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  • Tesla "S" Garners Consumer Reports Best Car Rating...Ever

    9 May 2013, 4:27 pm
    Tesla Model S The Consumer Reports headline reads, "The Tesla Model S is our top-scoring car" "There, we said it," CR goes on to say. "The Tesla Model S outscores every other car in our test Ratings. It does so even though it's an electric car.&nbs...
    Tesla Model S
    The Consumer Reports headline reads, "The Tesla Model S is our top-scoring car"

     "There, we said it," CR goes on to say. "The Tesla Model S outscores every other car in our test Ratings. It does so even though it's an electric car. In fact, it does so because it is electric."

     They were impressed with the car's "excellent handling, a comfortable ride, and lots of room inside. Plus, it has a front trunk where other cars' gasoline engines would be, in addition to its large rear cargo space."

     The engine delivers "impressive power, right now, and it is impressively efficient. The Model S uses about half the energy of a Toyota Prius every mile, and it has more than twice the range—about 200 miles—of any other electric car we've driven."

     "Inside," CR notes, the Tesla S, "looks like something Marty McFly might have brought 'back from the future' in place of his iconic fusion-powered DeLorean." They liked the giant iPad-like control panel in the center of the dashboard and how everything worked better than they expected.

     "So is the Tesla Model S the best car ever?" CR says it comes close, especially if "your needs are confined to the Tesla's driving range" and ultimately determined "the Model S is truly a remarkable car."

    An impressive review for an impressive vehicle. Check out CR's video: Tesla S video. Kudos to Elon Musk and Tesla Motors.


      
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  • My Three Take-Aways from BNEF Summit 2013

    1 May 2013, 9:29 am
    Last week was the BNEF Summit (Bloomberg New Energy Finance), the annual gathering of the clean energy faithful curated by Michael Liebreich. BNEF puts on a good show. Their analysts have a deep understanding of their particular focus area and they...
    Last week was the BNEF Summit (Bloomberg New Energy Finance), the annual gathering of the clean energy faithful curated by Michael Liebreich.

    BNEF puts on a good show. Their analysts have a deep understanding of their particular focus area and they know how to present data, and the other panelists and presenters are always top-shelf.

    Having been a part of the Summit two years in a row now, I see the value in getting such a group together for an annual sit-down to have a look under the cleantech/new energy hood.

    Survey says, "It's the policy, stupid."
    As one attendee, @electricityyoda, Tweeted during the event, "Yoda once said 'Always pass on what you have learned.'" Taking his advice, here are my three take-aways:

    1.) Gas is now part of the "clean energy" mix.

    Whether you like it or not, natural gas, specifically in the US, but increasingly elsewhere, is now part of the conversation.

    Frack-water aside, gas has had a huge impact.  For some, gas is a bridge to cleaner technologies; for others it's a pier, and for still others, gas appears to be a destination.

    It remains to be seen whether the impact on renewables will be net-negative or net-positive. If gas "hooks up" with solar, as NRG's David Crane suggested, it could dominate the future electricity supply in the US.

    (On the subject of fracking, I think there are still plenty of opportunities and needs for technologies to address the fracking chemicals, clean up the water, and to capture the CO2 emissions generated from the process.)

    2.) Policy (or lack thereof) still breeds uncertainty.

    Seventy-nine percent of BNEF Summit participants answering an onsite poll said policy and regulation were the largest uncertainties for energy investment. (See photo.) And this doesn't show any signs of changing any time soon. Especially in the US, where very few expect major energy legislation.

    Small wins will have to do for now, such as the legislation introduced by Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Chris Coons (D-Delaware), that would extend the master limited partnership program to clean energy companies.

    The program, which Murkowski indicated has bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House, allows companies to raise funds like acorporation and pay taxes as a partnership. Currently, the program provides favorable tax status only for oil and gas projects and other fossil fuel companies.

    3.) Costs continue to come down, making renewables more affordable...but is the grid ready for it?

    As BNEF reported, "the cost of installing a gigawatt of renewable energy capacity is now about 10 percent lower during the period through 2030 than it projected in 2011," but is the grid ready for it? We have an aging infrastructure and our delivery system is out of whack.

    As NRG's Crane quipped, "the 21st Century economy should not be based on wooden [utility] poles."

    For more on the BNEF Summit, and to see some of the speeches from the event, check out the Summit videos here.  


    (Disclosure: my employer, Ernst & Young LLP is a sponsor of the BNEF Summit, through our Global Cleantech Center. Opinions mine.)

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  • Focus on Teams, Customers, and Going to Market, Investors Tell Mid-Atlantic Energy Forum

    18 April 2013, 11:31 am
    Dr. Cheryl Martin Addressing Mid-Atlantic Energy Tech Forum "We focus on teamwork," Cheryl Martin, Deputy Director of ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy) in her keynote address to the Mid-Atlantic Energy Technology Forum last nigh...
    Dr. Cheryl Martin Addressing
    Mid-Atlantic Energy Tech Forum
    "We focus on teamwork," Cheryl Martin, Deputy Director of ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy) in her keynote address to the Mid-Atlantic Energy Technology Forum last night. "There has to be a strong team and if we need to bring in a CEO to take the company to market, we will."

    Dr. Martin, in her second year with the research and commercialization agency, spoke to a crowd of around 200 energy enthusiasts, investors, and entrepreneurs at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.

    "We look for high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are solving real problems, and the dedicated teams that can bring them to market," Martin noted. "We just celebrated our fourth anniversary. We've got more to do."

    Marking its own 5th year, the Mid-Atlantic Energy Tech Forum (formerly Cleantech Investment Forum) is a partnership between the law firm of Blank Rome and the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, which I co-founded in 2008 with Kevin Brown of the search firm Hobbes & Towne.

    The Forum has grown into the premier showcase for the region's most promising companies in energy technology, cleantech, and resource efficiency.

    Last night's presenting companies ranged from software as a service offerings such as Propel IT, which uses data and incentives to reduce fuel consumption in trucking fleets, to Rentricity's plug-in microturbine that captures energy generated by pressure reducing valves in the nation's water distribution system.

    The CEO presenters included serial entrepreneurs and a former banker who each explained their solutions in 7-minutes pitches. All highlighted their management teams as well as their revenue structures and some spoke of the importance of customers.

    Electric cars and dinosaurs were featured outside the Forum.
    The focus on customers was raised earlier in the evening by the investor panel, which I moderated.

    "In my years engaging with cleantech companies, most firms don't make delivering a superior customer experience the top priority like Apple does," Diana Propper de Callejon of Expansion Capital Partners noted.

    As for opportunities in the sector, panelists Andrew Garman of New Venture Partners and Purnesh Seegopaul of Pangaea Ventures, each suggested the funding ecosystem for research and development has expanded and that sustainable solutions are needed in everything from buildings to fossil fuel use require advanced materials.

    There has also been a boon in corporate venture capital, which has helped fill the investor syndicate pool as other VCs have left the water.

    Success breeds success, however, as in most investing.

    "We look for patterns of successful companies and want to replicate those patterns in other disruptive industries," said Seegopaul.

    As one attendee told me during the cocktail reception after the program, his key takeaway was that business model innovations that can scale, focus on the customer, and disrupt their industry will win in the current market -- as long as they have a strong team and financial rigor.

    Good lessons for any business, but especially in the current cleantech and energy environment.


    (DISCLOSURE: The author is co-founder of the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, one of the hosts of the event describe herein.)

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  • What's Going On: My Remarks from Cleantech Open Northeast

    9 April 2013, 4:18 pm
    Investor panel at Cleantech Open NE Kick Off in Philly.  Cleantech startups, like any new venture, need a leg up. That's where accelerators like Cleantech Open come in. If you don’t know Cleantech Open, it’s an accelerator that has been he...
    Investor panel at Cleantech Open NE Kick Off in Philly. 
    Cleantech startups, like any new venture, need a leg up. That's where accelerators like Cleantech Open come in.

    If you don’t know Cleantech Open, it’s an accelerator that has been helping cleantech startups and entrepreneurs launch, improve, and fund their businesses since 2006.

    Last night, I delivered the keynote to kick off Cleantech Open NE in Philadelphia.  My remarks centered around three areas: ten trends and drivers, four reminders, and five things I’d like to see in the cleantech sector or hopeful signs.

