Filed under: battery systems, cellulosic ethanol, energy efficiency, green data centers, on-demand transportation, renewable energy, transportation
Everyone thanks again for another great green tech meeting! Special thanks to Kris for bringing together a great collection of speakers this month.
We had a near capacity meeting at our CU Demming center room with around 80 people. Thanks to our sponsors (Access Venture Partners and Sequel Venture Partners) for the food and drinks. This time we went green and used “corn starch” plates and cups and afterwards sent this off to composting at Eco-cycle – thanks to our volunteer for that!
Given our RSVP’s, I picked up extra beverages and we accommodated for extra food as well – and we’ve been spot on the mark so far. Networking is also been a fundamental part of the meeting and I think we’re have really struck a nice balance here – so remember to come early. For meetings going forward, we are considering changing the schedule to add more networking time
Introductions
Kris Wiesenfeld, our main host, opens the meeting with a quick run through today’s speaker list and then opens the floor for introductions.
Paule Jerde, executive director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, started off announcements giving a little background on the center and how it contributes to the green tech industry. The center provides support to sustainable ventures with a program called Transforming Energy and Markets (TEAM). Paul also mentioned that the center also collaborated with Vestas, the Danish wind pioneer, that has made a significant investment in Colorado. Demming also plays host to the student competition Cleantech Venture Challenge in which students develop business concepts for the Cleantech area. This competition is held in conjunction with the international Sustainable Summit in Denver. Paul also added, there are plenty of opportunities and free labor available from Deming entrepreneurship/MBA students to help our green tech meetup members with their business plans. Paul can be reached here Paul.Jerde@Colorado.EDU.
Sequel Ventures representative Ron Bernal also said a a few words. Sequel is a early seed venture fund. Some of the their investments range from internet to biotech. Their portfolio includes cleantech companies such as the solar/PV panel company HelioVolt and air filtration company StrionAir.
Announcements
- Business catapult – providing networking services such as matching entrepreneurs and investors
- Cavity wall – company providing wall casts for green home construction
- Boulder Chamber of Commerce – smart grid presentation, May 15th contact Dan Powers(dan.powers@boulderchamber.com)
Local Green News
Real Goods Solar, which installs solar panels on homeowners’ rooftops, filed paperwork on Thursday to go public with the goal of raising up to $57.5 million.
Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion
Twelve companies and four research centers have joined forces to create the Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion, it was announced Monday.
The solar energy research center, or CRSP, is part of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, which was created in February 2007 to develop renewable energy technologies for rapid commercialization. The group in July launched its first major project, to develop new biofuels and biorefining technologies.
Gaiam is expanding and moving into its new headquarters
Gaiam Inc. of Broomfield has closed on the purchase of its new, 150,000-square-foot headquarters building in Louisville for $13.2 million, according to Boulder County real estate records.
Jirka Rysavy, who also founded Corporate Express Inc. of Colorado, launched Gaiam (NASDAQ: GAIA) in 1988 and is its chairman and CEO.
Presenters
Shawn Mills, Green House Data
Green house data provides data center hosting facilities with 100% renewable energy. Their hosting facility is in Cheyenne and has access to some of the best wind energy supply in the country. With demand outstripping supply, data centers are surpassing the airline’s carbon footprint. The green data center has a triple bottom line (environmental, social responsibility, capital). Green house competes in building highly efficient data centers using ground source pumps and outside air to help cool efficiently and reduce air conditioning costs. Also more modular systems and point cooling makes efficient use of cooling resources. A barrier to entry to data centers is capital, and it is a potential 12 BIl. dollar market. There are some competitors in this space such as Smart bunker that uses wind and AISO.Net that uses solar. Green house looks to sign 3-5 yr contracts, spend zero on marketing and has a good pipeline of customers.
J. Thomas McKinnon, RES Colorado Inc.
Tom has developed a new process to produce cellulosic ethanol. This system uses hub and spoke where feedstock is brought into a local “hub” and thus reducing transportation costs. Cellulose can come from wood or solid waste. The benefit of cellulosic based oil is that it produce high-octane, low sulfur fuel. The process to create bio-oil using “fast pyrolysis” and the oil is put through steam reforming process and then liquefication. The resulting price point is $2.11/gal but with a state government tax credits it reduces to $1.34/gal. Cellulosic based fuels has less impact on water resources and uses 1/10 the fertilizer. Wih 80% reduction in green house gases and the process is cheaper and cleaner then competitors such as Range fuels. Tom took some questions on whether the process was carbon neutral. This is a process taking existing material that would emit carbon anyway and compare it to current practice of extracting oil, we can say the carbon underground is sequestered so we are liberating extra carbon in the system versus cellulosic which is closed system.
Dan Sturges, Intrago
Dan shared with us his background in designing cars at GM. He specialized in small cars and showed some fold-able car designs. The main business model for Intrago is on-demand transportation with electric vehicles using a smart key rental and navigation/tracking systems. The estimated potential market is 700/mil cars worldwide with 2 Bil in revenue. The Tata Nano is example of the new era of small vehicle design. MIT is also working with Intrago on unique mini-vehicle electric designs. Some versions of this business model are in place in Paris where there are 20,000 bike rentals per day. There is also a potential for subsidizing rentals with advertising and digital dashboards. The cost of using cars on demand bring down transportation costs to 1/3 of owning your own car. Some of the new models for on-demand transportation can be found on Facebook where rides are arranged between people via “Digital Hitchhiking”.
Philip Lyman, Boundless Corporation
Boundless builds Lithium Ion battery solutions. Their main Intellectual Property (IP) is in power management systems and integrating solutions from existing products. Their solutions have been integrated in everything from electric assist bikes to 750 Kw/hr trucks systems. In some applications, vehicles need to be in no-idle zones and need to switch an electric modes. Some of the competitors are A123 Systems, Valence technologies, Hybrds-plus. There is a large market for this product is large and company would be a good acquisition target for a lead-acid battery company breaking into the Lithium-ion market. A question was raised in the presentation on the availability of Lithium, this resource is available through simple process like using exchange membranes and sea-water.
Kevin Geminiuc
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