH San Diego will present, Earth Day Brilliance Found in Smart Meter Opportunities.  Click here for details.

In addition to the convenience provided by the CleanTECH San Diego’s RSS Feed, the list is of value to anyone who wishes to research the cleantech experience in San Diego.  A linear approach would be to start with the most current story and click your way back in time. 

 Using Google you can search the list in a manner which is more efficient than a general Google search.  For example, a Google search of “CleanTECH San Diego” and “solar” yields over 100,000 results.  A search limited to only the CleanTECH San Diego RSS Feed generates 47 unique stories.  This focused approach narrows the results to only those stories which are about innovative solar in San Diego.  The format for the search is: 

 site:news.cleantechsandiego.org  solar. 

 The story selection process for the RSS Feed seeks to identify all news reports which are both cleantech and San Diego with an emphasis on innovation.  To add utility, the list is screened to minimize story duplication and the inclusion of items of small consequence.  The result is a fingers-on-pulse tracking which is both timely and thorough. 

 Click here to access the CleanTECH San Diego news archive and to subscribe to the RSS Feed.

McDermott noted that wind power represents about 75% of the renewable energy produced in the United States.  Currently wind is a close second to natural gas for newly installed production capacity.  Like all projects which are capital intensive, wind power construction suffered with the collapse of credit markets.  Some deals are now being done, but on more conservative terms.  Key hurdles continue to be the on-again, off-again government support in the form of tax credits and loans as well as the onerous delays caused by environmentalists. 

Intermittency is the renewable energy term to describe the uneven production of power by both wind and solar.  Dr. Walker stated that as wind power becomes a larger portion of total energy production it should be considered part of the base load with natural gas as the go-to energy to fill in the gaps.  He noted that the bulk of wind energy production in the United States is concentrated in a short list of utilities.  Except for the very largest users, most utilities struggle with understanding how to manage an intermittent supply.

Although the established global wind energy market is huge, the panel felt that it was not mature and therefore there were significant opportunities for new business creation and growth.  Their opinion was that there were vast improvements which will be made in blade design and the mechanics of wind turbines.  They felt that there was a great opportunity for innovation and invention to originate from outside the research departments of the large manufacturers.  As the number of wind turbines proliferates they see an opportunity for companies in the “nuts and bolts” aspects of service and maintenance in a more organized manner than currently exists.

Energy storage in its various forms is a response to the problem of intermittency as well as integral part of an effective smart grid.  James Sahagian said that Sempra Generation has a strong interest in compressed air strorage in spent oil and natural gas wells as a viable means to store energy during those times when wind energy production is greater than immediate demand.

In addition to enXco and Helix Wind, there are 22 other wind power companies listed in CleanTECH San Diego’s database of cleantech companies include Cannon Power, Knight & Carver and Padoma Windpower. 

The networking hour before the CleanTECH San Diego Showcase is a unique opportunity to get face to face with the captains of industry, futurists, venture capitalists and propeller heads who play in the clean tech space.  Click here to make your reservation.

Excesses which result from elevated attitudes of entitlement are all around us.  There are also significant positive behavioral changes which emanate from the parental quest for approval.  The emotional hook of an 8 year old girl crawling into her father’s lap and saying “Daddy, I don’t want you to die” has had a broader and deeper impact on smoking than even the American Lung Association could have ever hoped.  Second graders have assumed the role of family recycling czars and energy efficiency auditors.  Last year I purchased a couple of cases of Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs) to distribute to my co-workers.  Angie, my assistant, said her daughter had been bugging her for weeks to change the lights in their house to CFLs.  Another approval problem solved.

