Las Vegas Convention Center

As we finish 2015 and come into the new year, now seems an appropriate time to reflect on what happened over the last 12 months and what we can expect in the coming year. In the second week of December (12/6-12/10) 21,000 energy professionals met in Las Vegas for the annual Power Generation Week. The conference was a series of energy conferences compiled of 5 events thrown at the Las Vegas Convention center. Led by Power Gen International (PGI) – the largest conference and expo for the traditional power generation industry –  the event also featured the Renewable Energy World Conference and Expo, Nuclear Power International, Coal-Gen and the Gen Forum. It was a highly informative and collaborative week of technical tours, conference sessions, networking events and much more. I was lucky enough to attend – however, if you missed out here is the top news and insights from the event.

Las Vegas to Achieve 100% Renewable Energy for City Operations

Photo Credit: Brisan

The first piece of news was an announcement made just two weeks prior, when the city of Las Vegas and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.-owned NV Energy (also a utility sponsor for the event) announced a new partnership that could take the city to a new level of environmental sustainability by drastically increasing the generation of renewable energy.  The proposal still requires the approval of a filing to the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada, and approval from the Las Vegas City Council yet under the proposal all municipal buildings, fire stations, parks, streetlights, and other facilities in Las Vegas will be powered entirely by clean energy. The power will be supplied by a portion of the 100 MW (AC) Boulder Solar power plant currently under development in the Eldorado Valley of Boulder City, Nevada. Construction for the plant is being completed by SunPower. The energy dedicated from this solar facility, and the power that the city receives from NV Energy already satisfies the state’s renewable portfolio standard and now the partnership will allow the city of Las Vegas’ retail load to be served 100 percent by renewable energy. Although the agreement doesn’t cover the famously bright, privately owned casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, it is still a very encouraging move from the council and a sign that renewable generation becoming increasingly competitive with electricity produced from fossil fuels. Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman proudly stated that “We will become the first city of our size in the nation to achieve 100 percent renewable energy for city operations”.

Trade show floor at Power Generation Week 2015

In addition to some of the large scale utility and policy news shared during the keynote speeches, the event also had one of the largest trade show floors I’d ever seen. With interesting technologies shown through interactive displays and product demos, there was an endless array of innovation such as Kubota Engine America Corp. (KEA) who was debuting one of their new product lines. Attendees at Power Generation Week 2015 had the opportunity to get an exclusive look at KEA’s BG Engines for Emergency Stationary Standby Gensets. The line is Kubota’s first complete package and expands the company’s reach in the power generation market.

Clean coal? Is it possible?

While most of the focus was on renewables and their applications one discussion that I found interesting was the efficiency leaps being made with coal power generation. Seeing as coal fuels account for 40 percent of the world’s electricity generation and is approaching oil as the world’s largest energy source, I was intrigued by Peabody Energy who have honored coal-fueled power plants for top global and U.S. environmental performance with its Advanced Energy for Life Clean Coal Awards. Global award recipients include Dynegy Inc. in the United States, Korea Southeast Power Co. (KOSEP) in South Korea, and Trianel Kohlekraftwerk Lünen GmbH & Co KG (Trianel) in Germany. These power plants all displayed a significant reduction of emissions from traditional coal powered power plants. One such example operating in Central Illinois is Dynegy Inc.’s Coffeen Plant which has been honored both globally and in the United States for the lowest emissions profile for SO2 has an SO2 emissions rate that is 99 percent lower than the U.S. coal plant average. “At a time of heightened global discussion about the benefits of advanced coal technologies, Peabody is proud to showcase clean energy solutions that achieve meaningful emissions improvement,” Peabody Energy President and Chief Executive Officer Glenn Kellow said. “These plants are demonstrating the best results worldwide and offer a powerful model to achieve our global environmental goals.”. So although most would agree that coal fired power plants are an inferior long term solution to renewables such as solar and wind, I found it encouraging to learn that even existing power plants were improving in environmental performance as we make the transition to more widespread renewable generation.

Nuclear Power in Canada

Another discussion I found interesting about the Nuclear Power generation in Ontario, Canada. I learnt that Nuclear Power provides more than 50% of electrical energy in Canada’s most populous province, Ontario. With export sales of $1.2B per annum the Nuclear Power in Ontario contributes over $5B/year to the Canadian economy and responsible for 30,000 direct jobs – highly skilled, technical and professional.  Ontario is the world’s second largest producer of uranium, producing 10,000 tonnes/year, and the OCI claim that because of the Nuclear Power generation 90 million tonnes of GHG emissions are avoided annually in Ontario. On the tech side of things, I was interested when I saw an Internet of Things (IOT) application with portable power generators. ZTR have been able to decrease downtime and reduce the operational costs of monitoring power generation equipment with the i3 Network. This allows you to access real time data from rental generators so that you can track usage based on actual equipment use. Additionally the technology allows you to access Remote Diagnostics so you can know what the issue is and take the right tools and parts on the first trip.

Microsoft Signs 20 Year PPA for Solar

Finally there was discussions about the GE Energy Financial Services’ announcement from this earlier that week. EDF Renewable Energy’s 175–megawatt (MW) Pilot Hill wind project located in Kankakee and Iroquois Counties in Illinois has closed structured equity financing from GE Unit (NYSE:GE) GE Energy Financial Services and MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET). The project, which has achieved commercial operations and is located about 60 miles southwest of Chicago, will power 100 percent of the energy needs of Microsoft Corporation’s Chicago data center.  Microsoft has committed to purchase the output under a 20-year power purchase agreement. This is Microsoft’s second and largest wind energy deal which demonstrates its commitment to a neutral carbon footprint. “Pilot Hill serves as another example of EDF Renewable Energy’s strategy to develop renewable energy projects with first tier equipment suppliers and contractors, and then invite the investment from longstanding financial partners,” said Jim Peters, Vice President, Project Finance for EDF Renewable Energy in a statement. “EDF RE will manage the wind project and bring our expertise in operations and maintenance through EDF Renewable Services to optimize long-term investment profitability.” Microsoft still has a long way to go to keep up with Google as to having renewable generation however the move is encouraging to see.

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Los Angeles Convention Centre

As with all cities, Los Angeles has its fair share of commercial real estate. The cities urban sprawl may not be a picturesque as the concrete jungles of New York however; at the end of June it was the center for everything to do with commercial buildings. On the 26-28 of June 2015 building owners from all across the country and the world met at the Los Angeles Convention Centre for the Annual BOMA convention. After working with utilities and startups in California in the energy efficiency sector I was interested to find out what the Californian building owners were doing in response to the water shortages in the area. I was also curious to learn about new innovative technologies that were making commercial buildings more efficient in terms of water and energy usage. As a reader of the blog I imagine that commercial energy efficiency this is something that would also be of interest to you. So without further ado here is my experience of the event and a summary of what I learnt.

As I arrived at the convention center I was surprised to see that the BOMA event used up almost all of the available space within the convention center. The trade floor was expansive with venders of all things building related presenting their solutions to the BOMA members who were browsing stands and networking with other members. Stands with everything from construction services to lease management solutions. There were also stands from local utilities that were providing education surrounding the sustainability issues of the area and promoting their incentive programs to the Californian members. This caught my attention and I was interested to see how BOMA members responded to the programs.

Most BOMA members seemed intrigued by the programs which involved free upgrades however, from what I observed there seemed to be much less interest in the partial funded programs. Many of the building owners had taken part in some of the SoCal Water SMART programs including the High Efficiency Toilet rebates that have been available. With the drought pushing the water efficiency projects into high priority, I noticed that there seemed to be more of a hesitance towards LED retrofits, which would involve a larger scale capital investment. It was encouraging to see more building owners taking efficiency seriously and even more so to see that many have already worked with utilities on projects.

