Our first livecast stream of Colorado Green Tech

We’d like to thank Brian and his team from Green Works Video for their tremendous effort in putting this together for the meeting. Our live event stream in high definition looked great (from my latop anyway) and was made available from the homepage on our colorado green tech site. If you’re interested in this service please email Brian at brian@gwvideo.com or visit his website.

Governor’s Energy Office, Renewable Energy Distribution Infrastructure (REDI) Report
Presented by: Adam Cahn, Government Intern

Governor Ritter issued an Executive Order on April 16, 2007, re-creating the Governor’s Office of Energy Management and Conservation (originally created in 1977 to promote energy conservation in Colorado) as the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO). The GEO’s mission is to lead Colorado to a New Energy Economy by advancing energy efficiency and renewable, clean energy resources. The GEO was awarded a grant from the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability to support the REDI Project.  The results of the project were compiled into the REDI report, an analysis of the issues facing Colorado’s electric power sector as it strives to meet the goal of a 20% reduction in CO2 emission by the year 2020 from a 2005 base.

As an introduction on accessibility of renewables on the grid, our green tech host Kris Weisenfeld brought up the Pickens Plan. Considered a pioneer in wind generation in Texas, T. Boone Pickens had plans to build a 4MW wind farm in the Texas Panhandle through the Mesa Energy company. Although he’s purchased wind turbines and started to install them, the complexities of getting the transmission in place is holding the Pickens project back until 2013.  Similarily Colorado REDI report tackles the issues of transmission and technology factors. Utility based power must deal with transmission. Renewables can also increases distances since the optimal renewable sources are not always close to their destination loads.

As a result of Senate Bill 91, the REDI report was created. The report identified 10 Generation Development Areas (GDAs) for renewables in Colorado. From these areas, 8 GDAs support wind with a total of 96GW capacity or 8 times Colorado’s current peak energy usage. The remaining two GDAs support solar and if completely covered with Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) would equal 1300 GW.  If only 2% of the land was used for solar it could host 26GW of capacity, more then twice Colorado’s peak usage. The report also includes information from over 450 technical reports produced in cooperation with NREL and the Department of Energy.

Technology is also changing the landscape of alternative energy capabilities on the grid. The SB91 report uses the 2007 NREL wind capacity estimates for wind turbines designed at a 50 m hub height. This is a conservative estimate with new technology for wind becoming available. New estimates from NREL indicate that 80 m hub height increases capacity from 96,000 MW to 300,000 MW or over 3x increase in capacity. Adam also showed some great photos from the Vesta production floor and train-based transportation of these massive wind turbines segments from the factory to their ultimate operational destination.

The REDI report addresses Colorado’s renewable energy portfolio (REP) 2020 goal: 20% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2020 based on 2005 emissions. Today Colorado has made significant progress. Adam showed a chart of CO2 emissions with an increasing curve of where Colorado was going and of how we achieved reduced consumption back to baseline status. This has been achieved with renewable energy and demand side policy to optimize energy usage. Another aspect of energy consumption and limiting CO2 for the 2020 goal is that Colorado is expecting to grow in population from 5.2M today to 6.2 M in 2020. The demand (medium) forecast will go from 60 GWh to 80 GWh. Given these challenges, the strategy for Colorado is to develop significantly more renewable energy and make it available through new transmission lines at higher & more efficient voltages ( 230 KV and 345 KV). Some of the other key recommendations are:

• Increase renewable energy development, including utility scale wind & solar generation
• Increase high-voltage centers from renewable generation sources to high-demand load centers
• Generate natural gas power strategically to supplement naturally variable renewable energy
• Reduce strategical utilization of coal-fire plants and/or retirement of least efficient coal-fired units

If you are interested in more details on the REDI Report go to the Govenor’s Energy Office main site Recharge Colorado where you can view the utube video or read the pdf REDI online report.

