The CleanTECH San Diego Showcase presents Solar Power – The Path to Profitability on Monday, June 14th at the La Jolla Marriott.  Keynote speaker, Daniel Gross is one of the founding Partners of Hudson Clean Energy, a private equity fund with over $1 billion in assets under management focusing on renewable energy and clean technology.  Following Mr. Gross’ remarks will be a panel discussion featuring Dr. Burkhard von Spreckelsen, CEO of Valliant Solar Systems, Scott Sporrer, general manager of Siliken Renewable Energy and Joe Budano, CEO of Energy Innovations.

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.

Getting up to speed in cleantech is like learning a new language.  Lesson one for algae begins at the website for the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology (SD-CAB).  I found the Q&A to be particularly useful. 

Algae lesson number two is the Algal Biofuels Symposium 2010 “The Science to Support Algal Biofuel Commercialization” to be held this Friday April 23rd at the Salk Institute in La Jolla.  This all day event features a dozen of the top experts in the field of what many believe will be the leading alternative fuel for transportation, algae biofuel.  Just $25 covers the event including lunch and a hosted reception.  Click here for details. 

You will want to become a SD-CAB Associate Member.  Click here to join for $100.

For five more useful algae resources see Algae spoken here which was posted below on October 21, 2009

By GUEST AUTHOR Lee Barken, IT practice leader at Haskell & White, LLP

Peter Fusaro knows environmental finance markets.  As Chairman of Global Change Associates, Fusaro is an energetic and tenacious green markets cheerleader with over 34 years of government policy and industry experience.  When he took the stage at his 9th annual Wall Street Green Trading Summit last week in New York City, audience members perked up and paid attention. 

From carbon markets to green energy loans and Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs, more than 225 professionals gathered at this conference to learn about a variety of innovative financing mechanisms.  “This conference has always been the practitioners’ conference,” said Fusaro.  “This is about people doing things: innovative things, risky things, pushing the envelope and moving forward.”

 Restarting the Green Engine

 If the path to economic development is paved with green technology, some suggest that the car is in neutral.  Unfortunately, for the past few months, the political machine of Washington has been consumed by partisan wrangling over medical insurance.  Now, with the healthcare debate behind us, there seemed to be a renewed sense of optimism among conference participants.

 “The lack of interest in carbon is appalling, (more…)

Last December I participated in a two day Discover Imperial County tour organized by the San Diego Regional Economic Development Council.  It was a first-hand opportunity to experience the remarkable energy and agriculture wealth of the Imperial Valley.  (See my posts of December 6th and 8th below).  The EDC has scheduled a one-day version of the trip for April 9th.  The $195 fee includes meals and transportation.  This is a must-do for everyone who is interested in the vast base of cleantech opportunities which exist in the Cali Baja Mega-Region. 

The Imperial Valley is an energy cornucopia.  I doubt if there is any comparable space in the world that can harvest energy from solar, geothermal, water, wind, algae, biomass and piped-in natural gas. 

To register contact Emily, Events Manager, at 619-615-2969 or en@sandiegobusiness.org

OR click here to register online.

On Wednesday the second CleanTECH San Diego Showcase event: WIND POWER – Leading the Renewables Revival was held at the Marriott in La Jolla.  After the active networking session the 240 attendees heard Jim McDermott, Managing Partner of US Renewables Group, give the opening presentation followed by a panel discussion with Dr. Jim Walker, Vice Chairman, Board of enXco, Ian Gardner, CEO of Helix Wind, James Sahagian, VP for commercial development with Sempra Generation and Steven DeWolf, principal of Wind Tex Energy LP.

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 (more…)

By GUEST AUTHOR Lee Barken, IT practice leader at Haskell & White, LLP

With southern California in the midst of thunderstorms and tornado warnings, attendees at the 6th Annual Clean-tech Investor Summit listened intently to conference chair Ira Ehrenpreis remind the audience that “we choose Palm Springs as the conference location for the past 6 years because of the wonderful weather here.” 

Despite the cancellation of 3 speakers due to weather related travel problems, the January 19-21 summit convened over 400 industry professionals to reflect on 2009, opine on 2010 and network with piers.

Networking, as it turns out, was a major attraction for attendees.  As one Private Equity managing partner said to me: “I’m here to meet up with colleagues and see old friends.”  Another popular theme, as shared by one clean tech company exec I met: “We’re here to look for funding.”

Flipping through the conference attendee list (provided to all participants) reveals an eclectic mix with concentrations in two communities: Capital Providers (Venture Capital, Private Equity) and (more…)

The CleanTECH San Diego Showcase presents WIND POWER: Leading the Renewables Renaissance Wednesday, February 10_^th at the La Jolla Marriott.  Keynote speaker, Jim McDermott, Managing Partner of US Renewables Group, will discuss the wind market and strategies for buyers, sellers and new market entrants.  US Renewables Group is one of the largest investment firms focused exclusively on the renewable energy industry with $750 million of capital commitments.  Following Mr. McDermott’s remarks will be a panel discussion featuring regional wind developers and technology companies including Dr. Jim Walker Vice Chairman of enXco and the CEO of Helix Wind, Ian Gardner.

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.

If San Diego County were a simple geometric shape it would be a square with sides of 65 miles.  Within those four sides the resources, both natural and man-made, the intellectual heft and techno-talent are incredible.  The effectiveness of what’s in the box is magnified by what lies beyond the perimeter.  In our case it is Imperial County and Mexico.  The economic development description of this outside-the-box-thinking is the Cali Baja Bi-National Mega-Region. 

