Cleantech companies in San Diego continue to receive global recognition as innovators.  On Wednesday Cleantech Group LLC (not to be confused with CleanTECH San Diego) announced their 2011 Global Cleantech 100.  From our region the honorees were Genomatica, On-Ramp Wireless and Synthetic Genomics.  There are 58 U.S. companies on the list with California way in front with an impressive 36.  In all, 16 countries were represented.

The rigorous selection process began with a long list of 4,274 nominated companies.  The expert panel was made up of 70 individuals drawn principally from leading cleantech investors from around the world. 

The leading cleantech sub-sector was Energy Efficiency with 19 companies.  This was followed by Solar (14), Water & Wastewater (12), Energy Storage (10) and Biofuels & Biomaterials (9). 

Click here to read the 32 page report. 

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 (more…)

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…)

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.

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”.