As I browsed the trade floor I was impressed by the size of the “Green” area, which represented venders promoting technology products and services with sustainability and efficiency in mind. There I saw lighting manufacturers such as the California brand DECO lighting, trash reduction technology company EPAX Systems and BETCO with their high efficiency urinal solution.  It seemed that rising utility rates have grown the demand for solutions. As these costs become a larger portion of the total overhead for commercial buildings, the business case for efficiency retrofits gets stronger. Personally, I found it quite encouraging to see the extent of the “Green” innovation and how these solutions had many indirect benefits. Many of the regular BOMA members I spoke to expressed that they felt that the focus on efficiency had increased and some also mentioning that they appreciated the increasing availability of efficiency solutions.

In addition to the trade areas, the BOMA event also provided educational seminars in the conference rooms. Each of these seminars involved experts presenting on industry related topics, which would surely be valuable to any building owner or manager. What I was most interested about was the seminars related to topics of energy management, net-zero building and I also enjoyed some of the international debates. Additionally there were seminars on project financing with the PACE program for efficiency retrofits and solar installs.

I paid close attention to how these programs were being perceived by the building owners and engineers.  Those who attended listened intently. However, I would guess that these members must have already been considering their own projects and there were much less attendees at this seminar than others. The low turnout was somewhat disappointing because what I have found to be one of the main factors that often hold back efficiency projects in the commercial sector is the misunderstanding of available financing options. I’ve observed many projects not gaining approval because the financing options (which are often zero-out of pocket, paid-through-savings programs) not being adequately explained. Even so I was glad to see these seminars on the BOMA agenda and hope that these topics will gain further interest in the coming years.

With BOMA official Jerry Louis

All in all I was very impressed with the standard in which BOMA conducted the event. Even without personally being a building owner or manager I was able to see the value that BOMA creates for its members at one of these events. The convention represented a fantastic opportunity for members to network with other owners and managers, learn from industry related seminars and browse vendors and solutions providers related to the industry. Beyond these benefits the event had a very upbeat energy with many great ideas being exchanged at conversations had between seminars and during the lunch break. The attention on “Green” innovation was encouraging and I look forward to seeing the technologies and solutions evolve along with the shifting perceptions on energy efficiency and its effect on conducting profitable business in addition to sustainability concerns.

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Your rooftop solar is going to generate less electricity over the winter months. Your hot water and heating costs will also become a larger portion of your bill and for most places your utility bills get more costly as temperatures drop.

On top of this, as residential electricity charges continue to rise, it becomes increasingly important (and cost effective!!) to reduce your electricity consumption.

So what options are there… DIY? Professional Consultants?

If you’ve got some technical know how you can attempt to optimise your home energy consumption yourself… or you can fork out thousands on professional advice and installation.

Even so, many of the most innovative technologies have previously been reserved solely for the commercial sector. Now, there are a growing number of innovators working to bring new energy efficiency solutions to the residential sector. Residential energy efficiency, connected home and internet of things are fast growing market trends and there are many innovative startups that have been breaking into these spaces in 2014.

After wading through many great innovations (and admittedly some terrible ones) I’ve complied the top 3 ‘Green Innovations’, in 2014, that will help you to save you money on your power bills. The ‘Green Innovations’ that I have chosen cover the most common energy conservation opportunities: space heating/cooling, hot water use and energy use behaviour modification.

EcoVent

Room-by-Room temperature control in the palm of your hand

EcoVent is a Boston based startup that makes wireless air vents and sensors for the home. The application of it’s technology allows user to change the temperature of different rooms within one building.

Boston, MA – In October EcoVent raised $2.2million to fund it’s missile engineers to take it’s home heating/cooling vents to market. EcoVent has developed motorized vents and sensors so that home owners with forced air heating or central air conditioning can avoid heating or cooling empty rooms.

EcoVent, 2014

By placing one sensor in each room, the EcoVent can precisely measure the climate of that space and send that information to the control hub, the brains of the operation. The vents replace the users existing vent, they open and close based on input from the sensors, allowing a certain amount of conditioned air into each room to achieve the users desired temperature.

CEO and co-founder Dip Patel said that “The idea came to me in 2008, We were saving money for my wedding,” he said. “Indian weddings are pricey.” So, as part of the belt-tightening he went through, he closed the vents in unused rooms during winter.

“My mother came and I had forgotten to open the vents,” Patel recalled. “She almost froze.” Following that near-matricide, he decided “there must be a way to make these vents motorized,” but, at the time, “the tech wasn’t ready yet.”

It is now, he said. The startup has developed battery-run mechanical vents that can replace existing room vents. The vents open or close in response to a climate sensor in that room. Each room’s sensor fits into an electrical outlet, and additional outlets on the sensor’s front plate ensure that lamps still have a place to plug into. A central panel for the entire house completes the system.

Like nest, the EcoVent learns from the users behaviour and automates it’s settings. The main concern for the startup is it’s high price tag. EcoVent estimates that to upgrade a users air vents it will cost about $200 per room. An average four bedroom home, with 10 rooms total, would run about $2,000. The EcoVent has completed beta testing which confirmed a heating and cooling reduction of 30-40%. Even with these savings the high retrofit cost of the EcoVent will mean that the payback period for the product will be too long for consumers purely looking for cost savings. Heating and cooling costs equate to roughly 45% of total consumption so consumers could expect 13.5-18% savings from EcoVent on their total electric bill. The technology does have a better outlook for the new home market as savings could be made without retrofit costs.

The startup has a strong team, innovative technology from an outside view I would say that their main concern would be the cost of the devices and installation. The ability to reduce the costs would make a better case from not only a energy efficiency standpoint but also from a financial standpoint.

EcoVent’s Website

Chai Energy

Saves Users up to 20% on their Energy Costs

Photo Credit: Chai Energy, 2014

Chai will tell you exactly how and where you’re spending your hard-earned energy dollars in your home and can help identify big savings opportunities on your next electric bill. Do you know how much electricity you’re using, how much it’s costing you in real time and how much your next bill will be? Chai does. Chai can even notify you when you have accidentally left appliances on, keeping you safe and saving you even more.

Los Angeles, CA – Founded in 2012 at Caltech, while working on a solar home project. CEO and co-founder Cole Hershkowitz said that “many of us at Chai worked on Caltech’s Solar Decathlon project in which you build a technically innovative and architecturally inspiring solar home. While building the home, we found it challenging and time consuming to make sustainable decisions, let alone understand our own energy use. Through this experience we knew that it should be easier for homeowners to understand energy use.  After spending nine months working on various projects (myself working at Southern California Edison), we brought some of the team back together to take what we had learned about sustainable living and try to apply it more broadly.”

Currently housed at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) in downtown Los Angeles, Chai seeks to improve residential energy efficiency by providing superior energy understanding. Chai plugs into an internet connection, connects wirelessly to their customers’ smart meter, and immediately begins to measure how much electricity their appliances and electronics are using.  Chai then relays the information to the cloud where specific appliances are identified by the patterns in the energy data. Chai then shows customers where they are wasting money on their utility bill and exactly what they can do about it.

Smart Meter customers waste on average $300 a year on their energy bill. Chai’s fun mobile application shows homeowners where they are wasting money and with Chai’s push notifications to the smartphone, tells homeowners exactly what they can do to stop wasting energy and money in real time. As energy costs rise and time of use energy rates (TOU – the cost of electricity fluctuates pending on the time energy is being used) go into effect, the cost savings with Chai increase considerably making Chai even more valuable for customers. Additionally, Chai’s notifications can inform customers when home appliances are turned on and off, or even left on for extended amounts of time. Chai will notify users if they leave the house with the stove on or if their fridge door is left open. Chai can also detect when home appliances are off that should be cycling on and notify the customer of a potential problem with a home appliance. This is a safety feature included with Chai and helps give the customer peace of mind when they are away from their home. Currently California has a $25 consumer rebate that will help to reduce the hardware cost of the Chai solution.

