Hi Team,

I’ve started writing on CleanTechies.Com - hopefully that will be a better site for career seekers to find information and ideas.

Warm regards,

-Ian Thomson

Sorry team… we’ve been busy building out the new site - with much more functionality and slowly but surely, we are pleased with the results!

For the time being please join your fellow CleanTechies on our LinkedIn group: CleanTechies

Here is a sneak preview of what our partnership with iLeonardo is going to look like:

CleanTechies Noebooks

If you feel that you’d like to collaborate on a particular folder, send us an email at info (at) cleantechhc.com and we will grant you access to folders.

So… if you were hoping for a long and deep discussion.. sorry! But if you are keen for a read about career switching, get a peak at this article:

Energized by new career prospects

Presidential Policy Discussion | 13 August 2008 - I hope those of you in San Francisco can come.

I have the opportunity to open the evening’s event - here is an expanded version of what I’m thinking of saying…  Keep in mind that it will be held at the Marines’ Memorial Club when reading:

I realize that I am preaching to the converted.  We are at a cross roads that is bringing an unlikely cast of characters apprehensively around the same table - grizzled Marines, ardent environmentalists, venture capitalists, corporate executives and union activists.

The next president of the United States will take office before a backdrop of mounting environmental concerns, national security fears, economic instability and an increasingly discerning, concerned and impatient constituency.  As so many factors come together to contribute to uncertainty, we are reminded that turbulent times call for exacting and effective leadership.

The leader of this country can have a tremendous impact and make our country a true leader among nations.  Like it or not, the United States is still a dominant power; despite failing to take top marks in any recent international popularity contests. This country of immigrants is still seen as a definer of the international world order.

It is fitting that the event will be held at the Marines’ Memorial. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Marine Corps, it is an institution that holds the honor of leadership to be sacrosanct.  Marine Officers are welcomed into the Marine Corps with a motto  - "Ductos Exemplo," which means "Leadership by Example."

The next president of the United States will be charged with a massive rebranding challenge.  For numerous reasons our executive and legislative branch has resisted claiming an international leadership role as it pertains to sustainable electrical generation, energy efficiency and environmental stewardship.  This rebranding strategy must incorporate the tenets of leadership by example.  It is only after this that we can begin to expect to be able to collaborate with other massive consumers of energy will we regain the honor and privilege associated with good leadership.

The road will be hard, the decisions facing out country’s next president will be complex and the solutions will never be easily apparent.  Fossil fuels and Nuclear Power will continue to play a role in our energy mix.   That said it is critical that our next presidential administration facilitates the innovation and implementation  of environmentally, politically and socially sustainable solutions that will fuel our transportation needs and economy.  By doing this effectively the country may regain the honor that comes with leadership that is entrusted by peers.

I know that our candidates recognize this; I’m interested in seeing what their plans are to do something about it.

Please join us tomorrow by registering here: https://www.marineclub.com/Events/renewableenergy/index.htm

-Ian Thomson

Tax Credits are in serious jeopardy… so is scaling the renewable energy industry.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As "cleantechies" you need to get involved in politics, and quickly, to make sure that an important group of industries that will benefit our economy and our environment are not left out to dry.

The United States has demonstrated that it has remarkable renewable energy resources, industrial capability and business acumen; managed properly these resources could produce a tremendous amount of energy and set a standard for the rest of the world.  There are many ways to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy, and the US’ current tax incentives have proven to be (somewhat) effective over the past 10 years - they have been the playing field on which individuals and organizations have made the decision to invest large amounts of capital. These tax incentives have set the rules of the game, for both individuals and corporations, and have stimulated the large capital outlays needed for energy projects. In previous blog entries (and everywhere on the net) you can read about the importance of stable, transparent legislation. It is critical that legislation remains clear as the investments being made are in the billions of dollars.  Yesterday, the US Senate voted against allowing for a meaningful discussion about extending the current tax credits for another year - your senators have largely voted in blocs along party lines, as you can see here .

I do not presume that of all the possible schemes to stimulate renewable energy PTCs and ITCs are the most complete or sustainable solution to solving our energy needs; frankly, they probably are not. Fundamentally, they are an economic inefficiency, a way to spur investment that might not otherwise happen – but in this respect they are no different than hundreds of other inefficiencies which democracies embrace in order to foster the public good.   What I do know is that the industry has been building capacity, projects and entire companies in an attempt to scale clean technologies to the point of making an impact.  Without a clear understanding of what the economics will look like in the future these companies cannot make assumptions on cashflows and are not able to evaluate the risks associated with a potential investment.

