Cypress, Adura Team Up for Building Management

Heating, air conditioning and ventilation account for 32 percent of the energy consumed in commercial buildings and lighting consumes another 25 percent, according to the 2008 Buildings Energy Data Book. Cypress Envirosystems and Adura Technologies are going to work together to reduce it.

Cypress, a division of Cypress Semiconductor, has developed a radio controlled thermostat that can replace the pneumatic thermostats deployed in most buildings built before 1995.

"You can't control them [pneumatic thermostats] remotely," said Harry Sim, CEO of Cypress Envirosystems. "They are compressed air."

Cypress' thermostat costs about $500 and installs in a few minutes. Google, Kaiser Permanente and Stanford have all installed the thermostats. (You need a single thermostat for roughly every 1,000 square feet of floor space, said Sim.)

Adura, funded by VantagePoint Venture Partners, has devised a controller for lighting systems. In tests with PG&E, Adura managed to cut power going to lights in a building by over 72 percent.

By combining together, the two companies say they can cut building power consumption by 30 percent to 50 percent. Cypress will sell Adura's equipment and vice versa. Over time, the two companies will try to synchronize their software so that it comes across more as a seamless solution. The technology from Cypress and Adura also work with the building management systems from incumbents like Johnson Controls and Honeywell.

Along with energy efficiency retrofits, building management has turned into a growth market in the past few years. Both the Federal government and the state of California have already passed initiatives to ensure that new commercial buildings will be net-zero energy structures by 2030. While solar will provide power, a substantial portion of the net-zero goal will be accomplished through clever conservation.

And each building adds up. Sim noted that California's baseline power requirement is around 35,000 gigawatts and the peak power requirement is around 55,000 gigawatts. That 20,000-gigawatt gap between baseline and peak is largely consumed by air conditioners flipping on on a hot summer day.

Smart Grid Investment Grants: The Also-Rans

For every one project that got a piece of $3.4 billion in Department of Energy stimulus grants on Tuesday, three projects didn't.

But while the 100 winning projects may have won on the technical merits, that doesn't mean the 300 that didn't make the cut are lacking in quality, DOE advisor Matt Rogers said in announcing the awards (see DOE's $3.43B Smart Grid Grant Program: The Winners).

Still, utilities with projects that didn't make Tuesday's list are likely weighing their options for how – or if – to continue without DOE funding.

Several utilities had asked for extra money to speed up ongoing smart grid projects. Those will likely continue, if not as fast as they could have.

Dominion Virginia Power, for example, didn't get $200 million to speed up its deployment of 2.4 million smart meters, and Austin Energy missed out on the $113 million it was seeking to help support its $230 million plan to build out smart grid systems across its service area (see Grant Watch: Austin Energy, Oncor Seek Millions More for Smart Grid).

Some utilities filed multiple requests that added up to more than the $200 million maximum. Some of those got only partial funding.

Atlanta-based Southern Co., for example, only got $164 million of the $362 million it had sought (see Green Light post). Pepco won $149 million, but had asked for $254 million (see Baltimore Business Journal).

Texas-based Oncor, which had sought a total of $317 million in three applications to support both smart meter and distribution grid automation projects, didn't get any grant funding (see Oncor Makes $317M Smart Grid Stimulus Pitch).

Other projects that didn't get grants haven't started yet, but were part of utilities' longer-range plans. Whether or not they can go forward or will have to be scaled back or shelved will depend on many factors, including how much funding they've already secured versus how much they'll have to ask state regulators to approve via customer rate hikes.

Pacific Gas & Electric, for example, didn't get the $42.5 million it had sought to boost its plan to deploy energy management devices to about 75,000 small businesses and homes in San Jose, Calif. (see PG&E Asks Cisco to Help Make 75K Businesses Energy Wise).

Still, the utility will move forward with a smaller-scale project with funding already approved as part of its $2.2 billion, 10 million smart meter deployment, PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno said Tuesday.