CEO and co-founder Cole Hershkowitz said, “We really started Chai to give consumers a way to live green and save money on their bills through a simple understanding of their energy use in their homes. We aim to demystify your bill, your meter, and your utility for you.”

Recent interview on Chai Energy…

Hershkowitz said he’s most looking forward to an new era of empowered consumers.

He said, “Customers should feel like they have a new-found ability to control their own energy use, their bills, understand their homes, and generally live more comfortably.  Today we are helping homeowners understand their energy use and their homes, tomorrow we want to give them control over that world.”

Join Chai’s Pilot Program

Amphiro b1

Energy feedback where it’s most helpful, In the Shower!

Amphiro b1 is the world’s first smart meter for the shower that informs you about your current water and energy consumption, provides you with real time feedback and thus enables you act up to your standards.

Zurich, Switzerland – Founded in 2009, Amphiro looks to to pursue the following mission: Combine innovative information and communication technology (ICT) with behavioral science in order to increase energy efficiency of hot water usage. Amphiro has built a small, retrofittable, self-powered shower meter that provides real time insight into how much water and power you’re using.

Amphiro is focused on providing real time energy understanding while you’re actually in the shower. It doesn’t cut you off after a certain amount of time or limit your use of hot water. Instead, it simply displays the amounts of water and power you’ve gone through in big, easy-to-see numbers. This allows you to understand how your shower habits will affect your upcoming power bill.

Amphiro is really changing the way people shower as a study commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy showed average savings of 23% (440 kWh heat energy & 8500 l drinking water). Amphiro communicates with an iOS app to give you real time energy information on your iPhone or iPad.

Photo Credit: Digital Trends, 2014

Amphiro’s first product launched on to the market in 2012. The Amphiro a1 (without Bluetooth) has more than 16,000 devices currently in use, and the company looks to improve upon the product with the new b1 device.

With the growing internet of things , connected home and energy efficiency market trends my predictions are for even more innovations like these in 2015. This is good news for home owners as these tools will make it easier to save on utility bills. Bringing innovations like these to market will help us gain a better understanding of where our money is going on our electricity bills.

“What gets measured gets managed” – Peter Drucker

Understanding is one thing, taking action is another. The likely future of these startups will depend largely on the application of behavioural research and combining this with technological advances.

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The post 3 Green Innovations to Save on Your Next Power Bill appeared first on Eco Founder.

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It’s time to take a birds eyes view of the cleantech sectors.

In 2014 there has been some amazing growth in the cleantech sector. Which cleantech industries have been getting all the attention?

Although Eco Founder is not strictly a policy driven blog, I do like to write about things that impact cleantech entrepreneurs. Market trends are one of those things. This is because having an understanding the basic economics of market supply and demand will give you insights on which clean innovations will succeed in the marketplace.

Which markets are growing and which are slowing?

This is the real test to see if there more than a great technology and whether a real potential business opportunity exists. The demand for the clean technologies is something we would predict to rise over the future as long as we are seeking to address the ever imposing environmental constraints. That is exactly what is happening. Policy and consumer purchasing behaviour is changing largely due to a growing awareness of the environmental implications of modern day resource use. With all these changes there are certain markets that are growing exceptionally quickly and other markets that are disappearing completely. 

Residential Solar

The Current Status

The cost of solar PV has been reduced from $7.20 in 2007 to $2.50 in 2013 and this reduction in price has caused double double digit growth in the solar PV market over the last decade from $2.5 Billion in 2000 to $91.3 Billion in 2013. In 2013, solar had a record deployment with 36.5 GW installed globally [1].

In the U.S. 4.2 GW of new solar PV was installed in 2013, deploying more than Germany (an estimated 3.3 GW) for the first time in more than a decade. China wins the deployment battle with 12 GW of solar in 2013, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance [2]. This is roughly as much as total cumulative solar PV installations in the U.S., and nearly triple the 4.5 GW deployed in China the year before. Before 2013, no nation had ever added more than 8 GW in a single year. Even in Japan there has been impressive deployment, as they continue to aggressively push renewables. Japan is aiming to replace most of its nuclear power, so they installed a record amount of new solar PV capacity in 2013, approximately 7 GW.

The Future of Solar

The CEO of Sun Power, one of the largest solar PV manufactures in the world, estimates that the total solar market (PV, CSP. etc) could grow to be a $4 Trillion dollar industry in 20 years [2]. This estimate may seem over enthusiastic, but this does indicate that the solar industry is on a trajectory for rapid growth.

Photo Credit: SunPower 2014

One of the key drivers of this growth is the installed cost of solar which expected to fall around seven percent annually. The Clean Edge research group projects that by 2021, global cumulative installed solar PV capacity will reach 715.8 GW, surpassing wind power’s projected 697.3 GW in that year. By around 2023, Clean Edge also expects the total solar PV market is expected to grow to $158.4 Billion [1]. As the industry continues to grow for distributors and installers we are also beginning to see more and more innovative companies starting up around the fringes. Companies, such as pick my solar, are starting to create a network of companies within the sector beyond the traditional distributors and installers. For the solar industry in general I would expect to see more and more possibilities for innovation whether it be technological or business model innovations.

Residential Energy Efficiency

The Current Status

Policy has been a large driver in the energy efficiency sector with twenty-six states that have adopted and adequately funded an energy efficiency resource standard (EERS). The EERS sets long-term energy savings targets and drives investments in utility-sector energy efficiency programs. Annual budgets for these utility-sector programs are projected to continue to rise to meet national energy efficiency targets and these programs rose to $5.98 billion in 2012 [5].

Smart Meter Deployment

Currently smart meters have been deployed across 43% of US homes. Utilities are fast approaching the point where smart meters are the norm, not the exception, with nearly 50 million networked, two-way communicating smart meters up and running across the country as of July 2014, [3]. Utilities are highly incentivized to continue smart meter rollouts with another 25 million installations already funded and 80% saturation (132 million devices) expected by 2020. The successful deployment of smart grid technologies could yield savings to society of $130 billion annually by the end of this decade, [4].

Future of Energy Efficiency

As policy changes to help implement new energy efficient technologies we should expect to see rapid growth in startup activity as new entrepreneurial opportunities arise. The connected home and home automation technologies are beginning to combine energy efficiency to their product lines and we should expect this trend to continue into the future. The large deployment of smart meters means that, like solar, there will be opportunities with in the industry outside of the typical manufacturing, distribution and retailing of these products. There will be room for both technological and business model innovation.

Electric Vehicles (EV’s)

Current Status

Next generation vehicle sales, of technologies such as electric and plugin hybrid vehicles, have been growing drastically in recent years. The graph below shows the growth of Electric Vehicle charging stations across the US.

Photo Credit: World Resources institute, 2014

Hybrid vehicles accounted for over 6 percent of total passenger car sales in 2013 and Plugin Electric and Hybrid Plugin electric vehicles accounted for about 1.2 percent of total passenger car sales—almost double the number sold in 2012. It’s worth noting here, that although these sales only account for a modest percentage of total vehicle sales, the uptake of plug-in vehicles has been far faster than the initial uptake of hybrid vehicles in the United States [6]. There has been several trends leading to this growth. One key driver has been that battery prices have fallen by more than 40 percent since 2010 and this is expected to continue to drop in the future.

The Future of EV

For the Electric Vehicle market to continue to grow at the rate that it has experienced in recent years, lowering cost of batteries will be needed. With Tesla Motors planning to build facilities by 2017 that will produce batteries 30 percent cheaper than today’s batteries we can expect these batteries to not only continue to lower in price but also for the growth of the EV market to continue. [6] The World Resource Institute also details that “In October 2013, eight states announced an initiative to support implementation of their zero-emissions vehicle mandates. This initiative calls for the states to coordinate actions to develop the necessary infrastructure and incentives needed to meet their mandates to have 15 percent of new cars sold within their borders be zero-emission vehicles by 2025. The multistate effort includes California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont, which represent 23 percent of the U.S car market. This effort is expected to put at least 3.3 million of these vehicles on the road by 2025.” [6]. Reaching almost a quarter of U.S. car market by 2025 we can expect as the industry grows the demand of all things EV to increase, with a wave of innovative startups seeking to create many new jobs.

