Schwartz Renewablog

Green Public Affairs: DOE Details $3.4 Billion in Smart Grid Grants

2009-10-28T01:55:41Z

The DOE issued a release today about the $3.4 billion in grants issued as part of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA, aka the Stimulus Package). The release is here and there are links for downloading details on who will receive the funds as well as a map of where the funds will be invested.

It is a happy day for Smart Grid technology and service providers.

Green Public Affairs: $3.4 Billion in Stimulus Funds Coming to Smart Grid Tomorrow

2009-10-26T22:49:02Z

News today, that the Department of Energy will dole out $3.4 billion in Smart Grid stimulus money tomorrow, in what was already shaping up to be a noisy public affairs and public relations week at Solar Power International. The first speculation that something was coming soon was posted by Matt Marshall of VentureBeat this morning.

With much of the US utility market and solar industry gathered in Anaheim for the SPI conference, this will no doubt give the cleantech industry as a whole a major boost. Venture Capitalists made cleantech the top funding market for Q3, but were having trouble raising new funds. With government dollars flowing, policy driving cleantech adoption and a slowly improving economy, it is only a matter of time before we start seeing the health of VC and private equity fund raises improve as LPs jump back on the cleantech bandwagon.

The news will also inject even more life into the GreenBeat 2009 event in November, where leaders in smart grid policy, technology and adoption will get together to discuss the market environment for 2010. Al Gore and others will be keynoting the event and Schwartz is a Silver Sponsor.

For updates at Solar Power, follow @jasonmorris and I'll try to report back on major happenings at the show.

President Obama's Energy Speech at MIT: A Field Report

2009-10-24T11:13:38Z

It's not every day one is lucky enough to see the President of the United States speak. Add in the topic (energy), timing (eve of Senate hearings on the Climate Bill) and location (MIT) and you have a seriously major event.

The crowd began lining up three hours before the scheduled start time to clear security and nab seats in the intimate (at least for a Presidential speech) Kresge Auditoium at MIT.

Once the crowd entered the warm venue (it was pretty chilly outside), the auditorium turned into a big schmoozefest (with no food or drinks, they were prohibited along with laptops from coming inside). As usual for Presidential events, things started a bit late. In this case, it was because President Obama was receiving a briefing from professors and students on new clean technolgies being developed at MIT, including wind.

President Obama entered to a rousing ovation. After a few jokes, he launched into a speech that was classic Obama--soaring language meant to inspire. One of my favorite passages:

"I'm excited being here and seeing these extraordinary young people...because it taps into something essential about America -- it's the legacy of daring men and women who put their talents and their efforts into the pursuit of discovery. And it's the legacy of a nation that supported those intrepid few willing to take risks on an idea that might fail -- but might also change the world."

But the President wasn't at MIT just to inspire. Obama used his speech as a call to action for America to innovate more rapidly and solve the energy problem, framing it as an economic imperative:

"Countries on every corner of this Earth now recognize that energy supplies are growing scarcer, energy demands are growing larger, and rising energy use imperils the planet we will leave to future generations. And that's why the world is now engaged in a peaceful competition to determine the technologies that will power the 21st century. From China to India, from Japan to Germany, nations everywhere are racing to develop new ways to producing and use energy. The nation that wins this competition will be the nation that leads the global economy. I am convinced of that. And I want America to be that nation."

And Obama was clearly conscious of the hurdles within the US political system that still need to be cleared, in some eyes taking the fight directly to the opposition:

"I think it's important to understand that the closer we get, the harder the opposition will fight and the more we'll hear from those whose interest or ideology run counter to the much needed action that we're engaged in. There are those who will suggest that moving toward clean energy will destroy our economy -- when it's the system we currently have that endangers our prosperity and prevents us from creating millions of new jobs. There are going to be those who cynically claim -- make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change, claims whose only purpose is to defeat or delay the change that we know is necessary."

The President brought it home with more words of inspiration--"This is the nation that will lead the clean energy economy of tomorrow, so long as all of us remember what we have achieved in the past and we use that to inspire us to achieve even more in the future," and then he was done.

