Charlie Neuman has some great photos on SignOn San Diego of the local solution for energy-efficient transportation.

Click here for link.

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.

The goal of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE is to inspire a new generation of super-efficient vehicles that help break our addiction to oil and stem the effects of climate change.   Click here for contest details. 

The X Prize Foundation is the brilliant vision of Dr. Peter Diamandis.  In May we were fortunate to have Dr. Diamandis share an evening with us at the MIT Enterprise Forum.  Click here for Bruce Bigelow’s article in Xconomy.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is the living legend in the venture capital universe.  Their 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.  Their lead in the launch of San Diego-based V Vehicle Company is just one piece of their huge commitment to invest in clean tech and transportation.  Kleiner Perkins is joined in their investment by the VC arm of Google and part-time San Diegan T. Boone Pickens.  Manufacturing of the yet-to-be-unveiled automobile will take place in Louisiana.  If all the Federal and state loans fall in place, the total investment will exceed $500 million.  Former Oracle executive, Frank Varasano of San Diego, is the company’s CEO.  Wrapped in product secrecy, V Vehicle’s website has a video and information about their plans to hire 1400 workers.

Carlsbad-based Aptera has a waiting list of over 4,000 early adapters who have written deposit checks for the yet-to-be-offered three-wheeled, super aero-dynamic electric vehicle.  Looking like a cross between an albino lobster and George Jetson’s commuter car, the Aptera comes with a built-in fan club that is drawn to the car’s futuristic appearance, three-digit MPG comparisons and cocktail-party-conversation features such as solar assisted climate control.  Originally funded last year for $24 million from Google, Idealab and individual investors, Aptera seeks Federal loans to accelerate their production capability.  Their quest for funds was stymied because the Aptera 2e’s design is one wheel short of the standard four.  Local Congressman Brian Bilbray is grinding through the legislative process to include “fully enclosed vehicles that are capable of carrying two adults and get at least 75 mpg.”

The recent input of over $12 million will rev-up San Diego’s Achates Power in their efforts to build the internal combustion engine equivalent of Doctor Dolittle’s pushmi-pullyu.  Their 4.2L automotive engine design is a high-efficiency two-stroke power plant which features two opposing pistons in each cylinder.  The Achates Power value proposition is an “unparalleled combination of fuel efficiency and power density at lower cost” which translates into MPG figures that smoke your father’s Oldsmobile.

We already know that one of gold medalists in the 2010 Winter Olympics will be from Poway.  ISE Corporation is a world leading supplier of hybrid-electric drive systems and components for sustainable, heavy-duty transportation applications.  In Vancouver last week, BC Transit unveiled the first BC Transit hybrid fuel cell bus which is the first of a fleet of 20 zero-emission buses that will run during and after the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Whistler.  Each bus uses ISE Corporations’ hybrid fuel cell drive system.  In a city known for games of a different sort, Las Vegas gamblers find mass transit to be a sure bet to move from casino to casino.  A complete fleet of StreetCar RTV trambuses will service the ACE Downtown Connector route.  Each of the articulated super buses will be powered by ISE Corporation hybrid-electric drive systems.

The newest addition to the CleanTECH San Diego company database was added this week when Vista-based Flux Power was spun off by LVH Power.  Leading the charge for Flux Power will be Chris Anthony who is also the chief of composite operations for Aptera.  In a few weeks, the company will launch a portfolio of products for managing, monitoring and charging lithium batteries.  Electric vehicles like the Aptera 2e must have their lithium batteries properly managed to extend their usable life.  With communication each cell can be monitored to assure level charge and discharge between cells which can help the cell last many times longer than its unmanaged counterpart.