    First, the 10 trends and drivers:


    1. The VCs have left the building. Well, some of them. There’s been a capital “Shakedown Street” as VCs/LPs are backing out of cleantech. (Tucker Twitmyer offered the statistic that there were 184 investors in the cleantech space a few years ago; now there are a dozen.) And even CALpers is complaining publicly about getting burned in cleantech at the 2013 ECO:nomics conference. 
    2. Reduced government subsidies, at least in Europe and US, if not China. 
    3. Yet, natural resources, the environment, and food are among the top business risks called out in the WEF 2013 Global Risk report.
    4. And the food-water-energy nexus is one of top mega trends identified in the US National Intelligence Council report Global Trends 2030. 
    5. While Renewable Energy is becoming more cost competitive with "traditional” energy sources, and costs are coming down, particularly for solar, we may yet see a temporary increase in solar prices as the industry rationalizes. But the overall trend is down. Good for you and me; may not be so good for companies. 
    6. According to a recent EY survey, the resource use and the “energy mix” are becoming “C-suite” issues, but few companies have long-term strategies to deal with resource scarcity. 
    7. China, China, China: Both their own development & investment outside of China (in US companies; elsewhere) is something to behold…but, guess what, it’s largely fueled by coal and oil. Sure they are making huge advances in RE technology adoption, yet it's Old King Coal is driving their merry old economic growth. 
    8. Corporations increasingly see cleantech as an innovation pipeline, not just for strategic investments and M&A. 
    9. Consolidation happens: M&As, flame-outs, and bankruptcies, but wait…we’ve even had a couple of IPOS! 
    10. Natural gas is displacing coal slowly for generation, chiefly for new cogen development, which may provide an opportunity to accelerate the most promising, available renewable energy technologies. On the other hand, some argue it is largely damaging RE prospects. 

    Next, 4 things we need to remember:

    1. As I wrote on The Green Skeptic back in August: we need to remember Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Technology. We’re currently sitting in the trough of disillusionment, somewhere between the peak of inflated expectations and the slope of enlightenment. (Hopefully, it’s not a slippery slope.) 
    2. We need to remember that energy transition is dynamic and full of risk. There will be flame-outs and successes. 
    3. We need to stop bickering about Tar Sands and Natural Gas – these are part of the transition away from a fossil fuel based society, In some ways, they may buy us time to get the best technologies to maturity. 
    4. We need to focus on adaptation, with a capital A. The die is cast, and smart government leaders like Christie, Bloomberg, and Nutter are working on adaptation as much or more than avoidance. It IS too late to turn back now and there is no global will to stop the carbon train. So, if it ain’t gonna stop, let’s figure out what we can do to adapt and deal. 


    And finally, 5 things the sector needs now or hopeful signs:


    1. Cleanweb – or as I see it, get the best minds of the younger generation to apply the same creativity and excitement to energy and resource efficiency that they do to gaming and social web distractions. We need more business model innovation rather than technical innovation. 
    2. Level the playing field. Subsidy free, for all! Rather than subsidy free-for-all! If it’s a free market, let it be free. And let the winners win and the losers lose. 
    3. Get government out of the business of picking winners and focused on R&D. Solyndras will happen, but it shouldn't be on the public dime. 
    4. Get the partisans out of the picture. Cleantech, the environment, and energy are neither Republican nor Democrat issues. We can’t let this partisan divide tear this sector apart. 
    5. Now, more than ever, we should focus on the killer app or business model innovation of today not the platform “game-changer” of tomorrow. As my pal Tucker says, this is a game of incremental progress punctuated by breakthroughs that will take 50 years to commercialize. The good news is, the increments are meaningful.


    Those were my thoughts shared with the audience last night in Philadelphia. Let me know what you think.


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  • Review: NATURE'S FORTUNE by Mark Tercek and Jonathan Adams

    4 April 2013, 2:14 pm
    I remember when I first learned that some guy from Goldman Sachs was taking the helm at The Nature Conservancy. I had left TNC already and was meeting a former colleague and friend who has also since moved on from TNC. "Hank Paulson?" I asked, assu...
    I remember when I first learned that some guy from Goldman Sachs was taking the helm at The Nature Conservancy.

    I had left TNC already and was meeting a former colleague and friend who has also since moved on from TNC.

    "Hank Paulson?" I asked, assuming the former TNC board chair was unhappy at Treasury and that the CEO spot at TNC would have been a nice swap.

    "No, Mark Tercek," my friend informed me. "He used to run some environmental unit at Goldman."

    "That's a bold move," I answered, thinking it complemented the trajectory that John Sawhill started back in the 1990s. "In some ways it legitimizes what John was saying that companies had to be part of the solution."

    My friend was more worried about how it would impact management of the organization, which had long operated more like a Fortune 500 company than a non-profit, but we agreed the new guy would have to adapt as much as the organization.

    Then I met Mark in Aspen where we were both speaking at the Aspen Institute's Environment Forum, and heard him speak about his journey and what he saw as the challenges for the environmental movement. I was impressed by his humility, candor, and sense of purpose.

    In his short tenure at the Conservancy, Tercek's taken some bold steps to build on Sawhill's legacy of corporate engagement, developed new financing mechanisms for conservation, and brought transparency and authenticity to his role through social media.

    While there are still grumblings in the ranks at TNC that things haven't changed all that much or that there is still a disconnect between the field and the "Home Office," from my view, Tercek seems to be making the tough choices, living with the consequences, and course-correcting where need be.

    Now, with science writer Jonathan Adams, Tercek has published his thoughts on the new direction TNC and other environmental groups must take to achieve real, lasting results in conservation.

    Not everything in Nature's Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive by Investing in Nature is new -- the writers trot out some old saws like the protection of the NYC watershed, the water funds in Ecuador, and the concept of accounting for "natural capital” that have been around for over a decade -- but Tercek's banking imprimatur, a different kind of green roots, may legitimize to the business community that business can be a beneficial environmental partner.

    More activist oriented greenies may not like this approach. There have been a number of attacks on the organization for its work with Dow Chemical, taking money from Monsanto, and some of its management of specific projects over the years.

    Tercek and Adams are careful to thank the activist organizations for their role in calling attention to issues and keeping TNC and its corporate partners honest.

    It is refreshing to see the Conservancy turning its attention to urban conservation in New York City and elsewhere, which it has traditionally shied away from preferring to view cities as “major markets” for philanthropy and marketing purposes.

    More radical perhaps is Tercek's assertion that more basic business thinking familiar to corporate analysts should be part of the environmental organization's toolkit, such as maximizing returns, investing in assets, managing risk, diversifying portfolios, and promoting innovation.

    Nature's Fortune is not a perfect book. I'd prefer a little more poetry, which Tercek studied in college and continues to be involved with as a reader, in the mix.

    But the book is a good primer for business readers and will sit nicely on a shelf next to Ray Anderson’s Mid-Course Correction and Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist, Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce, and other books about the relationship between ecology, economics, and how the two are increasingly interdependent.

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  • World Water Day: Why Plumbers Are Heroes

    22 March 2013, 10:22 am
    The old joke about the plumber's crack has gone dry. Especially on World Water Day. But it's no joke: water and plumbing changes lives. Here is a cool infographic I received from Able Skills, the UK-based construction training program on Why Plumbe...
    The old joke about the plumber's crack has gone dry. Especially on World Water Day.

    But it's no joke: water and plumbing changes lives.

    Here is a cool infographic I received from Able Skills, the UK-based construction training program on Why Plumbers Are Heroes (you can see an interactive version here):


     


    As you can see from the infographic, clean water alone can reduce water-related deaths by 21 percent, improved sanitation alone can reduce such deaths by 37.5 percent, and simple hand-washing can reduce such deaths by 35 percent.

    Today, according to UN-Water, "over 780 million people do not have access to improved sources of drinking water and 2.5 billion people are without improved sanitation."

     2.5 billion. And we're well into the 21st Century, people.

    Population growth, especially in cities, is driving increased water demand. Yet, even more startling is the fact that water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN.

    With the world population set to grow to 8 billion by 2025, water withdrawals are likely to increase by 50 percent in developing countries and by as much as 18 percent in already developed countries.