I was pretty sure he wouldn't work a rope line (he was already late to a Governor Deval Patrick fundraiser), but he dove in. Sensing a chance for a shake, I rushed up and extended my hand. Sure enough, I got my first Presidential shake.

A fantastic finish to a great day...but more importantly, the cleantech community received indisputable scientific evidence that President Obama is a huge supporter of innovation's role in solving the energy problem.

Solar PR, M&A Heat Up Ahead of Solar Power International

2009-10-23T15:07:26Z

As the Solar PR world shifts its gaze to Anaheim for next week's Solar Power International event, the news pipeline has already begun heating up. National Semiconductor today announced that it has acquired a solar monitoring software provider, which will put the company in direct competition with Fat Spaniel among others. SolarEdge, a Schwartz client, is a company that already combines power harvesting and monitoring in a single product, which likely pushed National Semiconductor to make an acquisition in the space.

Also this week, Schwartz client Skyline Solar announced the start of commercial manufacturing in a Cosma International metalforming facility in Troy, Michigan. This is another example of solar looking to fill the US manufacturing void left by struggling automakers, about which we will likely hear a lot more in the months to come.

Expect a lot of news around US manufacturing, public policy (i.e. grants and feed-in tariffs) and global firms entering the US market next week, as many peg North America as the solar focus for 2010. We'll have several Schwartz team members and close to ten clients at the event and will report back what we hear during the show.

Obama's MIT Speech Keeps New England in the Cleantech Spotlight

2009-10-22T19:08:44Z

On the heels of the spectacular A123 IPO, President Barack Obama's "major" energy policy speech tomorrow at MIT keeps the cleantech spotlight on New England. It's a great validator for what I (and many others) believe about New England's role in the cleantech economy--we've got some some of world's biggest brains and it is through scientific innovation at places likes MIT that we'll solve the energy problem.

By simple virtue of its timing the speech is a big deal. As The New York Times reports, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (aka the Climate Bill) is finally ready for take-off:

"Obama's speech in Cambridge, Mass., comes the same day that U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson plans to release the agency's economic and environmental analysis of the climate bill (S. 1733 (pdf)) from Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). With the EPA analysis in hand, Boxer is set to begin a three-day series of hearings in her Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday, Oct. 27, with testimony from Kerry, Jackson, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff."

Two of tomorrow's most interested spectators represent one of the other big assets New England brings to the cleantech economy: the strength and leadership of our Congressional delegation. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is heading the energy push from the House and Sen. Kerry is the lead sponsor of the Senate legislation.

For the cleantech economy to truly take off, there needs to be cooperation between the private sector, government and academia. Tomorrow's event represents one of the highest-profile examples yet of how the three constituencies intertwine...and it's happening here in New England.

Smart Grid PR: New NIST Report with Nearly 80 Standards

2009-10-07T16:15:00Z

Out of the hundreds of standards that will ultimately be needed to run the nation’s emerging Smart Grid, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) announced it has determined about 80 of them in its new report. Smart grid standards have received a lot of PR in the past few months as many predict they will be the top road block to the market maturing and having its full impact.

Released during this year’s GridWeek conference in Washington, DC, the draft is open for comments for the next month. Jeff St. John at Greentech media did a solid overview of the release. Designed to guide utilities and vendors as they roll out services, products and software, these standards are being born out of a Smart Grid Conceptual Reference Model, which NIST is using as a guide to identify and keep track of all the various systems and requirements.

NIST highlights two groups that are being formed to help direct the future of the Smart Grid—where savvy and well networked Smart Grid businesses will be participating:

--Smart Grid Interoperability Panel: a public-private partnership established by NIST at the end of this year to offer more permanent organizational structure to support the ongoing evolution of the framework.

--Smart Grid Architecture Board: a subcommittee to the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, which will lead the development and management of the Smart Grid Conceptual Model.

While many panelists and board members have likely been identified by NIST, there still should be opportunities for Smart Grid businesses to lobby themselves into the groups. Take the Cyber Security Coordination Task Group (CSCTG) for example, where security companies are helping build the requirements that address all cyber security elements of the Smart Grid.

