Schwartz Renewablog

Cleantech's Hottest Start Ups: Forbes and SharesPost

2010-03-01T18:01:48Z

One quick hit this Monday morning involving a Schwartz PR client and the cleantech start-up world. Forbes created a slide show featuring the 12 hottest cleantech start ups according to SharesPost.

At SharesPost.com, you can find bulletin boards of private company shares, including offers to buy and sell in companies like Suniva, Bloom Energy, Amyris Biotechnologies, Altra Biofuels, Altarock Energy, eSolar, GreatPoint Energy, GridPoint and Bright Source Energy. These are some great early stage companies backed by a "whose who" of cleantech VCs, including NEA Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia and others, in markets like smart grid, solar, biofuels and fuel cells.

As investors wonder about private company liquidity even amid some potential cleantech IPOs, secondary market options like SharesPost are stepping in. It is an exciting time to be at the intersection of clean technology and private equity.

The cleantech VC world will come together next week at AlwaysOn GoingGreen East in Boston, where the organization showcases the GoingGreen 50. Drop us a line if you're planning to attend, as Schwartz handles the public relations for that event.

Bloom Energy PR, Bright Source GR and a Good Week for Cleantech

2010-02-24T04:42:25Z

There have been a few big announcements this week that have been good visibility for the Cleantech and Green industry from a public relations and government relations standpoint, including a long-time stealth player drawing back the covers and a major DOE loan guarantee for a big solar thermal player. The news comes as the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco and Renewable Energy World in Austin attempt to monopolize attention.

-Bloom Energy came out of stealth on 60 Minutes generating a lot of secondary awareness in the media and blogosphere. One interesting PR aspect of the company's launch, is that by keeping things tight lipped for so long, it was really hard for CBS to interview skeptics familiar with the company. Next comes the most important step for Bloom to separate itself from some other past big cleantech claims--the ability to scale.

-BrightSource Energy received a major loan guarantee from the Department of Energy to develop plants in California. This is a big government relations win for the solar market overall, as the government continues to back solar.

Everyone we talk to is bullish about cleantech in general in 2010, with a potential second boom cycle beginning in 2011. The question is how much new technology ground will be broken and how instrumental will Uncle Sam be in driving adoption/investment.

Quick Hits: State of the Union; Climate Change and the SEC; How Green is Apple iPad?

2010-01-28T16:18:40Z

Between Apple iPad and the State of the Union, yesterday was a really interesting day in the world of technology, green and PR. Some quick thoughts on what transpired:

State of the Union, Green Policy & the SEC: I was pleasantly surprised at once again, how aggressively the President tied energy and cleantech to the economy and positioned cleantech as critical to the US' position as a world leader in technology, manufacturing and jobs. Its clear that President Obama sees energy policy as core to solving the economic woes of the country and that an energy bill is back on the table. More and more people are understanding that energy is intertwined with the economy, national security, human health and the environment, and so it is good to see it be a central theme of the SOTU.

While the focus on energy is not new, what has changed in recent months is any legislation as it relates to greenhouse gas emissions. Recent EPA rulings and yesterday's news that the SEC now wants disclosure on climate change risks to investors, sends a clear message that the administration will cap and regulate GHGs through agency rulings and not Congress. Is this the first step in GHGs being a financial reporting requirement?

Apple iPad: Has anyone found a person who likes the name "iPad?" iSlate, iTablet, iBook? So many options, so little branding sense. However, since just about everything Apple introduces turns to gold, I am sure it won't keep people from adopting it. So while it goes gold, is it green? Good post by Earth2Tech on this topic.

And speaking of the media, some are calling the iPad a savior for the print media universe, as it becomes a platform to keep people reading their daily newspapers, magazines and books. I'll keep my eye out to see if come April, I see people on BART using the iPad as a Kindle replacement and a mechanism for reading the newspaper.

Muddled Climate Policy the Backdrop for Retech, Renewable Energy World

2010-01-19T15:19:38Z

It's been awhile since we posted on Renewablog and with good reason. After a very busy 2009 in which we saw the federal government's attitude toward renewables and cleantech change overnight, the blog team went on a short hiatus to focus on 2010 client planning.

