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Archive for November, 2011
Nov
Choosing Alternative Fuel
Posted by Tom Ranken | No Comments | Categories: Complete Digest, Past Events
EnterpriseSeattle and the Washington Clean Technology Alliance:
Choosing an Alternative Fuel — Frequently Un-Asked Questions and the Answers You Need to Know.
- See the KING5 story and video.
- Powerpoint Presentation
- Watch the event below. Mouse over the screen and click the start button.
We automatically think of aspects such as cost, environmental advantages, and energy security, but how do we add up the synergies of infrastructure expense, payload, range, supply chain, fill (or re-charge) time and many other factors?
If you want to get the right (fuel choice) answer, you have to be asking the right (use-case) questions. Come join us for a “Lunch and Learn” co-sponsored by W.C.T.A. and enterpriseSeattle to consider the options that are here today and explore how we can bridge our way to the fuels of the future. At the end of this session, you’ll have a better understanding of how to qualify (or disqualify) various fuels that are vying to become the answer for our nation (or your fleet’s) fueling needs.
About the Speaker: Jeff Stewart (MBA, University of Oregon) is President of Blue Star Gas; a family owned and operated 74-year-old enterprise, which has 13 offices throughout Northern California, Oregon, and now, Washington. Jeff is also past chairman of the National Propane Benchmarking Council and has a broad and deep understanding of alternative fuel options. His even-handed approach to fuel choice questions will make this event a valuable tool for your understanding of alternative fuel use and choice.
Test Drives: The consistent comment heard is, “performance with AutoGas is equal to, or slightly better than, gasoline.” Come see for yourself. Several AutoGas vehicles are available for test-drives and a look under the hood from 10:00 a.m. to 11:50 and again after lunch from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. in the McKinstry garage.
- Where: McKinstry Innovation Center, 210 Hudson St, Seattle, Level 3
- When: November 30, noon-1:30 p.m.
- Cost: $10 for WCTA and enterpriseSeattle members | $15 for non-members | $30 day of the event.
- Register here.
- More information. Map.
Nov
Crosscut: Plastic Bag Backers May Bypass Seattle to Seek Legislature’s Help
Posted by Tom Ranken | No Comments | Categories: Complete Digest, Industry News
Source: Matt Fikse, Crosscut, November 29, 2011. The chemical industry people who beat Seattle’s last attempt to limit waste look ready to go straight to the state. City Council, meanwhile, seems united on a ban.
As the Seattle City Council moves to follow Bellingham’s lead and ban single-use plastic bags, the American Chemistry Council affiliates that defeated Seattle’s 2009 plastic bag fee are organizing to defeat or fend off municipal bans at the state level in the upcoming legislative session.
Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien is the primary sponsor of Seattle’s proposed ban and was joined by a council majority at the Seattle Aquarium Nov. 21 to launch the proposed new law, which also includes a mandate to charge a 5-cent fee for paper bags. With at least seven supporters on the Council and the support of Mayor Mike McGinn, the ban is expected to pass without difficulty in the coming weeks.
The draft legislation had its first hearing for public comment last week. All of the public comments were in support of the ban. During that meeting of the Utilities and Neighborhoods committee, which O’Brien chairs, Bellingham City Councilmember Seth Fleetwood noted that Bellingham’s bag ban grew out of the larger “Bag It” movement that works to mobilize municipalities to stop the use of plastic bags.
For its part, the bag industry, which defeated an earlier measure requiring a 20-cent charge for disposable plastic and paper bags, appears to be punting on the matter at the city level while preparing to take it on aggressively at the state level. On Nov. 21, Seattle council members received a letter from Mark Daniels, an executive at South Carolina-based Hilex Poly Co., a manufacturer of plastic bags, opposing the ban but conceding on Seattle’s ban, saying, “we expect the proposed ban to unfortunately be approved.”
But Daniels’ and Hilex Poly’s role in the bag debate doesn’t stop there. Not mentioned in his letter is the fact that Daniels is also the chairman of The Progressive Bag Affiliates, which is “an entity within the American Chemistry Council that is dedicated to promoting the recycling of plastic bags and to advocating on behalf of plastic bags,” according to Jennifer Killinger of the Chemistry Council. The members of the affiliate group include Advance Polybag, Inc., The Dow Chemical Company, ExxonMobil Corporation, Superbag Corporation, Total Petrochemicals USA, Inc., and others.