    Not all of the water use is from the growth of our cities. In fact, only 8 percent of freshwater is tapped for domestic use. 70 percent of freshwater is used for irrigation and 25 percent goes to industrial uses.

    Water for irrigation and food production constitutes one of the greatest pressures on freshwater resources, according to UN-Water.

    The World Bank estimates economic losses from lack of sanitation cost up to 7 percent of GDP in some countries.

    So, on this World Water Day, tell your plumber how much you appreciate how they've made your water safe to use and readily available. And think about how you can get involved in addressing the issue of access to clean water and sanitation.




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  • What Will You Do to Make Someone Happy Today?

    20 March 2013, 10:44 am
    Today is the International Day of Happiness. Do something to make someone happy. Then do something to make yourself happy. You just might find it's the same thing.
    Today is the International Day of Happiness.




















    Do something to make someone happy.

    Then do something to make yourself happy.

    You just might find it's the same thing.


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  • My Year in EY's Global Cleantech Center

    12 March 2013, 8:30 am
    What a difference a year makes. A year ago today I joined Ernst & Young's Global Cleantech Center as its global marketing director. Now, reflecting on the year just passed, I can say with confidence, it was a very good year. The author testing...
    What a difference a year makes.

    A year ago today I joined Ernst & Young's Global Cleantech Center as its global marketing director. Now, reflecting on the year just passed, I can say with confidence, it was a very good year.

    The author testing out the Fisker Karma at EY's
    Cleantech CEO Retreat, September 2012
    We accomplished a lot -- not the least of which was my adjusting to life in such a large organization.

    Prior to joining EY with its 152,000 employees, the largest organizations I'd worked for were The Nature Conservancy, with 4500 employees when I left, and the publisher Penguin USA, which was part of a larger multinational, but still felt at the time like a small house.

    Moving from an entrepreneurial shop where I called the shots (and celebrated or suffered the consequences) to being more of an intrapreneur in a large firm brought challenges.

    For the most part, these challenges were about having to negotiate or await approvals for public communications, contracts, and sponsorships.

    Through it all, I've come to a deeper understanding of the importance of the firm's need to maintain independence, especially as it relates to EY's audit clients, which is the necessity for some of the restrictions.

    USS MakinIsland (LHD 8)
    Homeport:  NavalBase San Diego
    Necessity is the mother of invention, as Plato said, and despite some of the challenges there have been some terrific successes as well. Some invented, some evolved.

    Among them, our annual Cleantech CEO Retreat in Napa, California, to which we attracted some great entrepreneurs along with industry leaders and others to help cleantech CEOs wrestle with the pressing issues they face in the current climate.

    For the event I scored Thomas Hicks, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, as keynote speaker.

    Tom was energizing and inspiring as he shared the Navy plans to build the "Great Green Fleet" and make the transition to advanced biofuels and renewable energy on sea and shore. (And what slides! To see the biofueled aircraft carrier USS Makin Island up on the screen is awe inspiring to say the least.)

    A report on our findings and insights from the retreat will be published shortly. Our other thought leadership pieces, white papers, and round table discussions on specific verticals can be found here.

    Perhaps the greatest benefit of working at EY is the people, and I couldn't have thrived in (let alone survived) my first year without great colleagues and new friends like Sandra Feldner Vandergriff, Lily Donge, and Chris Walker, along with my team in the Global Cleantech Center.

    Where the author spends most days.
    People are EY's greatest asset, and the fact that the organization has remained on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list for 15 consecutive years attests to how much the firm values its employees.

    In a time of major transition for me over the past year, this has been a great place to work with its trust-based environment allowing for workplace flexibility and providing the technology to keep me connected when out of the office. (Well, some of the technology could use an upgrade...)

    My boss, EY's Global Cleantech Leader Gil Forer, has been a very supportive. He helped remove roadblocks where necessary, told me to ignore detours that would throw us off our goal, and always understood when I had to leave New York for Philadelphia to be with my kids.

    I could not have been successful this year without the patience, faith, and love of my partner, Samantha Beinhacker, who went through her own powerful transition this year, and still found the energy to be supportive of me in ways both spiritual and material. Our journey together has been remarkable thus far and has only just begun.

    As much as I reflect on the year behind me, I look forward to the year ahead, which will bring new opportunities and challenges as I continue to inform, evaluate, and convene on behalf of the cleantech sector.

    And, as the sector comes out of the trough of disillusionment onto the slope of enlightenment, I hope we can continue to make a difference for the entrepreneurs, investors, and strategic partners with whom we work.


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  • Cheryl Martin of ARPA-E to Deliver Keynote at 5th Annual Mid-Atlantic Energy Tech Forum

    7 March 2013, 3:08 pm
    The 5th Annual Energy Technology Investment Forum is shaping up really well since I first posted about it a couple of weeks ago. As April 17th approaches, we've been working hard to build-out our program. We just confirmed Dr. Cheryl Martin from AR...
    The 5th Annual Energy Technology Investment Forum is shaping up really well since I first posted about it a couple of weeks ago. As April 17th approaches, we've been working hard to build-out our program.

    Dr. Cheryl MartinWe just confirmed Dr. Cheryl Martin from ARPA-E as our keynote and have put together a top-notch Investor Panel, which I'll be moderating. 

    Presenting company applications are due this Friday, March 8th, and already we have a stellar group of submissions -- making it harder to choose. 

    Early Bird registration is good until March 15th. Register here today! 

    Here are the latest details:

    Blank Rome's Venture Group, the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, and the Academy of Natural Sciences are pleased to host the 5th Annual Mid-Atlantic Energy Technology Forum which will feature a panel of experts and thought leaders discussing energy technology venture and corporate investing, as well as showcase of leading Mid-Atlantic energy technology companies. The program will include:
    • Keynote Speaker: Dr. Cheryl Martin, Deputy Director, Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E).

    Dr. Martin is responsible for the oversight of ARPA-E and leads ARPA-E's Technology-to-Market program, which helps breakthrough energy technologies succeed in the marketplace.
      Prior to joining ARPA-E, Dr. Martin was an Executive in Residence with Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California and spent 20 years with Rohm and Haas Company in various research and marketing roles before becoming the General Manager for the Paint and Coatings Materials business in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
    • Energy Technology Investment Panel, including:
    Andrew R. Garman, Managing Partner, New Venture Partners LLC
    Diana Propper de Callejon, General Partner, Expansion Capital Partners, LLC
    Purnesh Seegopaul, Ph.D., General Partner, Pangaea Ventures    Moderated by Scott E. Anderson, Cofounder, Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic
    • Introduction to the EEB Hub by Laurie Actman, Deputy Director, EEB Hub
    • Cleantech Company Showcase (companies to be announced) introduced by Thomas P. Dwyer, co-chair of Blank Rome's Venture Group
    Energy Technology Forum Call for Companies:
    We are currently accepting applications for companies who wish to participate in the Energy Technology Forum Company Showcase. Click here to download the application. Forward completed applications by March 8 to Nikki Benner at Benner@BlankRome.com.

    Want to be a sponsor of the Mid-Atlantic Energy Technology Forum? We are currently seeking providers of capital, technology entrepreneurs, and policy makers to participate in this forum as sponsors. Please contact Nikki Benner at Benner@BlankRome.com for more information.

    (Disclosure: The author is co-founder and a board member of the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, which is co-host for this event.)

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  • Ten XL-sized Myths From Both Sides of Keystone Pipeline Debate

    6 March 2013, 11:46 am
    As some 35,000 opponents to the Keystone Pipeline gathered in front of the White House yesterday trying to persuade President Obama to just say no to the pipeline, I reflected upon some of the myths about the pipeline that have been bandied about by...
    As some 35,000 opponents to the Keystone Pipeline gathered in front of the White House yesterday trying to persuade President Obama to just say no to the pipeline, I reflected upon some of the myths about the pipeline that have been bandied about by both sides on the issue.

    Keystone XL protest in Washington.
    (photo by Shadia Fayne Wood/Project Survival Media
    via 350.org)
    There are, as in most things, no absolutes in this debate. Digging deeper than the rhetoric and sloganeering, we find that both sides exaggerate the impacts of the Keystone Pipeline, the positives and the negatives.

