THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for June, 2011

The future of clean power and greener transportation is being carried by FarmVille and online coupons — at least in terms of venture capital portfolios.

Earlier this month, I wondered if huge returns for VCs from social media IPOs could help make up for large bets on capital-intensive greentech companies that haven’t (yet?) delivered returns. My example was NEA and its potentially massive Groupon win (NEA’s Groupon share could be worth $2 billion on paper, or a 135 x multiple), in contrast to some of its capital-intensive green investments like fuel cell maker Bloom Energy, solar company HelioVolt, smart grid company GridPoint, and solar firm Konarka.

Connie Loizos at peHUB digs into this theme, too, in a column Tuesday night pointing out how a potentially giant return for Kleiner Perkins from an IPO for game startup Zynga could help make up for its tied-up greentech investments.

“[T]here’s no question that Kleiner was losing its footing, and that it’s about to be saved by Zynga,” writes Loizos.

Zynga reportedly could raise up to $2 billion in an IPO as soon as this week, valuing the company as high as $20 billion. That’s twice Zynga’s valuation when it raised its most recent round of $300 million last Summer. If Kleiner owns even 3 percent of Zynga, its stake could be valued at $600 million, writes Loizos.

Kleiner’s previous return that was that solid was its nameplate Google win where Kleiner put in $25 million in 1999 for a 20-percent stake. And we all know the end of that story, or the start of Kleiner’s fame: an eventual $2 billion return for Kleiner’s investors.

Kleiner has some weak, some OK, and some decent greentech bets. Smart grid company Silver Spring Networks was supposed to IPO last year, but still hasn’t, though I’ve been hearing that it might go sometime soon. Electric car maker Fisker Automotive is also supposed to IPO shortly, though hasn’t yet started selling its first car, the Karma. Kleiner made money on biofuel company Amyris’ IPO, and will make money on the IPO of solar inverter maker Enphase Energy.

Oh, those were some of the more promising ones. Bloom Energy is one of the most capital-intensive companies in the Valley and recently started offering an Energy-as-a-Service model, which seems like it would require more money raised (from banks likely) for installations. Alta Rock has struggled with its geothermal projects, and I haven’t heard anything from carbon capture and recycling company GreatPoint Energy in a couple of years. Biofuel company Mascoma delayed its commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, though finally got an investment from Valero.

As Loizos puts it:

“The reality is that Zynga represents the first — and potentially only — tangible opportunity for Kleiner to hit the cover off the ball as it did with Google.”

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

• Post-IPO strategies for LinkedIn
• Green IT Q1: Cleantech Breaking Out — and Bracing for Hard Times
• A 2011 Green IT Forecast

Photo: Bok Yeop Ahn

Engineers at the University of Illinois have developed a silver-inked rollerball pen that allows users to draw electrical circuits and interconnects on paper, wood and other surfaces.

Led by Jennifer Lewis, the Hans Thurnauer University of Illinois’ professor of materials science and engineering, and Jennifer Bernhard, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, the team has published its work in the journal Advanced Materials.

The circuit-drawing device looks exactly like a standard ballpoint pen except that the ink contains a solution of silver that dries and leaves electrically conductive silver pathways. The pathways that are drawn provide conductivity, enabling users to create extremely low-cost electrical devices that are disposable. Talk about green designs, this looks like a possible game-changer.

As shown in this photo by Bok Yeop Ahn, a flexible array of LEDs mounted on paper. Hand-drawn silver ink lines have created the connections between the LEDs.

Metallic inks are used in the manufacture electronic devices via inkjet printing technology, however, the silver pen offers the freedom and flexibility to construct electronic devices on the fly, says Jennifer Lewis, the Hans Thurnauer professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois. She led the research team along with Jennifer Bernhard, a professor of electrical and computer engineering.

“The key advantage of the pen is that the costly printers and printheads typically required for inkjet or other printing approaches are replaced with an inexpensive, hand-held writing tool,” said Lewis. “This is an important step toward enabling desktop manufacturing (or personal fabrication) using very low cost, ubiquitous printing tools.”

While the pen may appeal to electrical engineers and hobbyists, the researchers have also highlighted the potential of the device for creating art. Using the pen to sketch a copy of the painting “Sae-Han-Do” by Jung Hee Kim, which portrays a house, trees and Chinese text, the researchers used the ink as wiring for an LED mounted on the roof of the house (see photo) that was powered by a five-volt battery connected to the edge of the painting.

The university reports the U.S. Department of Energy supported this work. Co-authors were graduate student Analisa Russo and postdoctoral researchers Bok Yeop Ahn, Jacob Adams and Eric Duoss.

Photo: Bok Yeop Ahn

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, one of the Republican party’s many two-faced liars (who says he is promoting renewable energy but is, in fact, doing everything he can to fight its growth), recently announced that he was pulling the state out of the Northeast’s climate change and clean energy cap-and-trade program, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Well, it turns out, Governor Christie may not have the power to do so soon… but it’s going to be a close call.

Two bills aimed at vetoing the Governor’s decision passed the New Jersey State Senate on Monday. However, news is they passed by a thin margin and the Governor may be able to veto them if they get to his desk. If that happens, Christie’s plan is to pull NJ out of RGGI at the end of 2011.

