New transmission is a major issue and permitting is complex, time-consuming, and expensive. Overhead HV often takes 5-7 years to permit. HVDC lines take far less time, because they are laid underground and require only a small right-of-way, which speeds up the process to a two- to three-year average. Such lines also don’t have cooling or freezing issues and are now increasingly used under-sea.

The IPP Sea Breeze Power is completing permitting of the $750 million Juan de Fuca Cable (JFC) that will connect Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington state — and with it the US Pacific Northwest — with Victoria and the British Columbia power grid. The new sea floor HVDC Light line will enable a more efficient import/export handling between the Bonneville Power and BC Hydro transmission networks and provide a third bi-directional connection between western Canada and the US. This will help stabilize power on the grid and make electricity more reliable for commercial and residential users from three US states and BC.

JFC is using the latest DC transmission technology from ABB, which generates a fraction of the materials cost and carbon footprint of AC and does not require cooling for under-sea lines — the dirty, buried secret of the utilities. The cable also makes allowances for earthquake-prone fault lines by providing slack in its underground routing.

The new line will be built and used using an innovative shared revenue model between the project owners and the two utilities.

Article by Stephan Burckhardt, a cleantech, high-tech brand and marketing consultant based in British Columbia.

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Amid all the negative publicity that Solyndra’s failure has brought to the Administration’s cleantech efforts, one cleantech program has received broad bipartisan support: DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-e). In 2012, ARPA-e will receive $275 million, a 53% increase from the prior year with both the House and the Senate supporting significant funding for the agency’s third year of operations.

ARPA-e is modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which for over 50 years has funded early-stage research projects that show the potential to develop technologies that could yield disruptive advances for the military. DARPA’s projects have resulted in major leaps including, but definitely not limited to, the Internet, stealth technology and the Global Positioning System. Both agencies operate by soliciting proposals from companies, universities, and labs within broad thematic areas and select the most promising proposals for grant awards.

Readers of my blog know that I am not a big fan of some of the Administration’s cleantech efforts. ARPA-e is at least one exception. Authorized in the last year of the Bush Administration and initially funded through the Obama Administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the ARPA-e program may be one government program that can help seed the disruptive advances needed in our energy economy.

Why, given the negative publicity around government funding for cleantech projects, has ARPA-e been able to win bipartisan support?

Focus on early stage R&D
Government-funded R&D has long been an area of bipartisan support. Most members of Congress believe (as do I) that the government has a role in funding early-stage research and innovation in areas of public interest where the private sector is unable to economically justify conducting such R&D given the high degree of risk. Unlike the DOE loan program that funded Solyndra’s factories, the purpose of the ARPA-e grants are to fund high-risk, high-reward R&D projects that industry alone cannot support, but whose success could dramatically benefit the nation.

Grants (of reasonable size) not investments (of enormous size)
The bulk of the Administration’s cleantech investments were funded through the ARRA including the initial funding for ARPA-e. Since ARRA’s purpose was to stimulate the economy, government agencies, including DOE needed to get funds out the door as quickly as possible (unfortunately this failed). That led to many extremely large awards of both grants and loan guarantees. Just a few high profile examples — $527 million to Solyndra (bankrupt), $465 million to Tesla, $249 million to A123, $76 million to Range Fuels (bankrupt), $43 million to Beacon Power (bankrupt) and $25 million to Amyris. Some of these awards were grants; others were loans where the government hoped to get a return on its investment.

Unlike many other programs handing money out for cleantech related efforts, ARPA-e’s awards have all been grants made with the clear understanding that they are for high-risk R&D that often will not work out. In no case is there an expectation of a financial return to the government. Anytime a government program expects to make a return on investment it is, in my opinion, likely to fail both because the government is inherently flawed at making good business decisions and because politics usually won’t allow for even a single failed investment.

ARPA-e grants to date have averaged $2.9 million and have gone to 180 different projects. As a result, ARPA-e largely avoids the minefield of government trying to play businessman as well as the negative PR fall-out from large project failures. In addition, while politics can play a role in any grant process, the smaller the awards the less potential for political influence to outweigh project merit.

Energy Independence & Global Warming
ARPA-e’s guiding legislative mandate is to enhance the economic and energy security of the United States through the development of technologies that reduce energy imports, reduce energy-related emissions including greenhouse gases, and improve energy efficiency in all economic sectors. By combining the goal of energy independence with reduced greenhouse gas emissions the program is able to appeal to a much broader array of elected officials. If the program only focused on reducing greenhouse gases, I strongly suspect there would be much less support from Republicans. By avoiding the polarizing nature of focusing only on global warming or only on energy independence, ARPA-e is able to appeal to a broad audience.