    Here are ten myths about the Keystone XL Pipeline (KXL), some of which I shared on the Payne Nation radio show a little over a year ago:

    1.) Stopping KXL will help stop climate change - With the potential to transport an estimated 590,000 barrels a day, KXL certainly has a large carbon footprint. Yet, it is really only a drop in the barrel of global contributions to greenhouse gases. And if KXL is stopped, there is no guarantee there won't be alternatives to getting this oil to market; in fact, there are at least two proposed alternatives through western Canada being considered.

    2.) KXL will create tens or hundreds of thousands or even millions of jobs - Jobs will be created, certainly, in the US, Canada, and probably elsewhere. But it is too difficult to substantiate the claims of either proponents or opponents, which range from one million to 200,000, and from 15,000 to "as few as 20" once construction is completed. Of curious note, according to one source, in TransCanada's 2008 original permit application, the pipeline developer claimed "a peak work force of approximately 3,500 to 4,200 construction personnel." Temporary construction jobs, that is, and probably "person-year" jobs (i.e. 1 person working full-time for one year.) 

    3.) Tar sands oil is not worse for climate change - Proponents of KXL claim that tar sands oil only produce 6 percent more carbon than conventional crude oil, but other reports estimate the amount to be more than 20 percent. Whatever the amount, there is certainly going to be an increase, which could lead to health risks from emissions and potentially increase the costs associated with increased climate instability.

    4.) America needs the tar sands oil - The oil from KXL was never intended for US markets. It will make its way to the Gulf Coast refineries, where it will likely be put on the more lucrative global market. TransCanada stated as much in a presentation to investors, suggesting greater profits for the company. Besides, with greater fuel efficiency standards, our need for oil may in fact be decreasing not increasing.

    5.) The US should buy oil from a friendly neighbor like Canada rather than hostile countries - The US has steadily been reducing its dependence on oil from the Persian Gulf for years. In fact, according to data from the Energy Information Administration, Canada and Latin America already supply more oil than Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East.  

    6.) Tar sands oil will lower gas prices in the US - According to several studies, KXL oil will have little or no impact on overall US gas prices, which are set by a much more complicated set of global market factors.

    7.) Tar sands oil will increase gas prices in the US - Again, KXL oil will have little or no impact on gas prices across the US, although according to a recent study, it could increase prices in the US Midwest by 10-20 cents per gallon, as the oil bypasses that market and heads south.

    8.) Oil leaks from the existing pipeline have little impact on the environment - Proponents of the pipeline like to downplay the environmental impacts of oil leaks. However, the existing Keystone pipeline, to which the one under debate would be an extension leaked at least 12 times in 2011, including one spill in North Dakota that amounted to 21,000 gallons of oil, and a different tar sands pipeline spilled over 840,000 gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan in 2010. Such spills have an economic impact as well. The costs of the Kalamazoo River cleanup exceeded $650 million. 

    9.) Tar sands oil will reduce US dependency on foreign oil - It depends upon how you define "foreign oil." Arguably, Canada is still not a part of the US and, even if some of this oil were to make it into the US market, in the scheme of things, it matters little where oil comes from in what is a complex, interdependent global market. And, if the tar sands oil will be refined in Port Arthur, TX, by a refinery half-owned by Saudi Aramco, as some suggest, where does the oil come from after all? 

    10.) Building the KXL is inevitable - This argument has been made by proponents for years -- and even a few environmentalists. The latter suggest trying to stop KXL diverts attention from coming up with the full suite of solutions we'll need to wean ourselves from fossil fuels over the long haul, invest in alternative energy, and address climate change. 

    I remain skeptical about the claims on both sides of the Keystone Pipeline, but I hope that the Obama administration will take a look at all the data and come to a reasonable decision about what to do, rather than give in to the side with the largest wallet or most strident voice.


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  • Is Cleantech a Dirty Word?

    26 February 2013, 4:34 pm
    He used the "C" word. "Is Cleantech a dirty word?" I was asked this question over lunch today -- it's something that comes up regularly, like some disagreeable food. Just a few months ago, when we began planning for our 5th annual Mid-Atlantic...
    He used the "C" word.
    "Is Cleantech a dirty word?"

    I was asked this question over lunch today -- it's something that comes up regularly, like some disagreeable food.

    Just a few months ago, when we began planning for our 5th annual Mid-Atlantic Cleantech Investment Forum, my friends and co-hosts at BlankRome's Venture Group announced that we were changing the name of the event to Mid-Atlantic Energy Technology Investment Forum. 

    They even asked whether we were changing the name of our group, Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic. My co-founder hedged and said we'd discuss it later.

    Adam Lesser, writing over at Giga.om last month, asked, "Does the 'cleantech sector' need a new name?" 

    "'Cleantech' is a dirty word right now in venture investing circles," Lesser posits. "And for me has never defined a sector as much as an idea—that we should leverage technology for the betterment of the earth." 

    Over the past few years, we've had "clean energy" and "advanced energy"; once the favored term was "renewable energy" and even "alternative energy." And then there was the battle over "cleantech" or "greentech." And now there's even something called "cleanweb."

    A year ago, Lesser's colleague at GigaOm, Katie Fehrenbacher asked whether it was time to bury the term.

    Even as far back in September 2011, I wrote about Cleantech having a black eye and branding problem. (Longtime cleantech investor John Doerr referred to "Energy Tech," at an event I was covering.)

    The question remains whether this is just a down cycle for cleantech.

    Is the sky falling for cleantech, as I asked in a post last summer?

    Or are we, as an investor friend of mine suggested six months ago, simply in Gartner's trough of disillusionment, shortly to be ascending the slope of enlightenment?

    For now, I'm sticking with the "C" word. Get out the Lifebuoy!

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  • 5th Annual Mid-Atlantic Energy Technology Investment Forum - April 17, 2013

    21 February 2013, 10:52 am
    Are you an investor looking for opportunities to invest in the energy technology revolution? Are you an entrepreneur with a killer app or energy platform that's looking for funding? Are you a service provider wanting to learn about the latest trends...


     Are you an investor looking for opportunities to invest in the energy technology revolution? Are you an entrepreneur with a killer app or energy platform that's looking for funding? Are you a service provider wanting to learn about the latest trends in energy tech investing from venture to corporate and seed to late-stage? 

     If you answered yes to any of these questions, you won't want to miss our 5th Annual Mid-Atlantic Energy Technology Investment Forum (formerly known as the Mid-Atlantic Cleantech Investment Forum). This is the premiere energy technology investment forum in the region and always sells out fast. So register today! 

     Wednesday, April 17, 2013 
    3:30-4:00 p.m. Registration and Networking 
    4:00-6:00 p.m. Program 
    6:00-7:30 p.m. Cocktail Reception 

     The Academy of Natural Sciences 
    1900 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy 
    Philadelphia PA 19103 

     Ticket Pricing: 
    $50 Early Bird (on or before 3/8) 
    $65 (on or before 4/16) 
    $75 (at the door) 
    Ticket prices include all processing fees. 

     Click here to register. 

     Hosted by Blank Rome's Venture Group, along with my Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, and the Academy of Natural Sciences, the 5th Annual Mid-Atlantic Energy Technology Forum will feature a panel of experts and thought leaders discussing energy technology venture and corporate investing (moderated by yours truly), as well as a showcase of leading Mid-Atlantic energy technology companies. Topics and presenters to be announced. 

     Energy Technology Companies: We are currently accepting applications for companies who wish to participate in the Energy Technology Forum Company Showcase. Click here to download the PDF application. Forward completed applications by March 1 to Nikki Benner at Benner@BlankRome.com. 

     Want to sponsor the Mid-Atlantic Energy Technology Forum? We are currently seeking providers of capital, technology entrepreneurs, and policy makers to participate in this forum as sponsors. Please contact Nikki Benner at Benner@BlankRome.com for more information. 

     You don't want to miss this very popular event -- register today! 

     See you there! 