This has proven to be very unsettling in the past and now, as has happened before, project developers and financial investors are not interested in developing their pipeline of deals.  Legislators are creating a "boom and bust" cycle by giving incentives to companies to grow and invest and then not allowing them to budget accurately for further investment because they cannot evaluate what the future has in store.  It is the equivalent of expecting a consumer to purchase a car now without knowing what terrain they will be driving on. Let’s call our consumer "Bob." If Bob knew that he would be driving on the Autobahn most of the time, he could begin to consider making the decision to buy a Porsche or something that would be more suitable for a high speed motorway.  But in this case, Bob doesn’t know if he’s going to be on some German Superhighway or some long abandoned jungle road.  Without knowing what terrain or possible potholes he might encounter Bob would be wise to delay the decision of buying a car and take the bus for a while - or keep the clunker he has now.  Likewise, a serious investor will not begin the arduous process of assessing and preparing a large project without knowing the terrain their investment is going to be exposed to.

Without extending the tax credits congress is sending a message to investors that reads:
Invest in as many projects as you can so long as they are in place by the 31st of December 2008. If they are not in place by then, you will have a different financial outlook for projects - but we won’t tell you what that looks like. Build your teams of employees based on the demand we have stimulated until now - but be prepared to draw down in the future (but you had better be ready to grow, too).

In essence congress is telling investors to take the bus - and telling consumers that they are stuck with the clunker they currently have. The problem in this case is that the lead-times involved for preparing for a big deal are often many months long.  Without knowing what the tax incentives are going to look like for projects begun after 31 December investors and developers would rather not consider any projects, so they aren’t.

So, what to do? Easy, for the time being call your Senators and tell them that this is not acceptable.  These industries require stable policies; the capital costs are too high.  Our future on this planet requires that we figure this out soon; the stakes for failing are too high.

Ian Thomson
PS: If you are in San Francisco on the 13th of August - I encourage you to come and hear what the next president of the United States is proposing for his energy policy.  You can register to the co-sponsored Renewable Energy Business Network (REBN) and Marines’ Memorial Association event here .

Energy Independence and the Slow Energy Movement

Happy Monday. Americans are back in the office after the July 4th weekend - Independence Day in the United States.  It serves as a reminder of the effort and focus of American colonialists to break away from English rule over 230 years ago.  They did not do it on their own, it took some help, in this case from the French.

It might be a bit trite for me to try and draw a correlation between political and energy independence, but I’m going to. Around the world countries should use their most patriotic day as a measuring point to see just how independent they are.  In recent years there have been numerous examples of how external energy supply factors have jeopardized a country’s internal economy.  Gazprom, the Russian oil and gas giant, held Europe in its spell as it considered curtailing supply .  As much as the rest of the world operates on a free market, OPEC still holds a tight choker on oil supply and as expected, oil’s price tends to cooperate obediently .

Much like the slow food movement which suggests we should savor our food and take into account where it comes from, I put forth we should aspire to something akin to a slow energy movement.  We should consider where our energy is coming from, and think about the impact associated with delivering it to us.  As I drove along 1-95 in northern Maine last week leading up to Independence Day it boggled my mind how the local gas stations and the cars driving along these isolated rural roads were being serviced by petroleum products extracted from wells in the Middle East – over 10,000 kilometers away.*  It doesn’t make any sense to be so dependent – I am a proponent of a free market economy that allow for goods and services to be traded between areas with different comparative advantages, but I would suggest that there is a more holistic approach to energy.

By sourcing fossil fuels from the opposite corner of the earth there are many implications that you have likely already considered; namely the pollution and emissions involved with the extraction, processing and transportation of the fuel.  What other options are there? Well, many frankly – and they stem from analyzing what energy source is most adequately suited for the environment you are in.  There are many benefits to the global economy, but sourcing materials internationally has some critical downfalls.

By becoming wholly dependent on the supply of something we cannot control locally, we are insulated from the impact of the processes involved.  If we were to source our food from our own backyard, we would be much more inclined to use sustainable farming practices.  Likewise, were the citizens of Maine to depend on bio-diesel from their own forests or wind from their shores they would have an instant incentive to become more energy efficient to ensure that they had enough energy to accomplish their needs. Ultimately it would help insure them against the economic predicaments of soaring heating bills and ballooning fishing input costs.  Likewise, Californian residents should continue to embrace the use of plentiful solar power to reduce their dependence on imported natural gas * – and once they recognize this potential and begin to achieve economies of scale they will embrace solar energy to power their cars through plug in hybrids and much, much more.