Not selected by the NIST? Well, the releases of new standards and regulations will offer repeated PR opportunities for businesses to offer insight, commentary and thought leadership to the media—and help get their company and technology recognized.

Take this report, for example. What’s noticeably absent? What does NIST need to focus on in Phase 2? What are your thoughts?

Cleantech Public Affairs: EPA Spooks Industry but Will Congress Act?

2009-10-02T18:09:51Z

It's interesting to see large commercial and industrial companies infighting over how to approach lobbying around greenhouse gas (GHG) requirements. According to the FT, companies are actually leaving the US Chamber of Commerce over disagreements on how to approach lobbying around climate change legislation.

The thinking is that by lobbying to stall or water down a bill in Congress, businesses have exposed themselves to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule on GHG emissions which would be even more restrictive. It will be interesting to see if this leads to a wholesale change in lobbying tactics which could grease the skids for a climate bill in the coming weeks.

Cleantech is the New Leader in VC Funding

2009-10-01T20:28:51Z

In retrospect it seemed inevitable, but according to a new report by the Cleantech Group and Deloitte & Touche, cleantech has emerged as the number one sector in U.S. venture capital investment. This is a big deal...literally. The numbers are staggering--in Q3 2009 $1.59 billion was invested in 134 cleantech companies.

The report indicates that over the next few quarters cleantech is expected to stay on top of the investment heap (over IT and biotech). Reasons include investment risk mitagation in the form of government support through grants and loan guarantees and the "A123 Systems" halo effect--a monster IPO that gives VCs hope for lucrative cleantech exits.

A123 IPO Generates Green for Cleantech Investors

2009-09-24T17:32:34Z

Cleantech investors, companies, media and green PR folk watched today's A123 Nasdaq debut with intense interest as the battery maker became the first cleantech concern to IPO in some time. Up 36 percent in early trading, A123 has not disappointed. With cleantech patents at an all time high, cleantech investing on the rebound and stimulus money starting to flow, there could be more green IPOs in the coming months.

A123 benefits from being at the intersection of two important trends: energy storage and the electrification of cars. Batteries have long been cited as a technology that needs to improve for renewable energy to reach its full potential. Car electrification dominated discussion among some of the panels at AlwaysOn GoingGreen last week as Tesla, Bright Automotive, Coda, Fisker and their investors littered panels at the event.

Expect A123's IPO to be a further boon to battery start ups in the coming weeks and months, as VCs look to find the next big technology in that sector.

GoingGreen and Going Gray: Watching California's Graywater Recycling Standards Take Hold

2009-09-22T16:51:18Z

At last week’s GoingGreen West 2009 conference the issue of water -- safe, clean, reliable water sources to be exact -- got a good deal of attention. Maybe because, despite the heavy fog that was wrapped around the Golden Gate Bridge, California labors through its third straight year of drought?

The panel “The Water Grid & Water Markets” covered a variety of current and very cool near-future technologies. From water quality IT dashboards (IBM) to off grid, mini-desalination plants (Energy Recovery) to subsurface water storage (Schlumberger Water Services), there’s a plethora of solutions available and emerging that address the growing water crisis. It’s clear that the biggest challenges are not great new ideas or innovations but rather finding ways to lower costs and leverage public policy to drive adoption.

One technology that I’ve been coming back to is on-site water recycling. “Gray” or wastewater recycling systems are nothing new; however, the process traditionally has received fairly lousy PR. Often likened to sewage, grey water actually comes from showers, dishwashers and other household sanitation, except the toilet. Graywater is an important part of solving the crisis, but like all things water related, California struggles with graywater provisions. Expensive systems, low rebates and restrictive mandates have resulted in fewer than 10 residential systems permitted and legally installed in Los Angeles every year.

Hopefully that is changing. In late July the Department of Housing and Community Development’s (HCD) Codes and Standards Division announced the adoption of the state’s new graywater standards. If successful, these new standards could make it easier for systems to be implemented and safe water be reused. According to the HCD, these systems can help a family of four reduce its annual water consumption by 22,000 gallons of water--from the laundry system alone.