     (Disclosure: The author is co-founder and a board member of the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, which is co-host for this event.)
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  • For Advanced Materials Like NanoSteel, Patience and Focus Are Virtues

    14 February 2013, 9:01 am
    "Could the humble sea urchin hold the key to carbon capture?" I get a lot of press releases and articles. Most of them I ignore: a revolutionary high energy green food or lifestyle product, which I don't cover on The Green Skeptic. But the other da...
    "Could the humble sea urchin hold the key to carbon capture?"

    I get a lot of press releases and articles. Most of them I ignore: a revolutionary high energy green food or lifestyle product, which I don't cover on The Green Skeptic.

    But the other day, as I was preparing for the Greater Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technology/Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic luncheon panel on advanced materials and nanotechnology, I came across one with this headline: "Could the humble sea urchin hold the key to carbon capture?"

    An article on the subject by Dave Lewis also came in from my friends at The Energy Collective. Both were about some new research conducted by experts at the University of Newcastle in the UK. They’d recently published a paper, "Nickel nanoparticles catalyse reversible hydration of carbon dioxide for mineralization carbon capture and storage."

    Why was it relevant to our discussion yesterday?

    The researchers, Gaurav Bhaduri and Lidija Šiller, discovered that nickel nanoparticles catalyze the reaction that turns CO2 in water into carbonic acid.

    Their discovery came after finding high concentrations of nickel ions on the surface of sea urchin larvae, suggesting to them that nickel plays a role in forming the sea urchin's exoskeleton.

    "You bubble CO2 through the water in which you have nickel nanoparticles and you are trapping much more carbon than you would normally," Šiller told a reporter at the BBC, as quoted by Lewis. "And then you can easily turn it into calcium carbonate."

    Calcium carbonate – we call it chalk – makes up around 4 percent of the Earth’s crust and acts as a carbon reservoir. Thus, it’s possible this research could lead to new ways to capture CO2 at its sources.

    Admittedly, this is only research at this stage, still a long way from any practical applications, but as we heard from our panelists yesterday, this is how things work in the advanced materials space.

    Breakthroughs in advance materials are happening every day. Whether catalysts and solvents improving energy generation and storage or membranes for better water filtration and air purification.

    From materials fostering greater energy efficiency to nanomaterials used in the latest clean technologies, advanced materials provide solutions to make products more efficient, less expensive, safer, and even longer lasting.

    In fact, advanced materials are all around us, and some are so ubiquitous as to be taken for granted: from superconducting materials in our computers and smartphones to LEDs for lighting; from lightweight bicycles to turbine blades, magnetic storage devices, and even shampoos.

    Yesterday's panel provided a great opportunity to explore the world of advanced materials and nanotechnology with a group of investors and entrepreneurs in the space. Tucker Twitmyer of EnerTech Capital, Joseph King of DuPont Ventures, Mike DeSimone of DeSimone Group Investments, and David Paratore of NanoSteel.

    NanoSteel logo
    NanoSteel, as the name implies, is a leader in nano-structured steel material designs. Paratore, the president and CEO shared the story of how their relationship with automaker GM developed.

    Through EnerTech, NanoSteel got a meeting with GM. The meeting didn't go well. It was clear they thought NanoSteel's technology was "cute," but not ready for them.

    "If you can help us save weight in our automobiles by offering very high strength steel with high formability, come back and talk to us," GM said.

    At the time, they couldn't. But NanoSteel now had a target and started to focus on it. As they did, they got closer and closer to realizing what the company was after and hence a relationship ensued.

    Finding your focus is key, Paratore suggested, relentless focus on the commercial value of your enterprise. Without it, you risk being just an academic exercise.

    That GM had a problem worth solving – and one that NanoSteel hadn't considered before – was a bit of serendipity.

    Stories like that are not unfamiliar in the advanced materials space. Mike DeSimone told of how the iPhone got its glass.

    "Gorilla Glass" was the brainchild of researchers at Corning in 1960, but it was an idea whose product had not yet come. It languished on the shelf for many years, until Steve Jobs was struggling with what became the iPhone.

    Jobs wanted a glass that wasn't plastic, which scratched easily; something that thin, light, and damage-proof.

    Corning had developed just such a glass in 1960 – then called "muscled glass" – but it was mothballed after Corning couldn't find enough commercial applications for the product.

    Jobs learned about it and convinced Corning’s CEO Wendell Weeks to produce the glass for Apple's iPhone.

    As of October 2012, according to Corning, Gorilla Glass has been used in over one billion mobile devices. Not bad for a mothballed advanced material.

    Both Tucker Twitmyer and Joseph King warned that investors need to have a long time-horizon when they think about investing in advanced materials. Yet, they offered, the long-term "shelf life" of these products can make the companies producing them very attractive.

    And it was clear from the two stories shared -- and other stories from companies such as OxiCool -- that there's a need for connectors. People who can be a part of the "seeking ecosystem" of a company – for either the one with the solution or the one with the problem.

    My five takeaways about the advanced materials space (that are, frankly, applicable to other subsectors in cleantech) from yesterday's panel:

    1. Advanced materials are everywhere – in some cases we're talking about new materials and in others old materials with new properties used in a different way, a change in the core application. 
    2. Patience is required, both as an investor and as an entrepreneur: the time horizon is long, but so is the shelf-life. 
    3. Focus is key for entrepreneurs – relentless focus on commercial value, as Dave Paratore put it, but also remaining nimble enough to recognize and adapt to opportunities. 
    4. For service providers, there are opportunities to help companies in the space build relationships and partnerships, make introductions, to be part of the company's "seeking organization." 
    5. IP = value creation in advanced materials science.

    (Disclosure: The author is co-founder and board member of the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic and sits on an Advisory Panel for The Energy Collective.)
    * Read Article

  • Upcoming Event: Advanced Materials & Nanotechnology: Investment Opportunity, Not Science Fiction

    6 February 2013, 3:35 pm
    Breakthroughs in advance materials are happening every day.  Whether it’s catalysts and solvents improving energy generation and storage or membranes for better water filtration and air purification; from materials that foster greater energy...

    Breakthroughs in advance materials are happening every day. 
    Whether it’s catalysts and solvents improving energy generation and storage or membranes for better water filtration and air purification; from materials that foster greater energy efficiency to nanomaterials for use in the latest clean technologies, advanced materials provide solutions to make products more efficient, less expensive, safer, and even longer lasting.
    Join us for an informative and lively dialogue with industry experts, entrepreneurs and investors on the current state and future potential of this emerging growth sector.
    Wednesday, February 13, 2013
    11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
    Morgan Lewis
    1701 Market Street
    Philadelphia, PA 19103
    Advanced Materials & Nanotechnology: Investment Opportunity, Not Science Fiction
    Featuring:
    David Paratore, President and CEO, NanoSteel
    Tucker Twitmyer, Managing Director, EnerTech Capital
    Joseph King, Managing Director, DuPont Ventures
    Michael A. DeSimone, President & CEO, DeSimone Group Investments
    Moderated by:
    Scott Edward Anderson, Global Marketing Director for Cleantech, Ernst & Young, and CAMA co-founder

    For more information, contact Jennifer Cohen.






    Sponsored by:

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  • Want a Different Lens? Hire a Poet

    6 February 2013, 10:46 am
    Poets See Through a Different Lens Roger Ehrenberg of IA Ventures posted on Twitter last night that his investment firm was looking for a new partner. He linked to a blog post in which he wrote they wanted to get "some new perspectives in the...
    Poets See Through a Different Lens
    Roger Ehrenberg of IA Ventures posted on Twitter last night that his investment firm was looking for a new partner.

    He linked to a blog post in which he wrote they wanted to get "some new perspectives in the Firm to help us look at opportunities through a different lens."

    I thought immediately that Roger should hire a poet. Why?

    "For one, poetry teaches us to wrestle with and simplify complexity," as John Coleman, co-author of Passion and Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders wrote in the Harvard Business Review blog last November.

    Coleman observed, "Harman Industries founder Sidney Harman once told The New York Times, 'I used to tell my senior staff to get me poets as managers. Poets are our original systems thinkers. They look at our most complex environments and they reduce the complexity to something they begin to understand.'"

    Second, poets are -- despite the seeming loneliness of their primary pursuit -- more sociable beings.

    Coleman referred to a 2006 study conducted by the Poetry Foundation, claiming the "number one thematic benefit poetry users cited was 'understanding' -- of the world, the self, and others. They were even found to be more sociable than their non-poetry-using counterparts."