Given current economics (we still operate as if oil cost $30/barrel) we do not feel the effects of the energy we mine and pump if it is done a half a world away – we need to be more cognizant of the inefficiency of bringing a technology to an area that cannot support it locally. No one would consider building a hydro plant in the middle of the Mojave Desert - yet we continue to accept using oil for transportation and heating where oil does not exist. Different regions and environments are better suited for different technologies; if we concentrate on sourcing our energy locally we will be increasingly motivated to ensure that they are sustainable and renewable.

It takes foresight and discipline, but we must price the complete environmental and economic impact of sourcing and transporting energy from elsewhere through carbon tax penalties and other schemes to ensure that these renewable and locally sourced technologies will make economic sense now, not only when prices spike or supply is constrained.

Just as the Americans that sought independence 238 years ago needed help from others, no one country or region can seek energy independence on its own.  The true benefit of global trade for the clean-technology and slow energy movement will be in the sharing of people, ideas, financial instruments and technologies – the raw materials should be sourced sustainably and locally where possible.

Just a little independence day rant, hope it makes you think a bit.

-Ian Thomson

*The United States does not receive all of it’s oil from the Middle East; the top five producers of US Imported Oil are Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Nigeria.  **60% of California’s electricity mix comes from fossil fuels – 45.2% from natural gas and 16.6% from coal.

PS: Want to do some volunteering? It is a great way to get to know people and network.  As always, there is lots going on at the Clean Tech Open. Check out the following list of volunteer opportunities and contact Katie at KRoberts (at) cacleantech.com with any interest you have in helping out.

Resource Directory Populating: Be one of the first to build out all the information we will provide to the clean tech world. Research whatever areas interest you, interact with participating partners and sponsors, and be on the cutting edge of this new resource.
Mentor Program Right Hand: Organize the mentors’ schedules and match them up with the best Finalist companies. This is the perfect chance to get an inside scoop on the Mentor program.
Event Prep: Help our Events Chair prep for upcoming events and plan for the future. A great way to get some event experience and meet the sponsors behind the Clean Tech Open.
Grant Research and Writing: Have grant writing experience? Know someone who is looking to make a career move towards this area? Let us know!
Renewable Energy Symposium: Volunteers needed for setup, registration and tear down. July 21st from 5:30 to 8:30pm at Google in Mountain View.
Energy Efficiency Symposium: Volunteers needed for setup, registration and tear down. July 30th from 5:30 to 8:30pm at PG&E in San Francisco.
Can’t find anything here that is up your alley? Contact Katie for many more opportunities to get involved!

Acronyms galore!

Hi Team,

Well the good news at CleanTech Human Capital is that we are starting to roll forward with some ideas - incorporating a discussion board for job seekers and integrating a more complete job board.  If you are a developer and want to give us a hand… write to Hilary(at)CleanTechHC.com  She’d be psyched to hear from you!

For you career changers that are still wrapping your mind around new terms - Renewable Portfolio Standards commonly referred to as RPSs , are central to stimulating renewable energy production in many US states by mandating that utilities incorporate a certain amount of renewable power in their power mix.  Ideally they can actually source this power from their own power plants, but sometimes they have to buy this power from other independent power producers, IPPs (also referred to as non-utility generators).  To make matters more complicated for you, in some states producers can actually uncouple the environmental attributes and incentives associated with the energy produced and sell those Renewable Energy Certificates (or simply RECs ) to a utility while selling the energy produced to a consumer.  To give you some perspective on how that impacts a utilities thinking you can look at how power purchase agreements (PPAs) are put together in a previous post .

Here is a recent article that deals with RPSs to see how they are used in context - PG&E to Add 100MW of Solar Thermal-Biofuel Hybrid Power

So… how about Feed in Tariffs (FiTs )? What are they?  Well they are another system used to stimulate renewable energy projects - except here, IPPs are guaranteed a certain rate for the power that they produced (sometimes a premium is given that is tethered to the going market rate (e.g. market rate plus 8 cents) and sometimes it is a mandated number for a certain number of years.  The idea behind doing this is that the smart finance guys can build an accurate financial model incorporating the costs of developing and running the projects and accurately demonstrate that the project will be profitable given the certainty of payment at a certain rate.  Germany and Spain are the most often cited examples of Feed in Tariffs in action - the guaranteed cash flows of an FiT scheme has stimulated the growth of the renewables industry in these two countries tremendously.

