R.E.preneur

2007: The beginning of the anti-coal era

If you have followed the environmental headlines at all this year you have no doubt stumbled across an article announcing the cancellation of a coal plant for environmental or health concerns. 

David Roberts over at Grist has an article that summarizes all the stories since last September chronicling the many proposed then canceled coal plants across America. 

Add to his list:
    Washington State Rejects Coal Plant's "Plan to Make a Plan"

    Wyoming utility snuffs coal projects

    Maine ruling and vote sink 700 MW plant

Some reports state more than 10,000 MW of proposed coal plants have recently been canceled or postponed around the country.

As an American I'm proud to see the anti-coal attitude sweeping the nation.  Many of the reasons listed for cancellation of a coal plant include uncertainty about future CO2 legislation.  This means that it is increasingly important that state and federal legislators push to regulate CO2 emissions in order to prevent the end of the anti-coal era. 

Of course, we are all left with the question.  If not coal, then what?  The guys at Grist say in the short-term Natural Gas is the answer, and I believe that's true.  However, the more important growing trend will be utility-scale renewables.  I've written about the growing size of solar power plants here.  In an interesting move, Arizona Public Service has issued a 250 MW RFP for concentrating solar power (CSP).

In the next ten years wind, solar pv, and concentrated solar power, will dominate the headlines as utilities across the nation rush to meet their mandated renewable portfolio standards.  At my last count 25 states plus the District of Columbia had passed an RPS to encourage the adoption of renewables in the energy mix.  Add to that two states with voluntary RPS goals and its a wonder that the most recent federal Energy Bill failed to pass with a 15% national RES.  You can check out the nation's RPS map from www.dsireusa.org Download RPS_Map.ppt (pdf)

Generally, those RPS states have goals equaling roughly 20% renewable generation by 2020.  Some more, some less.  With renewables currently only consisting of 2.2% in America, this represents a major shift in America's energy mix. 

America is in the infancy of a massive renewable energy and clean technology boom. "This is the greatest business opportunity in the history of the world!" - Ted Turner, owner of Turner Renewable Energy (now First Solar Electric) speaking at Solar Power Conference 2007. The opportunity for entrepreneurs to use their creativity and outside the box thinking in this emerging market is endless. Come and join in the clean, green fun!

COW - Nanosolar

On Tuesday, the CEO of San Jose-based Nanosolar made an entry on the corporate blog announcing that Nanosolar had shipped its first product to a 1 MW solar power plant in Eastern Germany.  This represents a major accomplishment by the California start-up who for over a year now has been claiming that they will change the economics of solar by manufacturing by printing their semiconductor material directly onto a piece of foil.  Below is a list of accomplishments listed by Nanosolar.

• world’s first printed thin-film solar cell in a commercial panel product;
• world’s first thin-film solar cell with a low-cost back-contact capability;
• world’s lowest-cost solar panel – which we believe will make us the first solar manufacturer capable of profitably selling solar panels at as little as $.99/Watt;
• world’s highest-current thin-film solar panel – delivering five times the current of any other thin-film panel on the market today and thus simplifying system deployment;
• an intensely systems-optimized product with the lowest balance-of-system cost of any thin-film panel – due to innovations in design we have included.

Now don't get me wrong, I applaud Nanosolar using nanotechnology to attempt to leapfrog traditional solar technologies in order to lower cost and gain market share.  My frustration is that Nanosolar doesn't state their actual costs, they state what the technology is capable of "$.99/Watt".  With new technology comes higher costs generally. 

I have great respect for companies who provide great visibility to the public about their current status in terms of cost, average selling price, revenues, contracts, etc.  My former employer First Solar is great at this.  I have a growing amount of skepticism for companies that make great claims but provide very little details about where they are and where they will be, and how they will get there.

I also think that it is interesting that Nanosolar chose to sell into the 1 MW+ market initially.  With an early commercial product and a still early stage venture, this strategy will allow them to focus their efforts and work with a limited number of trusted partners to help optimize their technology for the growing utility-scale solar market. 

Congratulations to Nanosolar on shipping your first modules to a major solar power plant.  As a private company, you have the right to keep confidential info private.  But, in order to gain true respect and admiration in solar, execution is king.  Nanosolar's unique manufacturing process makes the solar market increasingly competitive, as Jigar Shah has said: "The Solar Decade is approaching".

Why Barack Obama will only solve half of America's energy problems

I began researching Barack Obama about a year and a half ago when a friend of mine getting a graduate degree in Political Science at George Washington University told me that if Obama runs for President he would go work for him.  That was a fairly bold statement and I wondered what had my friend so hyped up about the politician. 

From the start, I liked what I heard and saw.  Not from a wealthy, or prestigious family.  A graduate of Columbia and Harvard Law School where he was the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review.  He began his career as a community organizer, university lecturer, and civil rights lawyer. 

