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Financial justification tools face three major challenges: Prospects don’t believe their output; facilities managers are not financially trained; and sales reps are not trusted to explain the numbers.
Continue reading "Why ROI Calculators are a Formula for Failure" »
When I started Energy Priorities on Earth Day 2004, "sustainable business" for most companies meant having enough working capital. Few people took global warming seriously. Venture capital investment in clean tech (counting everything from agriculture to water) in the previous year had barely crested a billion dollars. The 2003 blackouts were behind us; our attention was on the elections...
Continue reading "It's Earth Day and Energy Priorities is Four" »
Dow Jones dives into green tech -- will the sector ever be the same? Whether you think the Dow Jones imprimatur on environmentalism is the beginning of the Big Time, or the end of the fun, the Dow Jones Environmental Ventures conference in May 2008 will be a new venue to rub elbows with leading investors and entrepreneurs building start-ups in this sector.
A special section in today's New York Times focuses on green collar jobs, green college majors, business opportunities, zero-energy homebuilding, and investing. What collar am I?
Electricite de France is rumored to be working on a deal in which EdF could acquire a controlling share in Iberdrola. The combination would create a renewable energy giant with multinational clout.
Continue reading "EdF and Iberdrola, a Renewable Energy Powerhouse?" »
The 7th Annual Wall Street Green Trading Summit is an environmental financial market event that takes place in New York City April 2 and 3, 2008. The two-day event covers carbon emissions trading and finance, renewable energy markets, cleantech venture capital, green hedge funds and energy efficiency financial markets.
Continue reading "Green Summit Celebrates "The Year of Carbon Finance and Trading"" »
RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLD 2008 -- If the global economy coughs, will it choke off the flow of capital into the solar energy sector? Or does this hot industry have a special antibody that makes it immune to a recession? The prospect of a slowdown is a global issue. For a global perspective, Denis Du Bois interviews Peter Bostock of Solaicx, a company that ships its ingots and wafers to major photovoltaic cell manufacturers all over the world. (podcast)
Continue reading "Solaicx Anticipates Growth, Even if Economy Slows" »
RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLD 2008 opened earlier this week with keynote addresses by two well-known Nevada dignitaries. This is the fifth year for the conference and expo formerly known as Power-Gen Renewable Energy and Fuels. More than the name has changed. This article is your gateway to our coverage of this all-renewables conference.
Continue reading "Renewable Energy World Conference Is Changing with the Industry" »
2008 promises to be an interesting and fruitful year. We can look forward to the effects of a new Energy Bill, presidential elections, and a growing trend toward sustainability in every aspect of business.
All three hold tremendous potential to strengthen profitability, competitiveness and our outlook for a sustainable future.
Our wish for you is to realize your full share of that potential in 2008.
Happy New Year,
Denis, Linda, Chris, Kathleen and everyone else who makes the virtual "printing press" go round at Energy Priorities.
Austin, Texas will be the site of the first manufacturing facility for HelioVolt Corporation, a producer of thin film solar energy products. The site was announced this morning. HelioVolt is headquartered in Austin, home to several clean-tech companies.
Continue reading "Austin Clean Tech Hub Expands: HelioVolt To Build Thin-Film Solar Factory" »
Fat Spaniel Technologies today announced a new web-based monitoring service for commercial-scale solar hot water installations. FST also announced a new integration with Outback equipment for off-grid and grid-tie photovoltaics. The news indicates the company is expanding its market focus into emerging niches of renewable energy information and analysis. (photos)
Continue reading "Fat Spaniel Spreads Out To Cover Solar Thermal Monitoring" »
3Q '07 numbers are out. Deal count is down slightly, but dollars are way up: $2.5 billion. And the year's not over yet. Nationally the most active investor in clean tech was Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which invested $76.8 million. That was followed by Khosla Ventures at $68.4 million and Draper Fisher Jurvetson at $38.5 million.
