Green Tech at a Crossroads: In Search of the Green Tech Google

A year ago, solar-technology start-up Ausra was ready for the big time. There were plans on the table to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to build giant power plants and to conduct an initial public offering of Ausra shares by 2010.

Then the recession hit. Ausra executives refocused on more modest goals, such as building small solar units, and selling equipment for industrial operations like desalination and food processing. It also is trying to sell to utilities, rather than build massive solar plants itself.

“Utilities are really in a great position to build large-scale projects,” said Katherine Potter, communications vice president at Ausra. “You need to walk before you can run, but the technology is there.”

That IPO goal, it’s fair to say, is off the table for the foreseeable future. And as executives came to accept that Ausra had to change its business, the Palo Alto, Calif., company cut about 10 percent of its 108 employees.

Ausra isn’t the only green-tech company dealing with reduced expectations. Despite high hopes, $14.5 billion in worldwide venture funding over the last two years, and cheerleading from the Obama White House, 2009 could be a make-or-break year for many green-tech outfits. And the stakes may be greater than the fortunes of a few entrepreneurs and their investors.

Save The World, Make Money

Can the United States simultaneously lean on green-tech investment to help fix its broken economy, wean itself off dependence on foreign fuel sources, and address climate change concerns? President Obama, for one, appears to be a believer in one of the fundamental underpinnings of green business: you can make money while helping save the world.

“One of the key points that…I will repeat again and again during the course of my presidency is there is not a contradiction between economic growth and sound environmental practices,” Obama said when he named his energy and environment team in December. “I think that the future of innovation and technology is going to be what drives our economy into the future. And the energy economy is going to be part of what creates the millions of jobs we need.”

Green-tech entrepreneurs and investors are well aware of these lofty goals. But these days, they’re more focused on other issues, such as finding the money to stay in business and landing customers.

“We had closed a round of funding in October for the next stage of vehicle development–then all of that went off the table in about six days,” said John Waters, the CEO of stealthy electric-car start-up Bright Automotive, which restructured two months later and managed to find alternative funding.

The question isn’t whether the green-tech movement will whither away. Already, there is a growing consumer niche for green technologies, from rooftop solar panels to low-power consumer electronics made from recycled materials.

Read more

Eight Energy Suggestions for Obama, From SunEdison’s Founder

SunEdison installs large scale solar arrays, such as this one on the roof of a Kohl’s department store.  Ownership of the solar power systems is retained by SunEdison and the building owner purchases the solar electricity from SunEdison.  SunEdison in turn profits from their investment by selling the electricity, collecting the rebates, tax credits and also selling the Renewable Energy Certificates generated along with the solar power.

By Kate Galbraith

This morning I spoke with Jigar Shah, the founder of SunEdison, whose innovative solar power financing model was described in a New York Times article from 2006.

Mr. Shah - who is no longer with SunEdison but remains a major shareholder - shared a number of interesting suggestions for transforming the nation’s energy profile. Eight of those ideas - which Mr. Shah says he has conveyed to the Obama team, though he does not officially advise them - are outlined below.

***

1) Spend $10 billion over the next few years to green the federal government. Put solar panels on rooftops, and introduce other types of alternative energy to power government buildings.

2) Make federal utilities take the lead on pushing renewable energy. The government owns a handful of hydropower utilities, like the Bonneville Power Administration, the Southwestern Power Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority. These utilities, Mr. Shah said, could invest in wind power.

3) Provide more federal assistance to make municipal buildings energy efficient, through the clean renewable energy bond program or other means.

4) Establish California’s energy-efficient building code, called Title 24, as a federal standard.

Read more