The bag industry group is preparing to take the issue to the state level in the upcoming legislative session. According to Daniels, “We believe it would be better if there were a state solution for Washington, and we would rather see all stakeholders focus resources on fighting litter and increasing recycling in reasonable ways.”
Nov
San Francisco taps EnergySavvy to help Homeowners Cut Through the Fog of Energy Bills
Posted by Tom Ranken | No Comments | Categories: Company News, Complete Digest
Source: John Cook, Geekwire, November 28, 2011.
EnergySavvy is marching into the Bay Area, inking a deal with the City of San Francisco to help homeowners reduce energy costs through specialized online home audits. The program will allow residents to compare their energy usage to other homes across the city, and receive information on energy rebates and contractors.It’s also designed to take into account unique San Francisco building structures, such as bay windows, and specific weather patterns, such as fog zones where temperatures might be lower.
“San Francisco has a notoriously mild climate and as such, relative to the rest of the country, is very sensitive to minor changes in heating needs resulting in different levels of energy use,” EnergySavvy CEO Aaron Goldfeder tells GeekWire. “So, we use fog-zone as a proxy for micro-climates which quantitatively amounts to different estimations of Heating Degree Days. HDD is a building science term which roughly indicates how much heat would be needed inside of a building based on applicable weather patterns. That in turn, based on other home characteristics enables us to estimate current energy use, and the potential for energy savings, money savings and sensible upgrades.”
In addition to San Francisco, EnergySavvy also announced a deal with Local Energy Alliance Program, serving the Charlottesville and northern Virginia metropolitan markets. Its other customers include Clean Energy Works Oregon, Community Power Works in Seattle and Utah Home Performance with ENERGY STAR.
EnergySavvy has been growing its team as of late, recently adding 11-year Microsoft veteran Charlie Ellis. The company was founded by former Microsoft employee Aaron Goldfeder, former Amazon.com and Redfin employee Leo Shklovskii and former aQuantive executive Karl Siebrecht.
Nov
Small Business Action by the US House of Representatives
Posted by Tom Ranken | 1 Comment | Categories: Complete Digest, Industry News
Source: Maura Little, Community Liaison, Congressman Jay Inslee, 206-361-0233, Maura.Little@mail.house.gov.
Congressman Inslee asked me to reach out to you all due to your interest in small business issues. During the first week of November, the House of Representatives passed three pieces of legislation that aim to make it easier for small business to raise capital. With the banks lending activity slowing in the wake of the recession, Congressman Inslee and I too often hear from constituents with a good idea, a good plan, but no capital. This stops our unemployed from getting back to work and needs to change.
Below is a summary of the different pieces of legislation. All three have been sent to the Senate for further action, but have yet to be considered in that chamber.
H.R.1070, the “Small Company Capital Formation Act of 2011″
This bill would require the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow companies to raise $50 million through securities offerings before registering with the SEC, significantly raising the threshold from its current limit of $5 million. This would provide small and medium companies the ability to offer securities up to $50 million publicly without the full cost of a registered offering, potentially expanding their access to capital beyond the private offerings many now use. Also, the bill includes important investor protections such as requiring companies to provide investors with audited financial statements annually and affording investors legal recourse for misstatements companies make in the prospectus documents.
H.R. 2930, the “Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act of 2011”
H.R. 2930 would create a new exemption for so-called “crowdfunding” securities. Under the bill, eligible crowdfunding securities would be capped at $1 million annually, or $2 million if the issuer provides the investor with audited financial statements. Also, the bill would only allow an investor to invest the lesser of either $10,000 or 10% of their annual income. While the bill pre-empts state regulators’ registration authority for the exempt securities, websites and issuers would be required to provide notice to the SEC that would also be shared with the states.
H.R. 2940, the “Access to Capital for Job Creators Act”
H.R. 2940, the “Access to Capital for Job Creators Act,” would permit the use of public solicitation in connection with private securities offerings. This would reverse a long-standing rule that allows companies to raise funds through securities offerings so long as they don’t engage in public solicitation for the funds.
Congressman Inslee supported these bills in an effort to free up the flow of capital to small business, both in Washington state and nationwide. Please contact me if you have any questions, or to share your reactions. Also, feel free to share this news with others in the small business community that you think might be interested.