    Further, poets and poetry readers may have more finely developed "qualitative and creative" skills and "creative judgment," which would enhance the more quantitative skill sets that IA Ventures already possesses among its partners.

    Finally, as Coleman noted, referencing Clare Morgan's book What Poetry Brings to Business poets and poetry readers possessed "greater 'self-monitoring' strategies that enhanced the efficacy of their thinking processes.

    "These creative capabilities can help executives keep their organizations entrepreneurial, draw imaginative solutions, and navigate disruptive environments where data alone are insufficient to make progress."

    In an earlier HBR blog post, Tony Golsby-Smith, an Australian business design and transformation consultant, pointed to four key attributes humanities-focused people such as poets bring to any organization.

    These include an ability to understand customer needs, an emphasis on creativity and innovation, communication and presentation skills, and analyzing complexity and ambiguity.

    Such individuals tend "to be curious, to ask open-ended questions, see the big picture," Golsby-Smith wrote. "This kind of thinking is just what you need if you are facing a murky future or dealing with tricky, incipient problems."

    For building relationships with customers (or Limited Partners, in the case of IA Ventures), Golsby-Smith offered, "you need keen powers of observation and psychology -- the stuff of poets and novelists."

    So, to Roger I say, hire a poet for your new partner at IA Ventures. You will get someone with different, yet complementary attributes to those your Firm already has on board.

    A poet will certainly be passionate, articulate, and interested in engaging in constructive debate as well as building partnerships with your portfolio companies. 

     At least, I know one poet who fits that description.


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  • The Monsters Came to Poydras Street: Super Bowl Blackout Failure or Future?

    5 February 2013, 12:48 pm
    In "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," a 1960 Twilight Zone episode starring Claude Akin and Jack Weston, the residents of a typical suburban neighborhood lose their cool after a power failure is linked to a science fiction story about...
    In "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," a 1960 Twilight Zone episode starring Claude Akin and Jack Weston, the residents of a typical suburban neighborhood lose their cool after a power failure is linked to a science fiction story about aliens posing as humans prior to a full-scale invasion.
    United Planets Cruiser C-57D or Superdome?

     The residents of the neighborhood are shown all chummy and cooperative and, well, neighborly, until something in the sky causes the lights to go out. Cars won't start and even the portable radios are silent. 

     Someone first blames it on a meteor, but then one young boy offers an alternative suggestion. He recalls a science fiction story about a family of aliens sent to infiltrate a neighborhood much like theirs to prepare the way for a take over. The family looks just like a "typical human family: father, mother, and two kids," says the boy. 

     Suspicion rules and paranoia escalates as neighbor turns on neighbor. A witch hunt ensues as first one and then another is accused of being the alien and on very little evidence. 

     Someone gets killed, there's a riot, and mass hysteria breaks out. (I won't tell you how it ends; you should watch it on Netflix.) Suffice it to say, Maple Street is never the same.

     Watching the episode last night, I couldn't help drawing parallels with the blackout during Sunday night's Super Bowl. 

     The initially confused and perplexed faces of the players as they looked up to the ceiling of the Superdome in New Orleans as the lights started to go out giving way to anger expressed by the coaches as officials tried to explain the situation. 
    Superdome or Alien Space Ship?
    And then the blame game as Entergy tried to excuse itself, Peabody pinned it on reduced coal use, and stadium officials couldn't really shed any light on the situation.

     I wondered what might happen if these types of events become a regular thing -- or when big weather events like Superstorm Sandy increasingly wreak havoc on our communities? 

     How fragile are the bonds in neighborhoods in 2012 compared to 1960? (Admittedly, they were still in the midst of the Cold War and the McCarthy "red scare," but how will our modern, disconnected communities fare in the face of such crises?) 

     As our electricity grid gets increasingly fragile and we grow more dependent upon our electronic devices, will we be able to keep our cool unlike the residents of Maple Street? 

     Unless we make the necessary investments in our energy infrastructure to ensure that these types of events don't occur, we risk finding out the answer to that question. And we may not like the answer.
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  • Robert Frost, Electric Cars, and Poetry

    29 January 2013, 7:17 pm
    Poet Robert Frost died 50 years ago today, and Poets & Writers magazine offered the challenge of writing a poem using Frost's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" as a model. Robert Frost Frost was born in 1874, some time after Robert Ander...
    Poet Robert Frost died 50 years ago today, and Poets & Writers magazine offered the challenge of writing a poem using Frost's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" as a model.
    Robert Frost

    Frost was born in 1874, some time after Robert Anderson (a suspected relation to this author) invented a crude electric carriage in Scotland, and some 39 years after Thomas Davenport of Brandon, Vermont, built his own small-scale electric car. Davenport also invented the first American-built DC electric motor.


    Robert Anderson's Electric Carriage, circa 1832














    Perhaps because I was working on some electric vehicle materials in my day-job today, I couldn't resist penning this over lunch, with apologies to the poet:


    "Stopping by the Roadside on a Snowing Evening"


    Whose car this is I think I know;
    No keys I need to make it go.
    You may not hear me driving by
    'Cause electric cars are soft as snow.

    My finger on the button here
    Will make the engine start and gear
    And waken not the woods and lake
    --the quietest engine of the year.

    I give the foot-pedal a tiny tap
    And feel the seat belt on my lap.
    The only other sound's the hush
    Of lofty wind and goosewing flap.

    The road is lively, quick, and steep.
    But I have batteries to keep,
    And miles to drive before I sleep,
    And miles to drive before I sleep.

    ##
    Davenport's Electric Car, 1835


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  • How the Internet Gave Me a Voice: Skepticism and Poetry

    18 January 2013, 10:12 pm
    Craig Newmark via Paper Camera Today is Internet Freedom Day and Craig Newmark asks "How does the Internet give you a voice?" When Craig asks something, I feel compelled to respond. Not because he is the founder of Craigslist or because he posts s...
    Craig Newmark via Paper Camera
    Today is Internet Freedom Day and Craig Newmark asks "How does the Internet give you a voice?"

    When Craig asks something, I feel compelled to respond. Not because he is the founder of Craigslist or because he posts some awesome photos of birds or because Leonard Cohen is his Rabbi.

    Rather, it's because he is a champion of causes like veteran's issues and Internet Freedom. (Well, maybe his bird photos do have a special appeal.)

    The Internet gave me a voice --actually two voices. One for my skepticism and another for my poetry.

    First, the poetry. It was the late 1990s when I first realized the power of the Internet to give voice to my poetry or, more to the point, gave me an audience.

    My poems had recently won the Nebraska Review Award and Aldrich Emerging Poets Award, but you couldn't find the winning poems anywhere. The Nebraska Review had to scrap the initial printing of the issue with my winning poems because of a printing error.

    Then I got an email from an undergraduate student at a small liberal arts college in Cupertino, California. She had found some of my poetry on the Internet and wanted to write about my work for her assignment. (You can read her essay here: Essay on the Poetry of Scott Edward Anderson)

    A total stranger all the way across country found my writing on the Internet.

    And now, all these years later, many more have read my work through online magazines and journals and my poetry blog: Seapoetry

    More readers have read my poetry than ever could read it in the Nebraska Review or almost any other print publication.

    And since 2004 this blog, The Green Skeptic, provided a platform to question the assumptions we make about how we conserve the earth's resources and invest in green technology.

    The Internet is many things. At its best, it is a community of voices where there was formerly silence.

    Like any community, to paraphrase Parker Palmer, it is where the some of the writers you least want to read do their blogging. But the community of the Internet is richer for the diversity of its voices.

    Visit Craig's call to action here: Craig Connects

    How does the Internet give you a voice?



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  • Mosaic Shows Crowdfunding Cleantech May Get Its Time in the Sun

    11 January 2013, 6:30 am
    "The road is paved with ideas -- good, bad, and disastrous," I wrote in a blog post about how I nearly started The Disaster Channel, a 24-hour cable network devoted entirely to disasters and their impacts. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Timing is worth a...
    "The road is paved with ideas -- good, bad, and disastrous," I wrote in a blog post about how I nearly started The Disaster Channel, a 24-hour cable network devoted entirely to disasters and their impacts.

