The Gold at the end of the Rainbow

What makes Greentech such an obvious opportunity for me is (a)knowing that the solutions for today's energy, water and waste management problems are within reach, and (b) a lack of worldwide effort to reach for those solutions. In other words, we could (as citizens of the world) decide that regular (incandescent) bulbs should be phased out and use fluorescent bulbs instead. The numbers make an overwhelming point, using a fluorescent 60 watt bulb would save you:

10 light bulb changes
$40.50 in electricity costs
$1.50 in bulb replacement costs
$42.00 in total
Reduce greenhouse gas produced by power plants by: 691 pounds of carbon dioxide

(source http://www.ajdesigner.com/fl_light_bulb/light_bulb.php)

So why are we not doing this obvious things?. Why are governments not taking steps to regulate towards these solutions?

The answer lies within the business opportunity of greentech. People follow the laws of Newton Physics "Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it". Its easier to keep buying the same bulbs, its also easier NOT to make the calculation and decide on the cheaper bulb vs the more expensive one ($0.50 for the regular bulb vs $3.50 for the fluorescent). Another factor is the slow reaction of governments, it takes too much time for them to "enforce" the elimination of incandescent bulbs, perhaps there are many powerful interests involved or its not a law that would generate enough popularity. Either way, my "bet" is that in the near future ALL light bulbs will be fluorescent or some other new technology, because a trend with strong "external forces" is causing the "uniform motion" to change.

We already discussed some of these "external forces" that are bringing greentech about in The Greentech Wave (1-People are changing their attitude, 2-Companies are channeling resources to greentech, 3-Major economic players are influencing the market). All of these are responses to economic or sociopolitical trends that are causing the scales to tip towards greentech. In the case of the light bulb: the cost of electricity has jumped - in the US - by 33% since the year 2000, and is expected to raise even more as fuel costs climb and the electric infrastructure gets older. When those variables become a stronger "external force" then whoever is better positioned to provide these new technology bulbs to the market will benefit immensely. AND THAT IS THE GREENTECH OPPORTUNITY!

In the case of the light bulb, General Electric has already taken the steps to ensure they are also THE manufacturer of fluorescent bulbs. But there are many other areas of greentech where the market leadership is up for grabs. We will talk about these areas of opportunity in the near future. For now, as always I bid you farewell with a cordial "Shalom!".

No Perfect Solution

“The more I learn, the less I know”, I believe that’s how the saying goes. Well in the Greentech world this saying holds very true. As new technologies are presented to me and as I discover more and more facts about alternative energy, about water purification, about waste recycling, the more I am convinced we have not reached a perfect solution yet.

Let me start from the beginning, and let’s take the automotive industry as an example.

A “perfect” solution according to my book would be one that (A) would not contaminate the environment, (B) would make economic sense (make a profit) and (C) could be implemented without disrupting the existing industry so much as to destroy it (i.e. putting thousands and thousands of auto workers out of jobs)

So, let’s analyze the existing alternatives:

- Diesel fuels generate toxic gases (at lower levels than Gasoline!) and therefore are far from being a “perfect” solution

- Hybrid cars: they are great because they can increase the mileage of a regular car. But, they consume gas, they cost more than regular cars and we are uncertain about how to dispose the batteries these cars carry which may damage the environment even more than the gas they save.

- Plug-In Hybrids: These cars have the capacity to run longer distances on battery and therefore save even more gas. Like the plain Hybrid car these cars also have the battery contamination factor and the additional problem of the source of electricity they require. Is that source a “clean” source of electricity?

• If the electricity comes from coal or any other fossil fuel, then we are just redistributing the contamination (perhaps the contamination level will be lower, but certainly not a perfect solution)
• If the electricity comes from Nuclear power then we have the problem of nuclear waste. Nuclear fuel is only utilized on 10% of its energy content in modern day nuclear plants. This leaves behind a large mass of radioactive material that takes hundreds of years to become non-threatening to human beings.
• We are still very far from achieving a substantial amount of power from wind (Denmark is the leader with less than 20% of their electricity from wind, I believe in the US the number is closer to 2%)
• Solar Photo Voltaic cells are also a very small portion of today’s power generation percentage and that responds to the high cost of manufacturing of these cells. Each cell uses silicon which is very costly (and also non-renewable!) or some other substitute which has not been 100% proven yet. The other problem with Solar PV is the “conversion” factor, these cells are only converting up to 30% of the solar energy they receive (very inefficient!)
• Solar Thermo Electric requires large spaces for the reflectors and is also very poor converting the solar power in to energy (I believe its even less efficient than PV)