One of the best ways to help solve our energy challenges is through disruptive energy technologies. If ARPA-e can deliver for energy technology even close to how well DARPA has delivered for defense technologies it will ultimately have a large impact on the economy, energy security and the environment. To achieve this, ARPA-e must remain nimble and avoid being sucked into the massive DOE bureaucracy. If it is able to do so, I suspect it will continue to have bipartisan support and will be a long-term shining star in the Administration’s cleantech efforts.

(Note: ARPA-e will hold their annual Innovation Summit February 27-29)

David Gold heads up cleantech investments for Access Venture Partners. He is also the author of the GreenGoldBlog.

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Greentech Media recently reported that Southern California electric vehicle startup Coda Automotive (Coda) launched a battery business called Coda Energy, which will enter the grid-scale energy storage market.

Coda’s patent portfolio offers a window into the battery technology that might be part of the new business.

Coda owns at least half a dozen U.S. patent applications relating to energy storage technologies, including U.S. Patent Application Publications Nos. 2011/0256431 (’631 Application), 2011/0256432 (’632 Application), 2011/0281145 (’145 Application), 2011/0304202 (’202 Application), 2011/0304298 (’298 Application, and 2012/0015242 (’242 Application).

A search in Cleantech PatentEdge™ yields an additional international application, Publication No. WO 2011/060074 (’074 Application), entitled “Battery thermal management systems and methods,” which is the international, or PCT, filing of the ’145 Application.

The ’431 and ’432 Applications were filed based upon the same provisional patent application and are entitled, respectively, ”Battery temperature control” and “Battery humidity control.”

The ’431 Application is directed to systems for controlling temperature in a battery pack including temperature control gas transported through a distribution and heat transfer system. The ’432 Application is directed to systems for inhibiting condensation in a battery pack which include a humidity sensor and control system.

Also pertaining to temperature control are the ’145 Application and its international counterpart, the ’074 Application. Entitled “Battery thermal management systems and methods,” the ’145 Application is directed to systems for thermal management of a battery pack in which the battery pack (102) has a thermally conductive interstitial member (108) disposed between the battery cells (104a-d).

The interstitial member (108) is coupled to a plate (110) along a bottom surface of the battery cells and fills at least a portion of the insterstitial space (106). A first plate (110a) may be located along the bottom of the battery pack (102), a second plate (110b) located along a first side of the pack, and a third plate (110c) located along a second side of the pack.

A cooling fluid (112) flows along the bottom surface of the battery cells (104a-d). The cooling fluid (112) draws heat generated by the battery pack and may flow in different directions to disperse the heat.

The ’298 Application is entitled “Battery charging using multiple charges” and relates to distributing charging load among multiple chargers. Less relevant is the ’202 Application, which is electric vehicle technology for disconnecting a battery during a crash.

The most recent application, filed in June of last year and just published January 19th, is the ’242 Application, entitled “Battery with improved terminals.” The ’242 Application is directed to a battery cell (10) comprising a casing (12), a cell core (14) housed within the casing, and a sealing lid (16).

A pair of terminals (18, 20) are supported on the lid. Fasteners (33) are spaced apart and offset relative to the terminals (18, 20). According to the ’242 Application, this arrangement provides a relatively large surface portion for connection to the terminals.

Eric Lane is a patent attorney at Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps in San Diego and the author of Green Patent Blog. Mr. Lane can be reached at elane@luce.com.

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How the long arm of the law could reach cleantech investors when their portfolio companies become embroiled in green patent litigation

This blog’s readers are well aware of the critical role private-sector funding, whether through venture capital, investment banks, or other funding mechanisms, plays in furthering Cleantech innovation. And followers of this blog are increasingly being regaled with dispatches from the burgeoning world of Cleantech patent litigation.

While the natural temptation of those on the “money” side is to leave the “legal” side to the lawyers, a recent decision in a decidedly non-Cleantech patent litigation serves to put the folks on the “money” side on notice that their Cleantech investment activities may be subject to potentially costly and disruptive ediscovery in current and future patent litigations.

A Model Order for Discovery Cost Management in Patent Litigation

By way of background, a few months ago a new Model Order (available here) for conducting ediscovery in patent litigations was announced to great fanfare by Chief Judge Rader of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Model Order seeks to “promote economic and judicial efficiency by streamlining ediscovery, particularly email production…”

Importantly, the Model Order is directed to the parties in the litigation, which in a typical patent case would include the patentee or patent owner and the alleged infringer or infringers.

Recent Decision Extends the Model Order’s Ambit to Non-Party Discovery

In a recent Order (Google_Order) Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California’s San Jose Division granted-in-part a Motion to Compel Production of Documents from a non-party in the pending In Re Google patent litigation.

In that case, the patentee, a company called Software Rights Archive LLC (SRA), filed a patent infringement lawsuit in 2007 accusing technology companies, including AOL, Google, and Yahoo, of patent infringement.