Our greentech audience had some interesting questions for Adam. One alternative to utility based is ‘localized generation’, although not a focus for this report the approach is popular in Colorado and requires knowledge and maintenance by the local provider. The REDI report also indicates that although some lines can be upgraded in place to higher voltages, most of the recommendation are pointing to build-out of new transmission capabilities in new areas or beside existing lines. For this build-out, underground buried lines are preferred by many.  However, the cost to do so is over $6M per mile, and 2 to 4 times more expensive then overhead power lines. Colorado is advancing to higher voltage transmission levels and looking to use improved aluminum transmission lines. Worldwide the build-out of capacity is undergoing massive change. Ultra-High Voltage transmission (1000 KV AC +) as prototyped in China,  are looking to improve range beyond the traditional 500 mile limit. At this point in time it looks like Colorado is not as challenged as China in terms of distance but it will be interesting to track advanced in both AC and DC transmission abroad.

SunTrac Solar - Revisited

Presented by: Adam Rentschler, CEO

As Suntrac Solar is in a very dynamic phase of corporate development, we invited them back for an update (see our April 2010 blog on their first presentation) and to allow them to benefit from the “Wisdom of the Crowd” (i.e. you).

SunTrac Solar manufactures the world’s most efficient flat-plate solar thermal panels in Golden, CO. They have shrunk utility-scale parabolic trough technology and put in into a traditional flat-plate collector box. Their core product creates high temperature hot water for commercial and industrial applications.

Overall the discussion included an excellent feedback on new market entry, state by state legislation/rebates/incentives, competitive pricing related to volatility (natural gas/propane) and overall market strategy (risk mitigation versus value creation). Thanks to everyone for participating and offering leads & information to SunTrac. Our local community of experts provided thoughtful information to help develop and support our local green tech companies.

ION Engineering

Presented by:  Buz Brown, CEO

ION Engineering is commercializing proprietary technology for removing CO2 and other contaminants from gas streams found in natural gas, syngas, fossil fuel power plant flue gas and industrial processes.  ION founders include inventors from the University of Colorado and a management team with strong start-up and industry experience.   ION is working with global partners to develop applications for their core technology, based on solvents combining ionic liquids and amines.  The properties of ION’s solvents offer advantages that lead to process improvements with lower capital requirements and reduced operating costs.  Advantages over existing and emerging technologies include improved capture performance, life-cycle cost advantages ranging from 25% to 50%, reduced water and energy use, and a smaller footprint.

ION has found a lower cost solution to address reduction of CO2 and other contaminants in industrial/power plants as compared with current gas-treatment and Carbon capture solutions. Natural gas is cleaner then coal (half the CO2) when used as an energy source but over 40% of natural gas reserves have CO2 and H2S that must be cleaned.   Additionally Carbon capture is currently a very expensive approach to CO2 reduction. Currently the 95% of the industry uses aqueous amine solvents to  ”sweeten” (reducing sour smell) by removing H2S and CO2 from natural gas.

The solvent approach developed by ION engineering uses a ionic liquids and amines that are chemically and thermally stable. Ionic liquids use organic salts that are non-volatile and liquid at room temperature. Conventional technology uses amines to bind to CO2 in an absorber unit and then channels the solvent to a regenerator where the stream is heated and CO2 is captured. The ION approach replaces the water used in the traditional systems with an ionic liquid. The system also saves in the amount of aqueous amine but replaces with a more expensive ionic liquid. Overall the technology has significant benefits, lowering operating and capital cost in the range of 25-50% (an example was shown for a gas processing unit with 15% CO2 having annual savings of 3.6 Mil.).

The addressable market is dependent on regulations and today there are 23 states where green-house gas emissions are restricted. Legistlation and the perception of traditional energy issues (such as the gulf spill) will shape our next energy policy. ION expects to leverage their technology across a spectrum of users. Starting with small volume plants (<100 MMscf or million standard cubic feet per day of gas) by leveraging the strong operating drivers to implement natural gas cleaning. Larger facilities can be retrofitted and have major justification on cost alone to upgrade. Finally, Coal & Gas power plants could use this technology with carbon capture to reduce their equipment footprint and operating cost.