To give some perspective - here is FiT legislation in action: Revision of German FiT

Still curious?  Good! If you want some more discussions on the positives and negatives of each system I’d encourage you to poke around the internet - here is a start on the Union of Concerned Scientists website on the subject of Clean Energy Policies.

Keep grappling to learn about these different policies and understand what motivates project developers to move forward with projects in some countries but not in others… get involved with your politicians and let them know that you vote and that you want them to provide legislation that stimulates efficiency and renewable energy project development!  Speaking of politicians… do you know what Obama and McCain have in store for us if they are elected?  In Energy Policy, McCain, Obama differ on Role of Government .

Ciao for now,

-Ian Thomson

Online Resources

Career Changers… you should have already loaded all those RSS feeds into your readers (RSS Feeds Blog Entry ).  If you’ve never heard of an RSS Feed head to wiki and then choose a reader - Google’s is pretty user friendly. RSS feeds are great for gaining situational awareness, but once you read about a particular technology… where to turn?

More Online Resources:

Well you’ve always got regular Wikipedia and increasingly you have Green Wikia which is growing daily. I was shown another nugget today at iTuneU. Jump onto your iTunes and go into iTunes Store, under that you’ll see iTunes U.  Click in there and you’ve got access to a bunch of great information in the form of lectures by professors from top tier universities from around the world on whatever you want to learn about. I was flipping through a few under "Smart Energy" by Stanford, each is a quick snippet about 15 minutes or so of an interview with a famous professor talking about their subject of expertise.

Pretty nifty stuff - you certainly won’t be able to be the CTO of a fuel cell company after spending the night at a Holiday Inn Express and hearing a some prof’s lecture, but you’ll have a good starting point. And it goes to my thesis and why we are here, that is to say that if you are a marketing professional, and you like the space, have done some research, know what competitors are out there and you know what the implications  for the greater energy space are for the product of the company you are applying for, then you are in pretty good shape, and you probably know enough about the CleanTech space to get that job (if your marketing background is solid).

Also, don’t forget you can always go to the library - the CleanTech Human Capital team spent the day in the San Francisco public library yesterday researching human resources and hiring practices. It was a remarkable place, full of books.  The librarians are amazing - they actually love doing your research for you - it turns out that the internet is not the only source of information we have available to us!  It is a great resource you may have forgotten to turn to if you have been out of school for a while. It was pretty indicative that we were among the few people born after the 1969 - and a great many folks that were just using it as a good place to nap!

Hope it helps,

-Ian

Renewable Financing 101

Job seekers, if you are new to the industry it might be hard wrap your head around how Solar Power deals are structured. One of the common ways commercial, and increasingly residential customers, buy solar power or other renewable power is through something called a Power Purchase Agreement (referred commonly as a PPA).  That is to say, they buy the power generated by the solar panels, but they don’t necessarily own the solar panels on their roofs.

There are a several companies out there providing PPAs to commercial customers that you may have heard of: SunEdison, Recurrent Energy, MMA Renewable Ventures, and Tioga Energy.  Each have smart finance guys that put together these deals - Tioga Energy’s smart guy is Kristian Hanelt; he’s written a pretty straight forward explanation that will help you understand the economics behind their projects and why they are good for the entity that buys the power and the company that provides it. You can download that report here: http://www.tiogaenergy.com/tioga-reports.php

Don’t get intimidated by the graphs and models, just make sure you understand the concept because these PPAs are critical in bringing renewables into the mainstream.

Hasta pronto!

-Ian Thomson

Network, network… and then network some more. Go to conferences to learn and meet smart people that can expand your horizons - and don’t be focused on just this job.  Eventually they will be contacts you can need for whatever job you end up in, if you keep that in mind you’ll be giving as much as recieving in the social interchange.