As part of the festivities in the case, SRA subpoenaed venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins (KPCB) for 34 categories of documents related to KPCB’s investments in AOL and Google, as well as KPCB’s analysis of the technology and valuation of its portfolio companies now named as patent infringement defendants.

KPCB objected to the subpoena, and after SRA filed a motion to compel, KPCB undertook a limited search of its email archives for documents it felt were sought by the subpoena.

In deciding the motion, the Court was not persuaded that KPCB should be forced to look for and turn over responsive documents in all of the requested categories, but did find merit in SRA’s general claim that KPCB’s limited initial search was inadequate.

Importantly, the Court looked to “pertinent portions” of the Model Order discussed above, and decided that the “objective of appropriately scaling the burden of electronic document production to its legitimate benefit” extended to non-party discovery – even as the Model Order is “directed to discovery from parties.”

Having looked to the Model Order for guidance, and upon deciding that it was applicable to non-party discovery, the Court then ordered KPCB to undertake an immediate search of its “email and electronic document files of the five persons most involved in the (sic) KPCB’s investments in Google and AOL”, using targeted search terms to be supplied by SRA.

And KPCB was to absorb the cost of that search, unless SRA’s search terms were found to be “beyond the limits”, in which case SRA would need to bear the fees and costs of that additional discovery.

The Implications for Cleantech

It is uncommon for investors in alleged infringers to be named as a party in a patent case (although one clean tech exception was discussed in a previous post).

However, as the Order from In re Google demonstrates, what is becoming increasingly common, particularly in industries such as software/ecommerce and biotech that are heavily-driven by private-sector funding, is for those investors to become the target of subpoenas seeking information regarding their relationship with their portfolio company that is ensnared in a litigation, as an alleged infringer or even as a patentee.

And the Cleantech investment community is sure to join those other industries as a subpoena target as patent litigation involving investor-backed Cleantech companies increases.

In light of the recent Order in the In Re Google patent litigation, the Cleantech investment community should prepare for a limited ability to completely quash discovery subpoenas in current or future patent litigation involving their respective portfolio companies as litigants.

Investors should be proactive in confronting an inevitable future of increased Cleantech patent litigation, which is sure to be accompanied by increased attempts at procuring discovery via subpoena from non-parties like Cleantech investors.

Cleantech investors and their in-house counsel should take steps now to review their document retention and retrieval policies, and evaluate their subpoena response strategies in light of the Model Order governing ediscovery in patent cases, and its recent extension to non-party discovery by at least one Court in an ongoing patent dispute.

Gaston Kroub is a partner in the New York office of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP. Gaston serves as the co-chair of the Greentech Committee of the NYSBA’s IP Section and has been accredited as a LEED Green Associate. Gaston is a registered patent attorney whose practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and counseling.

Article appearing courtesy Green Patent Blog.

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• Ian Thomson

3M is an American multinational conglomerate located in Minnesota. 3M is responsible for over 55,000 different products, including abrasives, adhesives, laminates, dental products, passive fire protection, medical products, electronic materials, car care products, optical films and electronic circuits. With operations in over 60 countries, 3M products are available in over 300 countries. Some of the more popular products include the Post-it note, Scotch Tape, Scotchgard, and Thinsulate, Scotch-Brite. 3M has been very instrumental in the clean technology industry.

1 ) 3M Creates Renewable Energy Division. In 2009, 3M announced the creation of its Renewable Energy Division. Within it, there will be two distinct divisions – energy generation and energy management. Energy generation will work toward the development of materials to be used for geothermal, solar, wind and biofuels solutions, including coatings, tapes, films, and sealants and adhesives. The energy management division maintains focus on thermal efficiencies, energy storage device membranes, and numerous other applications used for residential, commercial building and automotive markets.

2 ) 3M Signs Renewable Energy Research Agreement with NREL. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, part of the United States Department of Energy, announced a number of Cooperative Research and Development Agreements with 3M. This collaboration looks to demonstrate both bodies’ commitment to meeting America’s clean energy needs through the development of different technologies that are essential to the production of large-scale sources of new renewable energies at lower costs. The three main areas of innovation include biofuels, thin-film photovoltaics and concentrating solar power. “3M is excited for the opportunity to tap into NREL’s expertise and understanding of a variety of solar modules and the interplay between the materials and systems,” said Mike Roman, general manager and vice president of 3M Renewable Energy Division. “Also, NREL has pilot plant capabilities, which allow valuable application testing of 3M’s biofuel distillation technologies in a controllable and scalable environment.”