It also served as good time to reflect on what worked in 2009 from a green public relations, government relations and search-engine marketing perspective, and what else needs to be done in 2010 by cleantech stakeholders. I think most would agree that 2009 ended much stronger than some would have anticipated entering the year.

Even with an underwhleming Copenhagen and the lack of a climate bill, 2010 holds a lot of promise. European and Asian companies continue to look at the US as TNBT in green adoption, even without a climate bill. The EPA's naming of carbon as a public danger and the willingness of the agency to enforce reporting rules has many saying it is only a matter of "when" and not "if" carbon emisssion reductions (CERs) become mandatory. Obama continued to accept and promote new ideas, like "Cash for Caulkers."

But even with some positive signs, there are some things that keep cleantech marketers and public affairs pros up at night, the biggest of which is the midterm elections. It is now unlikely that a climate bill will get passed in 2010. The big question will then be what will Congress look like when it takes up the bill in 2011? If the Democrats have significantly smaller majorities in the House and Senate, will a bill be so watered down that it will have little meaning?

The silver lining is that there are a lot of ways to skin the climate cat, including further EPA regulation or very aggressive, big economy states, like California and New York passing laws that become de facto national standards for cap and trade. The hope is that the federal government takes the renewable-powered torch and runs with it in 2011, but it is comorting to know that if it doesn't, there are ways to move climate measures forward.

So this is the backdrop as we approach the first two renewable energy shows of the seaon: Retech 2010 in Washington DC and Renewable Energy World in Austin. Both are interesting events that tackle very broad themes and market segments, including solar, wind, biofuels, waste to energy, waste heat to energy, geothermal and a number of others. Retech is a bit more policy focused, whereas REW will help shine light on Austin's rapidly growing cleantech credentials.

We'll do our best to take the temperature of both events and report back what we learn.

Cleantech Venture Capital, Financing and IPOs Heating Up

2009-12-21T22:06:38Z

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas for a number of cleantech companies in solar and smart grid, as the project finance, venture capital and IPO markets continue their winter thaw. News of new deals has capped off what has been a pretty good PR month for the cleantech industry.

Last week Silver Spring Networks announced a $100 million round of financing, which was a surprise if only because the company was the hottest IPO candidate of any mentioned at the GreenBeat conference in November. Driving the round? Maybe reports that the smart grid market will double in size by 2014.

So who is going public? Solyndra, the CIGS thin-film manufacturer and DOE loan guarantee recipient. The company is looking to raise $300 million in a public offering to take place sometime in 2010.

SunRun, a residential PPA provider, also received $90 million more in backing from Bancorp to help finance residential solar installations. SunRun has been very successful in markets like California, Massachusetts and Arizona.

Finally, First Solar announced the completion and sale of a utility-scale plant in California. The new plant will power 17,000 homes and as VentureBeat reports, is likely a harbringer of more utility-scale plants in the near future.

These are all good signs for the solar industry as more experts predict growth in number of US projects and shrinking solar supplies in 2010. All told, outside of the weak international agreement from Copenhagen, it has been a pretty good December for Cleantech.

Cash for Caulkers Takes Center Stage; Energy Efficiency's PR Problem

2009-12-09T19:27:34Z

President Obama "filled in the cracks" on the long-rumored Cash for Caulkers program yesterday as part of a new jobs plan. The latest details have consumers eligible for a $12,000 tax credit if they take steps to weatherize their homes. The goal would be to put contractors back to work and also stimulate the buying of home products aimed at energy efficiency, which would be good news for Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart and others sellers of home improvement materials.

We first heard of the Cash for Caulkers program leading up to the GreenBeat Conference on Smart Grid technologies. John Doerr, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, had suggested the idea to policymakers some time ago.

This caps the third consecutive day of positive news around renewable energy, energy efficiency and climate change, as Obama looks to bolster US credibility on energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The news coincides with the Cop15 in Copenhagen.

