Well another move and it looks like we have filled out next venue very well. As Kris mentioned, this is where we started watching the Boulder New Technology Meetups and imagined the Green Tech equivalent.  Colorado Green Tech keeps growing and we’re excited to be part of it.

Announcements

• BCBR held a Green Summit  Event at the Millennium Harvest House on June5th
• Meg Hendriks has left to work at NREL and the green tech Group is looking for a volunteer to help with the Job Board director
• Clean Tech Open, is a business plan competition  with a 50K prize package at the regional level and winners go on to compete at the national level for a 250K prize package. The program started 3 years ago and holds competitions in the Pacific Northwest, California and the Rocky Mountain regions.
• Paul Jerde announced the new director of TEAM, Trent Yang
• Upcoming Renewable Energy Technologies (RETool) workshop is taking place July 9-11,  for professionals and decision-makers wanting to learn more about the renewable energy sector. This 2 day course is held at the CU Boulder campus.
• Upcoming NREL Industry Growth Forum

Speakers

Nick Sowden, US Director of Business Development, ToughStuff
Solar Power Made Appropriate for the Developing World

ToughStuff is a social enterprise that makes very inexpensive solar products for low-income people in developing countries.  Their focus market today is the 1.4 Billion people that have limited access to electricity. Without many options thee poorest inhabitants of these countries turn to their cheapest and most accessible options, which in many cases are not eco-friendly and typically dangerous to their health.  For lighting in a small family dwelling,  many turn to kerosene lamps which are smoky, sooty and lead to health issues in their children.

Using kerosene lamps is like lighting a little bottle of gasoline and letting it run all night

Even with all these side effects,  kerosene lighting does not generate enough light for reading.  Another source of pollution is cheap batteries used by people to run devices, in lieu of electricity, which are left on the ground and then make its way into the water supply.

The average expenditure by families on power is on average $122/year, and this figure amazingly is based on people with incomes levels close to one dollar a day.  The Toughstuff products are designed to tackle the cost/environmental problem faced by these groups with the core product being a $6 solar panel (1watt, 5.6V). The solar panel will power lighting, mobile phones and small appliances. The solar panel can charge an LED light product, an accessory that is sold separately, in 6 hours.  This can run for 30hrs in low light mode and on the highest setting (enough to read by) it will run for 5 hours. Another key product line is mobile phone connectors, designed for the most popular phones and plugs phones directly into a solar panel for charging.

ToughStuff has streamlined all their processes & costs and have applied the feedback, (from testing in Madagascar) to design their products and prices for the base of the pyramid consumers. All their products are designed for a lifetime of 5 years and have a payback of 2 months. One key design consideration was to build a solar panel that utilized no glass. It was very important for their product cosumers that the panel  be durable, lightweight and strong. The panel can be run over by a car or get wet and still function. Once the panel had recouped it’s cost in the first two months, it starts saving $98/yr in electricity costs for its consumer. Based on the projected sales,  ToughStuff products will have the ecological benefit of displacing 200K tons of carbon by 2012.  The significant environmental impact of batteries in the waste stream will also be diminished by the applying solar panels to displace battery usage.

The business economics of ToughStuff is calculated both as a private business and also as a Social Enterprise. In order to be more accessible, they use commercial distributors and work on a thin margin. There are many potential partners and opportunites in this market segment. Work is expanding through agreements with NGOs/Governments and through entrepeneurial toolkit called “Business in a Box” which includes 10 solar panels & marketing material.  Exposure and hard work has paid off with an award by the Dutch government of funding to provide $750K to 1000 Village Entrepreneurs (VEs) over the next 2 years. ToughStuff Just incorporated in Mauritius and works in China to manufacture products. Today they have a staff of 5 people in their offices on Pearl St. in Boulder.

