My parents never sought my approval as a child.  That was not part of their generation’s mission statement.  Nor did they seek my opinion. That I might have some input on what we were going to eat or when was not a consideration let alone my thoughts on the selection of a family car.  My friends and I never had any expectation that our parents sought our approval in their decisions.  That things are different today is obvious, although not inherently good or bad.

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 (more…)

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.

San Diego Gas & Electric was one of one hundred recipients announced today to receive a smart grid investment grant from the Department of Energy.  Three hundred other applicants were not as fortunate.  SDG&E will provide matching funds of over $32 million for their GridComm wireless smart grid project.  Click here to see their grant application.  Last month 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, GE, IBM, Intel, Cisco, and a local rising star, On-Ramp Wireless.

The good news has many layers.  The DOE funds will accelerate a project which SDG&E has already begun.  The Brief Project Description in the DOE’s list of awards states, “Implement an advanced wireless communications system to provide connection for 1,400,000 smart meters, enable dynamic pricing, and examples of smart equipment that will allow increased monitoring, communication, and control over the electrical system”.  San Diego’s early adopter status quickly generates jobs and a more efficient energy system.  In addition, the “lessons learned” will boost several San Diego companies as providers of technical services to the national expansion of the smart grid.  Click here for the complete list of DOE award winners.

This morning I participated in the latest CleanTECH San Diego SCRUB session.  SCRUB is an opportunity for early stage clean tech companies to present their business story to a group of CleanTECH San Diego members.  Three local emerging clean tech ventures made their case this morning to a panel of 28 CleanTECH San Diego members representing a mix of venture capitalists, engineers, marketing specialists, intellectual property attorneys as well as local leaders from industry, research and government.  The objective of SCRUB is to provide immediate feedback and assistance to take each company to the next stage. 

Today’s SCRUB showcased three distinctly different clean tech businesses.  Marine Power Partners has developed a patent pending waterwheel that generates continuous base-load electricity from flowing water at lower capital and operating costs than either solar or wind systems.  A Smart Grid innovator, On-Ramp Wireless, is a systems provider for low-power wide-area scalable sensor networking and location tracking.  New Leaf Biofuel collects waste cooking oil (more…)

Today I attended a media event held to announce a major Smart Grid coalition formed by San Diego Gas & Electric with CleanTECH San Diego, UC San Diego and two dozen other entities including tech giants Qualcomm, IBM, Intel, Cisco, and a local rising star, 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.

In August, SDG&E’s parent, Sempra Energy, was recognized by IDC Energy Insights and Intelligent Utility magazine as the #1 “intelligent utility” in the nation in recognition of their work to move their customer base to smart meters. 

General Electric, a member of the coalition, launched “It’s Your Smart Grid”, an interactive educational website.  It is extremely well done.  We need the same for all other categories of clean technology.   Check out “It’s Your Smart Grid”.