GenGreen LLC – Sustainable Living Made Local & launch of BigGreenDeal.com

Presented by: Charisse McAuliffe,  Founder & CEO

GenGreen LLC was founded in Fort Collins, CO three years ago by Charisse McAuliffe with the intention to help make it easier for people to find the resources they need to live a sustainable, locally focused life. Today, GenGreenLife.com is the largest directory of verified green businesses and organization in North America with over 70,000 listings. GenGreen is also the creator of one of the most popular green mobile applications called “Find Green”, available on iPhone, Android, and Blackberry platforms. GenGreen just launched their newest product, BigGreenDeal.com which is where GenGreen certified members offer exceptional discounts on products and services in a ‘deal of the day’ type transaction. GenGreen will soon be rolling out BigGreenDeal.com on a local level starting in June.

To-date GenGreen has grown impressively since they presented at the inaugural Colorado Green Tech meetup. They have over 70,000 listing in 25+ categories ranging from Green Events to Travel/Eco-tourism to Babies/Kids, Health&Wellness, Carbon Offsetting and Food/Dining. Their “Find Green” application along with the traditional web site tools help users find their product with confidence that they are certified green. GenGreen has had great success with their current iPhone application but also have a future application on the android phone that is close to be released. The web and mobile channels not only find your desired green products but also help find services that are close to you, such as the closest organic restaurant or closest recycling plant.

Their latest venture is called the BigGreenDeal. This new web offering allows for service /product provider to offer discounts to the GenGreenLife audience. An example of a product show in the presentation was a belt made from recycled tires. The offer made to consumers is 51% discount with an expiry time remaining. This product is GenGreen Approved and has fully supported information as part of its certification. As BigGreenDeal uses a similar model to middlemen like ebay or amazon, they take a cut of all transactions. Their current plans is to launch into 50 local markets and be the dominate player in green product search, sales and discounting.

Kris hosting the meeting

Wolfe Law Building auditorium

SunTrac Solar
Presented by: Adam Rentschler, CEO

SunTrac Solar manufactures the world’s most efficient flat-plate solar thermal panels in Golden, CO. A major innovation, they have shrunk utility-scale parabolic trough technology and placed it into a traditional flat-plate collector box. They address a niche segment for  solar thermal products: high temperature hot water for commercial and industrial applications. In their top three states, they deliver a return on investment to building owners and businesses measured in months, not years. The CO2 payback is roughly six months on a system with a 30 year lifetime.

Solar thermal technology works by using the sun to heat either water or a solar fluid (e.g. glycol-based) in black copper tubes which are then channeled to a home’s water heater where the heat is transfered. A pump/controller unit is used to circulate the cooler water from the heat exchanger system to the collector. Using photos sensors, they system tracks the sun and adjust the mirrors for maximum capture. The tracks follow the sun from east to west every day. The commercial version uses 6 parabolic troughs per collector box.

A solar thermal system supplements a gas or electric based heating system at an average annual rate between 60-80%.  The primary competitors for SunTrac product technology are evacuated tubes and flat panel solar collectors. For high-temperature water the SunTrac provided diagram illustrates that the cost advantage of a concentrator system with the lowest dollar cost/BTU of energy created. Another comparative factor is how water-heating technology perform under the desired end-temperature range. Between 36F and 250F, operational efficiencies decline for all three solutions (with SunTrac at 60%@90F and 35%@250F) but as illustrated the  SunTrac efficiency rating tops it’s competitors.

The competitive landscape shows both propane/nat gas./electricity based heating are good markets to enter for both small business and residential for SunTrac. Cost of legacy fuel costs and state-level incentives (Investment Tax Credit) determine the attractiveness of the market for solar thermal. In locations like Colorado, natural gas is abundant and cheap making solar-thermal less attractive.