- Another option for car fuel is the Hydrogen Fuel Cell. The car is loaded with hydrogen and a “fuel cell” converts hydrogen into electricity with water as byproduct. The electricity generated powers the car and the water can be disposed (or used!). Two issues with this solution are: the high cost of building fuel cells and the energy needs to generate Hydrogen. In my opinion Hydrogen is more a means of storage than a “fuel”. To obtain hydrogen you inject an electric current into water and break the H2O particle into its components. The amount of energy needed to obtain Hydrogen is less than the amount the hydrogen can release through a fuel cell. Hydrogen can also be obtained using chemical reactions, but the cost and the energy consumption for this process is equally high.

- Bio fuels where all the rage a couple of years ago, until the calculation was made for the impact of using edible corn, sugar cane and other potential food sources to fuel our energy appetite. New sources of Bio-Fuels are on the horizon (like fuel generated from algae) but none have been tested successfully yet.

So, what is the answer? Where is the “golden rainbow” at the end of this energy and natural resources crisis?

I don’t have the answer for that. I do know that it helps to look at the past to attempt to predict the future. I look into other similar situations the world has faced and try to extrapolate from those.

What could be a good parallel to this situation? (please send me suggestions if you have a good parallel situation)

Perhaps the development of modern medicine is a good parallel? In older times people looked for their religions to provide answers to their illnesses. Little by little people started to develop the science of medicine, as positive results increased more people turned to “doctors” to find cures. This created a snowball effect because it also allowed “doctors” to gain more experience and also experiment more and more to find their answers. The modern health system is not “perfect” either, but the medical results, compared to those of religious rituals, is certainly more effective!

The parallelism: as we adopt more alternative technologies we also give those technologies a chance to develop into something closer to the "perfect" solution.

Another good example could be the industry of personal computers; In the 80’s personal computers were awkward and hard to use. Little by little this industry has grown and has learned very basic lessons on the way. Nowadays we are only starting to see applications where the personal computer is “transparent”. In other word, the application is so “user friendly” and so well fitted to its purpose that the user never has to think about what goes on in the background (unlike managing Windows XP or Vista!!!!)

Perhaps we, as habitants of Planet Earth, will struggle to find a “perfect” solution to our energy, water and waste reduction needs. But we have started a path towards what will be called in the future “modern” energy, water and waste systems. The path to “perfect” solutions is rarely a straight line.

I apologize for my three week absence, from now on please expect our usual weekly entry into this blog. Best regards and SHALOM!

The Electric Car

Some years ago a movie called "who killed the electric car" came out. This movie exposed the failed attempt of General Motors in their 1996 release of an electric car (the EV-1). In the movie / documentary frustrated customers (who fell in love with their test product) made extraordinary efforts to prevent GM from retrieving the car from the market.Now, 12 years later we face a different reality. Oil prices are up and the market consensus is that they will stay up. People are more "enviro-conscious". And battery technology has come a long way.Since I am writing from Israel I thought it would be appropriate to present the highest profile greentech project in this land (and perhaps one of the most ambitious greentech projects in the world). Shay Agassi is a well respected entrepreneur who was involved in the software giant SAP. He presented (and leads) this project to the Israeli government and to Renault-Nissan and "Project Better Place" was born.

This project intends to build a network to allow for electric cars to charge in public places as well as special stations to interchange batteries. Project Better Place coordinates efforts between government, car manufacturer and battery OEM to establish the first big scale market test for electric cars.

The best way to understand this innovative business model is to "hear it from the horse's mouth". Here is Shay Agassy presenting his "baby' in Washington...



It takes guts to jump into this kind of venture. I don't know if Project Better Place is going to succeed, it certainly has its great obstacles to overcome before we see concrete results.

One thing is certain, whoever allows the world to significantly reduce its oil dependency and the political and economical consequences that this implies will be paraded as a savior and a hero (for most nations).

Reporting directly from the holy land I sign out for now and say "SHALOM" !