Other proposals that weren't on Tuesday's winners list include:

• Connecticut-based Northeast Utilities, which had sought grants of about $126.5 million, or up to half the cost of its $253 million smart grant plan.
• National Grid, a U.K.-based company with operations in the United States, had asked for $200 million for a smart grid program for about 200,000 customers in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
• St. Louis, Miss.-based Ameren Corp. has sought $185 million for two of its subsidiary utilities in Missouri and Illinois.
• Chicago-based Commonwealth Edison had asked for $175 million to boost its 141,000 smart meter deployment (see Green Light post).
• The Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago (BOMA Chicago) had wanted $93 million to create a "virtual generator" out of 260 office buildings linked for energy control (see BOMA Chicago's $93M Smart Grid Stimulus Pitch).

Geothermal From GreenFire: The Lowest Cost Energy (+ CCS)

"CO2-G [CO2 Geothermal] is projected to have the lowest cost of any form of energy and is the only source of energy that permanantly sequesters carbon."

Those are the words of Mark Muir, co-founder of GreenFire Energy, a startup with an innovative twist on geothermal energy. 

Conventional geothermal energy entails tapping a heat source at relatively shallow depths and capturing the heat as steam to turn a turbine. Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) create geothermal energy in hot dry rock by sending pressurized water down an injection well. Water travels through fissures, capturing the heat of the rock when it is forced out of a second well as hot water, which is then converted into electricity via a steam turbine or a binary power plant.  The cooled water is sent back into the earth to heat up again.

GreenFire dispenses with the water and instead uses carbon dioxide as the geothermal "feedstock."

"Geothermal ends up with the lowest cost – but conventional geothermal has big cooling towers and pumps. Hopefully we can get away from all that," adds Muir.

He projects that Carbon Dioxide Geothermal (CO2-G) can have a lower LCOE than any other scalable form of energy.

According to the CEC (California Energy Commission), there are 43 operating geothermal power plants with an installed capacity of about 1,750 megawatts in California, almost two-thirds of the United States' 3 gigawatts of geothermal generation. Geothermal energy production in the U.S. is a $1.4 billion industry – far bigger than the U.S. solar market.  And unlike solar, geothermal power is baseload power – available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Iceland gets over a quarter of its electricity from geothermal sources.

GreenFire's CO2 can come from natural sources or from the emissions of coal plants.

One of the largest natural deposits of CO2 is located in the the St. Johns Dome, a region extending across Arizona and New Mexico. It is a perfect site for GreenFire because it has the CO2 resource, a thermal reservoir, access to transmission lines and there are two power plants right at the dome and four more within a 200-mile radius. GreenFire is in a joint venture with Enhanced Oil Resources, the company with the leases to the CO2.

So, in addition to producing low-cost geothermal power, CO2-G can actually find a use for the carbon captured from coal plants.

This is important. Coal provides 50 percent of the U.S.'s electricity and according to EPRI, The Electric Power Research Institute – coal is here to stay. EPRI predicts that coal will continue to dominate our electrical production. But in order to meet any carbon legislation, it's going to have to be coal with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). 

The U.S. DOE will be making $55 million available to develop advanced carbon capture technologies at existing power plants. An economical technology for CCS has not yet emerged. 

Although not involved in reducing the cost of carbon capture, Greenfire believes they can save up to $25 per ton in total CCS costs (which are predicted to be in the range of $40 to $80 per ton once the process becomes commercial). The energy for for carbon capture could be a third of the plant's output. CO2-G essentially provides the power for the Carbon Capture.

We covered available CCS technologies such as membranes, solvents, solid sorbents and condensed-phase capture in an article earlier this year.  

GreenFire has the option of harvesting the kinetic energy from the wellhead. Since CO2 expands much more than water – it creates a highly pressurized situation.  That expansion's kinetic energy can be harnessed by a new type of energy transducer, the "free piston linear alternator," from the likes of Greenwell Renewable Power.