Speaking of energy efficiency, the New York Times reports on a new study that says that focusing on efficiency could reduce energy consumption by 30 percent by 2030, thereby reducing the need for the US to build new power plants. The article reminded me of the fact that renewable energy continues to get the lion's share of media attention, even as people look for cost-effective, pragmatic and near-term ways to cut energy usage in a down economic environment.

That is not to say that renewables get too much attention as they are a critically important part of energy independence and the US economy. But rather that companies with legitimate energy efficiency products need to do a better job marketing the size of the problem they solve and the potential ROI for customers--and the economy at large.

Green Monday: Cop15, Green Patents, Solar Growth and Carbon as a Danger

2009-12-07T21:16:47Z

We've had Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Could today be Green Monday? Based on the positive news we have seen today for the Cleantech industry, maybe it should be.

While the world had its eyes firmly planted on Copenhagen and the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the US government said, "Bring your gaze back to this side of the Atlantic" with a couple of significant announcements.

First, the EPA has declared that carbon dioxide is a public danger giving it the right to further regulate and curb emissions without the consent of Congress. This is a huge step forward in the Obama administration's move to cut US carbon emissions. Essentially, the White House just told the US Senate that it better tune out the energy lobby and focus on the issue at hand. It will be interesting to see if this lights a fire under the Senate to get legislation passed before the EPA enforces something more draconian than private industry would like.

Second, the Obama administration has announced that Green patent review will be fast tracked to 12 months from the current 40 in the hopes of getting new technologies funded and viable in a shorter period of time. This is bound to fuel even more R&D and investment in clean technologies.

All of this comes as the world focuses its attention on Cop15 and the world's largest and fastest-growing carbon emitters, like the US, China and India. How important is the Cop15 event to Cleantech companies?

So important that Earth2Tech's Katie Fehrenbacher and other US-based cleantech reporters and bloggers are on the ground covering and Tweeting from the conference. It should be an interesting 12 days as we learn more about the seriousness with which the world's largest economies will fight climate change.

The final piece of good news was from the solar market which apparently has seen demand start to grow for the first time this year. Many are expecting the US to be 2010's big solar market as PPAs continue to gain traction and renewable portfolio standards, feed-in-tariffs and other policy measures start to have a bigger impact on demand. The EPA declaration could also drive adoption as industrial and utility audiences expand their renewable energy portfolios and accumulate credits ahead of any federal carbon policy.

No matter which way you slice it, today has been a very good day for Cleantech stakeholders.

Things to be Thankful for in Cleantech this Holiday Season

2009-11-25T15:56:40Z

Here are a few things the green PR, public affairs and marketing world should be thankful for this holiday season:

-A more generous net metering policy in Massachusetts

-New proposed feed-in tariffs and an ease in wind permitting in the UK

-More Department of Energy (DOE) grants in Smart Grid

-DOE grants in wind and renewables

-States that have already been aggressive in net metering, including Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, California Penssylvania and Oregon

-Venture capitalists who believe cleantech is the next great American industry and continue to invest

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cash for Caulkers Creator Comes to GreenBeat 2009; Weatherization TNBT?

2009-11-18T21:38:05Z

This afternoon at GreenBeat 2009, John Doerr will give a keynote focused on the main theme of the event: The Smart Grid. With the recent $3.4 billion in stimulus funds allocated to projects, the smart grid market has a PR problem, becoming a lightening rod for debate about its cleantech and stimulus credentials.

I am of the personal opinion that any technology that reduces our energy use is cleantech. I also think that anything that helps consumers save money and makes energy more efficient has huge economic value. After all, utility bills likely rank third after mortgage/rent and car payments as the most expensive budgetary item for households. Reducing utility bills by even 20 percent creates more consumer spending power which is a key cog in an economic recovery.

But back to Doerr...beyond just his affiliation with one of Silicon Valley's premier VC firms, he is a bright and interesting guy. He has some creative and pragmatic ideas on how to address the energy, environmental and economic crises, including one written about today by the New York Times (via Yahoo! Finance).