3 ) 3M Cool Roofing Granules is a recent 3M innovation that looks to be an energy efficient breakthrough for roofing granule technology. The Cool Roofing Granules keep a home much cooler using less energy consumption, thereby lowering total energy costs. This is because Cool Roofing Granules are up to four times more reflective than any comparative conventional colored granules. Having a cooler roof means having a lower electricity bill due to less energy consumption. The Cool Roofing Granules meet all Energy Star requirements, making them a primary choice for green building.

4 ) The 3P Pollution Policy also known as the “Pollution Prevention Pays Initiative,” was started in 1975. Since its establishment, the 3P initiative has assisted in eliminating more than three billion pounds of pollution and saved 3M more than $1 billion. The policy is “based on the belief that a preventative approach is more effective, technically sound, and economical that conventional pollution controls. Building conventional controls require natural resources, human energy, and money; operating them requires even more.” The 3P initiative is different because it decreases overall resource consumption by preventing the creation of pollution right up front, via product reformulation, equipment redesign, process modification and waste material recycling and reuse. Projects include redesigning adhesive electrodes, preventing solvent emissions coming from the source, and improving environmental footprint.

5 ) Managing Waste. To 3M, minimizing waste is an essential strategy to lowering carbon footprints. At the Irvine, California facility that manufactures dental products, as part of its overall operation, the facility generates platinum catalyst waste. They turn the waste into raw materials via a recycler to recover as well as process waste so it can be reused. This has saved the plant over $100,000. 3M’s German and Japan facilities have eliminated all landfill waste through reuse, recycling, conversion to energy or incinerated.

6 ) Biodiversity. As part of their goal to preserve and enhance biodiversity, 3M has donated over $10 million to The Nature Conservancy to safeguard critical biodiversity and habitat throughout the United States, China, Mexico and Brazil. 3M has also worked alongside with Conservation International to assist in protection endangered wildlife species and restore threatened forests throughout China.

7 ) Climate Change. For 3M, reducing their total carbon dioxide emissions level is very important. Since 2005, 3M has saved over $100 million in energy costs simply by implementing a number of projects that improve energy efficiency. In their Brooking, South Dakota plant, 3M replaced the fume incinerator with a more efficient technology to control pollution, further reducing carbon dioxide emissions by over 11,000 tons. 3M has also invested in alternative energy sources. For example, its Austin, Texas facility has 13 percent of its energy coming from the wind.

8 ) Water Stewardship. 3M is always looking for new ways to cut their total water use and prevent water pollution in any way that the company is able to. In the Sumare, Brazil facility, the employees in 2007 implemented a new project to reduce total water use by almost 16 million gallons, saving $200,000 per year by using a process of reverse osmosis to treat and then reuse water. The 3M facility in Bangalore treats all its wastewater on-site, thereby reducing the facility’s utilization of water by 1.5 million gallons per year, also cutting their water bill by almost half.

9 ) Air Emissions. One of the main priorities at 3M is reducing volatile organic air emissions. Since 1990, 3M has been able to reduce the total amount of air emissions by 95 percent. The factory in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, for example, uses coating reformulations and equipment modifications to cut the amount of VOCs and other harmful air emissions by approximately 90 percent. This saves more than 500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

10 ) Packaging. 3M has realized the cost and environmental benefits of reducing the packaging associated with all their products. Through the redesign, reuse, and increased recyclability of their packaging, along with using already recycled materials, 3M is reducing their environmental impact. The results of less packaging include less energy utilized in processing packaging materials, a decrease in the cost and emissions stemming from transportation, and less storage required.

Article by Shawn Lesser, Co-founder & Managing Partner of Atlanta-based Watershed Capital Group – an investment bank assisting sustainable fund and companies raise capital, perform acquisitions, and in other strategic financial decisions. He is also a Co-founder of the GCCA Global Cleantech Cluster Association ”The Global Voice of Cleantech”. He writes for various cleantech publications and is known as the David Letterman of Cleantech for his “Top 10″ series. He can be reached at shawn@watershedcapital.com.

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Some sectors and businesses have been more resilient than others to the economic crisis. But has the recession actually been a driver of growth for any? Apparently so – and they’re fast gaining investor attention, emerging as the ultimate recession-busting cleantech investment.

Unsurprisingly, the idea of reusing goods – extending their lives by trading used or refurbished items and thereby reducing energy use (compared to the manufacturing process of a new item), waste and most importantly, costs – is very much a theme of recessionary times.

Two opportunities in particular are opening up to investors (and they will be the focus of our next conference ‘Investing in Remanufacturing and Recommerce’ in London on March 9).

Recommerce is the increasing trend among consumers and businesses to trade used items for new or used goods, spend less and be more environmentally responsible. Regionally-focused, online trading houses with slick, easy-to-use websites offering good-as-new goods and instant credit or cash are making the most of the limited purchasing power of corporates and consumers. They buy used items, quality approve them, repackage them and sell them on – with a warranty. The speed and reliability of the service and products, compared with alternatives such as ebay, mean their fast building a fan base.