Posit Partners – What is Your Story? (The Business Value of Strategic Messaging)
Presented by: Carlton Bonilla, Business Development

In support of The Colorado Green Tech Meetup’s mission to fast track early stage Green Techcompanies we are kicking off a new series that looks at the non-technology aspects of a successful cleantech venture. This week we heard from Carlton Bonilla, a partner at a cleantech-focused marketing consulting firm, who will talked about why and how a startup should think about its position in the marketplace and the value of a strategic brand message for technology-driven startups.

One of the conundrums of technology companies is when to build their company story, before or after an initial round of funding. The value of creating this story is significant since a story is the precursor to funding. Posit Partners took on this journey of the importance of a strategy (versus tactics) and substance (versus just style).

As a cleantech company, the communicating your  product’s often complex technology and how the company is positioned in the market is very relevant. Investors need to understand your strategy to grow and rate your ability to communicate to your market (beyond the VC pitch) . A metaphor of an iceberg was used showing that tactics are the exposed elements and underlying (underwater) portion of the iceberg is the strategy. So to sell a story, the company strategy should be fundamentally developed to a level where investor/customer/partners can understand it (e.g. how is the company going to make money?  etc.)

A formula to building a companies brand was introduced. Brand equals identity and position. A companies position is where the substance comes in. A Position (substance) is created through:

1. Tagline
2. Positioning Strategy
3. Competitive brand Audit
4. Key Messaging
5. Pitch Presentation
6. Thought Leadership

The identity (style) of your company is based on the style of how this information is submitted to your audience:

1. Logo
2. Look and Feel
3. Web site
4. Brochure
5. Trade show booth
6. Company schwag

For companies a key takeaway from the presentation was about communication of brand. Strategic storytelling needs to communicate a rational argument with an emotional component that makes your company memorable. Every company needs a way to bridge the chasm (from an R&D startup to an operational company) using a technology translator like Posit. Communicating their value, Posit did a good job of communicating a strategy and how the facilitate/help with a cleantech technology translation process. They left us with the following key points and quote from Sun Tzu:

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

1. Build your strategy first
2. Your substance is more important then style
3. Start your branding journey before your reach our for funding
4. The story of your companies value & intentions is important
5. Look to getting a competent branding company

Greenspark Fuel Systems – On-site Waste Vegetable Oil Fuel Production Systems
Presented by: Mike Lakritz, Founder

Greenspark Fuel System produces the FuelBox fueling system, a self contained, weatherproof vegetable oil fuel production and pumping station. The FuelBox system eliminates the traditional collection/distribution model for producing biofuels from waste vegetable oil. It helps restaurants, hotels, resorts, hospitals, universities and any business using vegetable oil to efficiently and easily produce waste vegetable oil fuel for their own use on-site.

The FuelBox enables vertical integration so the entity becomes the feedstock supplier, fuel producer and end user. Greenspark Fuel Systems is working with Colorado ski resorts, local businesses, the federal government and state and local municipalities and Universities to implement FuelBox systems and empower these groups to increase profits and reduce fuel costs while decreasing their environmental impact.

FuelBox is the flagship product for Greenspark which was formed as a company in 2008. Their market entry is to solve one of the key problems in the Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) industry, make it clean, convenient to dispose of waste and turn it into a profit center versus a cost center. In most cases waste vegetable oil today is not processed on-site and can be utilized for range of applications ranging from pet food fat supplement to dust inhibitor to biofuel feedstock.  Fuel box provides a vertically integrated solution that eliminates the mess and the need for distribution and provides a fuel that can be used directly for fuel.