GreenFire is a small company and is looking for funding.  Muir estimates that he'll need about five years and substantial backing to put together a demonstration site. "It's not inconceivable for the money to come from smart VCs" but the likely source would be funding from the coal industry, "because its a matter of life and death in a carbon constrained world," according to Muir. 

Muir estimates that 5 percent of the world's coal plants might be eligible for the GreenFire CCS technique.

Bloggage From Solar Power International, Part 1

With more than 18,000 attendees and about 900 exhibitors in Anaheim, Calif. (right near Disneyland) – Solar Power International is the largest solar trade show in the U.S. I'll be posting as frequently as I can from the event.

Last night was the opening reception with nearby fireworks and thousands of people milling to the sounds of the cover band that follows me around from city to city.  They played "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Play That Funky Music White Boy."  It was not funky.

The solar industry has succeeded in moving through an entire business cycle – from boom to bust to its current recovery. Trade shows have their own phases and cycles and SPI is now in the swimsuit models and "spokes model" in hot pants phase.

I spoke with a few PV inverter companies and they have an interesting problem – long lead times.  There is a components shortage and certain large inverter companies are quoting a five month (!) lead time. 

I ran into Greg Kelly (Sr. VP of Bus Dev) and Mike Childers (Chief Commercial Officer) of Miasole. Interesting news from them: They have achieved UL approval on their CIGS solar panels and are touting a 10.5 percent efficiency.  They claim a 60-megawatt capacity with 60 megawatts to come and look for a capex of 50 cents per watt.

More soon.

If You’re Selling a Company, Call Siemens

Siemens is the company that just can't resist.

The German industrial giant is considering purchasing solar cell maker Q-Cells, according to Reuters (via Forbes here.).

Earlier this month, Siemens bought solar thermal vendor Solel for $418 million. Earlier, it has bought an number of water companies and ramped up its investments in smart grid.

In a list of the top ten acquirers in greentech, we picked Siemens as number two, right behind General Electric.

This is a pattern you should get used to. Small, innovative startups often have tremendous technology, but they lack the capital, distribution networks and relationships to bring their ideas to fruition. Large conglomerates often fail to capitalize on the interesting stuff in their labs, but they do know how to buy stuff that seems to work and take it commercial. Thus, greentech will be a barbell market – a lot of small companies and a few large companies with not a lot of things in between.

As acquisitions spread, you can start to think of Silicon Valley as a farm system for conglomerates. That doesn't sit well with some: Didn't Silicon Valley win out over old-style conglomerates like Digital and IBM? Yes, but it doesn't mean it happens in every situation. Green startups are born to be bought.

And if Siemens isn't interested, start talking to Philips (two lighting acquisitions this year), Toshiba, TSMC, and Cisco Systems.

Fisker’s Cheap Hybrid Coming in Late 2012, After the Model S

Project Nina, the $39,900 plug-in hybrid for upper middle class families, from Fisker Automotive will start moving into production in 2012, thanks to a deal that will allow Fisker to take over a General Motors plant in Delaware.

Federal stimulus dollars have paved the way for Fisker to get the plant. Fisker will come out with its first car, the almost $90,000 Karma, next year. Earlier, it had hoped to come out with the Karma this year, but it's the electric car industry, people. Delays are endemic.

Although very few electric cars are in production today, the Nina will come out in a market that will be increasingly crowded. By then, Nissan, General Motors and Ford will have released, respectively, the Leaf (2010), the Volt (2010) and the Focus (2011) and Ford will be ramping up for a plug-in hybrid too. Many other Japanese manufacturers and some South Korean will likely have cars out then too.

And then there is arch rival Tesla Motors, which says the $57,000 Model S comes out in 2011. Panasonic will make the batteries for the Model S.

Granted, plug-ins, hybrids and all-electrics will only constitute a fraction of the market by 2012. Hybrids now account for 3 percent of new car sales and by 2020 it should rise to 10 to 25 percent. Still, The Nina won't be the only plugger in the showroom. Good news for consumers, but it makes it tougher for Fisker.