Maura Little
Community Liaison
Congressman Jay Inslee
18560 1st Avenue NE, Suite E-800
Shoreline, WA 98155-2150
206-361-0233
206-361-3959 (fax)
Maura.Little@mail.house.gov
Nov
McKinstry’s David Allen offers Sustainability Industry Insights at UW
Posted by Tom Ranken | No Comments | Categories: Complete Digest, Industry News
Source: Katie Collier, graduate student at UW Foster School of Business and Evans School of Public Affairs, Foster Unplugged, November 23, 2011.
This month, McKinstry Executive Vice President David Allen sat down with University of Washington students to deliver the message that green jobs are real and abundant, and available in surprising places.
David should know. Several short decades ago, McKinstry was founded as a small plumbing company in Bellevue, WA. By responding to an increasing demand for sustainability in building design, construction, operations and maintenance, McKinstry realized enormous growth potential. Today the firm employs over 1,800 people, earns more than $400 million in annual revenue, and continues to innovate and create value in the energy-efficiency sector.
A generation of Americans who care deeply about environment may be disappointed by recent headlines challenging the legitimacy of the “green economy.” The way Allen sees it, the green economy is alive and well, blossoming from every corner of the economy; rising costs of energy are naturally changing the way America does business, and the green economy is made up of those who tweak their business models to accommodate demand for more sustainable products and services.
Green job trends
Allen explained that some of the most important jobs in sustainability are not where we expect them to be: “Not everyone can be an environmentalist. We need people to be in business, to be in Congress and to create jobs.” At McKinstry, where many employees are engineers and construction professionals, Allen says a dozen or so “sustainability-specific” positions are added every year. This was good news for Allen’s audience, students in the University of Washington Environmental Innovation Practicum.
Data analysts and engineers were among the promising environmental career pathways Allen emphasized. Building owners responding to new municipal energy standards, or inevitably rising energy costs, need professionals to “monitor, measure, verify and act” on changes in building BTU usage.
Allen delivered a hopeful prognosis for continued growth in the energy-efficiency sector, citing the following trends:
- Rising need for efficiency as costs of energy and water continue to increase
- Clean technology innovation boom
- Aging infrastructure that must be replaced
Students interested in careers in sustainability can learn more about McKinstry online and explore the clean-tech industry by entering the UW Environmental Innovation Challenge.
Katie Collier is a joint master’s student at the UW Foster School of Business and Evans School of Public Affairs. She has a background in energy policy, urban land use policy and private utility development and is currently the MBA co-chair for the UW Environmental Innovation Challenge, and a student representative for Net Impact’s UW Chapter.
Nov
Data Furnaces: The next big thing in home heating?
Posted by Tom Ranken | No Comments | Categories: Complete Digest, Industry News
But what if you could turn the excess heat from data centers into a home heating solution?
Researchers at Microsoft and The University of Virginia are tackling that very idea, working on ways to put “data furnaces” inside homes, apartments and office buildings as a way to keep residents warm while at the same time powering the Internet.
It’s a bold — and still untested — concept. But the promise of having a micro data center inside a home or condo isn’t as far-fetched as it seems. The researchers — including Microsoft’s Jie Liu, Michel Goraczko, Sean James and Christian Belad — write in a recent research paper that the problem of heat generation at data centers can be turned into an advantage.
“Computers can be placed directly into buildings to provide low latency cloud computing for its offices or residents, and the heat that is generated can be used to heat the building. This approach improves quality of service by moving storage and computation closer to the consumer, and simultaneously improves energy efficiency and reduces costs by reusing the electricity and electrical infrastructure that would normally be used for space heating alone.”
Nov
UW Team Designing Super-Hybrid Car
Posted by Tom Ranken | No Comments | Categories: Company News, Complete Digest
Source: Katherine Long, Seattle Times, November 28, 2011. University of Washington engineering students are part of a national competition to design a hybrid electric car that would get great mileage and appeal to consumers.
Is the Prius not efficient enough for you? Are electric cars too limiting? How about an American-made hybrid that goes 45 to 50 miles on an electric charge, then switches to biodiesel and gets 100 miles to the gallon?
If that sounds like a winner, a team of mechanical-engineering students at the University of Washington thinks so, too. They’re designing just such a car as part of a three-year national competition to turn a Chevy Malibu into a super-hybrid.
This is the first year the UW’s engineering school — better known for aviation, not autos — has participated in the 23-year-old car-design competition, sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of Energy.
“In the past month or so, we’ve gone from knowing nothing about hybrids to knowing about different architectures, and how they’re controlled,” said Trevor Crain, a UW mechanical-engineering graduate student.
