Author

Ian Thomson

Secretary Chu is working on getting stimulus money into CleanTech projects

Yesterday, two days after President Obama signed the stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or ARRA) into law, DOE Secretary Steven Chu announced a reorganization of how the Department of Energy will disperse loans, loan guarantees and funding contained therein.

Obviously, the idea is that there will be a disbursement of money to begin investments into the economy which will put Americans back to work and create millions of new jobs. What is good for CleanTechies like you and me is that there’s a leader at the helm Department of Energy that is keen on energy efficiency and renewables because it is the DOE that will be in a position to bring relevant projects to the table. More great news is he’s added ex-McKinsey consultant Matt Rogers to the team, a long time analyst of energy issues and climate change. It is great to have such strong representation from the business community within the DOE.

02/20/2009 1 comment

Energy Efficiency

Big, bad oil companies and energy efficiency

written by Ian Thomson

A couple of days ago, US energy behemoth Chevron announced it will commit $20 million over five years to a partnership with the Qatar Science and Technology Park in Doha. Lip service and green washing, you might shout.

“Chevron believes that energy efficiency and conservation are the most immediate and cost-effective sources of new energy, and we are proud to work in partnership with Qatar,” Chevron Vice Chairman Peter Robertson said.

Guess what… they really “drink the kool aid.” With oil at $45/bbl, traditional perspectives change: “The crude oil price is around half the level required to attract adequate investment in the industry,” UAE’s oil minister Mohammed al-Hamli said last week. It doesn’t make financial sense to invest in oil exploration, so if you were an energy company in 2009 where would you invest?

02/20/2009 1 comment

Renewable Energy

Van Jones & Academic Institutions: Invaluable Resources for CleanTech

written by Ian Thomson

45 minutes of engaging discourse – last night Van Jones, president and founder of “Green For All”, had his audience, made up largely of members of the greater Berkeley community, enthralled. In an age of public relations, spin and hype we had before us one of the rare respites of integrity, in a man that gets the (positive) credit he deserves. If you’ve not yet heard him speak, check out the clip below, you will hear a very compelling and articulate argument to invest in our capacity by developing our workforce.

As I looked around the room there were students, faculty, venture capitalists, social workers, community activists, environmentalists, non-profit organizers and reporters; Van can bring people together like no other, but being on a university campus brought an even more diverse group of people to the event. I thought back to the countless symposiums (symposia?) I have been to over the years – without fail it has been those organized by the universities have brought the most diverse audiences of participants together – and in that mix, the magic of cross pollination happens.

02/12/2009 2 comments

Renewable Energy

Will the Economy Sink Renewable Energy and CleanTech?

written by Ian Thomson

It already has to some extent. I hate to be overly pessimistic, but sometimes you can’t just “make do.” With the exception of high expectations from the Obama administration, things don’t look particularly great between the news of job cuts from Ausra, SunTech, OptiSolar and the abysmal rate at which new companies (and projects) are getting financed. Since the valley-jarring Sequoia deck slowed down bandwidth throughout the bay area in a display of viral marketing that rivaled anything put together by web 2.0 gurus, valuations have gone down, budgets have gotten stretched, and start-ups with great teams and traction have been told to jog in place.

01/29/2009 5 comments

Renewable Energy

MMA Ready for More Funds!

written by Ian Thomson

MMA Renewable Ventures, employer of one of our Bloggers, announced earlier this morning that it has fully deployed it’s Solar Fund III, contributing nearly $200 million to the creation of new solar energy.

Knowing the team there fairly well, the news doesn’t surprise me given how capable their well respected engineers and development associates are. What will be more interesting is how quickly, in this current climate, they can raise new funds to take advantage of depressed module prices and further establish themselves as one of the 900 pound gorillas in the world of Solar and Renewable Finance.

01/27/2009 1 comment

Renewable Energy

Does your CleanTech job hunt s***?

written by Ian Thomson

Job seekers, chin up! You are not alone. You have company, but you’ll need to have some tenacity because Q1 2009 will not provide you with many easy opportunities. If you are keen on getting a job in renewable energy and you don’t have any experience or situational awareness…. then you had better start getting some or else the 300 former Optisolar employees will get your gig. Optisolar‘s struggle to find additional financing is not unique. In the Bay Area companies that received funding with the expectation of raising another round in late ’08 early ’09 will continue to slash their burn rate by going through the painful process of off loading expensive and experienced workers that they painstakingly researched, hired and trained in previous months.

01/23/2009 5 comments

Renewable Energy

A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste

written by Ian Thomson

If you check out our open events calendar and you’ll likely find some interesting events going on in your area – including two sustainability and cleantech focused business plans being held on 28 February 2009.

A few months ago at the culmination of another business plan competition Steven Vasallo of Foundation Capital reminded an audience that “a crisis was a terrible thing to waste.” It is no secret that the economy’s immediate future doesn’t look particularly strong through Q3 2009. Many job seekers are finding the same disheartening response when they apply or speak to would be employers.