The company is started as a philanthropic venture investment and was launched by 5 partners. Today they are Just about to hit a sales milestone of 100 thousand products sold since their inception. Nick invited people to join their newsletter on their website or donate $25 to launch a Village Entrepreneur. Nick proceeded to answer questions, indicating that they anticipate the solar panel will be copied but expect to retain the IP, and staying ahead with their design (patented connectors and lamps) is also key for them. The solar panel is not recyclable yet, but the rechargeable unit they sell is repairable. Their rechargeable battery system is based on NiCad technology because it lasts longer, is cheaper and needs to operate reasonable efficient at 40C. Their choice of VE’s to fund is typically based on vulnerable groups such as child soldiers and single moms. A person from the audience mentioned that their was illegal traffic selling cooking fuel in Congo and that solar cookers were a great alternative. The main founder of ToughStuff lived in Madagascar for 20yrs and they are looking to develop their business in other African countries such as Kenya, Liberia, Uganda and South Africa.

Peter Lilienthal, CEO and Ted Ladd, COO, HOMER^® Energy LLC.
Clean Power Everywhere

HOMER optimizes the design of high penetration renewable and hybrid power systems.  It models wind, solar, biomass power, hydro, hydrogen and multiple types of conventional generation, co-generation, and storage.  Peter gave the audience a multiple choice question on the origin of the name:

Does Homer stand for:
A) Hybrid Optimization for Electric Renewables
B) Homer the Greek poet and father of civilization
C) Bart Simpson’s Dad

The focus of the Homer product is the distributed energy industry specifically for managing and optimizing hybrid energy mixes (that may include energy source mixtures and batteries) and renewable energies. The mission of Homer Energy is to provide services, software and a community to help the distributed energy industry grow. Taking on the issues of managing hybrids with storage in a least-cost approach has proven difficult to many developers of energy hybrids. In essence, renewables such as solar and wind are variable but in a large grid that variability is small enough and can be absorbed so as to not effect the end client. For smaller and more diffuse power grids in developing countries, the variability is significant and this is where Homer comes in to optimize the power and make it cost-effective for the end customer.

How do changes in average wind speed and fuel price affect the feasibility of adding wind turbines to a diesel-only system design?

The company’s origins take it back to NREL, where the software grew and gave developing nations the ability to customize their grids and was combined with training, forums. This outreach helped provide the future client base for the Homer software consultancy.   Today there is a growth market for the private industry to help provide islands, some of which are the richest countries in the world, with the ability to optimize their variable power sources. The software has been available since 1998 and was developed out of research that started in 1992.  There are 31,000 users today, with up to 1K users/downloads being added every month. To ensure it maintains its legacy user base, Homer provides a free version but uses this as a platform for customization and consulting services.

The software can take into account any number of attributes such as wind speed, fuel price or the price of PV based watts and then provide graphs to show what combination’s ( e.g.  30% wind and 70% PV) or technology provides the most optimal mix for the client to build into their local grid. Peter also emphasized that they let customers provide the data, which can be very specific such as dealer margins, import tariffs and installation costs. Their current software can analyze power sources such as PV/Hydro/Wind/Biomass in a grid/isolated/cogeneration scenario. The software has been downloaded by almost every country in the world and is available for licensing in a Software as a Service (SaaS) model.

Software clients range from academic, to product suppliers, NGOs, individuals and groups in remote areas such as Alaskans living in a remote area.  An example client is the Bermuda Electric Light Company. The expectation with the new community collaboration software is that the company will harvest important statistics from their clients on their usages/needs to help further Homer’s business. Upcoming software updates will support concentrated solar/thermal storage capabilities and be available in 6 months.

Rebecca Alexis, Gino Figurelli, Matt Plahutta, Radiant Glass Industries
Power*e Glass. Power-e™ Heated Windows for Homes and Offices

Radiant Glass Industries is originally a regular window manufacturer based in Denver that has developed a new radiant glass as a sustainable building product. Their windows insulate and heat by increasing the temperature of the inside pane of glass. The current market is large and their product solves one of the principle energy inefficiency costs for buildings: 50% of house heat loss is through windows.  This cost incurred by home/building owners and is a source of discomfort.