You won’t see this super-Malibu in dealers’ showrooms when the competition is over, though. “It’s going to be a very expensive, one-off, million-dollar car,” said Brian Fabien, a UW professor of mechanical engineering who is overseeing the design team.
It’s the practice of designing and building a working electric-biodiesel hybrid that counts. That kind of training is likely to lead immediately to engineering jobs in the auto industry for the students who participate, said Kristen de La Rosa, director of the EcoCAR2 competition for Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, one of the Energy Department’s oldest and largest national labs for science and engineering research.
“They’re hot commodities when they graduate,” de La Rosa said. “They can name their price.”
In order for the team to be selected for the competition, students had to write a proposal that showed the UW’s engineering curriculum would support advanced vehicle design, and that the College of Engineering would support the team. The team also had to simulate a specified vehicle’s fuel economy and performance abilities, and report the results of these simulations, Crain said.
The 15 schools selected for the competition will get a Chevy Malibu next spring, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment and software needed to design the car. Some members of the UW team have already been to Detroit five times, and the competition will include a trip to the automaker’s proving grounds in Detroit and Yuma, Ariz.
For students, the future is clear: Cars need to be a lot more efficient. Hybrids are a good intermediate step, even if electric cars or some other alternately-fueled vehicle eventually rule the highway, said graduate engineering student Trevor Fayer.
Sure, there are hybrid vehicles out there already, but they are often twice as expensive as gas-powered cars. They are “weird, pod-shaped” vehicles, said Tyler Rose, an MBA student in the UW’s Foster School of Business. While hybrids are popular in environmentally conscious Seattle, they have not sold as well in Middle America.
In short: “There are significant engineering challenges left,” Fabien said.
A proposed new federal rule would require all passenger vehicles sold in 2025 to get an average of 55 miles to the gallon. To design the next generation of autos, “we’re going to need some engineers to help this country do this,” Crain said.
Right now, the students are using 3-D modeling software and a simulation machine — the same tools auto designers use in Detroit — to perform virtual tests on their computer-designed, virtual car. “This is an exciting time — creative ideas are being thrown around,” Rose said.
About 40 students are on the team, which includes business-school students and graphic artists, a recognition that designing and selling a car takes more than good engineering. The students all will get some form of college credit for the work; for example, engineering students can receive senior-level elective credits.
Katherine Long: 206-464-2219 or klong@seattletimes.com. On Twitter @katherinelong.
Nov
Bill Gates: Feds Should “Lead in Energy Innovation”
Posted by Tom Ranken | No Comments | Categories: Complete Digest, Industry News
Bill Gates wants the federal government to give a big boost to energy research and development so the U.S. can “lead in energy innovation.’
Gates, who has invested in Liquid Metal Battery, an innovative battery company that could help replace wind and solar power’s reliance on natural gas plants, said it’s time for the federal government to increase investment in energy R&D from $5 billion to $16 billion a year.
In an editorial posted on Science Online, the American Association for the Advancement of Science online magazine, Gates said the boost in spending is “essential to protect America’s national interests” in the future:
In a time of economic crisis, asking policy-makers in Washington, D.C., to spend more money might not be the most popular position. But it’s essential to protect America’s national interests and ensure that the United States plays a leading role in the fast-growing global clean energy industry. There is really no other choice. Carbon-based fuels are prone to wild price gyrations and are causing the planet to overheat.
In reporting on the Gates editorial, tech news website CNET notes that it might be a tough sell, given the federal government’s budget crisis and the failure of solar company Solyndra, which received a $535 million federal loan guarantee.
Liquid Metal Battery, a spinoff of work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hopes to reduce energy storage costs by creating a battery with entirely liquid active materials. In lead acid and lithium ion batteries, the active materials are solid.
Source: Greg Lamm, TechFlash, November 21, 2011.
Nov
PNNL: Home Sweet Energy Efficient Home
Posted by Tom Ranken | No Comments | Categories: Company News, Complete Digest
Two new research facilities at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will serve as a test bed for studying energy efficient and smart homes. PNNL and its project partners will mark the start of the research effort by cutting a ribbon at the new facilities at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 15.“The PNNL Lab Homes project is the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest region,” said Steve Shankle, director of PNNL’s Electricity Infrastructure and Buildings Division. “The facilities will be an excellent resource for PNNL and its regional and national partners to test a variety of smart and energy efficient technologies that ultimately may be used in homes in the Northwest and throughout the U.S.”