With such potential for growth won’t everyone succeed in these markets?

Determining the success of an product is not as simple as entering a huge market and fighting for a 1% share of it. It’s likely that the competition will be so strong in large market so you will probably struggle to find a competitive advantage. I mean why would customers choose you and your product over the larger more well known companies? They can probably beat you on price due to their scale, and potential customers are more inclined to choose recognised brands over yours. In addition, companies that gain market leadership look to create monopolies over their market and this means that to compete in these markets you’re still going to need a strong competitive advantage. You can’t copy the big boys and expect to win. This means that cleantech founders wishing to enter these markets will have to look to innovation through both technology and through business model innovation. The real winners will be those who understand these market realities and plan to create a sustainable competitive advantage that will stand the test of time.

“If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.” – Jack Welch

In Peter Theil’s (Co-founder of Paypal) book “Zero to One” he talks about how new technologies must have offer customers what they perceive to be 10x more value than the other available options. This should be the competitive strategy that cleantech founders should aim for. Don’t worry, as even the most successful companies today didn’t create this 10x competitive advantage overnight. It took many years to accumulate and it’s not purely in the form of technological benefits. There are many opportunities to innovate through new business models for existing industries, innovation through marketing, and even customer service. It is a aggregate of these innovations that customers experience when they purchase your products or services.

A customers buying experience is from the point when they become aware of your offering and includes everything even down to the packaging. Brands such as Apple understand this and have been able to sustain impressive market share against strong competition. The point is that founders should prepare their entry into these markets with a game plan to fend off competition. With such quickly growing markets it is likely these markets will become extremely competitive in the next 10-15 years. So, even though these markets are growth at incredible rates, founders should still enter them with a clear value proposition and a well crafted plan to gain market leadership.

How are you going to enter these markets?

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[1] Pernick, R. (2014). Clean Energy Trends 2014. Clean Edge. Retrieved December 5, 2014.

[2] Bloomberg New Energy Finance (2014). World’s Most-Polluting Country Leads in Clean-Energy Investment. Retrieved December 5, 2014.

[3] Southern California Edison (2014). BUILDING BLOCK OF THE EVOLVING POWER GRID: UTILITY-SCALE SMART METER DEPLOYMENTS. 

[4]  McKinsey & Company (2010). Can the smart grid live up to its expectations?. Retrieved December 6, 2014.

[5] 2013 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard. (2013). American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. Retrieved December 5, 2014.

[6] BIANCO, N., MEEK, K., GASPER, R., OBEITER, M., FORBES, S., & ADEN, N. (2014, October 1). SEEING IS BELIEVING: CREATING A NEW CLIMATE ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES. Retrieved December 5, 2014.

Photo Credit: jurvetson cc

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“How do I find a good idea?”

Have you every looked things and wished they were different. Have you ever been frustrated by systems that are inefficient, ineffective or just simply poorly designed. Frustrated by these products, systems and sometimes even people we put up with it handling our discomfort by shrugging it off.

Sometimes we are lucky, and we can find alternatives.

When there aren’t solutions available, we carry on our day and decide to mask our discomfort.

What if I were to tell you that those times where you are feeling discomfort are actually all life changing opportunities. Each one a potential project that could bring you your dream. The dream of innovating solutions in response to the current environmental issues and energy crisis that dawn on our future.

Some of the best business ideas that entrepreneurs have are from solving problems that they faced themselves. They feel the discomfort of the problem and they created a solution that they wish to share with the world. This can be a great way to come up with business ideas. However, it’s not the only way. In this post you’ll learn how innovators look out for ideas and how to know if these ideas are worth pursuing.

Inefficiencies of Life

There are different ways to which we can solve the problems that we face. One way is is to ignore the problem, do not recognise it and do nothing. Another is to dwell on the problem, stuck in a self created prism of inaction. The last, is to innovate. To innovate you address the solution unbiasedly, tackle it with creative solutions and then effectively implement a new solution.

Sometimes these solutions can be quicker or easier than previous solutions and sometimes they replace solutions completely. Innovation can improve on existing ways of doing things and it can also disrupt the process all together.

When we look at the inefficiencies of life we find that innovation is not just a business term. It’s really a mindset that you must adopt to succeed in life. Life is full of inefficiencies: the misapplication of time, money and resources. Energy use comes to mind specifically, but beyond that we also have poorly managed waste systems, and distribution chains that consume tremendous amounts of fossil fuels to operate. The more we can improve the efficiency of these systems the more we can achieve positive outcomes in our lives and the lives of others.

Sustainable innovations look to improve upon the way we interact with the world and our environment. There are technologies that improve upon the use of resources and make for a more efficient world. More efficient in terms of energy use, resource use and time.

But the question remains…

How do we Learn to innovate?

Understand: Innovation is a practice. It is something you can cultivate.

To learn how to innovate let’s look the types of innovation.

• Commercial Innovation: Finding better ways to promote existing products or services
• Sustaining Innovation: Find better ways to incrementally improve existing products
• Transformational Innovation: Breakthrough performance in existing categories
• Disruptive Innovation: Breakthrough innovation in new markets. Creating a largely different value proposition in a new market

Regardless of which type of innovation you engage in, the process involves identifying an opportunity. An opportunity in new forms of promotion, an opportunity to improve on existing products, an opportunity to create a breakthrough in existing categories or an opportunity to disrupt with a breakthrough sustainable innovation in a new market.

Do these more formal terms help us come up with new ideas? Not in my experience.

To further a theoretical understanding you need to combine it with real life practice and experience. If innovation really is a practice, and something you can cultivate then how do you make it part of your daily life?

First off…to practice innovation

• It doesn’t have to be costly
• You don’t need to be a genius to cultivate it.
• Also, innovating doesn’t require formal training (although research shows it does help).

How to Identify Opportunities

To start identifying opportunities for sustainable innovation I want you to try an exercise for the next 7 days. Keep a notebook and at the end of each day write down a list of the functional problems you and others faced when interacting with technology. Maybe you wish you had issues with your phone, software you use or maybe consumer products you used at home. Once you begin this you’ll start to notice how things could be improved and your mind will naturally begin to ponder solutions and generate novel ideas. Once you’ve got an idea you’ll need to access which first involves understanding the problem at a deeper level.

The best way to really understand a problem is to begin asking more questions. As a general rule asking why 3 times can often lead to really targeting the underlying problem you are trying to solve. To start to identify opportunities a great way is to observe when something in your daily life frustrates you or when you observe something that frustrates someone else. Maybe a consumer product you use has some annoying features or doesn’t serve its purpose. Once you’ve identified the frustration practicing asking why 3 times.

In the example of an annoying cupboard door handle that I have in my kitchen..

Why does this door handle catch my clothing when I’m in the kitchen?

Because its not flush with the draw.

Why does it frustrate me?

Because it stops me when I’m trying to move around the kitchen and sometimes I spill food everywhere because of it.

Why am I trying to move around the kitchen in the first place?

Because I want to prepare my food and this requires me move around while opening draws and cupboards.

See how this process helps to identify the true problem that needs solving. This process can lead to an innovative approach to solving problems. Searching for the underlying truths behind our own behaviour and how we interact with the world can lead to insights about how to make more effective products and services. Through this process and discovering my true motives as a consumer we can now address the problem of making better cupboard handles with a deeper understanding. Instead of fixing one little thing about the handles, we can design something with the intention of helping me make better use of my kitchen in order to prepare my food. This may lead to changes in the shape of the handles so that I can easily place my hand on it,  and so I can quickly pull/push the handle. Maybe even the color so that I can see the handle in my peripheral vision rather than needing to focus on it.