The current average window has a R value (the ability for a material to resist heat flow) that varies from 0.9 to 4.1. A normal wall has an R value between R13-R60. The standard is set by  American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). New building standards are calling for more efficient heating systems while at the same time requiring the need for more daylight sources (e.g. windows) to reduce the electricity usage for lighting which causes more heat loss.

The Power-e heated window system claim is that it stops 100% heat loss (window is hotter then interior) through a window and uses 40% less energy than a conventional heat source, (proven at Kansas State University) . Its core design uses a low DC voltage source to power the window. The window radiate 85% of its source energy into the interior target space and also reduces condensation and resulting wood rot. Existing windows can be retro-fitted and even be installed as mirrors or internal windows. The Power-e windows also avoid hot-spots by more evenly distributing heat and when measured, it uses only 1.4Kw energy versus forced air which uses 2.4Kw. An example referenced was a 2800 sq. ft. house in Keystone, CO where over $450/month in electric heating bills were incurred, dropped to under $100/month by using Power-e heated windows. The case study in Keystone had a calculated ROI of 4 years. Another aspect of retrofitting historic/landmark buildings is that window removal may not be an option but a second interior heating window is permitted, allowing for greater efficiency.

A business plan directs them to engage the domestic market but patents have already been filed in Canada, EU and Japan as well as the United States. They expect to use green building grants and tax incentives to drive their adoption. They are actively promoting distribution channels and licensing for new construction as well as the retro-fit market.  They also intend to market to the large HVAC/Window manufacturers with the enticement that manufacturing of their windows is low-cost to the target plant. Along with distribution and licensing, they are seeking joint venture opportunities.

There was an abundance of questions with some inquiries on their independent certification of the window performance which is amazingly proficient for physically reasons that are not fully understood. Their window effectiveness when rating beside one of Anderson Windows top windows is about 3x more efficient. The internal electronics converts a normal interior 100Vac supply to 25VDC for the window supply. The window will not overheat and uses a windowstat to turn it off once it reaches the desired temperature which can also be wired to an internal thermostat. It usually takes windows about 5-11 minutes to heat up to the desired temperature. Part of the innovation of the window is a coating the keeps the heat from going through the window and this also helps to ensure the overall loss to the outside is 15%.

Jim Fournier & Lopa Brunjes, Biochar Engineering Corporation
Solutions for Climate Change, Energy & Soil Fertility

Biochar Engineering builds biochar production equipment. They design, develop, and deploy industrial equipment that uses waste biomass, such as agricultural or forestry waste, to produce biochar. Jim started the presentation with a question to the group of what bio-char really is?

Bio-Char was first discovered in amazonian soils left from previous inhabitants that amended the soil and significantly improved their crop yield. The soil was found to have unusual properties to allow farming with 80% less nitrogen and effects fungus/bacteria growth in a way to improve plant growth along with improving water retention/drought resistance in the soil. It works to amend poor soil, improving yields by 200%.  With such a reduction in nitrogen, today’s modern farming is much “dirtier” through its extensive usage of Nitrogen based fertilizer that creates NOx emissions, a fact that concerns scientist along with more tradition carbon green house gases. A primary interest for the sustainability movement is that charcoal can stably capture and hold carbon for thousands of years (providing a carbon sink) and remove/reduce greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Some of the value streams available from biochar is soil fertility, sequestration and energy generation through the production of gas, heat, electricity and liquid fuel (e.g. methanol, dimethyl ether, diesel). Bichar Engineering has found a sweet spot or lowest capital investment by creating heat (through a gas) from biochar. Their product is a modular unit that can be scaled to the biomass feedstock chain. Early prototype units takes and burns 100 ton/day of biomass . By creating heat from biomass, you maintain 40% of carbon from the plant (or 25% by weight), that was locked-up, avoiding it’s release into the atmosphere as it decays, and keeping it into a stable bio-char medium. An example of this is the Pine-Beetle infested wood.  If left to rot, it will produce green house gases. Currently the forestry services have not allowed permits to create bio-char until they finish the last of their studies on environmental impact.

