Home energy tracking: MS vs. Google

As with Google, Microsoft has now launched a software tool "Hohm" to track home energy use. At a tactical level, both of these tools are probably less interesting than they might appear at this stage. However, it does suggest that both companies see prospects for a new market – integrating smart meters and internet aware devices - and want to get in it early. Eventually this will probably also include 2-way interaction with electric cars, something Google is already testing in its RechargeIT program. Electric cars can play an important role in balancing power production so as to make intermittent forms of renewable power easier to integrate into the grid.

Interestingly, as part of their PowerMeter effort, Google is now already partnered with several utilities (though none local). They note:

Our initial partners include a variety of utilities (large and small, rural and urban, privately held and municipally run) and one of the largest meter manufacturers. They all have one thing in common - a desire to serve their customers by providing access to detailed information that helps customers save energy and money. For now, Google PowerMeter is only available to a limited group of customers, but we plan to expand our roll out later this year. Our partner utilities are helping to lead the charge to make the electricity grid smarter and we look forward to working with them and others.

Clean-tech VC investment bounces back

After 2 declining quarters venture capital investment is bouncing back.

From April to June, venture investments in clean tech totaled $1.2 billion across 94 companies, according to preliminary results released Wednesday by The Cleantech Group, a San Francisco research and strategy firm, and Deloitte & Touche.

Total investments were up 12 percent from the previous quarter, though down 44 percent from the same period a year ago. The average funding round was $12.9 million, up from $12.3 million in the first quarter.
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Venture funding for clean tech

The $1.2 billion in venture capital invested in clean technology during the second quarter included:

$236 million for transportation

$206 million for biofuels

$165 million for advanced batteries

$114 million for solar

Source: The Cleantech Group and Deloitte & Touche

Million Solar Roofs: on track

Solar making progress in California.

Despite the worst economic downturn in decades, California's multibillion-dollar program to expand solar power production — the country's largest — remains on track to install as much new energy this year as last, according to a report issued Tuesday by the California Public Utilities Commission.

Driven by federal and state tax credits, businesses and homes are expected to install 156 megawatts of solar energy — enough to power about 78,000 homes — this year.

Dubbed the "California Solar Initiative," the program, which was launched in January 2007, seeks to install 3,000 megawatts of new solar power in 10 years and transform the market for solar energy by reducing its cost.

"CSI is a bright spot that shows how government support for renewable energy is working," said Molly Sterkel, supervisor for the CSI and the report's project manager. Even given the weakened economy, she said, "customers are deciding to go solar in record numbers, and that's amazing."

The 95-page report is the commission's first official annual self-assessment of the solar initiative.

Among the highlights of Tuesday's report:

# California has more than 515 megawatts of solar power connected to the electric grid, equivalent to the capacity of one large power plant. Under the solar initiative, 226 megawatts of this was installed in the past 21/2 years.

# The annual rate for new installed solar capacity in
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California nearly doubled between 2007 and 2008 (from 81 megawatts to 156 megawatts), a marked increase from the 30 percent to 40 percent annual growth rate of prior years.

# The initiative has more than 22,000 solar applications, including both pending and installed systems.

# The program continues to see strong demand, with 1,444 new solar applications in May 2009 — the highest month on record.

# After 21/2 years, the CSI has installed 13 percent of the total 10-year program goal, and it has an additional 8 percent in applications pending installation this year.

# Santa Clara County leads the state in the number of current and pending solar installations in the program.

San Mateo: energy saving with stimulus funds

San Mateo has moved forward with an application for stimulus funds ("Energy Efficiency Block Grants"). The funds, already set aside for San Mateo and require only for the application to have appropriate projects, will be applied to three clean energy projects.

The federal government has set aside almost $900,000 for energy-saving projects in San Mateo as part of the economic stimulus package.

But to claim the money, city officials must submit an application outlining specific projects before June 25.

On Monday night, the city council unanimously approved three proposals, which will be forwarded to the U.S. Department of Energy for approval. They include installing a renewable solar energy system on the main library's roof, replacing standard streetlight bulbs with LED bulbs and implementing a residential energy audit for city homes.

Plans for San Mateo's main library, constructed in 2006, included a solar system on the roof. However, the city couldn't install the system right away because it lacked the funds. With $400,000 of the federal Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant, the city can construct a 53.2 kilowatt system, according to a June 15 staff report.

The solar system will save $39,000 in electricity costs in its first year, the report said.

"Our library is the heart of our city," Deputy Mayor John Lee said at the meeting. "We're putting a pacemaker on top of it."