Design focused.

Innovation is not just about solving the technical aspect of problems, much of design involves studying human behaviour. The combination of considering consumer behaviour and determining the technical solutions often leads to innovative breakthroughs. Design is an essential component of sustainable innovation because it seeks to respond to the underlying behaviour of consumers rather than consumer requests.

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” ― Henry Ford

The caveat here is that although having a detailed understanding of what the customer wants is essential, responding directly to their requests may not always be the best approach. To create breakthrough sustainble innovations we must seek to understand the customer but think out of the box when it come to providing new solutions. The greatest innovators were able to understand their consumers behaviour better than the consumer themselves.

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.” – Steve Jobs

You must deeply understand your customer in order to build products that truly meet their needs. Understand their problems, their frustrations, their desires, their needs, and their aspirations. Once you do this you can generate solutions to problems that do not only meet the technical specifications of the problem, they also meet the needs of the consumer.

Is your idea worth pursuing?

The problem with new innovations is that in order for consumers to change to using new technologies they need to feel confident that it will provide a substantial benefit to overcome the perceived risk of trying something new. As humans, we are stubborn by nature and you can’t expect people to start using your new innovation if it is only 20% better than current solutions. For new technology to be adopted it needs to be many times more valuable to the consumer than the substitutes. Peter Theil says in his book Zero to One that proprietary technology must offer a 10x performance improvement over the closest substitute.  You can see this pattern amongst the most successful technology startups of our time. For example Amazon, even as a startup, could offer at least ten times more books than a traditional book store, just as it could be argued that PayPal made buying and selling on eBay ten times easier.

So how do you know whether your idea will be 10x better than the competition?

Although this is daunting, realise that it doesn’t start that way. Amazon didn’t start out with something that was 10x better than competition but they refined their startup overtime so to achieve this. Continuous improvement with a customer focus is the key to building an idea into a sustainable startup. There are some traditional methods to analyse the validity of a good idea. The first is what is called SWOT analysis. Once you begin to identify new ideas, technologies and business models you’ll want to ask your self these questions.

Strengths:
• What advantages do you have going into this industry?
• What is it that you do you do well?
• What relevant resources do you have access to?
• What do other people see as your strengths in this industry?

Weaknesses:
• What could you improve?
• What do you do badly?
• What should you avoid?

Opportunities:
• Where are the good opportunities facing you?
• What are the interesting market trends you are aware of?

Threats:
• What obstacles do you face?
• What is your competition doing?
• Are the required specifications for your job, products or services changing?
• Is changing technology threatening your position?
• Do you have bad debt or cash-flow problems?
• Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your business?

(For a more detailed swot analysis.)

Once you begin to put ideas through the funnel process of SWOT you’ll begin to gain a idea intuition based on market realities. There is nothing worse than creating technology that doesn’t have a potential market. However it is likely that your clean technology will have a growing market as the scientific realities of global warming, government policy changes and changing customer values are trends that are on the rise. It is important to note that the initial market size is not as important as the direction of the market. If you are only targeting a small group of people but they are growing quickly this is much more attractive than a large market with no or slow growth.

Make it a habit

As you identify opportunities for technological improvement jot them down in your note book, analyse them with a SWOT analysis then if it looks like a valid idea make a start. Their are several steps to start tackling problems with this new mindset. The first is being able to identify opportunities. This is the easiest, but still something that many people don’t do. The second is to analyse your idea through SWOT analysis, and this is what separates the idealists from the realists. Get into the details of the opportunity ask the hard questions upfront. Understand that although these answers will change over time, SWOT analysis is a great exercise to get an idea of what will be involved to make this happen early on. Third is what takes the most courage, starting the project. Don’t wait too long to get started. The purpose of the initial SWOT analysis is not to stop you from acting on your ideas, rather to funnel out ideas that are unlikely to become successful, so not to waste your precious time.

So the key is to start thinking in terms of technology innovation. Practice looking a ways to improve upon products that you use on a daily basis. When you combine this customer focused innovative thinking with the technical problem solving capabilities, you likely have as an engineer or scientist, you’ll be prepared to create solutions that will make for a successful startup.

Recap

1) Begin to identify opportunities for technological improvements: Do this in your daily life and jot these ideas within a notebook.

2) Ask ‘Why?’ 3 times to dig to the core of the issue: Look beyond the technical specifications understand the human behavioural implications of the problem.

3) Complete a SWOT analysis on your potential Ideas: this is to wean out the stinkers and to evaluate the potential winners.

4) Make a start: Don’t sit on potential ideas, once an idea looks attractive after a SWOT analysis you should make a start on the project.

5) Refine your value proposition: Realise that your technology must aim for a 10x improvement over the current substitutes but also understand that it won’t start out that way and the key is continuous improvement with a strong customer focus.

This is a method I believe we can all adopt to generate sustainable innovations that can be used to replace current solutions that are ineffective, inefficient and unsustainable. Practice looking for opportunities, understanding human behaviour, analysing and then making are start.

The post How to become a Magnet for Sustainable Innovations appeared first on Eco Founder.

Ken Davidson, 2014

You’ve probably heard someone say this before, or maybe this statement has even come out your own mouth.

Why is it that almost everyone claims to have the next big idea but only a small group of people have the courage and audacity to start something new?

To say something is very low risk and safe.

You may even get a ego boost if people agree with you. It’s another thing all together to go out and start something. To make a start exposes us to the world and opens our work to criticism.

It is fundamentally this fear that stops us from being bold that stops us from taking action. We fear what others will think and say. We are afraid that the our own self image will be tainted in the event of failure.

Its much safer to say things than it is to go out and try things. It’s also much easier to give ourselves the satisfaction of believing that if we went out and took action that we would succeed than it actually is to just give it a try

We don’t know and nether does anyone else.

The only true indicator of success is reality.

The unpredictability of the real world frightens us and keeps us locked in a prism of self made excuses.

Those who are able to ignore their own fears and the fears of others are the ones that start things. The creatives that are bold are the only ones who give themselves permission to start and thus allowing themselves the opportunity to succeed.

Everybody else, just self-sabotages their own success.

“The richest and greatest place on Earth is the graveyard. It’s full of people who never acted on their dreams, because they were too shy and too comfortable, their dreams are buried with them. It contains projects that have never been done, books that have never been written, ideas that have never been shared and songs that haven’t been heard.” – Les Brown

Procrastination isn’t something that you catch like a cold, it is a response to fear. Fear in the form of resistance is created by our need for certainty, safety and comfort.

So how do you break the cycle of fear?

How do you make the shift from someone who talks about things to someone who goes and acts on their ideas?

Think of how your life would be different today if you’d gone out and tried all your ideas…

Now, let me ask you something.

How times have you seen ideas that you sat on, waited on and never started, later turn into someone else’s product or service?

It’s painful to think about, but by reflecting on this harsh reality we can say that  it is only a small part of success to have an idea to create something new. However, the struggle is not in the idea it is in the process of overcoming the fear to start, then beating your own resistance to complete it and finally dealing with the fear that someone might criticise your work in order to get it out there.

With so many internal battles required to produce creative projects it’s no wonder that we find it easier to talk about them than to start take action towards achieve those visions. Breaking this cycle of fear is something we must learn if we wish to produce results. In this post you’ll learn the method startup founders use to create and ship projects. Because you must realise that your passion project will never turn into anything more unless you are willing to start, ship and turn pro.

Start it. Ship it. Repeat.

Seth Godin talks in detail about the mindset of people to start things and ship things. His book Poke the Box he discusses the innovation mindset from a new point of view…

“The challenge, it turns out, isn’t in perfecting your ability to know when to start and when to stand by. The challenge is getting into the habit of starting.” – Seth Godin

If you wish to succeed in making a lasting impact in the world you must learn to overcome the fears surrounding the act of starting creative projects and make a habit of starting and shipping your ideas. These fears can come in many shapes and sizes. The skill is being able to identify fear before it stops you.