With countries like China practicing well-established regulations of water reclamation for hotels, institutions and schools for years, the US seems behind the curve yet again in our water use practices. However, California’s HCD new standards are helping lower the cost of greywater systems and encouraging adoption, and seem to be a big step in the right direction. We’ll have to keep an eye on them in the coming months to see how the program takes hold.

Green & Cleantech PR: Chat with Camille Ricketts of VentureBeat

2009-09-18T16:23:40Z

Yesterday we had the pleasure of having Camille Ricketts, the lead Green writer for VentureBeat, into our San Francisco office. For the twenty PR clients we work with in solar, smart grid, biofuels, water desalination, carbon management and Green IT, Camille is a top contact--especially for those looking to reach a green investment audience. Camille considers herself to still be a bit new to the Green space, although at more than six months she is a grizzled veteran in the high-turnover world of media.

She ran through a good background of VentureBeat and her specific focus, all of which was useful. But perhaps the most helpful information for a Green PR person is tips and tricks for working with a journalist more effectively. So onto Camille's preferences:

-Follow Up: She is very conscientious about email pitches and will follow up on nearly everything if given the time. Therefore, she prefers second contact to come in the form of an email and requests a bit of patience because she will try to respond.

-Social Media: Camille doesn't mind direct messages on Twitter as long as you have something that can be of use to her. She'll read them and Tweet you back if she is interested.

-Sources: While Camille likes speaking with venture capitalists, she doesn't want a VC source that is simply going to cheerlead for a company. She wants details on why a deal came together and why the VC chose your company over a competitor.

-Embargoes & Exclusives: Both Camille and VentureBeat as an outlet, appreciate the use of embargoes and exclusives by PR people. They will honor embargoes as long as a PR firm is good to its word and VentureBeat does not get scooped after agreeing to one. VentureBeat writers pride themselves on integrity and will not agree to something they won't honor. Like almost all media outlets, they like an exclusive because it allows them to do a longer piece without fear of being scooped. The good news is that I think they're likely to get more exclusives moving forward thanks to a strong syndication relationship with the New York Times web site.

-Future Focus: Camille expects to be writing a lot about Smart Grid and Green IT in the coming weeks as VentureBeat ramps up for its GreenBeat 2009 event in November. With Al Gore, John Doerr and other high profile presenters, it should be a great event.

Overall, Camille shared some great information about working with a top outlet covering how finance and policy are impacting the cleantech market.

Cleantech & Green Industry Enters Event Run on PR High

2009-09-10T01:54:34Z

The last few weeks may have been the best PR stretch of 2009 for solar, wind and other cleantech and green markets, especially from a finance standpoint. It should provide a considerable uplift to spirits at AlwaysOn GoingGreen next week as the cleantech venture capital, private equity and investment banking community gathers to discuss industry issues in water, smart grid, energy management, solar, wind, energy storage and renewable fuels. Some of the positive news from the past few weeks:

-Treasury grants started flowing from the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA), promising to fund a new way of renewable energy projects in wind and solar.

-The Department of Energy (DOE) loan program blessed Solyndra with a $500+ million guarantee, promising to create more than 3,000 green collar jobs in the process.

-Vinod Khosla's firm, Khosla Ventures, raised a $1.1 billion round which is expected to help fund dozens, if not scores or start-ups across the sector.

-IBM predicted that a "smart grid of water" business could be worth $20 billion over five years.

-Cleantech patents hit an all time high in Q2, showing that companies and entrepreneurs continue to innovate and that many new Green technologies are likely coming to market in 2010 and beyond.

That last bullet flew under the radar in many circles (a partner in a late stage VC firm I talked to said he had not heard anything about IBM's interest in water) and water as a whole gets less attention than energy on a national level. I am a firm believer that water is the next big sector that will attract massive investment and media attention, as the US comes to better understand that water is a national issue.

Couple all of these developments with Hara and other companies being successful in their fundraising activities, and you have what looks to be a significant financial thaw across various green industries. It could also be with Obama's speech on healthcare reform tonight that some form of bill gets passed and that the Energy & Water bill moves back to the top of the legislative priority list, which could result in the creation of the Green Bank and more funding avenues for cleantech companies.