New models and joint venture span both wood chips with a model in 2009 to  lignocellulosic biomass based units. Additionally tested are examining the efficiency of the byproduct glycerin from biodiesel as a feedstock to the process. From forest management (where beetle infested trees can be turned to bio-char) to an Italian gasification plant, they are involved in a number of partnerships examining the various usages and efficiencies for biochar.

Today developing countries may value the bio-char more then the cooking fuel. An example raised by the audience was that the Congo Basin Forest Fund that has awarded money to the Biochar fund to support it’s usage. Many of these efforts are also using the value of sequestration to stop deforestation. For many of these feedstocks and processes, the Greenhouse Gas(GHG) Lifecycle Analysis is proving to be instrumental to determine the value per feedstock of sequestration.   BEC’s technology mimics nature’s intelligence, creating valuable co-products, ultimately including biochar and process heat with or without electricity or liquid fuels. Biochar engineering has also found that there are many good feestocks but dryness, about 20% moisture is a good amount to support optimal bio-char generation. They aim for about 25% yield of char and this will produce about 40% sequestration.  Yields generated above this has diminishing returns.

We’re growing again. Our June meeting hit another milestone with over 100 “yes” RSVP’s for our meeting. With the growing attendees, the meeting has been moved to an auditorium on the main floor in the Koelbel Building.

Pre-meeting Activities

There was lots of networking before the meeting started – great food, drinks and conversations. Lots of new faces as well. Kris was approached by the Boulder County Business Report who covered our meeting this month.We’re excited to have them aboard. Green technology is seeing more exposure in the press will hopefully draw the interest of new and current entrepreneurs to the meetup.

Introductions

Kris Wiesenfeld kicked off the meeting with the unveiling of a new logo, designed by Denise Cote. We’re grateful for such an innovative design and happy to promote Denise – she can be contacted via the members list. Also we’re happy to announce the addition of a new sponsor Infield Capital, thanks for the supporting the green tech meetup! Infield joins our current sponsors Sequel Ventures and Access Ventures.

Presenters

Professor John R. Dorgan, PolyNew Inc
Ecobionanocomposites, A New Class of Green Materials

Professor Dorgan is currently teaching at the Colorado School of Mines. John started his talk with some background on the current plastics market, which is large – currently in the billions of dollars. But with plastics relying on petroleum as a major component, the feedstock cost and access is becoming an issue. Enter bio-plastics, now on its third generation(that employs genetically modified crops), that is competitive with its petroleum based counterpart.

Some of previous work in this area are

• Nature Works LLC – that produces green house gas neutral poylmers
• Brasken – Brazilian plastics company with green polyethylene products made from sugar cane
• Metabolix/Telles – using non-food feedstock for plastics, chemicals and energy, ADM licensing technology

One of foundation domains of bioplastics is Industrial Ecology(IE) and is defined as:

an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the sustainable combination of environment, economy and technology.

Within this field the sub-domains can be identified with colors. “Red” is for research and processing of plants for the medical field. “Green” is associated with agriculture and “White” is associated with industrial biotechnology.

So now for a mouthful to describe the current field of bio-plastics that John works in

“Ecobionanotechnology”

representing the convergence of Industrial Ecology, Biotechnology and Nanotechnology.

So where is consumer demand for bioplastics?  For one, the plastic cup, an industry that would benefit from providing a green alternative. The bio-based beer cup is a significant market but even larger, coffee cups, cups and lids that could withstand “McDonalds hot” temperatures.

In order to get solve this challenge, nanotechnology is employed, to provide clay like material heat distortion properties. Take a tip from our green chemistry book, we want to avoid materials that mined (acid mine drainage” is a well know mining issue). To achieve these properties, Dr Jordan has engineered a “Nanowisker” to embed in the plastic structure, similar to fiberglass.

A natural target market are company’s producing plastic cups today, MeadWestVaco being a prime example. Making  ecobionanocomposites cost-effective is key and with current oil prices this threshold has been reached.