Here is a good and somewhat humorous article that talks about the differences between US and UK approaches to networking (not about our industries tough): http://news.efinancialcareers.co.uk/newsandviews_item/newsItemId-13760

Don’t worry if you are feeling a bit British and are intimidated (or terrified!) by networking - no need to run out and buy Networking for Dummies (I just checked… it actually exists. You can get it for 15 bucks or something like that at amazon.com); but I will give some quick free advice for you (remember that you get what you pay for): when you go to events, like tonight’s put on by Antenna Group in SF, or Green Drinks tomorrow (see yesterday’s post) or conferences:

• Have fun meeting new people - this community is filled with smart, interesting and sometimes attractive people.
• Don’t be sleazy - networking is fun, be social, but don’t be a card "whore"
• Follow up with people - talk with them, develop a rapport and then met up later… don’t have a resume in hand - the people that are there aren’t looking to make a hiring decision!
• Be interesting - come ready to chat about whatever, not just CleanTech or green stuff

Speaking of great networks though,REBN (Renewable Energy Business Network) is going National and then…. Global - http://cleantechinvesting.greentechmedia.com/2008/06/03/big-news-with-rebn/

Definitely join and participate, if you are in some far flung place that doesn’t have a chapter, write in and help set something up.

Great job Rob.  Join us for the next REBN events in your area… We’ll be throwing the next Bay area event in SOMA the week of the 16th of June - we’ll let you know where soon!

Hasta pronto!

-Ian

German California Solar Day (http://usa.sanfrancisco.ahk.de/index.php?id=78&no_cache=1&L=15&78=&tx_mjseventpro_pi1[showUid]=106)

The event was a pretty fabulous display of Clean Technology companies taking advantage of international trade; the event marked the two year anniversary of the Joint Venture partnership of Q-Cells and Solaria. There were great presentations by local players Gary Gerber (CalSEIA), Matt Cheney (MMA Renewable Ventures), Daniel Kammen (Berkeley), and German players describing the German market and their predictions for the future of solar world wide.  Their presentations were packed with information, and they are posted on the site (I just checked!).

I missed Eco Tuesday - too much for one day, but here are some things coming down the pipeline:

Friday, 30 May (tomorrow!) http://www.vlab.org/article.html?aid=196

The VLAB Emerging Business Track, Clean Green Team, is pleased to invite you to attend a panel discuss on Clean Green Investment Trends: The Opportunities and the Challenges.

• Event Date: Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 9:00am
• 9:00am - 12:00pm - Networking, Panel Discussion and Q/A
• Silicon Valley Bank’s Kellog Auditorium, 3005 Tasman Drive, Santa Clara, CA

Green Drinks June 2nd (San Francisco)

First Wednesday of each month from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Varnish Fine Arts at 77 Natoma Street, near 2nd Street in San Francisco. [Natoma Street is in between Howard and Mission Streets.]

Southern California Executive Summary Workshop - June 10th (San Diego)

The Clean Tech Open is offering its very first Executive Summary Workshop in Southern California. If you are located around San Deigo or Los Angeles and have entered the competition or are planning to submit an executive summary, please join us for this unprecedented event. The evening will include an interactive workshop to help contestants and interested parties build and improve Executive Summaries. Questions about applications and judging criteria will be answered. There will also be a session on Sustainability, how to incorporate it into business practices, and metrics for measurement.

• Tuesday, June 10 from 6:30 to 9:00pm
• Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
• 12235 El Camino Real # 200, San Diego, CA 92130
• Free for registered contestants; $20 online, $30 at the door.
• http://www.cacleantech.com/events.php?page=eventDetail_execworkshop_socal

Smart Power Symposium - June 11th (Silicon Valley) Do you have a great idea about power storage? Are you thinking about entering the competition with your smart grid technology? Attend the first symposium of the 2008 California Competition, hosted by AMD and Siemens TTB. The evening will include a poster session by Clean Tech Open Smart Power category winners and finalists, plus time for networking. A panel of Smart Power experts will address the current trends and challenges facing the link between information technology and electricity delivery.

• Wednesday, June 11 from 5:00 to 8:00 pm
• AMD, One AMD Place, Sunnyvale, CA
• Free for registered contestants; $20 online, $30 at the door.
• http://www.cacleantech.com/events.php?page=eventDetail_symposium1

There are REBN events planned for mid June, stand by for details…. if you have a pertinent networking event that you’d like mentioned on the Blog, just drop a line, we’ll be happy to put it on.

Best,

-Ian

PS: We’re hiring - if you have recruiting experience and you are interested in "Going Green" drop a line!

PPS: Here is a fun video to share with your friends that supports the ideas of sustainable cycles: http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html