Two Great Proofs

Dear friends:

If you are ever going to take 17 minutes to watch a video on the internet, I encourage you to see this one. It is the most compelling call to embrace greentech and a view into the potential business oportunity that it represents.

If you have problems starting the video go to this link http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/john_doerr_sees_salvation_and_profit_in_greentech.html

The other interesting piece of information is an article I found on the main page of Yahoo! this very morning. While 99.9% of the news about the economy are grim, this is what Yahoo! jobs reports:

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-the_new_power_jobs-449

Are you convinced yet!?

As always I say SHALOM !

The Greentech Wave

If you open any major newspaper on any given day you will find the signs of the Greentech Wave. Let's take today's NY Times as an example.

On the main section of the newspaper there are two advertisements, one full page each.

The first one is for Sharp Solar Systems, in which Sharp claims to be responsible for 1/4 of the solar world production. I believe six months ago this same advertisement space was used to promote Sharp's flat panel TVs!.

The other advertisement is from The Pickens Plan. This is a very famous Texas Oil Entrepreneur who established a fund with $4 billion under management and is proposing a 10 year roadmap to replace one third of foreign oil imports with local wind energy and natural gas.

Today's NY Times also has two very telling articles. It is important to note that both articles are in the Business section (not under technology, or science).

The first one is entitled "Europeans Reconsider Biofuel Goal" and talks about the disadvantages of biofuels and how this alternative may be contributing to deforestation, which speeds climate change, and helping force up food prices.

The other article talks about a "Large Solar Energy Array Set for G.M. in Spain". It announces the installation of the largest rooftop array of solar panels which will generate 12 megawatts of power.

So? you say. Why should we consider this important?.

I believe this are the signs of a major trend. This trend is reflected at several arenas.

(1) People are concerned on a personal level. A growing number of people are considering a change in their consumption habits in order to respond to the growing cost of fuels or just because they became more environmentally aware. Therefore, you have a waiting list of 3 months to buy a Toyota Prius (the most fuel efficient car in the market today).

(2) Companies are shifting their image and channeling resources to greentech. No major company is willing to risk the possibility of being left behind in this new market. Same as Sharp is boosting their solar business, GE is very concerned to stay on top of any and all developments in energy generation to keep their lead. Even the traditional oil companies are making big noise about their greentech efforts. Take BP Oil as an example, they say in their website that "BP Alternative Energy is giving the world a choice of low-carbon power solutions"

(3) Major economic players are creating their vehicles to jump into the greentech wave. Like Mr. Pickens there are other major players looking for opportunities. Sir Richard Branson the famous serial entrepreneur has launched Virgin Green Fund. If this efforts are intended to help "mother earth" or they are purely business opportunities is impossible to tell, the end result is the same: a major wave is being created.

Conclusion: I see a major change that will create a whole new industry. Like in the early stages of Internet there are several players that will be filtered out. But, overall the field is green (in both senses) and the crop is yet to be harvested. Those who jump into this trend early enough will have the better chances to profit from its energy. Finally I leave you with a cordial "Shalom"

The Climate Change Summit

Breaking news!... A big Climate Change Summit took place here in Miami last Wednesday June 25 and Thursday the 26th. This week Miami Greentech reports on the Summit...

I am happy to report that the Green wave is growing stronger by the day, it was an impossible task to register for this event two weeks in advance. Even if you had contacts in the Florida government there simply was no way to get registered!

To start, we have to clarify that this summit is an initiative from the Florida's Governor Charlie Christ's Office, as such it had it's load of political content. But, overall it was an eye opener. I saw things about the state's green industry that I never expected to see.

So, who was there and what was the content?

The summit was comprised of three components (1) an exhibitors floor with around fifty different stands (2) a series of talks about different aspects of climate change with one moderator and four panelists each and (3) breakfast, lunch and dinner banquets with a key note speaker each. If you need to have the exact information this is the link to the AGENDA

(1) Exhibitors. Some non-profit organizations where there (such as the Environmental Defense Fund), as well as attorney's firms (trying to position themselves as greentech specialists), some consulates (for political reasons I suppose), all the Florida major Universities (FSU, FIU, FAU, UF, UCF, USF), and a very interesting group of Greentech companies, many of which (I am happy to report) are based in Florida! Companies such as Blue Earth Solutions (styrofoam recycling), Carbon Solution America (carbon consulting firm), and Volcano Energy Group (energy optimization products); Big companies such as FPL, Chevron and GE were also part of the mix.