He served as an Illinois State Senator from 1997-2004, and is currently a member of the U.S. Senate in his first term. He has authored two bestselling books: a memoir of his youth titled Dreams from My Father, and The Audacity of Hope, a personal commentary on U.S. politics.  At age 46, he represents change for many Americans. 

I began listening to his weekly podcasts on iTunes.  The free downloads consisted of a 7-9 minute recording from Barack himself discussing what he considered to be the hot topic in the senate and/or politics at the moment.  He would often discuss specific bills (some that he had authored himself), how he planned to vote, and why he believed the issue was important for America.  I found this type of transparency and accountability noble for a politician.  I found him well-spoken and intellectual. 

Then, as I personally began ramping up my own environmental efforts and working in the renewable energy sector I made a dedicated effort to decipher how different candidates addressed the issues involved in climate change.  Slowly and surely, my skepticism grew. 

Barack Obama is my favorite candidate on the democratic side (Huckabee on the right).  But I believe that his focus as a President will only solve half of America's energy problems.  Here's why. 

George Bush is from Texas, he ran his family's oil company before becoming governor of Texas and then President.  Essentially, his blood runs thick with light crude.  So I was frustrated but not surprised to see that his presidency saw little legislative support for energy change at scale in America.  A lot of talk, a few great sound bites like "America is addicted to oil", but no real change. 

Barack Obama is from Illinois.  One of my extremely smart co-workers last summer informed me that Illinois is a coal rich state.  Which made sense when I thought of every environmental talk that I had heard from Barack. 

He loves to talk about the Healthcare for Hybrids bill that he introduced.  He is a huge proponent of raising CAFE (gas mileage) standards which hasn't been done in 17 years.  He supports mandating that all new cars be FlexFuel, which only costs $100 per car, as well as mandating that the government only purchase FlexFuel vehicles.  All of which I applaud his leadership on. 

Unfortunately, he is mostly focusing on the transportation sector, which I believe is important, especially for restoring our political and oil independence from the middle east.  However, I personally believe that when it comes to climate change and the environment, an equal amount of focus needs to be placed on removing America's dependence on one of its biggest assets: coal. 

Its been said that America is more coal rich than the middle east is oil rich.  Wonderful, we are blessed with natural resources that have helped make America a global power.  I've written about the effects on the environment that a coal plant has here.  Not to mention the effect on the natural landscape that the mining of coal creates, wiping out entire mountains in the name of cheap energy. 

Don't get me wrong, I've heard Barack state that he supports the adoption of more solar, wind, and geothermal (though few details have been provided).  However, whenever he mentions power generation he almost always mentions Clean Coal, an idea that most GeoGreens (Thomas Friedman's term for those who understand the global problem that the green movement addresses) are critical of. 

David Roberts over at Grist sums up clean coal well in his article, "Coal gasification, 'Clean Coal' or subsidy hungry boondogle?"

David writes: "In short, if you view coal gasification from the perspective of today's energy situation, it's an improvement. If you view it from the perspective of the optimal renewable-energy future, it's a big scam."

I tend to take the optimal RE future perspective, mostly because of the myriad of benefits that RE offers over coal, even clean coal.  So while I appreciate Barack for his leadership, and how seriously he takes the issue.  I worry that he may always buy-in to the big scam that is "clean coal". 

More Plug-In Info and advancements using Diesel

I've written about my passion for Electric Vehicles before here.  Recently, I've come across quite a few great articles and resources profiling the advancements being made in modern transportation. 

Electric Vehicle manufacturer ZAP! provides this EV Plug-In Station map as a free resource for those who own or are interested in purchasing an EV.  Most EV's are charged from home, but plug-in stations are a great resource for expanding the flexibility of owning an EV.  What I loved most about this site is looking at all the different business and governmental organizations that offer plug-in stations.  These organizations include names like Radisson Hotel, Costco, Hilton, and a growing number of malls.

Fast Company has a great article here about Jonathan Goodwin, whom they've deemed the "motorhead messiah".  Though he dropped out of school in seventh grade, he has gone on to achieve great feats such as:

- turning a 1960 Lincoln Continental into a 100 mpg car for music legend Neil Young, CNN video here
- purchased a 1990 Hummer H1, dropped a Duramax V8 diesel (GM's core diesel engine for trucks), added his own hydrogen injection system and has doubled the fuel efficiency AND the horsepower, all while reducing emissions by as much as 80%.  He runs it on biofuels like vegetable oil and french fry grease
- Converted a Hummer H3 to a Hybrid EV, one electric motor, one turbine engine originally designed for the military.  This 5,000 lb vehicle gets 60 mpg and goes 0-60 mph in five seconds

Goodwin's a big proponent of diesel-electric hybrids which he says would double the mileage of even the largest diesel vehicles.

