At Cleantech Group, we spend much of our time featuring the most innovative cleantech companies with the most important technologies and business models. Some of these companies are found down the street from us, some are embedded in one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies and some may be founded by entrepreneurs and climate scientists in the UK. But sometimes, the most interesting things in cleantech can be coming out of a 175-year old French company. This is the story behind Schneider Electric‘s recent moves in cleantech, particularly on the smart grid and energy efficiency side.…
Yoga Systems: The Tendril/Control4 of Estonia
by David Cheng | June 16th 2011
Building energy management hardware may be unfairly maligned by the pundits because of the sticker price. The inconvenient truth of building energy management is that hardware matters. It turns out in order to have the cool cloud-based services analyzing, controlling and optimizing the building’s end devices, those devices need to be connected in some way to an IP backbone either through external controllers or embedded RF modules. And even then, they might have to go through a central server that manages these RF signals. Estonia-based Yoga Systems is looking to solve this problem by being the “Tendril or Control4” of the EU with a turnkey building management solution for commercial and residential buildings. Their big push is to be a cloud-based platform for a smörgåsbord of proprietary and third-party devices and applications in the building.…
The Fifth Pillar of the Smart Grid – Get ‘er Done
by David Cheng | June 16th 2011
This week, the White House released their policy framework for the Smart Grid, entitled A Policy Framework for the 21st Century Grid: Enabling Our Secure Energy Future. In it, they outlined four key pillars for success: 1) Enabling Cost-Effective Smart Grid Investments; 2) Unlocking the Potential of Innovation in the Electricity Sector; 3) Empowering Consumers and Enabling Informed Decision Making; and 4) Securing the Grid. The 108-page report (which I’m still going through) says all the “right things,” which makes sense as we approach the beginning of the 2012 election cycle. But while it sounds good to “create national markets for smart grid technologies and promote plug-and-play operability for devices,” what I really want is a guarantee from the government that we will just “get ‘er done.” The public and private markets have demonstrated a two case studies of “getting ‘er done” when confronting similar monumental tasks. Let’s see what lessons we can learn from them.
Show Me the Car Facts
by David Cheng | May 26th 2011
The EPA just released new fuel economy window stickers for 2013 model vehicles this week. For the first time, these stickers would provide information about the vehicle’s greenhouse gas emissions, as well as estimated annual fuel costs. It’s clear that the aim of the EPA and Department of Transportation is to provide more information to help consumers make purchasing decisions, including the full cost of ownership. More information is a good thing. Today, most used car buyers request the vehicle history report to uncover hidden costs or liabilities in the vehicle. It’s about time new cars get the same type of treatment.…
Hup Holland Hup: Cleantech Goes Dutch
by David Cheng | May 3rd 2011
Next week, a few of my colleagues will descend upon the Netherlands for Cleantech Forum Amsterdam on May 9-11. The theme of the marquee European cleantech event is “Cleantech Goes Corporate.” Cleantech Group often has an international perspective on cleantech innovation. For this week’s blog post, I’d like to point out some of the cleantech innovation and deployments coming out of the Netherlands.…
India, Cleantech and Cricket: 1.1 Billion People Can’t Be Ignored
by David Cheng | April 20th 2011
A few weeks ago, my Facebook exploded at 4AM. My South Asian friends from around the world descended upon my activity feed to cyber cheer on India during the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final (I unfortunately do not have any Sri Lankan friends to balance out the pro-India crowd). While I was ignorant about cricket, I knew from my friends’ enthusiasm that this wasn’t just a game but also a declaration of India’s pride on an international scale. This is something I know a bit about having cheered on Team USA in South Africa at the FIFA World Cup last summer. So I did a little digging while the match was going on (even the One Day matches are long) and I soon got caught up in the spectacle of India’s historic run to become the World Cup champions. That experience got me thinking about India’s run in energy and cleantech. So I did a little digging and here is what I found.