Doerr apparently has pitched a weatherization stimulus that would incent homeowners to upgrade the energy efficiency of their homes through improvements in insulation, windows, etc. Doerr calls the program, "Cash for Caulkers" and word is that the White House is seriously considering it.

I am looking forward to today's keynote to hear Doerr's opinion on Smart Grid and see if he has any other ideas that should be promoted as policy. Doerr's speech should be the first in a number of compelling presentations at the GreenBeat 2009 event.

Great Cleantech Event Week: Dow Jones Aternative Energy & GreenBeat 2009

2009-11-17T17:14:30Z

The next few days will be fun as the Silicon Valley VC and private company investment community comes together at two Cleantech events. Full disclosure: We're doing PR for one of the events and have six clients speaking at the other.

First, today and tomorrow, the Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovations conference kicks off with CEOs from 39 CEOs presenting why their company will be one of the ones that helps drive the Green Economy. Six Schwartz clients (Applied Quantum Technology, Cool Earth Solar, Joule Biotechnologies, Sentilla, Skyline Solar and SolarEdge) will present to a "whose who" of VC and private equity firms.

Then, tomorrow afternoon, VentureBeat kicks off its GreenBeat 2009 event, The Conference on the Smart Grid. The event has an elite roster of speakers including John Doerr, Al Gore, Don Wood and Vinod Khosla. It also brings together innovative Smart Grid companies large and small, from Siemens, IBM and Cisco, to Tendril and EcoFactor. Schwartz is a Silver Sponsor of the event and we hope to see you there!

Good PR for Green Manufacturing: Studies Show Job Growth

2009-11-16T18:06:02Z

Monday morning saw two pieces of good news for the Green Economy as it relates to job creation.

A study published by three universities shows that President Obama's focus on Green Collar jobs will help create 1.9 million jobs and boost annual household income by $1000. If the $1000 figure focuses on an increase in gross household income, the study likely fails to measure the increase in discretionary household income that could result in more efficient home energy practices driven in part by Smart Grid adoption by consumers. Consumer spending is a huge economic stimulus in its own right and reducing one of the largest monthly budgetary items for households, while boosting gross income, would be a huge boon for other sectors.

A separate study by iSupply shows that the solar panel supply glut is working itself out, which could lead to recovering solar prices and kickstart a new wave of solar cell and module manufacturing. With many Asian and European solar manufacturers looking to boost manufacturing capacity inside the US to take advantage of government incentives and grants, and a number of US companies ramping up their manufacturing capactity, the result could be a wave of new manufacturing jobs in places like Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Silicon Valley.

These trends, combined with a thawing in financing and a broader economic recovery, point to 2010 and 2011 being boom years for Cleantech job creation.

Green Public Affairs: DOE Details $3.4 Billion in Smart Grid Grants

2009-10-28T01:55:41Z

The DOE issued a release today about the $3.4 billion in grants issued as part of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA, aka the Stimulus Package). The release is here and there are links for downloading details on who will receive the funds as well as a map of where the funds will be invested.

It is a happy day for Smart Grid technology and service providers.

Green Public Affairs: $3.4 Billion in Stimulus Funds Coming to Smart Grid Tomorrow

2009-10-26T22:49:02Z

News today, that the Department of Energy will dole out $3.4 billion in Smart Grid stimulus money tomorrow, in what was already shaping up to be a noisy public affairs and public relations week at Solar Power International. The first speculation that something was coming soon was posted by Matt Marshall of VentureBeat this morning.

With much of the US utility market and solar industry gathered in Anaheim for the SPI conference, this will no doubt give the cleantech industry as a whole a major boost. Venture Capitalists made cleantech the top funding market for Q3, but were having trouble raising new funds. With government dollars flowing, policy driving cleantech adoption and a slowly improving economy, it is only a matter of time before we start seeing the health of VC and private equity fund raises improve as LPs jump back on the cleantech bandwagon.

The news will also inject even more life into the GreenBeat 2009 event in November, where leaders in smart grid policy, technology and adoption will get together to discuss the market environment for 2010. Al Gore and others will be keynoting the event and Schwartz is a Silver Sponsor.