ReBuy is a high growth German company doing exactly this. It says the recession has actually had a positive effect on business and it’s looking to expand by adding more categories to its list which includes phones, video games and books.

Gazelle, ReBuy’s US counterpart, got $22 million in a series D round from a syndicate which included Craton Equity Partners Physic Ventures, Venrock Associates and RockPort Capital.

The second opportunity – remanufacturing – is when a product at end-of-life is refurbished and returned to like-new (with a warranty to match).

Remanufacturing is not to be confused with recycling, which refers to completely disassembling or breaking down an item into its various materials or components which are then separated and sold on to be used in the manufacture of new products. Nor is it a new concept.

Caterpillar, possibly the world’s largest remanufacturer, has been doing it for decades and increasing its capabilities as new generations of products reach end of life. One example being its recently signed deal with Vestas to refurbish wind turbines.

The benefits of remanufacturing can be huge, but they depend heavily on the product being considered for remanufacture. While a remanufactured item may have consumed much less energy (during remanufacturing) and produced less waste than a new one, the energy it consumes during its useful life is also a critical factor in assessing the case for remanufacture. A new item with energy efficient technology may consume a lot less energy during its useful life than an old – though remanufactured
model, thereby cancelling out any energy savings gained from remanufacturing. This is key to establishing whether remanufacturing services and technologies should be applied to new industries and whether they can be successfully maintained in others.

In the UK remanufacturing is a £5 billion dollar industry according to Oakdene Hollins which runs the UK Centre for Remanufacturing and Reuse. There are hundreds of companies providing services across the country – some, such as Infoteam, for big name clients like Apple and Sony.

Infoteam repairs electronic equipment that has been returned by customers to retailers or manufacturers. It was named the fastest growing company in the Southwest in October.

Cisco has also now caught onto the opportunity and is investigating new product offerings that realise the benefits of remanufacturing.

In the US. Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers thinks it’s onto a winner with eRecyclingcorp having led a $35m round in December. The company combines innovative software with remanufacturing capabilities to take second hand mobile phones from the developed world to feed emerging markets’ hunger for cheap phones. The software is integrated with mobile phone manufacturers’ point of sale software allowing consumers to receive store credit if they hand in their old phone when buying a new one. The credit can be then against the purchase of the new phone. The old one is then passed to erecyclingcorp to work its magic.

The London Environmental Investment Forum will be holding its ‘Investing in Remanufacturing & Recommerce’ conference on 9 March 2012 which will explore this topic in more depth through industry insight and discussions with leaders and innovators. If you’re interested in speaking at or sponsoring this event, please contact us. Find out more about LEIF at www.london-eif.com.

Article by Tom Whitehouse. Tom is the Chairman of the London Environmental Investment Forum (LEIF), a conference platform which connects environmental innovation with capital, and the Founder and CEO of LEIF’s Initiating Partner, Carbon International, a corporate finance and investor communications consultancy for environmental and cleantech industries.

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As the founder of the Bay Area networking group, Women In Cleantech & Sustainability, I am keenly interested in learning about who the media thinks as being the most influential women in the field. However, it feels like every top ten list for women in Cleantech always lists the same lovely ladies. This is not to say that the women are not contributing massively to the effort of clean technology, they are. And there are so many more women in the field!

Clean technology is ever-changing, with new innovators, particularly among women, making their mark in a traditionally male-dominated field. In this occasional series, we shine the spotlight on the most savvy and accomplished women pioneers in cleantech and sustainability. Some are building their own start-ups, others are climbing the ranks of high-profile companies, and still others are investors. Whether they are on the front lines or behind the scenes, they inspire us to keep striving forward, to break the ever existent glass ceiling, and change how the world lives.

As always we are open to your suggestions of who you feel are the female game-changers. Who do you think should be on the list?

*Special thanks to Shawn Lesser of Watershed Capital for his support and mentorship for this series.

1. Virginia Klausmeier, CEO, Sylvatex

Quite possibly the youngest CEO in the biofuel/Green chemistry industry, Virginia Klausmeier has spent the past five years developing the Sylvatex fuel technology with her late father, Dr. William Klausmeier. Sylvatex is currently commercializing a proprietary renewable fuel for the US diesel and biodiesel markets. The company has won numerous awards at industry conferences and venture funding competitions, including Silicon Valley LAUNCH and PortTechLA, as well as funding and support through San Francisco’s Greenstart accelerator program. Virginia earned her B.S in Chemistry and Physiology and M.S. in Biomechanics at the University of Oregon and has is also active in San Francisco’s BioDiesel Task force and Biodiesel Coop.