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EcoFactor: Residential Energy Efficiency without the Dashboard
by David Cheng | April 20th 2011
Some pundits see energy efficiency as a killer application for cleantech. With the recent $50 million equity raises for OPOWER (see Company Insight Report, subscription required) and C3, it would be hard to disagree. But the venture capitalist in me says that the common form of energy efficiency isn’t an application; it’s a feature of a product. Whether it’s a Prius or a Macbook, consumers buy a product for its applications (Prius: transportation, Macbook: laptop computing), with efficiency as a desired feature but a feature nonetheless.
Unfortunately for grid operators and purveyors of McKinsey charts, energy efficiency for industrial, commercial and residential premises isn’t likely to buck the trend. People buy a thermostat or HVAC system for its heating and cooling applications, not for its efficiency accolades. Particularly in the residential market, consumers are unlikely to spend time looking at an energy management dashboard when they have Facebook, baseball season and Glee as distractions. This is where California-based EcoFactor comes in. EcoFactor claims up to 30 percent of a residential home’s HVAC bill can be reduced without the consumer changing behavior or looking at a digital dashboard or billing insert.…
AMEE: Shovels for the Carbon Gold Miners
by David Cheng | April 18th 2011
There isn’t a global price on carbon today. Part of the reason why the world can’t get its head around carbon pricing is that there are too many standards and methodologies. And as a former i-banker, I know that confusion and complexity creates opportunities for rent extraction and margin expansion. UK-based AMEE is trying to fix this problem. As a neutral third-party, AMEE has aggregated the world’s carbon standards and aims to be the de facto resource for all services and technologies carbon-related. It provides a platform for service providers (like investment banks and accounting firms) and software providers (like ERP vendors) to build applications off its web-services API or to leverage its deep library of carbon methodologies and definitions. In other words, AMEE aims to sell shovels to the gold miners. And if carbon management is a gold rush, the most prolific shovel maker is in an attractive position.…
Coulomb Technologies: The Franchiser of EV Charging
by David Cheng | April 11th 2011
It seems with gas prices continuing their upward trajectory, it would be apropos to profile another electric vehicle charging equipment (EVSE) and service provider company. This week, my focus is on Coulomb Technologies. Coulomb stands separate from their EVSE peers distinctly in their business model as a franchiser-of-sorts for EV charging. Coulomb sells their charging stations and service through value-added resellers in North America, Europe and Australia. Ultimately, Coulomb doesn’t view itself as a hardware provider but rather a business software/service provider to utilities, municipalities, retailers and corporations. This model seems to be working, as the company has found success in the US through its ChargePoint America program and in Europe through its partner, 365 Energy.
In a new Company Insight Profile on Coulomb Technologies, I touch on these deployments as well as some of the various features that differentiate Coulomb’s offerings to its competitors. I also cover how I view this growing and dynamic EVSE market, particularly in the context of the EV deployments coming out in 2011.
To find out more, take a look at the Company Insight profile (subscription required).
More Cleantech Group Research (subscription required):
ECOtality Company Insight
ZipCar Company Insight
CODA Automotive Company Insight
…
Opening Day for Cleantech: How GE is like the Yankees
by David Cheng | April 5th 2011
Last week was Opening Day in baseball and my beloved San Francisco Giants are (at the moment) 1-4, after losing the series to the Los Angeles Dodgers and the first game to the Padres. With baseball on the brain, it got me thinking about the heavy hitter in cleantech, GE, and their recent moves. In the past few years, GE has been pursuing a cleantech innovation and growth strategy that is multi-faceted. They have been active with their balance sheet on acquisitions. They have attempted to organically grow new products and technologies (or create an ecosystem for organic growth). And perhaps most importantly, their leadership on cleantech is unparalleled, with famed CEO Jeff Immelt at the helm. With these characteristics, my mind drifted to another New York franchise: The Yankees. In many ways, GE and the Yankees are very similar in their strategies for success.
Big Free Agency Spenders
The Yankees are well known to have the highest payroll in baseball. In the same way, GE has the largest balance sheet (and appetite for acquisitions) amongst all the cleantech giants. Last week, GE announced the acquisition (90% stake) of French power-equipment manufacturer Converteam for $3.2 billion. As a …
