Cleantech Update

CHP Industry and Interested Stakeholders: At the upcoming Clean Energy Roadmap Workshop, the GC RAC seeks input from the CHP, waste heat recovery, and district energy industries and key stakeholders regarding market development strategies and RAC service offerings in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. A vital part of the workshop preparation is a survey of the CHP industry and interested stakeholders. Your input is needed now to help develop a successful workshop. Whether or not you plan to attend, please TAKE THE CH P SURVEY NOW Please forward the survey link to anyone you know that might have an interest in taking part. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=P59WnTuFDAM1jHWu3JZn1A_3d_3d If you are interested in attending the Workshop, come prepared to roll up your sleeves and share your ideas to help grow the CHP market in the Gulf Coast region. This event will be a major opportunity for interested stakeholders to provide strategic input to the GC RAC regarding its education and...

Can an open source data management system do for the smart grid what Google’s open mobile operating system Android is doing for cell phones — spawn innovation and low cost development? Execs at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the largest public power provider in the U.S., seem to think so. TVA analyst Josh Patterson says Google’s Android is a good analogy for openPDC, an open source version of a platform that aggregates and processes data about the health of the power grid , and which TVA has helped create. Like Android has done for the mobile industry, openPDC will enable utilities and the power industry to develop their own versions of data management services with more flexibility and at a lower cost than proprietary systems, Patterson points out. The comparison might be a tad abstract, but I think it holds water. OpenPDC could be as key to the deployment of the smart grid as Android has been for the recent sea-change in the mobile industry (see GigaOM Pro’s report o...

Companies marketing green products and, in particular, promoting their green energy initiatives are using words like “energy conservation” and “green energy,” but what effect has this had on consumers? Do they care? Do they even understand what these terms mean? EcoAlign, a strategic marketing agency focused on energy and the environment, decided to find out. In September, it conducted 1,000 interviews, comparing against a similar survey conducted in September 2007. The sample was balanced to match the U.S. population by age, gender, region and ethnicity. The results? Green Align found that consumers generally have positive associations with the terms “energy efficiency,” “energy conservation” and “clean energy,” but their understanding of what these terms mean has remained the same or decreased since 2007. They also have low or negative understanding about technical terms such as “demand response” (resulting in the recommendation that such terminology not be used in external mar...

In mid-October, President Obama moved to raise the amount of credit extended to small businesses. If Congress approves his plan, the measures would enable community banks to borrow at low rates from the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). It would also raise loan caps on some Small Business Administration (SBA) programs. To qualify, the banks would have to show how they would increase lending to small enterprises. The relief could not come a moment too soon. The job-creation engine known as small business has been slammed, not only because of falling demand but also because the normal flow of financing has slowed to a trickle. Small enterprises have created two-thirds of all new jobs since 1994 and they employ more than half of all private-sector employees. (The SBA's definition of a small enterprise is "an independent business having fewer than 500 employees.") In September, for the second straight month, they laid off more workers th...

Green-energy provider Lichtblick and German automaker Volkswagen are joining forces and promising to stir up the energy market with an unusual plan. Instead of relying on massive energy facilities, the average consumer may soon have a miniature power station in their basement. Chief executives of Germany's major energy suppliers usually don't have much time for their junior counterpart, Lichtblick. The Hamburg-based green-electricity provider's half a million customers may be "impressive," they say, but Lichtblick works in a niche market and is no competition for the larger companies in the industry. But things may be about to change. In the next couple of days, the relatively small company is due to reveal a new business model that could shake up the energy market quite a bit -- and not only in Germany. So, despite the fact that they currently have large power plants and considerable power over the market, things may soon turn a little less comfortable for e...

20-year fixed interest rate on SBA 504 loan projects has hit a new record low, and this is the fourth time it's happened in the last six months. I feel a bit like a broken record. Every time I turn around I'm blogging about this, emailing someone about it, or talking to another financial news outlet about it . This really is a HUGE deal. This is the first time the 20-year fixed interest rate on SBA 504 loans has dropped below 5.00% to 4.86%. The Rest @ Blue MauMau These loans can be used for comercial property purchases, including energy efficiency refinanaces. -Editor