Continue reading "KPCB, Khosla, DFJ Top Latest List of Clean-Tech Investors" »
Solaicx is a manufacturer of silicon ingots and wafers for photovoltaics, and the company recently opened a new manufacturing facility in Portland, OR. The plant will start out producing about 32 megawatts per year, and at full capacity it expects to employ 180 skilled workers and churn out 180 megawatts per year. Solaicx says its proprietary manufacturing technology yields low-cost, high quality cells that are optimized for solar energy applications. Why locate in Oregon, and not Asia? What is it about the Solaicx process that could make solar "affordable?" Denis Du Bois interviews the company's CEO, Bob Ford. (podcast) (photos) (transcript)
There's a one-day conference in Seattle next week, "Clean Tech Investing in the Pacific Northwest," that should be well worth attending. Stoel Rives and Nth Power recruit some outstanding speakers from around the world for the annual conference. Nth Power's founder has been in the energy business since the early 1980s and is best known for founding a clean tech investment firm before the field was even called "clean tech." She will moderate an investor panel discussing best practices in getting cleantech companies funded. Denis Du Bois interviews Nancy Floyd, founder and Managing Director of Nth Power in San Francisco. (podcast) (transcript)
Continue reading "Clean Tech Investing in the Pacific Northwest 2007" »
Demand response and advanced metering are in the perpetual pilot stage in many utility territories. What will it take to make demand response an integral part of power delivery? At a conference on the banks of the Potomac, utilities and regulators will search for the answer.
Continue reading "Demand Response -- How Do We Make It Work Best?" »
As American businesses wrestle with sustainability and the prospect of even higher energy costs, competitive energy suppliers and members of the building automation industry are coming together at DR Expo 2007 to collaborate on ways to fast-track energy demand response solutions.
Let me be the first to point you to next week's Fortune magazine. Marc Gunther's "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" shines 4 pages of praise on solar module manufacturer SunPower.
In business, as with utilities, the real cost savings come not from the technologies themselves, but from the business strategies they enable. As energy costs rise, businesses must take strategic advantage of being able to know and control the costs in operations and production.
Home builder Peter Erickson used some innovative business ideas to allow homeowners to share in the incentives and financial benefits of harnessing solar energy.
Continue reading "Affordable Solar: High-Performance Housing + Smart Investing (Home Power)" »
When you're considering whether to install renewable energy at your business, or make any kind of energy efficiency investment, one major factor in your decision is how much and how fast you expect energy costs to change. What are the factors that drive energy prices up or down? I interview Ben Parker, who leads the Boston office of Tradition Energy. He's been involved in retail energy markets for 15 years, was an independent energy broker, and served a term in the New Hampshire state legislature. (podcast)
Continue reading "Predicting Energy Costs: What Difference Will Deregulation Make?" »
Why our electricity system is headed for a state of emergency, and what can be done to head it off: My two-sentence review of "Lights Out" by Jason Makansi, plus why I liked it and where it falls short.
An August 1, 2007, Wall Street Journal article relates oil prices to new investment opportunities in energy. It discusses "exotic instruments" such as commodity (oil, natural gas) funds, and "clean alternatives" such as wind and solar. Those are actually quite different investment strategies. Let's talk about the second one, that of focusing on alternative energy sources as an investment strategy.
Continue reading "Making the Best of $78-a-Barrel Oil (WSJ)" »
It might be summer, but the energy event calendar is packed with interesting events. Renewables, smart grid, intelligent buildings and more, all between now and Thanksgiving. Here are our recommended top picks.
Continue reading "Energy Events Calendar Is Filling Fast for Fall 2007" »
Stanley Bing stabs directly and not-altogether-humorously at the heart of American environmental gluttony. And he offers a solution.
Happy Birthday, Energy Priorities!
On Earth Day 2004, Energy Priorities Magazine became one of a very few voices talking to business leaders about energy issues with bottom-line sensibility. On the magazine's third birthday, founder Denis Du Bois notes how much has changed in a short time -- and how far we have yet to go.
Fat Spaniel Technologies recently appointed Hitesh Shah as chief financial officer. In this interview, Shah talks about the differences between energy tech and his experience with a venture capital fund and a computer-networking startup. He shares some words of advice for companies entering the energy sector.
Continue reading "Venture Capital Expert Sees Opportunity in Distributed Energy" »
Environmental activists and Wall Street are interweaving at a fevered pitch. Is it the activists who are grasping the importance of finance, or is it the finance community that finally gets the potential economic disaster of ignoring climate change?