2. Kef Kasdin, CEO, Proterro BioFuels

Kef Kasdin is CEO of Proterro, a venture-backed start-up located in Princeton, New Jersey. It develops non-plant-based, noncellulosic fermentation-ready sugar feedstock, which enables the economical and scalable production of biofuels and chemicals. The company, which is transitioning from discovery to the engineering phase, has functioning prototype sucrose-producing organisms and a working model bioreactor system. Proterro’s Protose sugar is a sustainable, inexpensive, geoflexible, feedstock that can be used to produce a variety of commercial scale fuels and chemicals through standard industrial fermentation methods. Before Proterro, Kef spent nine years at 3Com Corp, including managing $1B division. She also spent 10 years as venture capitalist, and is general partner/cofounder of Battelle Ventures and affiliate Innovation Valley Partners, with company-creation, lab-spinout, and energy-market expertise.

3. Lissa Morgenthaler-Jones, CEO and Co-Founder, LiveFuels

Lissa Morgenthalter-Jones leads strategic planning and corporate development for the LiveFuels, a company with the goal of developing the most efficient and scalable algae-based biofuel process. Since 1990, she has also specialized in biotechnology investing since 1990. After learning about turning algae and animal waste into fuel, she started her own clean energy venture capital fund in 2004. She raised $10 million from the Quercus Trust and individual investors in May 2007. To date, her company has established pilot operations across the U.S., generated extensive intellectual property, and is well on its way to producing an economically feasible and sustainable algal fuel.

4. K’ Lynne Johnson, CEO, Elevance Renewable Sciences

K’Lynne is leading Illinois based Elevance, with her 19 years of experience in the oil and petrochemicals industry (Amoco, BP and Innovene). The company is striving to be the first to successfully bridge the renewables and chemicals industries. With its Nobel-prize winning technology the company transforms natural plant-based oils, like soybean, rapeseed (canola), palm, corn, or algae, into specialty high-performance, cost-effective commercial products, such as advanced biofuels, deterents and cleaners, personal care products, and others.

5. Jennifer Case, co-founder and CEO, New Leaf Biofuel

In 2010, co-founder Jennifer Case took the helm at New Leaf Biofuel as CEO. She has helped grow the company to 24 employees and increase its customer base, including US Navy, the City of Chula Vista, Allied Waste, and dozens of other commercial and municipal fleets in Southern California. Jennifer Case obtained a BA in Political Science from UC San Diego, and a law degree from Pepperdine University. In her legal practice, Jennifer represented individuals, business and public entity clients in such areas as general business litigation, real estate, construction and technology. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Case was an administrator of a start-up fiber optics company in the Silicon Valley.

6. Pamela R. Contag, Ph.D, microbiologist, Founder of Xenogen Corp and Cobalt Biofuels

Cobalt Technologies, located in Mountain View, CA, is leading the transportation industry for cleaner, more efficient renewable fuels. It is a venture-backed company that produces biobutanol from renewable feedstock. Xenogen Corp, located in Alameda, CA, was founded in 1998, and is a leader in the field of biophotonic imaging. Pamela R. Contag, Ph.D., is a microbiologist who has been called a “serial entrepreneur,” having founded two biotech and two biofuel startups. She is the founder of Xenogen Corp. and Cobalt Biofuels, Inc. She is also the founder and CEO of Cygnet Biofuels and ConcentRX, Inc., a biotechnology company developing a unique cancer therapy. She founded Xenogen Corporation with two colleagues while at Stanford University, where they invented in vivo biophotonic imaging. Pamela has filed a patent on a process she developed that utilizes algae to produce polysaccharides that can be easily converted to alcohol fuels or to biolipids, and then to biodiesel. She was also named one of the “Top 25 Women in Small Business” by Fortune Magazine.

7. Cynthia (CJ) Warner, President, of Sapphire Energy

Cynthia (C.J.) Warner joined Sapphire Energy in February 2009 as President. She brings more than 27 years of experience in the energy, refining and transportation industries. At Sapphire Energy, Ms. Warner is tasked with driving the company’s initiative to transition technology trials and research into commercial-scale crude oil operations. Using only sunlight, CO2 and non-potable water, Sapphire Energy is one of the world’s largest leaders in algae-based crude oil. A chemical engineer by training and one of the very few senior women in the oil and gas industry, CJ served as an executive with energy industry giants British Petroleum, Amoco Oil Company and UOP. CJ is currently a member of the National Petroleum Council. She is a featured leader in the 2008 book ‘Becoming a Resonant Leader: Develop Your Emotional Intelligence′ (Harvard Business School Press). CJ has a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Illinois Institute of Technology.