You’ll need to learn to identify these key fears…

• Fear of success: the fear that we are not worthy of success. You must believe in yourself in order to take action.
• Rationalisation: beware of the excuses you make in your mind of why things happen a certain way.
• Self medication: beware of when you feel the desire to heal yourself or taking a break. This can often come from a place of fear rather than truth.
• Victimhood: do not identify with your failures.
• Self-doubt: beware of self-sabotage, when you unconsciously act in particular ways to reduce your ability to succeed.

Creativity and Tech

Technology projects may not seem to be on the creative scale, but in fact when you look closer, they are. Technology is defined as ‘the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry’. Although the scientific knowledge is somewhat fixed, the application part of this definition is where creativity comes into play.

Innovation has this creative aspect deeply ingrained. Successful innovators have become comfortable with starting things. They have learnt that the rewards they desire come from getting started and shipping the result. The most innovative companies such as Google have taken this mindset an continue to take new ideas make them into new products. They do this over and over again. Starting, finishing and shipping new ideas.

Do you think it’s any harder for us to start new creative projects?

Sure, companies like google have more resources at their disposal, but we often have enough time and resources to start something new, even if it’s only a small project.

Turning Pro

In the Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art he discusses the resistance we all face when starting and completing creative works, specifically though he lists a number of ways to make the shift from having an amateur’s mindset to work to having a pro mindset.

Steven Pressfield’s tips for Going Pro!

• Show up everyday
• Show up no matter what
• Stay on the job all day
• Commit over the long haul
• The stakes are high and real: this means that we must have sense of urgency with our work.
• We accept remuneration for our labor: we work for money and are focused on results
• We do not over identify with our work: we must be willing to change our work based on feedback of relevant sources
• We master the technique of our work
• We have a sense of humour about our work
• We receive praise or blame in the real world: we expose ourselves to external feedback.

Turning pro is an essential component of becoming a innovator. We must learn to take ideas and take them seriously if we wish to be someone who doesn’t talk about great ideas but instead goes out executes to make them into a reality.

Personally my biggest struggle is getting starting and getting in the flow. Once I finally get started my enthusiasm takes over and I am able to focus and execute. I do my best to apply the rules of turning pro. I like to work long and hard and I am always making self created deadlines. This is so important, creating a sense of urgency will force you to ship things rather than have ideas that are idling in neutral. You must force yourself to push through the stages of half completion and finish things.

If your passion project has been put on hold, and you know that it is something worth while you must create a sense of urgency and complete the thing. Get it done. Test it and then make improvements. We like to focus on perfection as if great works of art are something that are created in a vacuum. Think of perfection is like a mathematical limit it can only be approached and never entirely achieved. Your best way to move towards perfection is to monitor your results and make appropriate changes from valid feedback.

Some Other thoughts…

Here is what some some successful founders are saying about taking projects seriously.

“I think being an entrepreneur at heart takes away all the personal resistance of starting a company or a creative work. Logic is what makes you resistant or cautious about taking the risk. I think real entrepreneurs are the people who are not afraid of failure at all. They embrace it. They approach it like: Well, we tried, didn’t work.. but we learned this and that, soooo what’s next? We all learned and evolved through our past failures. When you look at failure as a huge step towards the success you envision, then you would never hesitate to take the next big risk.” – Max Aram, Co-founder and CEO at Pick My Solar

“For me, I tend to look too much at the payoff of a new project.  Why spend time on something when it might not get me any return?  I think this attitude is fairly common. But when it comes to creativity, you need to do things without having any idea what the outcome will be.  Often, this means winding up with absolutely nothing.  And this has happened with many of history’s great thinkers, like Einstein.  Didn’t he spend years in a futile search for a unified field theory? But when a project does turn out to be a winner, it can be big…” – Tom Taulli, Serial Tech Entrepreneur and Silicon Valley Investor.

“So much of what we do just comes from habit. Even how we respond to problems is often just a habit that we developed as young kids. Almost anytime you try to change a habit, there’s some kind of personal resistance. As such, going from doing other things to starting a creative problem throws up some natural resistance. Furthermore, all of us are afraid of failing. When we consider taking on a creative project, we know that it’s not easy to stand out and that a lot of people are eager to criticize. So, we are often afraid to give it a shot and essentially “be laughed at” or “boring.” The solution to both, is to just do it. Just jump in and give it ago. And remember that the more you do something, the better you become at it.” – Zachary Shahan, Serial Entrepreneur, and Director of Cleantechnica.

“The biggest personal resistance I faced was self doubt.  Thinking that I might not be smart enough, or experienced enough, or clever enough to start a company.  Knowing that when all was said and done, even though failure is accepted in America, I would still see myself as a failure.  This was the biggest challenge to get over.  I got over this fear when we got an offer to join a Startup Accelerator.  We did not end up joining the accelerator but it gave us the spirit and the confidence to go at it alone. ” – Cole Hershkowitz, CEO and Co-Founder of Chai Energy.

“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” – Elon Musk, CEO Telsa/SpaceX and Co-Founder of Paypal

Waiting for the perfect day

So don’t worry whether you have everything in place today in order to get started. Most of the time you have more than you need and what is holding you back is not limited time or resources, what really holds us back is our self created resistance. The rationalisations we tell our selves of why now is now the right time to get started. Now is the perfect time to get started. Don’t wait for the perfect day. If your project is important enough to you then you’ll find a way.

Become an ECO founder

Start the 30 day ECO founder Challenge (it’s free!) to learn how to startup your own clean technology business.

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The post The Secret Habit of Successful Startup Founders appeared first on Eco Founder.

Photo Credit: Nestlé

The average student takes 4-5 years to pick up a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering.

The mechanical engineer with a strong background in physics and mathematics has seemingly endless career possibilities which are also attractive… and lucrative.

Students learn the key mechanical engineering topics, such as statics and dynamics, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, stress analysis, mechanical design and technical drawing. 

With such a degree you can look forward to a career involving vehicle design, robotics, nanotechnology or energy. Now more than ever there is a demand for the trusted mechanical engineer.

As a Mechanical Engineer there is one key skill that you’ll need… 

…How to Plan and Manage Technology Projects.

Product Development

Yes, every business sells something. Every business has customers and every business provides value for those customers.

Value can be created and delivered to customers in two forms: products and services.

When it comes to launching a new technology product you’ll need to plan it out.

With the creation technology products your mechanical engineering degree gives you a great background in planning the technical aspects of the project.

But what about the business side of things?

Many engineers get stuck in a trap when it comes to product design. Fulfilling the design briefs and making something that functionally work is great…

… as long as people actually want your solution.

If they do want it, then how do they find out it exists… and how do they purchase and receive the product?

To answer these questions you’ll need a marketing and sales plan.

As David Berry explains in the interview below the product development plan and the marketing and sales plan go hand in hand.

In this Episode of ECO founder TV you’ll learn what they don’t teach you in engineering schools about product development. David Berry, a mechanical engineer gone startup founder, shares his secrets to effective product development and how to scale a newly formed startup into international markets.

David is the Director and Founder of ControlVision a New Zealand based engineering firm that specialises in Machine Vision & Robotics. As an mechanical engineer who has in business for himself for over 15 years David shares some unique insights that you won’t learn at engineering school.

Watch the interview below:

Specifically you’ll learn…

• All about Machine Vision and the future of Robotic Technologies
• How forward thinking engineers look to scale their impact through applications of technology
• How to tackle international markets as a small company
• Why having a high barrier to entry is actually an advantage for newly found startups
• Why engineers must think sales in the early stages of technology development
• Why the marketing plan must be hand in hand with your product development plan
• What David has learnt over his career and what he’d wish he’d know from the start

David’s Company –> ControlVision

Thanks for watching this episode of ECO founder TV! Let me know what you have learnt in the comments below.