Continue reading "Who Wants To Finance a Coal Plant? (Sustainable Industries Journal)" »
In the dot-com boom, cities and states did their best to attract internet companies. Now that we're in the watt-com boom, it seems like every locality's economic development office is trying to attract renewable-energy businesses to their region. To me, it makes a statement about renewable energy's status as a sector, and about government leaders' expectations for the long-term growth of the industry. I interviewed some regional representatives at the Power-Gen Renewable Energy and Fuels 2007 conference. (podcast)(photo)
Continue reading "Marketing Regions To Attract Energy Companies, Customers" »
California's big three utilities have 2,660 MW of demand response enrolled, ahead of the regulators' policy goal for next summer. Enrollment is not the same as participation. Do companies have enough price elasticity to participate? If so, is demand response cost-effective for utilities? Can participating companies recover the cost of the necessary equipment? Who pays the price?
Blogged live from a meeting entitled "Demand Response: Simple Solutions, Real Savings, Fast Payback," this article grew as the meeting proceeded. It's still in its rough form, but nonetheless full of interesting information and perspectives. I invited readers to post questions using the comments form at the bottom of this article, and I posed some of them to the speakers and panelists.
Continue reading "Demand Response: Experts and Businesses Discuss the Challenges Ahead" »
Global clean-energy markets are poised to quadruple in the next decade, growing from $55.4 billion in revenues in 2006 to more than $226.5 billion by 2016 for four benchmark technologies, according to a report released today.
Six solar projects make 2006 a milestone year for this renewable-energy finance innovator. Third-party financing removes removes a cost barrier, and power purchase agreements promise predictably-priced green energy.
Continue reading "MMA Renewable Ventures Closes $39 Million in Solar Project Financing for 2006" »
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a "Fortune 500 Green Power Challenge" for 2007. The campaign urges large companies to make a greater commitment to renewable energy.
Continue reading "EPA Launches Fortune 500 Challenge (NW Current)" »
Engineers have been giving the electric utility industry gray hair -- literally. For several years, utilities have worried about the imbalance between the rates of retirement and recruitment of engineers. They're concerned that they'll lose one out of five of their most experienced engineers in the next 10 years, and as many as half of them in 20 years, to retirement.
Gonzaga University has a formula to help address the graying of the utility workforce. (The traditional formula, Grecian, goes only so far.)
Exporting clean energy technologies to developing countries is a potentially huge business. This deal is an example. China produces over 10 billion cubic meters of methane per year from their coal mines. A $100 million Hybrid Coal and Gas Turbine (HCGT) will turn that methane into electricity. The "clean coal" power plant technology was developed in Australia.
Continue reading "China To Import Coal-Mine Methane Technology from Australia" »
Renewable energy credits (RECs) are earned as power is produced, and can be sold to companies who want to offset their carbon output. That's an incentive to companies installing solar, but when California said "mine," solar companies screamed.
Continue reading "Who Owns Solar Renewable Energy Credits?" »
SunPower Corporation yesterday announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire PowerLight Corp.
BP's "Statistical Review of World Energy: Quantifying Energy, the Global Context" is summarized online in several forms, including a video podcast available on iTunes.
Continue reading "BP Statistical Review of World Energy (iTunes)" »
A new venture fund partners with institutional investors, project developers, and customers to build distributed clean energy generation plants and to sell the electricity and renewable energy credits to the host site under a power purchase agreement.
Continue reading "Solar Project Finance Opens Up to Institutional Investors" »
Continue reading "CEO Golfers: Utility Leaders Are No Duffers (Golf Digest)" »
SEATTLE -- One of the highlights of today's "Investing in Clean Energy for the Pacific Northwest" is the panel of venture capitalists. The GP panel is a Who's Who of energy VCs. What attracted them to energy? Is it to make money, or to save the environment? What sets casual funds apart from serious players? How do strategic investors and public policy affect investments?
Continue reading "What do VCs Look for in Clean Energy Companies?" »
"If you are inclined to take a flier on an investment, might we suggest not a specific stock but a specific sector: energy." --Bill Virgin, P-I columnist.
Continue reading "If I Had the Energy, I'd Invest in this Sector (Seattle P-I)" »
Energy Minute: Customers with broadband over powerlines, or BPL, can get high-speed internet connections through their electrical outlets. The technology has been around for a long time, but it's getting more attention as demand for broadband grows. (Podcast)
Continue reading "Broadband over Powerlines Delivers Internet through the Electric Grid" »
“With the rising buzz about clean energy, this is the perfect time to help forge productive partnerships. And the Pacific Northwest is the perfect place to do it.” --Bill Holmes, chair of the Stoel Rives Energy and Telecommunications practice group, remarking on an October 4, 2006, conference in Seattle. The event will bring together authorities on clean energy investment trends and will focus on the intersection of clean energy, private investment and public policy in the Pacific Northwest.