For updates at Solar Power, follow @jasonmorris and I'll try to report back on major happenings at the show.

President Obama's Energy Speech at MIT: A Field Report

2009-10-24T11:13:38Z

It's not every day one is lucky enough to see the President of the United States speak. Add in the topic (energy), timing (eve of Senate hearings on the Climate Bill) and location (MIT) and you have a seriously major event.

The crowd began lining up three hours before the scheduled start time to clear security and nab seats in the intimate (at least for a Presidential speech) Kresge Auditoium at MIT.

Once the crowd entered the warm venue (it was pretty chilly outside), the auditorium turned into a big schmoozefest (with no food or drinks, they were prohibited along with laptops from coming inside). As usual for Presidential events, things started a bit late. In this case, it was because President Obama was receiving a briefing from professors and students on new clean technolgies being developed at MIT, including wind.

President Obama entered to a rousing ovation. After a few jokes, he launched into a speech that was classic Obama--soaring language meant to inspire. One of my favorite passages:

"I'm excited being here and seeing these extraordinary young people...because it taps into something essential about America -- it's the legacy of daring men and women who put their talents and their efforts into the pursuit of discovery. And it's the legacy of a nation that supported those intrepid few willing to take risks on an idea that might fail -- but might also change the world."

But the President wasn't at MIT just to inspire. Obama used his speech as a call to action for America to innovate more rapidly and solve the energy problem, framing it as an economic imperative:

"Countries on every corner of this Earth now recognize that energy supplies are growing scarcer, energy demands are growing larger, and rising energy use imperils the planet we will leave to future generations. And that's why the world is now engaged in a peaceful competition to determine the technologies that will power the 21st century. From China to India, from Japan to Germany, nations everywhere are racing to develop new ways to producing and use energy. The nation that wins this competition will be the nation that leads the global economy. I am convinced of that. And I want America to be that nation."

And Obama was clearly conscious of the hurdles within the US political system that still need to be cleared, in some eyes taking the fight directly to the opposition:

"I think it's important to understand that the closer we get, the harder the opposition will fight and the more we'll hear from those whose interest or ideology run counter to the much needed action that we're engaged in. There are those who will suggest that moving toward clean energy will destroy our economy -- when it's the system we currently have that endangers our prosperity and prevents us from creating millions of new jobs. There are going to be those who cynically claim -- make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change, claims whose only purpose is to defeat or delay the change that we know is necessary."

The President brought it home with more words of inspiration--"This is the nation that will lead the clean energy economy of tomorrow, so long as all of us remember what we have achieved in the past and we use that to inspire us to achieve even more in the future," and then he was done.

I was pretty sure he wouldn't work a rope line (he was already late to a Governor Deval Patrick fundraiser), but he dove in. Sensing a chance for a shake, I rushed up and extended my hand. Sure enough, I got my first Presidential shake.

A fantastic finish to a great day...but more importantly, the cleantech community received indisputable scientific evidence that President Obama is a huge supporter of innovation's role in solving the energy problem.

Solar PR, M&A Heat Up Ahead of Solar Power International

2009-10-23T15:07:26Z

As the Solar PR world shifts its gaze to Anaheim for next week's Solar Power International event, the news pipeline has already begun heating up. National Semiconductor today announced that it has acquired a solar monitoring software provider, which will put the company in direct competition with Fat Spaniel among others. SolarEdge, a Schwartz client, is a company that already combines power harvesting and monitoring in a single product, which likely pushed National Semiconductor to make an acquisition in the space.

Also this week, Schwartz client Skyline Solar announced the start of commercial manufacturing in a Cosma International metalforming facility in Troy, Michigan. This is another example of solar looking to fill the US manufacturing void left by struggling automakers, about which we will likely hear a lot more in the months to come.

Expect a lot of news around US manufacturing, public policy (i.e. grants and feed-in tariffs) and global firms entering the US market next week, as many peg North America as the solar focus for 2010. We'll have several Schwartz team members and close to ten clients at the event and will report back what we hear during the show.