The city streetlight bulb replacement project would cost about $300,000 and save about 80,300 kilowatt hours of energy each year, as well as $26,000, the report said.

San Mateo would pay 50 percent of the costs for the residential energy audit and tune-up program, which would reach about 665 single-family homes over a three-year period.

"Currently, the build environment, which includes residential housing stock, emits approximately 42 percent of the total carbon emissions in the city," according to the report. "Implementing a city-wide energy audit and tune-up program targeting 665 homes would generate approximately 233 tons of CO2 reduction and 3,325 Mbtu per year."

Local IBM team drives battery effort

IBM jumps into the battery game with consortium led by local team reports BusinessWeek.

On June 23, IBM announced a multiyear effort to increase the performance of rechargeable batteries by a factor of 10. The aim is to design batteries that will make it possible for electric vehicles to travel 300 to 500 miles on a single charge, up from 50 to 100 miles currently. "We want to see if we can find a radically different battery technology," says Chandrasekhar "Spike" Narayan, who manages the Science & Technology Organization at IBM Research's Almaden lab in San Jose, Calif.

To do that, IBM (IBM) is leading a consortium that will create batteries using a combination of lithium and oxygen rather than the potentially combustible lithium-ion mix that now dominates advanced consumer electronics and early electric-vehicle batteries. The new batteries could be used to store energy in electric grids as well.
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BM's decision to pursue next-generation battery technology was sparked by Winfried W. Wilcke, program director for nanoscale science at the Almaden lab. He will lead a research team that could number 40 members, including IBM researchers and scientists from the national labs and universities. It's part of the company's two-year-old Big Green Innovations program.

Berkeley climate action plan

Earlier this month Berkeley approved its climate action plan.

The Berkeley City Council has voted unanimously to adopt a climate action plan aimed at reducing the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent by 2020.

City officials said the plan, approved Tuesday night, details strategies for enhancing sustainable transportation options, saving energy in buildings and creating green jobs.

Mayor Tom Bates said in a statement, "Berkeley is tackling the urgent crisis of climate change by acting locally. The City Council, community and staff have designed a bold climate action plan that is holistic in its approach to land use, transportation, energy efficiency, waste reduction, and community engagement."

The plan aims to bring Berkeley into compliance with Measure G, a 2006 initiative approved by 81 percent of the city's voters. It established an aggressive greenhouse gas reduction target of 80 percent by 2050.

City staff members estimate the plan will cost about $3 million in fiscal 2009 and $6.6 million in fiscal 2010.

Not evident in this brief report was the significant controversy around the plan spurred but media coverage just prior to the plan's original vote date stating the plan mandated retrofits costing Berkeley households upwards of $33,800 each.

But the picture was in fact more complex.

After almost three years of research, public input and planning, Burroughs unveiled the newest version of the 145-page plan at the City Council meeting on April 21. It was expected that in its mature form, the CAP would pass easily and move on to the environmental review phase. Instead, it met an unexpected backlash.
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Jones writes in her article that she simply took proposed efficiency strategies within the CAP document (such as replacing single-pane windows with double-panes), called up her local Home Depot, and tallied the grand total of every single efficiency measure mentioned.

Her egregiously inflated $33,800 figure over-estimates the number of retrofits needed per household and accounts for no incentive financing or subsidies.

Most critically, it ignores the fact that every house will be retrofitted on a completely customized basis, favoring cost-effectiveness above all. No building would be subject to every efficiency measure listed – in fact, no building would be subject to mandatory efficiency measures of any sort (at least for now).

Therein lies the biggest fallacy of all – none of the efficiency standards proposed in the CAP are mandates.

The document simply lists strategies that city officials and residents can consider pursuing. The CAP’s major recommendation (and goal) is that a collaborative community process be used to help reduce energy efficiency costs for residents, utilizing the guidelines and research provided by the CAP team.

There has simply been insufficient communication and education on the economic benefits of moving to the clean energy economy.

PG&E opposes solar bills

Though likely the country's leading utility on renewables and efficiency, PG&E is not always constructive as shown by their opposition to a pair of promising bills in the state legislature.

For consumers who might be considering a solar system, the bills enhance one of the most attractive financial benefits of making such a move: the opportunity to sell excess power back to their electric utility.

Assembly Bill 560 would increase the cap on "net metering," which gives solar customers credit on their electric bill for surplus power they transfer to the utility. Currently, a utility is not obligated to sign net-metering contracts once solar power equals 2.5 percent of its peak electricity demand, a level PG&E is approaching. AB 560 would quadruple that cap, to 10 percent.