The technology solution uses a progressive filtering of vegetable  through centrifuge technology. The output fuel is not bio-diesel but an alternative high-quality fuel called VO-100. The filtering process brings oil within the tolerance of a diesel-filter range of 1/10 micron. The viscosity of this fuel requires heat to change the viscosity for the appropriate operational temperature and can not  be used in regular diesel tanks. VO fuel can also be used in residential oil heaters and also to generate electricity through the Vegawatt system that converts oil to electricity with little green house effect (670g of CO2 per Kw of electricity).

An ideal target customer is one that has an waste vegetable oil feedstock and a vehicle fleet. Restaurants, hotels, universities, ski resorts have delivery fleets and fit this criteria. Currently Greenspark has a pilot project ongoing with Copper Mountain resort. This pilot has produced between 8000-10000 gallons of fuel per season. The environmental saving is significant compared to a normal fleet. The fuel removes all SO2, 10-30% of NO2 and 50-90% of all diesel particulates. Alternative fuel vehicle (AFV) conversions and fuel tax credits ($1.25/gal produced and $0.50/gal ) provide a significant savings to the operator of this system along with the cost saving offset of not purchasing fuel.

GreenSpark is currently proceeding with a number of strategic partnerships. With an existing proven product, the next steps are focused on marketing exposure, partnerships and sales growth in targeted markets.

Following the presentation a number of thoughtful questions were raised as captured here. GreenSpark can aid in vehicle conversion (to add a new tank for vegetable oil). The fuel production unit has a minor waste stream, organic sludge in low quantities that will need to disposed of. Vegetable oil based fuel will achieve the same mile per gallon rating as diesel. The fuel will reduce wear and tear through its high-viscosity (200x when heated compared to diesel) and highly filtered nature that will reduce fuel filter replacement. As an alternative WVO reduces emissions compared with diesel which requires sulphur to achieve its viscosity rating. The unit also requires a heating system (e.g. 1Kw @20A) they can cost around $15-20/month.

We had a great turnout for this meeting, thanks everyone for filling in our new venue nicely. Networking again is proving to be a very popular part of the meeting and there is plenty of space at law building  to do this now. ToughStuff worked the crowds before and after the meeting from their promotional table in the front entrance. There was a good sized crowd that wanted to see their durable solar panel from  last meeting.

Announcements

• Green tech happy hour – 4th thursday of every month, St. Julien
• CU tech transfer office, looking for chemistry/chemical engineering licensing associate – https://www.cu.edu/techtransfer/about/job_boulder_chem_lic_associate.html

Speakers

Infleksion, Brian Kromer
The Stationary Model – Stationary Compliance & Climate Change Market Profiling

Infleksion is an information company that provides Environmental Intelligence on Stationary Energy Markets. Environmental Intelligence provides valuable knowledge to a number of clients through reports and dashboards. Clients can data mine for patterns on industry compliance for emissions, (e.g. air/water/land discharge and GHG-green house gases) using filters to target a potential market.  The market datasets focus on stationary businesses (local power plants, factory/industry) versus mobile (transportation). Infleksion software and services also provide finely grained knowledge to help examine facilities by fuel type, location and equipment and this empowers the client to make a more informed decision on where to deploy their technology. Extending this solution, information on the burgeoning carbon credit market can be made part of a report. Understanding where a credit can be received, provides clients with exceptional cost savings and competitive advantage . Federal Climate legislation is validating Brian’s work with Infleksion. In June 2009 a success vote passed that was the:

first time either house of Congress had approved a bill meant to curb the heat-trapping gases scientists have linked to climate change

Future energy demand is critical to understand stationary markets. Brian set the stage by examining the DOE/EIA International Energy Outlook. This graph projects demand from known consumption in 1980 projected out to 2030 of World Marketed Energy by Fuel type.  The graph(s) imply that that the increase in worldwide demand for energy sources such as oil, coal, renewables and natural gas fuels is growing significantly. How do we plan for energy types with existing and new compliance legislation? Infleksion helps model these scenarios – matching fuel type to industrial application to emission to location providing a landscape of the current environment (e.g. natural gas energy plant using a reciprocating engine complying with Colorado or Federal GHG/pollution emission standards ).