With GoingGreen, PVSec, Solar Power International, Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovations Conference, Power-Gen, Clean Tech Futures and a number of other events upcoming, we'll be able to monitor the impact of all of this news on the collective psyche of the cleantech market. It should be a fun final third to 2009.

**Schwartz Plug Alert**

We issued a release today highlighting the growth of our Cleantech & Green PR and Public Affairs Practice during 2009. We've become the Agency of Record for ten great organizations thus far in 2009, thereby doubling our footprint in the market. It's an exciting time to be in PR.

Green Stimulus Funds Flow from Treasury Grants: Wind in the Sails of Cleantech

2009-09-02T16:32:10Z

Important news yesterday that the Treasury Department has granted more than $500 million in grants to some major cleantech projects, most of them related to wind power. These grants are in cash versus the traditional 30 percent tax credit that companies had been receiving. Expect solar, wind and biofuels projects to receive additional funding in the coming months.

With new cash flowing in from the government, green VCs and foreign investors, the market is looking at a major rebound in Q4 and 2010. All of the positive news around financing should help offset falling solar panel prices, declining wind patents and biofuel production snafus, leading to a better green PR environment in the coming months.

Cleantech & Green Venture Funding: Khosla Antis-Up $1.1 Billion

2009-09-01T16:09:12Z

Major and somewhat astonishing financing news for cleantech companies today as Khosla Ventures has managed to raise the biggest venture capital fund since 2007 in what people have called an impossible fund-raising environment. Vinod Khosla obviously still sees tremendous opportunity for investing in early-stage cleantech companies with the hopes that one or more become one of the "ten Googles" he predicted would emerge from Cleantech earlier this year.

It also seems incredibly Warren Buffet like to be raising a fund at a time when others have turtled and to be investing capital when other VCs are a bit concerned about the corporate viability of their investments. Maybe now is the best time to be investing, when cleantech company risk seems low due to more reasonable valuations and with an increase in government loans and support. If the recent boom in cleantech and green patents is any indication, there will be a lot of companies looking for money in the coming 12-24 months.

The firm also announced that it has brought on Facebook's former CFO, giving it more cache with social media and web 2.0 start ups. What does this all mean for the green PR and marketing world?

It means that the demise of cleantech has been dramtically exaggerated and that we're likely to see an investment recovery in 2010, continuing the trend that started in Q2. It also means that cleantech and green marketers should use the Khosla fund as a proof point that things are only going to get noisier and that competitor marketing coffers are likely to increase over the next 12 months.

Khosla's fund will likely be the buzz as Vinod Khosla keynotes AlwaysOn GoingGreen in two weeks.

Could Green Patent Record Drive Cleantech VC Funding; M&A? Fuel Cells Dominate Patent Growth

2009-08-27T16:10:08Z

Very interesting post yesterday from VentureBeat about how Cleantech & Green patents have hit a record, driven in large part by an explosion in Fuel Cell patents. That said, every sector was up save for wind. Solar patents, biofuel patents, etc. all saw big increases over Q2 of 2008 when the financing environment was healthier.

Schwartz represents a large patent and intellectual property firm, Finnegan, with an established Green industry practice, and we're guessing business has been pretty good for them and firms like them.

What does this mean? Well, we know that Cleantech and Green Venture Capitalists love patents since investing in companies without some legally enforced technical barrier to entry is seen as somewhat foolish. New technology development and a spike in patents could lead to an even bigger rebound in early-stage investing. And while the spike could have been driven in part by emerging-growth companies like Bloom Energy, it also points to the fact that large company R&D is likely increasing in cleantech, for example, automakers in fuel cells, GE and others in wind and smart grid, etc. It also could lead to future acquisitions of smaller companies with strong patent positions, by some of the larger companies in the market.

Many of these patent holders will also likely look for Department of Energy (DOE) grants and R&D grants from other government entities, in order to commercialize some of these technologies. This points to even more competition in the green public affairs world.

Overall, this is yet another sign that the cleantech financing environment and green PR noise will further rebound in 2010.