The second bill, AB 920, would change the way customers with solar installations are paid for surplus power. Utilities now give them full retail rate credit on their monthly bill that can be used to offset the customer's energy consumption at other times, like nighttime. But at the end of the year, leftover credits are zeroed out. AB 920 would require utilities to pay for credits or any electricity left over at the end of the year, although at a lower rate, or allow them to be rolled over to the next year.

Dan Kammen, professor in the Energy and Resources Group at University of California-Berkeley, said the bills will help open up competitive markets that favor low-carbon and clean energy, and help the state meet the goals of its landmark climate-change legislation.

But PG&E and other opponents contend the bills would impose a financial burden on non-solar customers, who pay for the state rebates for solar installations. And because solar customers buy less electricity from the utility, PG&E said they do not contribute as much to transmission and generation costs, increasing the burden of non-solar customers. So far, about 30,000 of the utility's 6 million customers have solar systems.

PG&E's counter-argument is a bit problematic as PG&E gets paid regardless of consumption level and the rebate incentives are not indefinite. It is much more likely that PG&E wants to not encourage decentralized power generation too much as it could ultimately threaten its business.

Updated: Tesla revvs up: battery & drive train to Bay Area

Tesla secures $465 million in federal loans and plans to open a manufacturing plant for batteries and drive trains in the Bay Area.

"It was either live or die," said Jim Hossack, an analyst with the AutoPacific consultancy in Tustin who called Tuesday's announcement "a turning point for the industry, just as big or bigger than Tesla's deal with Daimler. That gave them credibility and technical resources, and this government support is vital to them as well."

In fact, Tesla's strategic partnership with Daimler was a key factor in the Energy Department's decision to lend it money. In a statement, Energy Secretary Steven Chu applauded Tesla's focus on accelerating "production of fuel-efficient vehicles in America. These investments will come back to our country many times over, by creating new jobs, reducing our dependence on oil, and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions."

Having the batteries in the Bay Area is the coup. San Jose may have lost the manufacturing plant for the Model S but the batteries are the most critical innovation by Tesla. Not only are they likely to power Daimler's but it seems very possible that they will proliferate beyond. It may well end up that Tesla will ultimately become known more for their batteries than their cars.

Update: and as a sign of the times, Tesla's market capitalization puts it at half GM's value. Not bad for a company that's only sold about 1,000 cars.

Twin realities: Waxman-Markey & Bay Area voices

David Roberts at Grist surfaces hope amidst concern that national legislation will be inadequate.

Energy Secretary (and former director of Livermore Labs) Steven Chu speaks to our prospects:

“The fact is, we’re not going to level out at 450 ppm,” [Chu] says. “We’re going to go over 450 ppm. So what will we do? I’m not in favor of deploying geoengineering. But thinking about it is OK.”

For a moment, the room goes quiet. In effect, the United States secretary of energy has just told an elite group of scientists and politicians that, no matter what happens with climate legislation this summer in Congress, no matter what China does or does not do, no matter what targets are set at climate negotiations in Copenhagen later this year, our future as a species is likely a grim one. Chu has uttered the politically unthinkable: that his own administration’s efforts to halt global warming might not be enough to avert a catastrophe.

Meanwhile just down the road:

“Think of the smartest guy you’ve ever met and then imagine 50,000 more just like him innovating all at once,” Mike Danaher, a partner and cleantech specialist at the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, told me. “Just as they did with telecom in the ‘90s, they’re attacking every component of every kind of alternative energy to improve it.”

Sierra Club & Chevron (more)

Now here is the full discussion between Carl Pope (ED of the Sierra Club) and Dave O'Reilly (CEO of Chevron) held at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

It's an informative discussion with some surprises:



Sadly, O'Reilly sets abysmally low targets for US carbon reductions (20-25% by 2050) and no goals for Chevron, but he does agree to lobby with Pope against coal giveaways in the currently proposed Waxman-Markey federal legislation.

Transcript, bios, and other information here.

Climate Change Impacts

Finally a science report from the White House that we can trust.... followed by a background paper on our area (well, the whole southwest U.S.) by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Maybe, as a nation, we will begin to make environmental decisions based on facts.

The White House report, Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States on the new www.GlobalChange.gov website is a consensus of 13 government agencies on what we can expect to happen and should be prepared for.

The papers by the UCS focus on different areas of the country with specific challenges that will be faced. These are regional fact sheets based on the report. You can download from here.

Many government agencies and jurisdictions shy away from understanding the coming impacts from climate change and the planning and actions needed to address these. The White House report and leadership and the UCS regional summaries will help our counties and cities to come to some collective understanding of the impacts and the actions that are needed to create resilliency.