PolyNew has secured an NSF Phase II funding and is seeking additional funds. With a potential market of 100 mill/annually PolyNew is well positioned. They are also exploring a number of feedstocks for their product, such as soy-beans and others and working to reducing cost of their product to 95cents/lb and lower.

Quale Hodek, Renewable Choice Energy
Renewable Energy and Carbon Offsets

Renewable Choice Energy, started in 2001,  is a Boulder based company that sells renewable energy and carbon offsets.  Company rep, Quale Hodek indicated a number of businesses and private individuals are taking advantage of the opportunity to grow renewable energy through credits and offsets. Their customer list is very extensive with company’s such as Whole foods Market, Vail Resorts, Steel Case, John Deere, HSBC, Washington Mutual, Microsoft.

Business services offered go beyond the sale of offsets & credits. They also provide renewable energy education and work with businesses to promote/market their own contributions to green energy. Company and individuals can contribute to many types of energy “purchases” or project developments such as geothermal, wind, pv, biomass and small scale hydro. Some businesses specify that wish to contribute to a specific project or help support a from-scratch project, such as a Wind Energy farm that Steel Case helped develop.

The market for selling credits and offsets is currently 31 million. Renewable energy choice is working hard to penetrate this market with a 27 person sales team. Growth in the renewable energy markets has been significant and with credit/offset contributions are help to accelerate the trend. An example of fantastic growth is Wind Energy  – which alone grew 40% in 2007.

The carbon credit market is based on the Kyoto protocol and is globally recognized. Quale also emphasized that they “certify” the wholesalers of renewable energy, this is a value-add for the individual/business to ensure their purchase is valid. He also described that this support helps developers get their renewable projects online, a difficult task when the energy itself is sold to the end client at an extra premium (typically 2-5% more than fossil fuel based energy).

The typical client base is 90% corporate and 10% residential. Customers could go to Excel directly to specify a renewable energy source but corporate customers prefer access to “call centers” and marketing information provided to them.  Also Excel may only sell certain types of renewable energies such as a wind directly but Renewable Energy Choices sells credits for the complete domain of renewables.

With customers in all 50 states and clients like Vail Resorts (which made the 2nd largest purchase of Wind Energy credits – offsetting all their annual electricity use)  they see great potential. The opportunity is selling credits/offsets to help assist developing renewable infrastructure growth in 2008 for a 1 Bil. market.

Russell Thomas, Thomas engines
Variable compression engine technology

Russell Thomas has answered a question many have been asking lately, can’t we just get more fuel efficient vehicles with our current gasoline based systems with no power loss? The variable compress engine promises just that, no power loss or changes in engine cost or driveability differences from today’s modern combustion engine.

Thomas engines has investment support from large international corporation such as SKF, AVL, Chevron Russia and interest from Sweden, Austria, China, Russia and the US.

You can think of variable compression engine as a comparable to diesel efficiencies without the drawbacks of a diesel. A high compression engine can provide better fuel economy 20-30% better but an engine need to switch between low and high compression to make the engine useful and this where variable compression engines come in. The only production vehicle variable compression engine to date is the Saab SVC.

Russell showed a great graphic of an engine configuration that is a little difficult to describe, but at high level it looked like undulating steel washers rotating around pistons – essentially a new take on the crankshaft to facilitate piston strokes. And with this novel design a lot of work and finite-element analysis has gone into the design to ensure mechanical endurance and minimal wear on the components. The engine is designed to last over 150K miles. Essentially with the design work the Thomas team has made, the engine is extremely reliable, maintainable and smooth when compared to existing variable compression engines and comparable to existing gasoline engines.

The price of the engine is similar to normal gasoline engines, and less then half the price of a diesel engine. It is also competitive with existing hybrids since there is no extra battery cost. The engine design intellectual property is covered by extensive issued and pending patents owned by Thomas Engines. With a 60 Mil passenger car market it is well positioned to help mitigate the consumer costs brought on by the current global oil crisis.