     Ideas are a dime a dozen. Timing is worth a lot more.

     When I set out to develop my green energy web marketplace, variously called "Seat 28B" and "VerdeInvesting," among other names, it was the fall of 2008. 

     That's right the fall of 2008. Should be a capital letter on that Fall, maybe even all caps, FALL of 2008.

     What seemed like a great idea that summer -- actually, it was an evolving idea that I and my friend Lucinda had as far back as 2006, only then it was for conservation projects -- turned into a really good idea whose time had most decidedly not come by that Fall.

     The collapse of the financial markets and downwardly spiraling oil prices conspired to make timing for that idea um, to say the least, problematic. 

     Add to that mix the SEC challenges raised early on by the venerable Steve Goodman at Morgan Lewis, and we had a kind of perfect storm against our retail alternative energy investing business. 

     As I've said before, we were too small to fail, hadn't taken anyone's money and hadn't hired anyone, so it was fairly easy to downshift and turn it into a consulting practice. 

     I still believe the idea of a web marketplace for cleantech is a good one. And this week proved it, as Mosaic, which I've written about here back when they were SolarMosaic, fully funded four projects in its first day of activity.

     Mosaic connects ordinary investors to high quality solar projects. Their mission is "to open up clean energy investing and fundamentally change the way energy is financed."

     The economy is still bad and some seasoned investors are starting to move away from cleantech. So what's different and why is Mosaic working?

     The JOBS Act. 

     In 2012, President Obama signed into law the JOBS Act, which stands for Jumpstart Our Business Startups, effectively making it easier for public solicitation by private companies raising money.

     The SEC still has to file some rules on the matter, which it didn't do within the 270 days they were given to do so by Congress. Mosaic does not have an official approval from the SEC, but worked with state officials to open their platform to residents of California and New York.

     Mosaic had a private launch in early 2011. Since that time it has raised $1.1 million from 400 or so investors and funded 11 projects. This week, they raised $300,000 in 24 hours to fund 4 projects. 

     Crowdfunding for cleantech may yet get its time in the sun.

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  • An Email from Santa Claus to Climate Skeptics: An Annual Green Skeptic Tradition

    24 December 2012, 10:59 am
    A few Christmases ago, I published this email from Santa, which arrived on the night before the night before Christmas. Readers had so much fun with it, it's become an annual tradition. Enjoy!Happy Holidays!Scott, aka The Green Skeptic ____________...

    A few Christmases ago, I published this email from Santa, which arrived on the night before the night before Christmas. Readers had so much fun with it, it's become an annual tradition. Enjoy!

    Happy Holidays!

    Scott, aka The Green Skeptic
    _______________________

    FROM: Santa Claus
    DATE: A few nights before Xmas
    SUBJECT: My Christmas List
    _________________________

    This is Santa, writing from the North Pole. Soon I'll be gathering all the toys for all the good little girls and boys and packing them in my sleigh to begin our journey, our night of nights.

    The reindeer, however, are starting to complain about hoof-rot. Apparently, they've been standing around in too much slush. This has put me in a decidedly prickly mood this Christmas.

    You know me; I'm not a single-issue guy. I believe that as long as you are good, and I mean good for goodness' sake, you deserve some slack on the other stuff. I'm an equal opportunity distributor. I know whether you've been bad or good or just plain evil. You also know I'm not one to discriminate against one group of people or another, believers or non-believers.

    But this year is different. This year, I'm making a few changes to my list. I'm checking it twice and have decided that the naughty include any one of you out there who do not believe in global warming. All you climate change skeptics out there, you are on the naughty list this year.

    Oh, you know who you are. And I've got one special gift for you: Nothing but COAL. You like the stuff so much -- and it's such a big part of what's leading to climate change -- you might as well have bags and bags of it and nothing more.

    Make no mistake. Global warming is happening. You don't have to show me any scientific reports, although some nifty ones have shown up in my email box lately, sent to me from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

    No, you don't have to convince me; I'm a believer. All I have to do is look out my window to my back yard, what's left of it! It's a soupy mess out there.

    We usually have a good bit of ice up here at the North Pole -- and early. That's important, too; you see, every year the elves and I construct a temporary workshop up here where we make the toys and assemble the other goodies. The earlier the ice, the sooner we get started.

    Although I have figured out a way to deliver the entire shipment of gifts on my list in one night, I still haven't perfected the manufacturing process. I can't speed it up. (Some of that I blame on the unions.)  We need all the ice we can get up here for there is no solid ground.

    But this year, the ice cover was the lowest it's been in almost 30 years. And at least one of those science groups studying this stuff tells me that, according to their models, by 2040, we'll have mostly open water up here. (They sent me this short animation clip, which sends chills up my spine: Arctic Ice Melt.)

    Mrs. Claus has even started looking for Houseboats on Craig's List!

    So, dear boys and girls, you better not pout or cry or whine or deny climate change any longer. And I'm telling you why: because climate change is coming to town. Time's a wasting. We need to do something about this now, before it's too late. Or before I have to move all of my operations to the South Pole!

    Here's wishing a carbon-neutral Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

    S. Claus, North Pole



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  • OMG, I Missed My Anniversary!

    18 December 2012, 5:15 pm
    The humble pie is on me Oh my God, I missed my anniversary! November 24th, dear reader. November 24th 2004. That was the date of my first post on The Green Skeptic. My 8th anniversary should have been acknowledged on the 24th of last month. I com...
    The humble pie is on me
    Oh my God, I missed my anniversary!

    November 24th, dear reader. November 24th 2004.

    That was the date of my first post on The Green Skeptic. My 8th anniversary should have been acknowledged on the 24th of last month.

    I completely missed it. Did you?

    But I didn't post at all in November. I'm on track for my lowest number of posts since 2005.

    It's not writer's block, lately, I just haven't been that inspired by what's going on in the great green (and clean) world.

    Forgive me.

    I could blame it on the trough of disillusionment. I could blame it on investors. I could blame it on the market. I could blame it on shale gas. I could blame it on a lot of things. But I'm the one to blame.

    Frankly, I'm uninspired. And there is nothing worse than an uninspired blog post. Well, almost nothing.

    In order to jump start my inspiration, I want to hear from you. What do YOU want me to write about? What do YOU want to hear from me? I'm not talking about PR pitches; I get way too many of those.

    They usually start with something like, "Hey Scott Green Skeptic, The: You don't know me but I have a story idea for you about a game-changing technology. If you're interested in writing about this game-changing technology for Scott Greek Skeptic, The, please write me back and I'll give you access to blah, blah, blah..."

    Write me something real. From the heart. Something that will inspire me to write and I'll try. I might fail, but at least I'll try.

    Yours,

    SEA

    PS You can post your comments below or write to me at greenskeptic[at]gmail[dot]com.

    * Read Article

  • Our Climate War: FRONTLINE's "Climate of Doubt"

    24 October 2012, 12:27 pm
    We're in the midst of an uncivil "Climate War" that pits Climate of Fear vs. Climate of Doubt. Last night I watched a program called "Climate of Doubt," FRONTLINE's hour-long take on the influences and influencers who have reshaped the cli...
    We're in the midst of an uncivil "Climate War" that pits Climate of Fear vs. Climate of Doubt.

    Last night I watched a program called "Climate of Doubt," FRONTLINE's hour-long take on the influences and influencers who have reshaped the climate change debate over the past five years.

    It was decidedly one-sided, unfortunately, and painted the skeptics and questioners with the same brush as the tobacco lobby and other malcontents.

    Some of the tactics they used may have been learned from smoke and mirror campaigns, but it doesn't make their questioning any less valid. (More on that later.)

    I'm often asked whether I am a climate skeptic. After all, my blog is The Green Skeptic. My answer is always the same: No, I am not a climate skeptic. (I consider myself a moderate, (Teddy) Roosevelt Republican, those statements combined effectively put me out of the running for any political office.)

    I believe the climate is changing, I've seen it with my own two eyes in places as far afield as Alaska, Indonesia, and even the northeast where I live.

    But I also believe that skepticism is a hallmark of human nature and it should be applied in liberal (pardon the usage) doses to every human endeavor, whether business, environmental or intellectual.