Where Infleksion breaks from the pack is it detailed knowledge on industries, machinery and regulation. It’s environmental intelligence is built on a collection of EPA, DOE and state agency datasets and other industrial information on machinery developed by its founder. Stationary datasets include Electricity Generation and Industry segments which account for 50% of the US Carbon footprint and 12.5% of the world footprint. The software product also helps to define and estimate using the new international currency denomination of climate change known as Carbon Dioxide Equivalency or CO₂e.

Carbon dioxide equivalency is a quantity that describes, for a given mixture and amount of greenhouse gas, the amount of CO₂ that would have the same global warming potential (GWP), when measured over a specified timescale (generally, 100 years). Carbon dioxide equivalency thus reflects the time-integrated radiative forcing, rather than the instantaneous value described by CO₂e.

The opportunity identified is the target market of 800K facilities in the US which are monitored for discharge to the Air, Land or Water.  Monitoring by the EPA for these operations will soon include Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.  Infleksion has entered this market with both a software and services offering. Early clients served are in the energy sector.

At the end of the presentation a number of example reports were displayed. The first slide showed natural gas transmission points by county for the whole of the US. A second slide showed Weld County, CO with one of the highest number of facilities for natural gas processing. Brian mentioned Rocky Mountains only holds 8% of all natural gas in the US, but apparently Colorado is a hub for specialized processing. Just north in Wyoming there were some of highest densities of natural gas transmission points in the nation.

Liquid Asset Development, Gregory Majersky
Take control of your water’s quality

Liquid Asset Development markets the design and the fabrication process to make water filtration systems using pervious concrete. At the core of this solution is the social cause to provide a sustainable and accessible solution for poor nations as well as developed nations to clean their polluted water supply. The current product focus is on cleaning up mining and heavy metal pollution from industrial waste water and filtering agricultural runoff such as nitrogen/phosphorous and microorganisms.

Pollution from mines has presented a problem for over 10,000 years. Toxicity from acid mine drainage can pollute a local water supply when abandoned mines are flooded and the appropriate safety accommodations have not been made. This toxicity is claimed to be more dangerous in low pH waters to aquatic life and to the local resident consuming it. Ironically, this wastewater provides value in a reclamation process, containing a number of high value metals  such as Vanadium or Tritium that pays over 1000 dollars per ounce. The issue around water needs to be addressed as growing tension around ownership and usage of clean water supplies are leading to legal battles (over water diversion and overuse) in areas such as the SouthWest states,  Great Lakes Compact and Mississippi River states. Most developing nations are protective to the point of using armed tactics to protect their water resources. Locations such as Africa where Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia count on the Nile, Central Asia water routes are being disputed by Russia and China/India where disputes and threats stem from water diversions from the Tibet Plateau. Many people rely on this water and once polluted their situation is so dire they drink without any filtration bringing upon themselves an enormous health risk.

The Tibetan plateau is the ‘Principal Asian watershed and source of ten major rivers’. Tibet water travels to eleven countries and are said to bring fresh water to over 85% of Asian population, approximately 50% of world’s population. Four of these ten rivers: the Brahmaputra, Indus, Yangtze, and Mekong have their head water on the Tibetan plateau.

Desalination is not practical on a large scale for many countries. UAE has one of the largest desalination plants in the world. Florida has the largest US desalination operation but dwarfs in comparison with 12% capacity compared to UAE’s Jebel Ali Plant. Some of the issues are the power consumption, screening organisms, marine life & debris, and pH elevation requirements. Florida’s Tampa Bay Water faced with 5 years of engineering problems and operation at 20% capacity due to marine life and growth captured and stuck to reverse osmosis filters prior to fully utilizing this facility in 2007. With pervious concrete, pre-treatment of water for higher pH and debris filtering could potentially bring down these issues and costs.