01/22/2009 4 comments

Renewable Energy

Vol. IV: Is CleanTech really an industry? (Today: A welcome to President Obama, International Collaboration & Legislation)

written by Ian Thomson

President Obama, welcome to the center stage, the country and the world are expecting great things from you and your team of 306 million people. Please lead us all wisely.

This morning Barack Hussain Obama became 44th President of the United States before a backdrop of mounting environmental concerns, national security fears, economic instability and a very expectant, demanding and increasingly impatient constituency. Today he humbly called on American and the World’s citizens and to help him. The future of clean technologies of every sector require forward thinking politicians and intelligentsia to wean the public from energy sources that “strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet“.

01/20/2009 0 comment

Renewable Energy

Vol. III: Is CleanTech really an industry? (Today: Energy)

written by Ian Thomson

I recently caught up with Paul Frankel, Managing Director at Califronia’s Clean Energy Fund. As we discussed Renewable Energy and the greater economy he referred the paradigm shift that places a premium on and a natural incentive towards “Sustainability and Responsibility” Largely for the same reasons I’m discussing in this series, we agreed that will be a move away from unsustainable and irresponsible business practices in every business sector.

01/12/2009 0 comment

Renewable Energy

Vol. II: Is CleanTech really an industry? (Today: Environment)

written by Ian Thomson

As a continuation of my post from Monday (What is CleanTech… and, is it really an “industry?”), my thesis continues to be it is not an industry, but CleanTech is indeed a “movement” or a shift in business thinking that will allow for some very new and creative businesses solutions to emerge. Today I expand into the first of the three pillars (environment, energy, and international cooperation/legislation) that will increasingly bring all business sectors together and drive them to innovate and incorporate clean technologies… or, not at our species’ peril.

1. ENVIRONMENT

Not unlike bacteria, humans continue to produce (and reproduce) until they have reached an unsustainable peak. Evidence of this is the persistent need for expansion as was seen in the Roman Empire; or more starkly, the rapid decline of the Mayan culture. While the recent financial turbulence may not have long-term effects on overall population growth, as we project our consumption rate of our available resources and crowd into the space we have left to grow into, it has become increasingly apparent that our environment is a very real constraint to continued unbridled growth.

01/08/2009 6 comments

Renewable Energy

What is CleanTech… and, is it really an “industry”?

written by Ian Thomson

I would answer the first part of the question simply: CleanTech is any technology that competitively produces equal or greater amounts of utility than the existing substitute through a sustainable process.

As for the second part of the question… My answer, perhaps shockingly, is “probably not”. Can one seriously push around a catch-all that encompasses electrical generation, water, construction, waste management, packaging, agriculture, IT (hardware and software), biotech, nanotechnology, and (gasp!) transportation? These are all clearly established business sectors in their own right, can we now claim that the world has an ‘nascent industry’ which people should prepare for professionally? Perhaps it is an industry in some sense, but I would add “who cares.

01/05/2009 5 comments

Green Building

Project FROG… hopping along! Cost-effective LEED Certified Buildings delivered quickly.

written by Ian Thomson

If you made it out to GreenBuild last week, you likely saw San Francisco based Project FROG’s latest product. Last week the building start‐up announced it had closed an $8MM Series B financing led by RockPort Capital Partners, a leading Boston and San Francisco based CleanTech Venture Capital firm.

That wasn’t all they had to announce though, earlier this week they announced that they will build their first energy-neutral building in New England on Hartford’s Watkinson School. John Bracker, Watkinson’s Head of School, announced, “Not only will the building provide state of the art science classrooms and a hub for Watkinson’s Global Studies Program, but also deliberately provide a location for teachers and students to explore the intersection of these subject areas, specifically environmental studies and ethical action. We believe the building should be as twenty-first century as our educational philosophy.”

11/29/2008 0 comment

Renewable Energy

Holy Solar Panels! The Pope is carbon neutral… are you?

written by Ian Thomson

Solar panels aren’t for hippies and space stations any more… The Vatican has replaced the panels on the roof of the Paul VI Hall with PV modules.

The modules were made according to the specs of the original tiles planned by the building’s architect, Pier Luigi Nervi. We tend to conveniently forget, but the “Church” has a long history of supporting science (not always… refrain from the obvious in your comments please!) – in that vein the inauguration ceremony will take place at the headquarters of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

11/26/2008 0 comment

Renewable Energy

The Bull is Bullish on CleanTech… So?

written by Ian Thomson

According to Steven Milunovich, Merrill Lynch’s cleantech strategist, energy concerns will not disappear despite the falling price of oil, so investors can expect significant long-term opportunities in the cleantech space. That is reassuring for us, but not big news. What is surprising is the commotion on the wire by their announcement.

11/25/2008 2 comments

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