8. Dr. Claire Kinlaw, Lead Product Development, TerViva BioEnergy

Claire is an MBA-trained scientist and currently Project Lead for TerViva BioEnergy, a startup commercializing the high oil seed tree pongamia in the US as a feedstock for biodiesel refining. Pongamia pinnata, a nitrogen fixing tree native to India that grows on marginal soils. TerVia is working to commercialize this tree as a renewable source of diesel fuel, planting across the southern USA on pasturelands and other lands not used for food production. Claire leads the R&D effort to improve the underlying asset, the tree for even greater, more predictable oil production and good growth characteristics in US locations. Prior to joining TerViva in 2010, Claire developed commercial strategies for biotechnology startups and small businesses, negotiated and managed research and business agreements, directed the USDA Institute of Forest Genetics, and led life science research projects with molecular genetics and genomic science focus. Claire holds an MBA from UC Berkeley, a PhD in biochemistry from Rice University, and a BA in chemistry from the University of Virginia.

9. Nicole Kennard, co-founder and former CEO, New Leaf Biofuel

Nicole Kennard founded New Leaf Biofuel in 2006 with four co-founders, with the aim to be the biggest provider of biodiesel in San Diego County, a dream that involves trucking tons of used fryer grease from 900 area restaurants to New Leaf’s San Diego processing facility and converting it into B99 (99 percent biodiesel fuel), which is then purchased by government and business fleets across the county, such as Sun Diego Charter Co and C & D Towing, and the Regional Transportation Center, San Diego’s only alternative fueling station. She built the company to 10 employees and a company capacity to produce 140,000 gallons of fuel a month. Nicole has BA in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from UC San Diego and an MS in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis on Renewable Energy from San Diego State University. Formerly, Nicole was the Coordinator of the Department of Energy’s Industrial Assessment Center (IAC), located at San Diego State University. She is also a renewable energy adviser and biodiesel consultant for the San Diego City School District and a co-founder of the Biofuels Action and Awareness Network, a student action group at UCSD focused on community outreach and education.

10. Susan B. Leschine, Founder and Chief Scientist, SunEthanol

Susan Leschine founded and was the Chief Scientist of SunEthanol, now QTeros. Currently, Dr. Leschine is a senior faculty member in the Microbiology Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. Leschine is internationally-known as an authority on the biology and diversity of cellulose-digesting microbes. Her research formed the basis for SunEthanol’s Q Microbe biodigesting technology.

Article by Lisa Ann Pinkerton, founder of Women In Cleantech & Sustainability, a networking and career development group dedicated to the advancement of women in various environmental technology sectors. She is also Founder and President of Technica Communications, where she handles public relations and marketing strategies for cleantech and biotech companies. Lisa Ann is a former award-winning broadcast journalist who reported for National Public Radio, PBS Television, WPXI-NBC, American Public Media, and Free Speech TV.

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One of my very first posts in 2010 was about what I called the triple crisis. As I noted back then “our economies are crumbling, our climate is warming and our energy supplies are getting scarcer.”

You would think that after two years, we would have started to do something about them. Well, from what I see, we haven’t. Unemployment is still high, we are still as reliant on oil and coal and our climate is getting weirder by the month.

On top of these crises, a fourth one has emerged: government debt. Our economies are completely broken as the richest are getting even richer and as more and more people are struggling.

We are now certain that we are beyond peak oil. The IEA announced it in its World Energy Outlook last November. Since conventional oil supply is not growing any more, any increase in oil supply will come from extreme oil. And with it more pollution per barrel of oil extracted.

Meanwhile, our climate continues to get warmer and weirder as more extreme weather events that have occurred in the past two years. From Texas to Thailand, from Europe to Australia and Brazil in South America, all our continents have been affected.

This would be worrying enough, but with positive mechanisms feedback such as the melting permafrost in Russia or the Amazon rainforest which started EMITTING greenhouse gases, the situation threatens to move from alarming to dire.

The Economist announced that we should  “Be afraid” in a recently published issue. Well, I am starting to be seriously worried for our common future, for my own future…

Solutions DO exist most fortunately:

Energy efficiency, conservation and sobriety can do wonders. This is why I am now preferring efficiency and sobriety over renewables… As we have less and less capital to spend and as a mechanism to engage our chronic unemployment, these mechanisms can do wonders.

Renewable energy sources like solar, wind and many others (geothermal or tidal among others) still have the potential to completely change our ways of life this decade, but they need to be paired with efficiency efforts and behavioral modifications.

Let’s hope we will apply them with the necessary scale and scope… Let’s make it happen in 2012 and after!

photo: Flickr

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According to KPMG’s Cleantech Report Card, British Columbia (BC) may be the third largest cleantech cluster worldwide. The Canadian province has had a carbon tax since 2008 and its government became carbon-neutral in 2010. BC sits on enormous natural gas reserves, and its hydro-enabled energy prices are low. So what will drive cleantech adoption?