Continue reading "Conference on Investing in Clean Energy Will Focus on Pacific Northwest as Hub" »
SunEdison LLC has closed a multimillion-dollar financing round led by Goldman Sachs. The company offers financial and management services for commercial and residential solar installations.
Continue reading "Solar Integrator SunEdison Closes Second Round (VentureWire)" »
WebGen Systems Inc. raised $9.5 million in Series B funding during 2Q 2006. The energy management software company offers applications for energy conservation and control in commercial buildings. Sigma Partners led the round.
Is broadband over powerlines bogus, or real? Analysts and vendors are predicting rapid growth for the internet technology. One analyst, though, has done the research and doesn't share their zeal.
Continue reading "Bogus vs. Real BPL (Smart Grid Newsletter)" »
Miartech Inc., a Chinese start-up, just raised $6 million in venture capital from Draper Fisher Jurvetson's Dragonfund for its BPL chip.
Continue reading "China Energy Venture Backed by DFJ (VentureWire)" »
The Washington Technology Center presented its annual Washington State Technology Summit on April 28, 2006. The common themes were education, competitiveness, and awareness. The renewable energy track, focusing primarily on biofuels, was very well-attended.
Continue reading "Washington State Technology Summit Highlights Need for Education, Awareness" »
Author Tim Flannery, interviewed recently on NPR, said he sees a softening in the Bush administration's rhetoric on climate change. It's a softening, he said, that cannot come too soon.
Continue reading "US Energy Industry Falling Behind World, Says Weather Makers Author" »
Bush appointee retires, takes post as chairman of Areva SA, a nuclear energy giant with designs on the newly lucrative U.S. market.
Continue reading "European Energy Conglomerate Zeros in on U.S. Nuclear Plans (Wall St. Journal)" »
Private investment in "clean tech" -- primarily renewable energy technologies -- is climbing, while some of the funded companies are making headlines with their initial public stock offerings. Meanwhile the oil president puts on a green face, which puts smiles on the faces of biofuels producers and feedstock growers. Where does it all lead? An analyst report released today by Clean Edge examines factors the firm believes are influencing clean-energy market growth, and offers forecasts of coming trends.
Continue reading "Report Tracks Five Key Trends in Clean Tech Market Growth" »
Choosing a supplier for advanced meter reading technology and services is a difficult task for utilities. Analysts offer their views on AMR technology trends.
The State of the Union Address surprised many observers with its focus on renewable fuels. How will this seemingly sudden policy change -- and policy in general -- affect the business plans of companies in the renewable energy sector? Three experts discussed the topic at the Clean Tech Investor Summit.
Continue reading "Energy Policy: Shifting Landscape for Clean Tech Startups" »
Appearing two days after the "green" State of the Union Address, and in the middle of a Clean Tech Investor Summit, this Wall Street Journal article covers all the bases.
Continue reading "Alternative Fuels Attracting Venture Capital (Wall St. Journal)" »
Clean Tech Investor Summit conference chairman Ira Ehrenpreis kicked off the event with his perspective on why clean tech investing is suddenly gaining momentum.
Continue reading "Clean Tech Turning Corner, Says Investor Summit Leader" »
Summit scheduled for Feb. 1-2, 2006, in Rancho Mirage, CA, brings together venture and private equity investors, corporate executives, entrepreneurs and other industry players.
Continue reading "Clean Tech Investor Summit Draws Investors, Entrepreneurs" »
The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory launched two demonstration projects to test new technologies designed to help energy users make smarter energy choices, and to help prevent power blackouts. (with podcast)
Continue reading "GridWise Initiative to Demonstrate New Electric Grid Technologies" »
BP Alternative Energy will manage BP's growing investments in solar, wind, hydrogen and gas-turbine power generation. They say the unit's investments could amount to $8 billion over the next ten years, generating revenues of around $6 billion a year within that time, employing several hundred staff, and achieving a 15 percent return on capital.
Continue reading "BP to Raise Investment in Alternative Energy (AP)" »
Day4Energy Inc. has closed a fourth round of new funding for its specialized photovoltaic technologies.
Continue reading "Chrysalix Leads Day4 Energy VC Round 4 (VentureWire)" »
The number of venture capital firms interested in energy is growing rapidly. This is a list of firms that have invested in energy companies or are taking time to investigate the space.
Continue reading "Energy Venture Capital and Angel Investors List" »