P.S. The Engineer to Founder Book has been released! Start learning now and go to this page

(For the first 50 I’ve got it as a pay want you want – so if your quick you can get it for free. Also – for a limited time you can use the coupon code “subscribers” and receive a $10 discount.)

Become an ECO founder

Start the 30 day ECO founder Challenge (it’s free!) to learn how to startup your own clean technology business.

No spam, ever. You can unsubscribe at anytime.

The post Mechanical Engineer Shares What They DON’T Teach You In College appeared first on Eco Founder.

Great technology is nothing without great execution.

You may have some great innovative technology that is able to offer users meaningful benefits. It may have the potential to change the world or maybe change the lives of a select few significantly.

You can see the potential of the technology and it excites you. It keeps you up at night and motivates you wake up in the early hours of the morning.

However, having inspiration, drive and some innovative technology isn’t the full package. You need more in order to get the project up and of the ground. When you look at the cold hard facts of what it is going to take to get the project up and off the ground you notice there is something that you are sure to need.

R&D Funding.

Even the most innovative and driven entrepreneurs require funding from external sources when they are just starting out. We entrepreneurs take pride in being able to do a lot with very little, but there are limits to the bootstrap approach.

The first place entrepreneurs generally look for funds is there personal cash. This is a great idea as keeping a high ownership in you business can pay off significantly in the future if your venture is successful. The second place is generally your own family who give loans in good faith out of love and support.  The next is friends that trust you and believe in you to produce results. The last approach is approaching what is called the foolhardy.

The foolhardy is termed to describe the external partners that might be interested in making an risky investment in your new found startup with the prospect of high returns on their investment. No, they aren’t fools but they are less risk adverse than your aunty or grandparents probably are. These individuals are either angel investors (invest under $1m) or venture capitalist, VC, investors (invest over $1m). These people are excited by profitable exit strategies that could financially reward them for the risk they took in starting the venture.

While it’s true that you need money to get a startup up running you don’t necessarily need to begin by looking to the foolhardy category. Whether you choose to seek external funding through investors or not you should first look to exhaust a category which I haven’t mentioned and which applies specifically to clean tech ventures.

Government Funding

Now to make it clear the government does not provide free money to founders. As the famous economist Milton Friedman said….”There’s no such thing as a free lunch”. So if you are a founder looking for R&D funding from the government to start your soon to be multimillion dollar venture… you are going to want to think about how your venture can help the government achieve their goals.

There are a number of different ways ventures can help large organisations such as governments achieve their goals. It really comes down to how your venture will benefit society. The first step to gaining government funding really comes down to having a clear understanding of the benefits your technology or business will have on society.

Think about what your big picture goal for your technology or business. This understanding will help you pitch to for grants and funding. Is it to create more green jobs? Maybe it is to help your state meet it’s environmental goals.

The second step is to start looking at whats available. In the US there are a number of different grants specifically related to energy efficiency, renewable energy or sustainable technologies. Most startups have trouble finding an angle to gain government funding for projects, however clean tech and other “high tech” innovations have a much better chance of gaining funding through government grants. Every business is different and will have different need regarding funding and government grants but the best place to start will be the Small Business Innovation Research site and the Grants.gov page.

Look through these sites and take note of the grants and projects that are relevant to your technology and it’s application. Remember to think about the societal benefits you can provide with your venture.

The third step is to do some research about the availability of funds. How much funding is currently available for the grants and programs you are look to apply for? Do some background research and find out what you can about the budget and allocation of funds from these programs. If you are looking to gain funding from a specific grant then take a look at the past grants and learn what you can from their success. The more you know about how the funding game works the better prepared you will be for your own application.

The forth step is to apply. With all of the information about the larger societal impacts of your technology, the available grants, the current allocation of funds for those grants and the past successful candidates you’ll have a pretty good idea of your chances of success. Then use this understanding to create a winning application. Most applications forms do not allow much creativity and personal flare but it is a good idea to have something that stands out in addition to your great idea.

What grants are available for newly founded cleantech companies?

Let’s look at an example of a grants that is currently available and how you might best go about applying for funding.

Example Company: Energy Efficient LED Bulb Technology

Example Grant: Advancing Solutions to Improve the Energy Efficiency of U.S. Commercial Buildings

By reading through the programs synopsis you can see that the underlying goal of the Building Technologies Office Commercial Building Integration Program is to meet DOE’s national energy efficiency goals for commercial buildings (20% improvement by 2020; 50% by 2030). So for a LED bulb technology to apply for the funding they would want to persuade the decision makers who grant the funding that the company will be able to help them achieve this goal. The company would want to investigate what funding is available and who the past successful applicants were. Once this has been established they would want to then craft a winning pitch explaining how the company will help reduce the energy consumption of commercial buildings. 

The bottom-line is that if you have some innovative technology that has benefits for society at large then it is likely there will be some government funding available. It may not be the easy to gain the funding but if you use what I have described here in this article you’ll be on your way. There is a final step which I’ll conclude with…

Persist.

The follow up is important. It is difficult to get the attention of people within government organisations but you’ll want to follow up regularly to ensure the success of your application. Find some decision makers names and request to speak with them directly. Again this maybe difficult but the best chance for your proposal to succeed. Hound them down and always try to reach those decision makers first.

Funding can be the lifeblood of an early stage startup and knowing how to gain R&D funding is a startup skill that all successful founders have had to learn. By all means bootstrap your venture but remember to leverage those government grants to fuel your business.

What funding program will you target?

P.S. The Engineer to Founder Book has been released! Start learning now and go to this page

(For the first 50 I’ve got it as a pay want you want – so if your quick you can get it for free. Also – for a limited time you can use the coupon code “subscribers” and receive a $10 discount.)

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Start the 30 day ECO founder Challenge (it’s free!) to learn how to startup your own clean technology business.

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The post The #1 Overlooked Source of R&D Funding appeared first on Eco Founder.

Photo Credit: Ioan Sameli

Use it or lose it… more like: protect it or lose it.

No I’m not talking about your memory.

I’m definitely not talking about losing your muscular strength.

Instead I’m referring to something that is much easier for others to steal.

First let me ask you a question…

Are you proud of your work?

If the answer to this question is yes then this article is for you.

Learn how to Protect Your Innovation

“Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” – Pablo Picasso 

Successful innovators are very good at taking ideas and placing them in new contexts. In order to keep your inventions safe from the hungry imitators you’ll need to start thinking protection like – Thomas Edison.  During his lifetime Edison executed 1,093 successful U.S. patent applications.

Protecting your innovation is something that is hugely important when going into business. The protection itself can come in many forms: trademark, copyright, and patents. It can be difficult to know what sort of protection to look for. When should you start the protection process and where do you begin?

To answer all these questions I brought in a lawyer.

Todays guest know’s all about patents for cleantech innovators.

In this Episode of ECO founder TV you’ll learn what you need to do in order to protect your intellectual property and your innovation. In this video I am joined by Eric Lane, the founder of Green Patent Law.

Eric is an intellectual property lawyer and registered U.S. patent attorney in San Diego, California. Eric has a deep understanding of a range of technologies including renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar PV, CSP, biofuels, and geothermal, energy storage technologies, carbon capture and sequestration, medical devices, data communications, mechanical, chemical, internet and software. Eric brings to his practice more than a decade of experience handling a wide range of complex IP issues at major law firms.

Find out more in the video below…

In this episode you’ll learn…

– The first steps any inventor should take to protect their innovation
– The key parts of your innovation that you can actually protect.
– What happens when you try to protect your innovation too late.

You can find more about Eric’s work below.