For a major breakthrough, a two-pronged approach is needed:

• Implementation of a planned cap-and-trade system, a favorable investment climate, strong R&D and incubation, and low corporate taxes
• Strong public demand supported by lifestyle branding for green buildings, low-emission transportation, waste-to-energy conversion, and a sustainability-oriented consumer mindset

Despite a favorable cleantech climate in Canada (the government’s posture not withstanding) the public’s concern with climate change is decreasing and adoption of new consumer paradigms is slow. Examples are NIMBY resistance to incineration and the current smart metering backlash against BC Hydro.

In Europe, cleantech, such as new garbage collection methodologies and WtE conversion had to be successfully sold to an initially skeptical public using massive public awareness campaigns. That process continues to be both consumer-driven and top-down.

While 83% of US shoppers now make some form of green choice (Natural Marketing Institute), they need to both see the benefits and feel that a sustainable lifestyle aligns with personal values.

For broad acceptance, cleantech has to offer tangible value. It has to be cost-competitive, supported by credible claims, and become an integral part of the normal lifestyle by a large part of the population.

In today’s disorienting culture, consumers search for safety, meaning and values. While tribes, sectarianism, brands, and niche lifestyles are flourishing, much of the public is looking for “the right thing to do”. This is where values marketing comes in.
In order to succeed, green products need to primarily provide a cost benefit, since this continues to be the number one consumer driver. It should also be easy to use, “cool” to engage with, and desirable for one’s personal brand image. Not surprisingly, the Toyota Prius is not bought primarily for its fuel efficiency, but often more for personal prestige and lifestyle reasons.

Successful products are 50% content and 50% packaging/design, as Apple has proven time and again. Businesses and service providers need to do a better “packaging” job by using lifestyle and values-based, “eco advantage” branding free of green-washing.

Global cleantech venture capital funding has grown 23% in Q311 and BC offers many opportunities. In order for these to grow into mainstream services and brands, businesses need to not only innovate, but also successfully market and leverage their innovation into consumer and financial good will.

Investing in green branding strategies not only manages down-side risks, but builds significant public trust. This will translate to the bottom line and grow into a brand asset value that can be significantly higher than a company’s IP.

Article by Stephan Burckhardt, a cleantech, high-tech brand and marketing consultant based in British Columbia.

photo: bott.richard

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Oded Distel, head of Israel NewTech, believes the international Cleantech industry in 2012 will be guided by the economic environment first and foremost. “The difficult economic climate in the world today, which the Cleantech industry is already feeling, will continue to impact the industry in 2012,” he says. “The focus will shift more and more to efficiency and cost-effectiveness. This will present a challenge to the industry, but also a great opportunity for those companies whose solutions and technologies specifically address the need for efficiency.”

One area in which such solutions are already making headway is in the arena of energy efficiency in wastewater treatment plants. Two notable Israeli companies active in this arena are Mapal Green Energy and Diffusaire, both of which developed technologies to significantly reduce energy expenditure in wastewater purification. Mapal Green Energy developed a unique technology of floating aeration units which can save up to 70% in energy consumption and up to 80% in maintenance costs, as well as improve water quality. Mapal is currently installing a pilot system in Lima’s 18 wastewater treatment plants, following an agreement with Peruvian water company SEDAPAL. A more recent entry into this arena is Diffusaire,a promising company that has emerged out of Kinrot Ventures, Israel’s water-tech incubator. Diffusaire’s OTECH aeration technology offers substantial saving in electricity for wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) operators as well as for aqua-farmers.(To view a video on Diffusaire’s technology click here.)

“In general, this shifting approach to cleantech solutions will require a change in the way that the finance and purchasing managers at water and energy utilities examine suppliers,” continues Distel. Previously, certain parameters like energy expenditure in water processes was accepted at certain levels. Today the trend is to break down and examine the energy expenditure at each stage of the process. “Transparency is key. Utilities will expect suppliers to be much more clear and detailed in how they are minimizing loss of energy and water. This is a challenge, but also an opportunity for those companies which are able to present cost-effective technologies and to communicate them effectively.”

Efficiency will be key in all areas of Cleantech, another example is water management systems and water efficiency. IPNP is an Israeli company which provides management of sewage system maintenance. Distel explains, “If, for example, once sewage pipes were automatically cleaned once every three months, with no further thought, today companies like IPNP are showing that there are more effective ways to manage the system, like measuring pressure in different pipes, giving more attention to those who need it and less to those in which there is less traffic and pressure. This saves pipe bursts and unnecessary maintenance, and overall results in cost savings and a more efficient management of the system.”

“There are many Israeli companies well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities which 2012 will provide,” concludes Distel. “We are recognized for technology innovation and flexibility. The important thing is understand where the market is headed, and to provide effective solutions to the growing needs of the market for cost-effectiveness and transparency.”

Article appearing courtesy Israel NewTech.

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