Enter the Pervious Concrete solution. This material allows for 3-8 gallons per min of water to flow per on square foot of concrete. It is approximately 15-25% void structure that utilized no sand in its construction. It recognized by the EPA for stormwater filtration as well as 30 years in parking lots for removing brake dust, brake fluid and oil. It supports a high pH environment and does well is cold conditions. It excels over carbon filters in filtering polluted waters which contain metals.

Liquid asset is in the research phase and has proven their product in extensive trials on polluted waters by removing:

• 85-99% of iron
• 60-70% sodium
• 74% zinc, 65% copper
• 60% sulfate

Their addressable market for acid mine drainage and recovery of metals is $200M/yr. annual spend and $40 Billion globally. Remediation in Pennsylvania alone for AMD is $23 Mil. / year and state-wide sludge based metals recovery could recoup millions of dollars. The pre-treatement desalination market is estimated to be $25 Billion by 2010. Greg provided more desalination markets data.

Liquid asset Development is look for startup capital at the time of this writing. More laboratory and 3rd party validation is required beyond their initial product tests with replaceable modules.  They are looking for skilled resources in hydrology, chemistry and other specialties to help expand their product to commercial applications. Their market and first stage expansion plans involve both  developing world and local commercial applications. They are looking for investor and advisors with international client contacts. With a sustainable product to provide clean water and a revenue stream to recover value metals, Liquid Assets is an attractive investment startup opportunity.

SolarTech, Lambert Bunker
Real Solar Power

SolarTech designs and delivers HCPV (High Concentration Photovoltaic) solar systems. Their product offering is an patented solar panel that claims 36.7% efficiency at 50W/cm squared and a concentrator technology that magnifies the sun 400 times. Amplification is achieved with custom Fresnel lenses and the product with tracking system supports usage in extreme wind conditions. The product roots were from Sandia National Laboratories research and has operational success on the grid for over a decade. New technology utilizing triple junction solar cells has been added to their current product. Their latest system costs have made them competitive supplying power at a competitive $1.85/W.

Globally and domestically the market potential for solar technology is huge. Market demand will be enhanced by the lucrative 43B made available from the recovery act in 2009. Previous to recover act, existing global solar revenue in 2006 was at $16B. Today there are 6000 MW of identified US projects that will utilize solar. SolarTech has chosen to narrow their focus to mid-range commercial, agriculture, remote and municipal markets that deploy in high sun conditions. Their newest product architecture is a roof-mounted system that can support large scale commercial or smaller size residential deployments. Their product line can be engineering to work with best of breed solutions and tailored to a customer’s special needs.

The plan for growth is to continue and extend a multi-channel distribution chain, including energy developers, equipment dealers, solar installers and direct first run channels. Licensing is also available to other distributors and this is the expected long-term strategy once the newest product lines have been operationalized at large scale.

The primary driving factor to solar adoption is efficiency and sustainability. Concentrators are meeting this issue by reducing the need for silicon (reduce by 1/175 material), which in turn reduces landfill by 1/3. It provides a sustainable product with 99% recyclable material.  SolarTech is innovating at the leading edge of concentrated solar and expects to see great opportunity in the next wave of solar adoption, while still sharing the triple bottom line with the community.

CLEANtricity, Daniel Sullivan
Yes Wind Can

CLEANtricity Power manufactures unique small wind turbines that capture power from wind in breezes to typhoons and generate clean electricity right where you need it. Variable area, vertical axis turbines produce energy in almost all wind conditions and service the distributed power market.

The identified revenue potential for the variable wind turbine is about $3 Billion for the “off-grid homes” market.  There are also about 37M homes in the US with property over 1/2 acre which are also potential product clients. As of 2008, this market was supplied with 10,500 units and the projected growth is approximately 30 fold in 5 years, with tax credits also supporting customer demand. This particular low-wind market is under-served with today’s technologies and CLEANtricity fills that gap in the market.