Finally, go check out the corporate blog over at Tesla Motors.  These guys are changing the game in the  automobile industry and their blog allows you a lot of technical and visionary insight into the venture capitalists, CEO, engineers, marketing execs, and first customers involved with the company. 

Want Renewable Energy in America? Contact your state and federal legislators!

One of my favorite classes in high school was my senior democracy and civics class.  For many maturing teenagers, this class represents the first time that they will intelligently debate issues that affect our society. 

Although I enjoyed the way I was challenged to uncover my beliefs on various social and economic issues, there was a sense in which our debate had minimal impact on the reality of our democracy.  Many Americans move onto college or start jobs and only get involved in their democracy every four years when they vote for their preferred parties selected candidate.

Many Americans don't realize that our democracy works, and with the advent of the internet age it has become much easier to participate.  At least that has been my experience concerning the role that legislators play in determining America's energy future. 

Of course, in order to be active in a democracy you have to be passionate about a particular cause.  For me, this is clearly renewable energy.  As an entrepreneur, I believe in the mantra that I have learned from Jim Jindrick over at Businessrulesofthumb.com, also my McGuire program mentor. 

    "Earn a profit solving customer problems better than the competition!"

Notice this doesn't say anything about competing on price.  It focuses on solving problems better.  That's why I love renewable energy.  Renewable energy is a superior solution to conventional fossil-fueled power generation.  It may not be cheaper, but it is a superior solution.

Just a few of the benefits of renewable energy include:
    - clean air

    - low/zero greenhouse gas emissions

    - greatly reduced water usage compared to conventional power generation

    - Higher number of technical jobs per MW

    - distributed generation which can improve quality of service

Compare this with the stats from a typical coal plant:

A Typical Coal Plant

A typical 500-megawatt coal plant produces 3.5 billion kilowatt-hours per year -- enough to power a city of about 140,000 people.

It burns 1.4 million tons of coal (the equivalent of 40 train cars of coal each day) and uses 2.2 billion gallons of water each year. In an average year, this one plant also generates the following:

• 10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide
• 10,200 tons of nitrogen oxide, equivalent to half a million late-model cars
• 3.7 million tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to cutting down 100 million trees
• 500 tons of small particles
• 220 tons of hydrocarbons
• 720 tons of carbon monoxide
• 125,000 tons of ash and 193,000 tons of sludge from the smokestack scrubber
• 170 pounds of mercury, 225 pounds of arsenic, 114 pounds of lead, 4 pounds of cadmium, and other toxic heavy metals
• Trace amounts of uranium

Source: Union of Concerned Scientists

There are many more reasons that I am passionate about renewable energy, but my point is this.  Due to the advent of the internet age and some great advocacy organizations it has been simple to keep track of the progress that Congress has been making on new renewable energy provisions in the current energy bill.  I catch most of the details on this from reading the blogroll over at Renewable Energy Access. 

RE Access teamed up with SolarNation in order to enable their readers to contact their legislators during key decision points for Congress and weigh-in on why our public officials should support renewable energy. 

At least three times this year I have used SolarNation's online tools to write emails to my local legislators.  Plus, since I'm in college I can contact legislators from my home state of WA, my college address in Tucson, and my summer internship in Phoenix.  I have been able to call their offices, speak with energy staffers, and often they will have a staffer reply to my emails with a standard letter on how they plan to support these bills. 

Multiple stories have stated that legislators changed their actions, or placed more urgency on the matter due to the groundswell of support that they received from their constituents.  Of course, this could just be fodder to make the actions of a few look more effective, but I doubt it. 

Plus, I've been able to send invitations to my politically active and passionate friends to do the same.  As a follow up to the article by Thomas Friedman about the greenest thing you can do is elect new leaders.  I would add to that, you can demand that your legislators act in a way that reflects the desires of their constituents.  America wants more renewable energy.  But we need to make our voices heard in Washington D.C. 

Right now, the Senate is trying to water down a version of the Energy bill that the House passed last week containing $21 billion for renewable energy, a 15% national RES, long-term extensions of both the investment and production tax credits and various energy efficiency incentives.  These are all measures that would help to build a sustainable clean energy economy in America and establish the US as a world leader in Cleantech. 

You don't have to sit by and let this happen as our air and water quality continue to decline.  Contact your senators today and tell them that you want them to support the House version of the Energy bill. 

Video: John Doerr on Global Warming

This is a great speech by venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, & Byers.  John  has directed venture capital funding to some of the most successful technology companies in the world including Compaq, Netscape, Symantec, Sun Microsystems, Amazon.com, and Google, as well as Friendster, Go.com and myCFO.

His speech at TED defines how attitudes and behaviors are changing in response to global warming, but as he says, "it may not be enough". 

Enjoy