This past week I participated in a two day Discover Imperial County tour organized by the San Diego Regional Economic Development Council.  For most of us, we rarely have any contact with the sources of our food and energy.  Food comes from an aisle at Vons and electricity from a wall plug.  Just two hours from the center of our box is a different world where every resident has an up-close view of innovative technologies which make our food and energy available and affordable. 

The Imperial Valley is an energy cornucopia.  I doubt if there is any comparable space in the world that can harvest energy from solar, geothermal, water, wind, algae, biomass and piped-in natural gas.  Their ability to add new electrical production is only tempered by the timing of construction of new transmission lines.

The first stop on our tour was at the east edge of San Diego County at the Kumeyaay wind farm on the Campo Indian Reservation.  Three square miles of tribal land adjacent to Interstate 8 are home to 25 giant Gamesa wind turbines rated at 2 megawatts each.  The winds which cross the Tecate Divide provide electricity sufficient to serve more than 12,000 homes while saving 110,000 tons of green house gas emissions annually. 

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By the numbers:  Towers 70 meters (230 feet).  Blades 41.5 meters (136 feet).  The area swept by the blades of each tower = 1 1/3 acres.   Total swept area for the 25 towers = 33 1/3 acres.  (Swept area refers to the area in square feet of the rotor. It is also called the ‘capture area’.  pi x Radius² = Area Swept by the Blades).

The inaugural CleanTECH San Diego Showcase presents Smart Grid, Transforming the Energy Industry this Thursday November 12th at the La Jolla Marriott. Keynote speaker, Ellen Pao, is a partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the preeminent player in the venture capital universe.  Kleiner Perkins’ successes include Amazon.com, Compaq, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Google, Intuit, Lotus Development, Netscape, Segway, Sun Microsystems and scores of other ventures over a 37 year history.  A year ago the firm’s $500 million Green Growth Fund committed $75 million to smart grid start-up Silver Spring Networks.  Following Ms. Pao’s remarks will be a panel discussion by the CEO’s of three venture-funded clean tech companies, Aptera, Applied Solar and PCN Technology.  Each of these San Diego-based companies is approaching the smart grid future from a different perspective. 

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.

The future of algae as a source of alternative energy is being played out in research labs and corporate boardrooms in dozens of San Diego locations.  On one special night earlier this month, San Diego invited the rest of the algae universe to come together at a location where test tubes are rarely scene.  The flight deck of the USS Midway provided a memorable venue for algae aficionados from all points of the compass to socialize before the onset of the 3^_rd Annual Algae Biomass Summit the following day.  Science, finance and politics were in attendance.  Hosted by CleanTECH San Diego, the event drew over 300.  The full-moon evening was one of the most crystal clear in memory.  Prior to the cocktail hour a press conference was held.  CleanTECH San Diego’s CEO Lisa Bicker introduced Mayor Jerry Sanders, an ardent supporter of clean technology in San Diego.  Councilman Ron Roberts and a host of algae rock stars added their support.

Technology hubs like the San Diego’s clean tech cluster exist symbiotically with their legal communities.  An example of that interdependency was the full-day event last Wednesday sponsored by Foley & Lardner LLP.  The strong attendance at Foley’s Emerging Technologies Conference: Navigating a New World is evidence of the appetite for informed insights.  The panels on Alternative Energy and Accessing Government Funding were of greatest interest to me.  The Funding presentation was enhanced by the specific guidance of Tyler Orion and June Chocheles.  The Federal Technology Funding Guide was one recommendation.  Also recommended were the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) website and the Department of Defense SBIR website.  All government agencies offer periodic notification (more…)

For the last 22 years CONNECT has put the spotlight on Most Improved Products from local innovators.  This year the competition has drawn approximately 100 entries.  In the Clean Technology category this year’s finalists are On-Ramp Wireless for Ultra-Link Processing Wireless Communication System, ecoATM (formerly reMobile) for ecoATM and Ultraviolet Sciences for UVS Ultraviolet Water Purification Systems.  Two weeks ago On-Ramp Wireless was introduced as one of the founding members of the San Diego smart grid coalition.   

The MIP honor in the Clean Technology category last year went to Reaction Design for Energico.  You will have to wait until December 11^th to learn who gets the trophy in 2009.

For the last few months the quest for biofuel derived from algae has been a hot headline.  San Diego’s prominence as the foremost algae R&D center will draw even more national attention when the 3^rd Annual Algae Biomass Summit comes to town October 7^th – 9^th.  The Algal Biomass Organization is a trade organization formed to facilitate commercialization and market development of microalgae biomass specifically for biofuels production and greenhouse gas abatement.  Attendance of about 1,000 is anticipated for the three day get-together which will include local algae heavy weights Sapphire Energy, Synthetic Genomics, General Atomics, Biolight, Kent Bioenergy and the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology among others. (more…)

Innovators in San Diego love to network. Connect with CleanTECH San Diego is your opportunity to get face to face with the captains of industry, futurists, venture capitalists and propeller heads who play in the clean tech space.  This should be the largest clean tech networking event in San Diego in 2009. A similar CONNECT networking event earlier this year drew over 600.  All you need to do is register and show up with a fistful of business cards.

Connect with CleanTECH San Diego

Date: Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009
Time: 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Place: Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
12235 El Camino Real,
San Diego, CA 92130

Event will take place in the outdoor courtyard.

Link to REGISTER