(2) Talks. Some were a waste of time (from a business perspective), like the one entitled "Preserving God’s Creation" with a panel conformed of two reverends and one rabbi. Some, on the other hand, were extremely interesting. There was "Going Green Makes Economic Sense" part 1 and 2, in which panelists came from businesses such as Mitsubishi, Honeywell, IBM, Kyocera and Wachovia and the conversation was about the different ways each player was getting into the green industry. Also on the panel where representatives from Greentech companies. we heard about Solarsa a Florida based company that focuses on "solar cooling", and about T3 Motion, a company that developed an electric personal vehicle that has zero gas emissions used mainly for law enforcement (and perhaps soon to be used here in South Florida).

The highlight of these talks was the "International Leadership Roundtable" where the governor himself was a panelist together with the consul general of UK, Israel, France and Japan, as well as a parliament member from Germany who is an eminence in solar power (and could not stop talking). Each country was very proud to mention how they are "world leaders" in Greentech. Germany and Spain are leading in solar power generation, the UK is tapping into extracting energy from ocean waves and currents, France is lagging behind in comparison to Europe but was glad to point they are ahead of the US and Japan is even implementing different dress codes for summer and winter while setting the temperature in government buildings to 82^o in summer to save on energy spending for a/c (to learn more click here). Last, but certainly not least Israel is leading in technology development with more brain power than any other country per capita, as well as leading in water initiatives (they have the biggest desalination plant in the world, and are number one in recycling water at 75% with a far second Spain with 12%).

(3) Keynote Speakers. The CEO of FPL Lew Hay spoke very poorly and it was easy to catch that he was reading his speech for the first time while addressing the audience. We heard from Ray Anderson Founder of Interface Inc. the world largest manufacturer of carpet based in Atlanta, Georgia and how they are aiming to become carbon neutral in 2020 (to learn more click here). And the big ending with the "governator" Arnold Schwarzenegger who did his Hollywood style speech with humor and politics but little content.

Overall the experience was interesting and I am looking forward to next year's event to get a sense of the growth that this wave achieves in 365 days

For now I say... SHALOM!

 

Opportunities in Greentech

Since we already took the first step for this Blog, it is now time to dig dipper. Many people have responded to my invitation to read the blog with a question mark and I realize that, to some, Greentech sounds like a strange word.

According to Wikipedia: "Environmental technology or green technology (abbreviated as GreenTech) or clean technology (abbreviated as CleanTech) is the application of environmental sciences to conserve the natural environment and resources, and to curb the negative impacts of human involvement."

To me Greentech represents a conjunction of three things. (1) An initiative to minimize the negative impact of humans on nature. (2) An opportunity to shift geopolitical injustices. (3) A business opportunity. I emphasize on this third point because none of the other advantages is sustainable without this third one.

In this blog I would like to open a conversation about different business opportunities in Greentech. Mainly, Greentech has three branches: 1-Alternative Energy, 2-Water and 3-Waste Management.

Opportunities in Alternative Energy range from Fuel Cells (that transform hydrogen to electricity with water as byproduct) to Wind, Solar or Geothermal power generation. Immense rewards are in sight for the person or company that is able to substitute existing methods of power generation and storage with cleaner and sustainable alternatives and competitive pricing (emphasis in competitive pricing to ensure business sustainability)

Water greentech opportunities range from desalinization and purification to water analysis and irrigation systems. More and more water is becoming a valuable resource and any method that provides water savings or additional sources while upholding our quality of life is a probable winner. Water is also one of the biggest equalizers for global social injustice. If the technology has the added feature of providing water to those who needed the most then its a win-win-win situation.

Waste Management encompasses collection, transport, processing and recycling of byproducts of human activity. Many creative solutions are being developed to reduce the impact of waste. Some solutions include gas, biofuel and power generation from sludge and waste water. Development of new materials that minimize impact on nature. As well as new construction methods and urban designs to reduce the volume of waste or route it in a way that the waste becomes a reusable resource.

In the next entries I will be giving specific examples of companies that are trying achieve some of these tasks. Until then I say unto you "Shalom" (Hebrew word that translates into either hello, goodbye or peace)