More details about the engine, it is 2.06L engine with 240hp with “slightly less weight” for same power gasoline engine. Currently it is spark-ignited but designs for non-spark ignited are on ready for the future. With significant experience and years of development, this engine seems to be ahead of its variable compression competitors.

Sunil Cherien,  Spirae
Energy Management for Renewable and Distributed Energy

Sunil took us on a tour of the future of energy management. How do we management all the alternative energy sources on the grid with their inherently different characteristics? Both areas, demand management and supply management have challenges to be tackled. Smart grids are one of the answers, but would require an upgrade to our electrical infrastructure that matured in the 1950’s and 60’s.

Sunil’s group is based in Ft. Collins and is part of a “Clean Energy Cluster” along with the Colorado State University supporting green technologies in Colorado. The city of Fort Collins, the city’s utility department, other state agencies are helping Spirae and working to improve the grid to support alternatives.

The next generation of grid infrastructure involves both demand and supply management of energy resources

For demand management infrastructure there are smart grids, where the consumer is also part of the equation of “smart demand management”. The demand is managed or optimally utilized which helps consumers use power during “low usage” periods or during “peak generation” of alternatives such as higher wind generation. Consumers have “discretionary usage” of power by turning on a washer machine at the “optimal” supply period.

Supply management is on the other side of the equation. The future of supply systems is both a hybrid collection of energy sources and systems to manage them. Outside of traditional energy supply (electric, nuclear, coal, etc.) there are new alternative supplies such as wind farms, solar concentrator power farms, PV grids. Additionally, consumers can generate energy to the grid through small “dispersed systems” such as small PV systems on roof-tops.

How does a power system operator “balance” the system given the hybrid of alternative, dispersed and traditional generation plants?  As well, the operator needs to keep supply power attributes within specification (120V/240V and 60hz).  Current system management is done with the SCADA system (You can ask our organizer Kris Wiesenfeld on this topic, I’ve also worked on power transformers as an electrical engineer).  We’ve also got issues with scaling systems (such as PV – which have fixed output supply). We now to also need to compensate for multi-directional systems – your house PV can feed into the grid with net metering or you can also draw power (on a rainy day). Remember the grid was designed for uni-directional supply of energy. Another issue with alternative supply management is that output can be variable, so that a wind farm can generate 450MW at is peak but drop significantly based on the wind conditions.

The road to integrate these challenges has been set, and Sunil and his  company are on that road.  At the governmental level there are standards such as Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and states such as California are already adopting it. Sunil’s company is providing advisement and building infrastructure for the hardware side of this equation.  Euclidean systems with intelligent nodes that communicate to each other and work together.

Spirea is an R&D shop of 35 people working with strategic customer around the world.  Spirea’s helps build managed substations that produce consistent electrical supply that can turn off or on or “island” the power station. They can bring on natural “gas beakers” to produce electricity when alternative sources are producing lower outputs and bring on consistent power to the grid. Also modeling and software are important part of the infrastructure solutions that have to work in real-time and reacting to changing conditions and “protect” the grid from large fluctuations.

Sunil had some great stories on work they have done in Denmark which receives 20-30% of their energy from renewables today but are planning to increase that to 60% in the next few years. If you’re interested there is a great presentation on Wind Energy done for the DaVinci institute where a NREL researcher explains how Denmark sells excess wind energy to Norway.  Also Ft. Collins is a leader in renewables. The city is a Zero Energy District (ZED) with both wind, PV and CFCP engines on the grid.  Sunil also mentioned in the area, the selling of power to neighboring geographical areas has challenges and work is needed in the regulatory field. In Europe again there is the potential to sell power from Denmark to places like Italy (which is considering restarting a nuclear program due to energy requirements) and the regulation and systems need to be in place to do this. Also the cost for renewables usually draw a premium and customers and governments are working to educate on this new business model.

This was a great meeting with innovative topics, thanks to Kris and all our speakers!

Kevin Geminiuc

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