    Skepticism is also a healthy part of the scientific method as hypotheses are formulated, tested, and modified.

    On the subject of the climate, my views are simple and I've said all this before here and in my appearances on FOX Business's Varney & Company:

    1.) The climate is changing, but the true impacts are unknown, perhaps even unknowable;
    2.) Some of that change is caused by man, but not all;
    3.) We should focus on the cheapest ways to mitigate climate change while simultaneously insuring against the most likely potential changes that could have big impacts on our health and safety (changes in disease vectors, sea level rise near our coastal cities, impacts on food production); and
    4.) There is huge potential investment opportunity in affordable solutions that may actually encourage prosperity not prevent it.

    Now, back to my earlier comment about questioning.

    The folks who are questioning the consensus of opinion or the validity of the science are neither necessarily wrong nor right. They may be looking at the data in ways that back up their arguments as much as anyone else who wants to prove a point. They may also be trying to deliberately confuse people about the issue, as the FRONTLINE program suggests, to create just such a climate of doubt.

    Of course, as journalist John Hockenberry asked one of his interviewees last night, "What if you're wrong?"

    The question could be asked about either side. Frankly, we won't know who is wrong or right until it's too late.

    What really troubles me about the FRONTLINE program last night is that we've lost all foundation for rational, reasonable debate in this country. We have become a nation of blamers and attackers. Anything we don't agree with is shouted down rather than reasonably argued against. It happens on both sides of the issue and good people are getting hurt in the process.

    There is a difference between passion and zeal, and we've lost sight of that difference.

    We need to get back to rational, reasonable dialogue and a healthy skepticism and away from attack ads, smear campaigns, and trying to prove who is right.

    We need to meet in the middle and develop cost-effective solutions to mitigate the impacts of even the most modest scenarios and, perhaps we'll end up promoting prosperity while insuring we're around to enjoy it.

    We need to take a chill pill and create a climate of collaboration and put an end to this climate war.

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  • Review: Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us by Maggie Koert...

    23 October 2012, 6:00 pm
    Something there is that loves a Midwestern pragmatist. And if a pragmatist is one who advocates practicality, then Maggie Koerth-Baker is a Midwestern pragmatist. In her book Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers...
    Something there is that loves a Midwestern pragmatist. And if a pragmatist is one who advocates practicality, then Maggie Koerth-Baker is a Midwestern pragmatist.

    In her book Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us , which I am woefully behind reviewing, Koerth-Baker, the science editor at the blog, Boing-Boing, serves up equal doses of pragmatism and practicality in a Midwestern voice that is as mellifluous as wind cascading over the plains -- or the blades of a wind turbine.

    Although she opens her book with the sentence, "'Climate Change is a lie,'" Koerth-Baker is neither climate denier nor climate hawk, although I suspect she is closer to the latter.

    But that opening salvo is part of telling the story of the Climate and Energy Project, an environmental activist group in her home state of Kansas, and its founder realization that "you don't have to care about climate change to care about energy."

    And, Koerth-Baker argues, we better do something about energy.

    "We're currently on a course to use 28 percent more energy a year in 2030 than we do now," Koerth-Baker writes. "If that comes to pass, we'll need more of everything: more coal, more nuclear, more oil, more gas, more wind, more solar, and a whole lot more money to pay for it all."

    This is a practical, solution-oriented book. Koerth-Baker is a whizz at making complex concepts such as our national grid, Feed-in-Tariffs, and underwater hydroelectric generation simple -- and she's a good story teller too.

    She also recognizes that, "no single energy solution is as good a solution as it sounds." Energy efficiency is great, but it can't solve all our problems. It's too easy to end up with too much or too little wind and solar, and other forms of generation have side effects and negative impacts, such as pollution.

    The solution rests in changing the way we think about energy.

    As Dr. William Moomaw of Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy tells Koerth-Baker, "What we have to do is help people see that they don't really care about the energy and emissions. What they want is the services--light, base comforts, mobility, electronics."

    Making the green option the default may also help, creating buildings and systems that make it easy to reduce energy consumption.

    "Instead of worrying about how to change people," Koerth-Baker asserts, "you change the world around them." Such as the way the Navy has approached it in their Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida, and other examples she cites.

    In the end, Koerth-Baker, ever the pragmatist, is cautiously optimistic.

    "This can work," she concludes her book. "This future can happen. Yet it won't simply happen on its own. Standing between us and the future of energy is an awfully big wall. Whether we can scale it will depend on how well we can plan and whether we have the willpower to follow those plans through."

    Sound, practical thinking.




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  • A123 Runs Out of Juice

    17 October 2012, 6:00 pm
    Out of juice. Not so long ago, I was long A123 Systems. But over the course of 3 years, I went from long to wrong. I was enthusiastic about the company's products, its lineup of investors (GE, Qualcomm, Sequoia Capital), and its partnerships w...
    Out of juice.
    Not so long ago, I was long A123 Systems. But over the course of 3 years, I went from long to wrong.

    I was enthusiastic about the company's products, its lineup of investors (GE, Qualcomm, Sequoia Capital), and its partnerships with leading electric vehicle manufacturers, such as Fisker.

    And, back on October 2, 2009, when $AONE stock hit its all-time high of $25.77, I along with others felt pretty good about it.

    That is, until the stock started its long, slow dive towards .06 a share. (I sold the last of my holdings in July at a pretty significant loss.)

    Yesterday, A123 joined an illustrious list of US government-backed companies seeking bankruptcy protection, a list that includes Abound Solar, Ener1, Beacon Power, Open Range Communications, and Solyndra.

    Not very good company, I'm afraid.

    What happened?

    It all comes down to price. The cost of producing A123's batteries didn't come down fast enough so that, it "cost them more to make them than the could sell them," according to an industry analyst quoted by Bloomberg this morning. "The more they sold the more they lost."

    Coupled with the still too-high costs of electric vehicles and consumer "range anxiety" and you have a volatile mix of factors that led to the company's failure.

    But that's not all. The company had been plagued by contract and warranty issues over the last couple of years, competition from Asian giants like Panasonic, LG, and others, along with increasing potential safety concerns.
    AONE Flatlined.

    In August, a Fisker Karma caught on fire in Woodside, CA. The fire was apparently unrelated to the car's A123 battery pack, but it nevertheless fueled concerns about Lithium-ion battery safety. A earlier recall of Karmas for a battery coolant leakage issue didn't help matters.

    Even a Chinese lifeline couldn't save the beleaguered company, as "unanticipated and significant challenges to its completion" scotched a deal with Chinese automaker Wanxiang.

    Now Johnson Controls (another company whose stock I once held) has agreed to purchase A123's automotive business assets for $125 million and the rest of the company may be sold at auction on November 19th.

    Consolidation happens. Companies fail. A123's bankruptcy is just another example of a bet gone bad.

    For every cleantech failure, however, it gets tougher and tougher to recharge investor and consumer confidence.


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  • C3 Summit: Alternative Energy vs. Fossil Fuel Supplies

    3 October 2012, 4:42 pm
    There is little doubt that we are going to run out of fossil fuels one day. Yet, our demands for energy will not decrease. Despite the promise of renewable energy, collectively renewables provide only about 7 percent of the world’s energy needs. So...
    There is little doubt that we are going to run out of fossil fuels one day. Yet, our demands for energy will not decrease. Despite the promise of renewable energy, collectively renewables provide only about 7 percent of the world’s energy needs. So where do we go from here?

    A few weeks ago, I participated in a panel at the C-3 Summit in New York. The Summit is "an exclusive event dedicated to building new relationships, fostering existing partnerships and exchanging best practices between the U.S. and the Arab world by building a cohesive global community through collaboration and international commerce."

    The panel was moderated by Dan Nelson, a former ExxonMobil executive who now runs a consultancy called International Strategic Insights.

    It was a great panel, with particularly smart insights coming from the other panelists, including Ambassador Jarl Frijs-Madsen, Royal Danish Consulate General, Mark Fulton of Deutsche Bank, David Pursell of Tudor Pickering Holt & Co, and Peter Gish of UPC Renewables.

    My own modest contribution focused on the price and perception issues related to renewable energy and what I learned from spending time with Tom Hicks of the US Navy earlier in the week.

    Here is the video of the panel:








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