The product is a unique, patented solution that supports variable swept areas. It uses a design that self regulates its area passively and without the need of electronics. The vertical spin design has the benefit of noise reduction and less vibration making it more reliable and versatile. A normal wind turbine is optimized for a specific speed or range. If a “traditional” wind turbine needs to stop operating when wind conditions reach above category 8 (to prevent damage), then it misses out on the jump between cat 8 to cat 9 window, which offer 8x more energy.  Plus, in order to shut down a traditional turbine, you need to feather the blade or use a mechanical break which does not always work gracefully in high wind conditions. Smaller vertical axis wind turbines are significantly cheaper with no large installation costs and foundations to build.

The go-to-market strategy includes more R&D work to improve the product (such as incorporating a battery that will store power for up to 6 days). The current intellectual property is already protected with patents. CLEANtricity is also working with suppliers to ensure quality control, contracts and unit assembly are production ready. Distribution channels, contracts and training are the next step to scale out the product roll-out. With positive profitability forecasted in 2011, the expected number of units delivered by 2010 will be approximately 70 thousand and gross sales are expected to reach 3.5 Million.

Our inaugural meeting at the CU Leeds Deming Center in Boulder was a pleasant surprise. There was a great turnout with representatives from legal, venture capital, academic, incubators, entrepreneurs, and others interested in green technology. There was great enthusiasm and a clearly educated crowd on the topics presented.

Our meeting started off with organizers Kris Wiesenfeld and Kevin Geminiuc introduced. Kris then started with some quick informal votes on meeting format and then started into a quick powerpoint framing green entrepreneurship and the potential in our current economy. Kris introduced green investment segments that saw funding in 2007 which including the following areas ( Energy Generation, Energy Storage, Transportation, Energy Efficiency, Recycling & Waste) . Green infrastructure investment was a total of 5.18 Billion in Europe and United States in 2007.

Jonah Levine, Smart Grid
jonah.Levine@Colorado.EDU

Our first presenter, Jonah Levine, shared his research on how to work with energy systems, like wind, that can vary in power output. How does an energy utility work with peak demand (above traditional sources)? It may need to bring on-line stored energy such as pumped water or natural gas turbines. Jonah expressed some new ideas of using smart grid technologies to allow excess green (e.g. wind, solar) energy sources to provide to remote areas where they are needed.

Scott Canby,  Airius Thermal Equalizers

Next Scott Canby from Airius Thermal Equalizers presented on their turbine-system that allows for both cooling and heating efficiency in buildings. Scott had some great success stories to share on cost saving from HVAC systems reduced usage. Their thermal equalizer uses a turbine to produce laminar flow(smooth) air versus traditional fan (turblent air) and the efficiency gain is significant. Also a natural benefit of a portal system allows placement of their turbines at different heights and sections in a factory or office building.

Michael Izatt, Matt Emm,  One Button

Michael Izatt and Matt Emm from One Button gave an enlightening talk on consumer/professional green home entertainment solutions. Their company advises on energy efficient components that also provide similar or superior sound quality. There were some good discussions on “phantom load” and types of solutions to address power hungry theater devices that draw power even went not being used.

Casey Verbeck, GenGreen

Casey Verbeck from GenGreen was the last presenter. His presentation really impressed the crowd with his passion to build a product portal to support green products. There is a good market for both home-spun and commercial products and with a true “green certification” (displays like a FDA food label). The green certification displays a product’s carbon footprint allowing the purchaser to make informed decisions. Casey came from the music promotion industry and is using a wealth of environmentally-conscience performers to help support his site. GenGreen has grown past its first round of funding and is experiencing terrific growth – it sounded like a great opportunity.

Thanks to everyone for making this a great event. Hope to see you at our next meeting!

Kevin Geminiuc