Shankle noted that residential buildings currently account for about 22 percent of the nation’s annual energy use so widespread adoption of energy-saving technologies could significantly reduce the nation’s energy needs as well as lessen environmental effects from energy use, and result in smaller energy bills for residents.
PNNL and its partners will use the identical, 1,500 square-foot Marlette manufactured homes for experiments focused on reducing energy use and peak demand on the electric grid. Research and demonstration primarily will focus on technologies that can be added to a home after construction, and the homes will offer a side-by-side ability to test and compare new ideas and approaches that are applicable to site-built as well as manufactured homes in the region.
The first project will be a nine-month study of highly insulating windows, purchased from Jeld-Wen, with future research focused on smart grid appliances provided by GE Appliances. Researchers will assess the ability of the highly insulating windows to reduce the energy and cost to the homeowner. Researchers also will evaluate how well the windows can enhance comfort in the home compared to standard, double-pane windows commonly found in many existing homes across the country.
In a second project, researchers will study the potential energy and cost savings smart appliances can provide. The appliances — including a range, refrigerator, dishwasher, clothes washer and clothes dryer — have the ability to respond to a pricing signal from an electric utility. The appliances can temporarily turn themselves off when prices are high — generally during times of peak demand on the grid, like after work — and then resume operation when prices lower, saving money and relieving stress on the grid.
In each study, one home will remain a control typifying an average, existing home in the region, while the other will test a new technology. Occupancy in each home will be simulated to account for human activity.
Organizations funding work in the PNNL Lab Homes project include the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the Bonneville Power Administration, DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability and the City of Richland, Wash. Battelle made the land available for the site for the home. The home is included in the footprint of the Tri-Cities Research District in north Richland. The home purchase and site work is being conducted under a competitive contract administered by PNNL.
For more information on current and future research projects visit labhomes.pnnl.gov. Watch PNNL’s Graham Parker explain more about the project at: http://ims4.pnl.gov/winmedia/2011/labhomes/labhomes1.wmv.
Source: PNNL press release, November 15, 2011.
Nov
Cascadia Capital: Parallels to the Internet Boom, Bust…and…Rebirth
Posted by Tom Ranken | No Comments | Categories: Commentary, Complete Digest
We all remember the internet boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s. New companies sprung up seemingly overnight. The word “new economy” was all anyone ever heard. These “new economy” companies didn’t have revenue muchless profits so new metrics like “eyeballs” and “page views” were devised to justify astonishing valuations. Companies in the “old economy” quickly moved to embrace the internet or risk becoming obsolete. Many companies added “.com” to their name to increase the value of their companies. Many companies flocked to the public markets where they were greeted with astonishing, seemingly “unreal” valuations based on hype and momentum as opposed to sound fundamentals. Then the madness came to an end as the economy went into a recession and the vast majority of the new internet companies went out of business. The internet became an area to be avoided by investors as capital flowed back into “old economy” companies.
However, a funny thing happened – a few bright and determined entrepreneurs, executives and investors remained in the sector and devised better business models and better companies. Google, Facebook, Amazon and, eBay emerged during
this period and are now household names. Today, the internet is prevalent in our daily lives albeit without the hype. Sound familiar? It should.
The clean energy sector is going through the same re-birth process. Clean energy was the rage in the 2005-2008 time periods. All we ever read about was the “green” economy. Money, entrepreneurs, and executives came into the sector in droves, but business models and the ecosystem were not fully flushed out and many of the companies that were funded in the 2005-2008 time period have not made it through the recession. The press, investors, entrepreneurs, executives and service providers left the sector for greener pastures (no pun intended).
However, dedicated investors, entrepreneurs and executives remained in the sector, working to improve the business models and technology. They have been joined by large corporations such as Boeing, Wal-Mart, Schneider Electric, and others who see profit in the sector and are becoming actively involved. We at Cascadia are on the ground every day in this market. We were there at the beginning, throughout the past and existing turmoil, and we remain more committed than ever to this space. We are seeing better companies, better technology, better business models, and better executives in this industry every day. We strongly believe that a lot of the companies we see and work with will be well known companies in the 2013-2014 timeframe. Green companies are rising from the ashes. We remain believers.
Source: Cascadia Capital November 2011 Newsletter. Read MORE.