Some more detail on the bills passed by the NJ Senate late Monday night:

The bills passed late Monday night would make the state’s participation in the initiative state law and would frame any withdrawal as inconsistent with the Legislature’s expressed intent to support global warming initiatives.

The legislation squeaked through the Senate on a 21-18 vote, spelling probable doom for the bill, which will almost certainly be vetoed by Christie. Supporters would need 27 votes to overcome Christie’s veto.

Doesn’t sound good.

The Republican reason for wanting to pull out of RGGI? It’s deterring businesses from coming to or investing in NJ. Total BS.

Here are some climate change, clean energy, and RGGI statistics released by Environment New Jersey on Sunday that show exactly how much RGGI is helping NJ and the other states involved:

$872 million: What has been raised for the states in 11 auctions held so far.

$440 million: What the states have invested in energy efficiency projects using proceeds from the auctions.

$2.6 billion: Estimated increase in gross state product (the total output of a state’s economy) in member states through spending of RGGI funds.

$209.9 million: Estimated increase in gross state product in New Jersey through spending of RGGI funds.

184 million: The peak in carbon dioxide emissions in tons by the 10 states, which occurred in 2005.

$35 million: Total amount of money invested in clean energy in New Jersey from RGGI funds.

$90 million: Estimated energy savings in New Jersey through money spent on energy efficiency.

2 percent: What power plants in RGGI contribute to the national total of greenhouse gas emissions.

“By disregarding the intent of the Legislature which required New Jersey to be a member of RGGI, Governor Christie is ignoring the will of the people,” Assemblyman John McKeon, who chairs the environmental committee, said. Of course he is. But who’s going to hold him accountable come election time?

In the past few years, Republicans across the country have turned their back on market-based cap-and-trade, a system they strongly supported (and, I think, came up with). Why? Well, probably because their real intent is not to help the public transition to a clean, jobs-creating economy, but to continue helping the fossil fuel hands that feed them. Cap-and-trade was their preferred solution for promoting clean energy and fighting climate change until Democrats started to say they were willing to accept and implement that solution (as opposed to a different legislative solution). Now, of course, we see that many Republicans aren’t even willing to implement cap-and-trade!

Until voters make it clear to Republicans who try to kill clean energy programs that they’re not accepted as our political leaders, expect this nonsense to continue.

Our task: educate people about the clear benefits of clean energy, climate science, and true policies of fossil-fuel-funded politicians. That’s my 2 cents. Spread the word!

More RGGI articles on CleanTechnica:

1. 3 States Stay in Northeast Cap & Trade Program (for Obvious Reasons) Despite Huge Republican/Tea Party Attack
2. Massachusetts Joins California and New Mexico to Cut GHGs 25% Below 1990 by 2020
3. Northeast Cap & Trade Initiative’s 10th Auction Brings in $48.2 Million

Photo via Bob Jagendorf

Fracking trucks at a well site.

The drive to replace coal-burning electricity with natural gas continues to run into environmental speed bumps.

Research scientists writing for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) report that while directional drilling and hydraulic-fracturing technologies are dramatically increasing natural-gas extraction, the aquifers overlying the Marcellus and Utica shale formations of northeastern Pennsylvania and upstate New York show systematic evidence of methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale-gas extraction.

The complete PNAS report directly cites hydraulic fracturing as a contributor: “the process of hydraulic fracturing generates new fractures or enlarges existing ones above the target shale formation, increasing the connectivity of the fracture system. The reduced pressure following the fracturing activities could release methane in solution, leading to methane exsolving rapidly from solution, allowing methane gas to potentially migrate upward through the fracture system.”

Active gas-extraction areas having one or more gas wells within a 1-kilometer average not only imperil drinking-water wells, they are also potential explosion hazards, the report states.

The report continues: “These ?¹³C-CH₄ data, coupled with the ratios of methane-to-higher-chain hydrocarbons, and ?²H-CH₄ values, are consistent with deeper thermogenic methane sources such as the Marcellus and Utica shales at the active sites and matched gas geochemistry from gas wells nearby. In contrast, lower-concentration samples from shallow groundwater at nonactive sites had isotopic signatures reflecting a more biogenic or mixed biogenic/thermogenic methane source.”

The researchers concluded “greater stewardship, data, and – possibly – regulation are needed to ensure the sustainable future of shale-gas extraction and to improve public confidence in its use.”

Beyond renewable energies, natural gas is one of the cleaner energy sources out there for those wishing to leave a green footprint. However, the techniques being used to obtain this gas are starting to make some worry.

As previously reported in CleanTechnica, during the last Congress, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce launched an investigation to examine the practice of hydraulic fracturing in the United States.  The committee asked the 14 leading oil and gas service companies to disclose the types and volumes of the hydraulic fracturing products they used in their fluids between 2005 and 2009 and the chemical contents of those products.

For those interested in knowing more, visit FracFocus — a chemical disclosure registry operated by the Groundwater Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.

The details are here for all lookers wanting to search for information about the chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells.

Photo: from the J Henry Fair exhibit at the 2011 Earth Day Fair in Grand Central. Location of site in Dimock, Pennsylvania.