Eric’s Law Firm: http://www.greenpatentlaw.com/
Eric’s Blog: http://www.greenpatentblog.com/

Thanks for watching this episode of ECO founder TV!

P.S. The Engineer to Founder Book has been released! Start learning now and go to this page

(For the first 50 I’ve got it as a pay want you want – so if your quick you can get it for free. Also – for a limited time you can use the coupon code “subscribers” and receive a $10 discount.)

Become an ECO founder

Start the 30 day ECO founder Challenge (it’s free!) to learn how to startup your own clean technology business.

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The post Get it Protected! Your Guide to Intellectual Property appeared first on Eco Founder.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, or you don’t watch TV (which is probably a good thing!) here’s what you are missing…

Budding entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a group of highly successful investors. The entrepreneurs give their best efforts to impress the panel and usually they fall short… especially when it comes to sharing the hard numbers of the business.

Drama sells.

On the show the investors then battle it out and they either front cash for the ventures they like or… they aim to burst the entrepreneurs bubble of enthusiasm, and call for the next entrepreneur.

Being a prime time TV show they have to add a level of drama in order to engage the mass market audience in startup pitch presentations. Drama is what makes successful TV shows… Drama makes TV shows that actually sell!

But for me… I don’t need the dramatised version. I just love startup pitches. I enjoy the process of telling a businesses story and summarising your business into a presentation.

For Cleantech nailing the pitch is especially important. Most technology startups require outside funding and support, so having your pitch well prepared is key. 

In September I pitched a new cleantech business for the PortTech Pitch in Los Angeles. I learnt a TON from the experience and I’m going to break down and share with you what I learnt.

In this post you’ll learn how to present your business through story telling, how to tell investors what they want to hear, the importance of customer acquisition and lastly why you should be getting involved with local entrepreneurial and cleantech events.

“Today, not starting is far, far worse than being wrong. If you start, you’ve got a shot at evolving and adjusting to turn your wrong into a right. But if you don’t start, you never get a chance.” 
― Seth Godin, Poke the Box

It all begins with the courage to start. Seth Godin talks about this in his book Poke the Box. This quote reminds me of when I was back at university I attended many different entrepreneurial events. Seeing as I was running my own business and studying entrepreneurship it seemed to me – a no brainer for me to attend.

But what I saw at my first event.. shocked me!

There was no one from my class there.  I looked around and didn’t recognise anyone. It seemed crazy to me that out of the 1000’s of business students none of them showed up. Especially surprising that none of the other students that were actually studying the very subject of entrepreneurship (which they did offer at my university) showed up either. So that was my first lesson from entrepreneurial events…

Just show up

Have you ever heard the saying that “half of success is just showing up?” – If you start to go to these events you’ll realise that this is the case. You’ve probably come up with some business concepts before and wondered how you can find out if it is a good one. Maybe everyone is telling you that it is great, but you also notice that no-one you know has any real world business experience. So how can you tell? You’d probably like to get some feedback from people who know what they are talking about. That is where these entrepreneurial and cleantech events are great. You can gain valuable insights …and if you’re idea is solid and has a little bit of traction (gaining some customers) you may even gain investment for your business.

For the PortTech Pitch I had an early stage startup that I was wondering if it was worth continuing. I had build an prototype with a team and had some solid customer responses. But the venture had moved to a halt because I had ‘analysis paralysis’ – to much thinking and not enough action.

So I decided to just show up and entered the concept into the competition. I passed the initial stages through a skype pitch and made it through the final stage pitch in front of the judges and the investors. I prepared my pitch telling the true and interesting story of how the concept came about and where I wanted to take it.

They liked it. But …not enough to get investment.

I understood why.

It was too early during the lifecycle of the venture for investors. We were yet to start acquiring customers which is a key indicator of success for startups. But as far as the presentation goes, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

The key was weaving a compelling story into the pitch – and here’s how you can do it.

Story Telling

There are several components necessary to create a compelling story. You will want to structure these four components into the story you tell about your business.

• Universal truth
• Introducing the Hero
• Twist of fate
• Transformation

Universal Truth

The first is to create intrigue. You want to gain the audiences attention and this is done by revealing an universal truth. This is usually a large macro economic or environmental fact or statistic.

You could use a fact about climate change or about peak oil. Ideally shocking something that leaves the audience hanging in suspense wanting to find out more. The universal truth is a common frame of reference for the story.

Introducing the Hero

This is when the protagonist is introduced into the story. If you are the founder of the business you might describe how you struggled with a problem personally and you’ll want to describe the pain it caused you.

Twist of Fate

What happened between you struggling with the problem and finding a solution. What steps did you take, what problems did you face and what did you learn?

Transformation

This is describing the product and the exciting new business. This the the part where you describe what lies ahead. You’ll want to share the vision you have for the business and what resources you’ll need moving forward.

This the structure that I used for my pitch and also the structure that many of the other pitches that were effective used. I have learnt through practice that exciting an audience with story and narrative is much more effective than presenting cold facts… even if they are good numbers – remember to dress them up a little with some story telling.

What To Tell Investors

This is where the link to back to Shark Tank comes back in. Just like you have probably seen on the show, investors invest in ideas that will make them profits. There are two key questions you’ll want to clearly answer in your pitch to appeal to investors…

What will I get back in return for risking my money in this venture?

Do I feel comfortable in this team to produce the results they promise?

If you can effectively answer these in your pitch, then the investors will be more likely to see that you are on to a winner. As Tom Taulli told me you need to appeal to an investors greed. First and foremost before they access risk they need to feel like there is a sufficient reward for their investment. Also, the more you can get inside an investors head before presenting, the better. Think to yourself what would you want to hear if you were investing your own money into a venture. Then go ahead and craft your pitch addressing the questions that you would have.

Gaining Customers

Something that I learnt from the PortTech Pitch is the importance of customer acquisition. This is a fancy way of describing getting customers for your business. You can have the most amazing technology in the world, however having it available is only half the challenge. Having a strong strategy for gaining customers is just as important as the innovation itself. One thing that was highlighted in the feedback to my pitch was that I needed to have a stronger customer acquisition strategy.

Since then I have explored ways in which to do this. Many other startups that succeeded tried strategy after strategy until something stuck. They explored many different ways to reach their target customers and then they doubled down on those strategies that showed promise of working. Of course to do this you must measure which marketing channels are the most effective.

“What gets measured gets managed.” – Peter Drucker

Should You Go To Entrepreneurial Events

Port Tech Expo

Even if you don’t have solid business proposition yet you should still be attending as many entrepreneurial and cleantech events as possible. Every time I get involved in a event I learn more. There is something innately unique about learning from first hand experience. There is a tremendous amount that anyone can learn from attending such events not too mention the access to networks.

Find an Event Near You

So first things first, decide to get involved and just turn up.

Secondly, find a cleantech event near you and commit.

There are Startup Weekends right across the world these are a good place to start. These are 48 hour intensive business bootcamps that are a great low cost to get an introduction to startup.

If you live in Los Angeles check out PortTech but if you do not there are likely to be incubators and innovation hubs near you which will have events very similar to the PortTech Pitch.

Also you can search for meetups and other University run competitions.

Practice makes perfect. The reason why it’s great to get involved with these events is the more you pitch and the more you are involved with business creation the more proficient you get at it. Every business is different but the more you learn how to be entrepreneurial the better you’ll get at starting up.

When are you going to your next event? – Post in the comments I’d love hear from you

P.S. The Engineer to Founder Book has been released! Start learning now and go to this page

(For the first 50 I’ve got it as a pay want you want – so if your quick you can get it for free. Also – for a limited time you can use the coupon code “subscribers” and receive a $10 discount.)

Become an ECO founder

Start the 30 day ECO founder Challenge (it’s free!) to learn how to startup your own clean technology business.

No spam, ever. You can unsubscribe at anytime.

The post Lessons Learnt from a Cleantech Event appeared first on Eco Founder.