How can we ramp-up constructive opportunities to build upon this approval seeking phenomenon?  Are there viable strategies appropriate for business to embrace?  At the CleanTECH San Diego Showcase this week (see post below) the wide-ranging discussion on Smart Grid included some comments by the presenters about their children.  Lee Krevat of SDG&E described telling his 13 year old that perhaps the all electric Nissan Leaf would be a good choice for the family.  After doing her internet research his daughter expressed her approval and pasted a picture of the electric vehicle on her Facebook page for dozens of her girlfriends to see.  The viral and emotional impact of this kind of involvement is of real consequence, a fact which is not lost on Nissan’s marketing team. 

During the discussion Paul Wilbur, CEO of Aptera, described pre-teens as being technological dare devils.  The presence in the family of these fearless early adapters is a real asset in the transformation of the home from a “dumb” energy user to an “intelligent” home energy system. 

Children, even pre-teens, can be powerful agents for positive change.  They embrace the belief that technology contributes to the protection of their environment.  I think there is much to be gained by society and individual businesses by elevating the role of young people and acknowledging their responsibility in their own future.  These preteen-technorati communicate via social networks which are self-learning systems.   Working within their preferred method of communication and learning, the message to the kids should be:

1. A safe and healthy environment is dependent upon a broad application of technology which must be understood by you, your family and friends.
2.  You and your friends are capable of understanding the technology and in explaining it to your families and other friends.
3. This is your role.  Your contribution is real and absolutely necessary.

This is not a teacher-to-student information system.  It is kid-to-kid.  It could be as specific as understanding how SDG&E smart meters will work for their homes or how EcoDog’s home energy management system operates.  These companies already know that if their systems are to be understood, the message must be clear to a 5th grader.  Broader topics such as examining Google maps to locate solar rooftops in their neighborhoods are topics which tech savvy kids can take to their families and friends.  It is hard to imagine any household which will not benefit by the input of this type of information at some time over the next few years. 

Creative efforts are needed to position the clean technology knowledge base directly in the path of social networks used by young people.  It is at this point of the discussion that I need your help.  I understand that social gaming company Zynga is the largest developer on Facebook’s platform.  What lessons learned can be gleaned from social gaming?  Or SimCity?  How do you think this might play out?  Can this be done in a way which is not inappropriately manipulative?

We all know that kids are the ones who learn (and remember) how to program the TV remote.  Let’s seek their approval by elevating and acknowledging their roles as our in-house clean technologists.

The smart meter system which San Diego Gas & Electric is in the process of installing is only of portion of the smart grid.  As state-mandated renewable energy becomes a larger portion of the total base of energy supply, the energy network becomes far more complex and thus more difficult to control.  Smart grid provides the two-way communication necessary to manage a diverse base of power generation and use. 

In addition to SDG&E, other smart grid companies listed in CleanTECH San Diego’s database of cleantech companies include Balance Energy, IPS Group, On-Ramp Wireless, PCN Technology and EcoDog.  The smart grid opportunity for San Diego-based technologies fans out beyond this list when wireless applications and information security are taken into consideration.

In September SDG&E announced a major Smart Grid coalition formed with CleanTECH San Diego, UC San Diego and two dozen other entities including tech giants Qualcomm, IBM, Intel, Cisco, General Electric and local start-up On-Ramp Wireless.  The San Diego coalition is seeking $100 million of federal stimulus funds for smart grid development to benefit the region and to serve as a prototype project for the rest of the world to model.  The initiative is in addition to the GridComm wireless smart grid project for which SDG&E was recently awarded $28.1 million in stimulus funds by the DOE to match with $32 million from the utility. 

The networking hour before the CleanTECH San Diego Showcase is a unique opportunity to get face to face with the captains of industry, futurists, venture capitalists and propeller heads who play in the clean tech space.  Click here to make your reservation.

The following resources will add to your understanding of Smart Grid.

“It’s Your Smart Grid”, an interactive educational website by General Electric.

Glossary of Smart Grid Terms

The Smart Grid in 2010: Market Segments, Applications and Industry Players.  David J. Leeds of GTM Research  (145 pages)  Please e-mail your request to me at glenn@glennmosier.com and I will forward the PDF file.