Most buildings today can achieve significant energy savings through efficiency upgrades. However, these savings remain largely untapped due to financing constraints. According to a July 2011 report on EE financing by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), “Lenders tell us that many of the entities in this sector will not or cannot add debt to the balance sheet….”  Opportunity costs and long payback periods, combined with perceived credit risk are also significant barriers to implementation for a large segment of businesses. Though banks are the most common source of funding in the commercial sector, they provide relatively modest levels of financing to property owners for EE measures.  These challenges are particularly significant for small and mid-sized non-residential buildings, where energy upgrade projects typically cost less than $1 million.

In 2008, the combined U.S. commercial and industrial (C&I) building sectors accounted for over half of all US primary energy use, and approximately 10% of total global energy use. While there are approximately four million existing C&I buildings in the US, half of those are owner-occupied. CalCEF sees an opportunity to sell efficiency as a service and leverage impact investment capital to help these buildings undertake cost-effective upgrades—targeted at achieving 25% energy savings—to unlock more than $150 billion in energy savings over the next 10 years.

CalCEF intends to provide a means for business owners to implement EE projects without any upfront payments, thereby eliminating the first-cost barrier.  Instead, efficiency assets can be owned by a nonprofit EE investment fund and customers will pay for savings over time using an Efficiency Services Agreement (ESA).  This simple solution pays for capital improvements by repurposing a company’s utility operating expense in much the same way as do solar PPAs.

CalCEF intends to manage education and outreach with channel partners, who will play a vital role in unearthing and unlocking the value inherent in these disparate and invisible project opportunities.  Partners can help lead their industries through education & communication, identification of savings opportunities, and project facilitation.

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Bob Hinkle, President and CEO of Metrus Energy introduces the Efficiency Resource Fund in the below video:

The Efficiency Resource Fund taps into a massive underserved market of 4 million buildings nationwide by providing otherwise hard-to-get financing for businesses to make energy-efficiency improvements, with no upfront costs – helping unlock $150 billion in efficiency savings.

Paul Frankel, Managing Director of CalCEF discusses the market impact of the Efficiency Resource Fund in the below video:

The Efficiency Resource Fund unlocks $150 billion in efficiency savings through an innovative financing solution for some 4 million buildings nationwide – delivering customer savings, putting contractors and skilled labor to work, and providing attractive returns for impact investors.

The post Leveraging Impact Investment for Small- and Mid-Size Energy Efficiency Projects appeared first on CalCEF.

SAN FRANCISCO – March 13, 2013 – Manufacturers, schools, churches, and clinics throughout the United States could cut up to $15 billion a year on their energy bills over the next decade, thanks to a pioneering new financial tool launched today by the efficiency-services financer Metrus Energy and CalCEF, an organization focused on accelerating clean energy technologies.

The new Efficiency Resource Fund (the Fund) will provide otherwise hard-to-get financing for small and medium-sized businesses to make energy-efficiency improvements, with no risk and no upfront costs. This innovative approach bridges the funding gap that has stymied these small- and mid-sized retrofit projects—some 4 million buildings nationwide.

“The Efficiency Resource Fund is a trail-blazing investment vehicle that taps a massive, underserved market opportunity,” said Paul Frankel, Managing Director of CalCEF. “We’re enabling a whole class of projects that would otherwise not be completed, while at the same time delivering not just savings for customers but also attractive returns for impact investors and generating capacity for utilities.”

Here’s how it works: The Fund signs an Efficiency Services Agreement (ESA) for up to 10 years with a building owner, and then hires contractors to design, install, measure, and maintain energy-saving improvements. As a result, the customer sees a reduction in its total utility bill, while making buildings more functional, productive, and comfortable. The Fund recoups its investment by billing customers for their realized efficiency gains.

Since the useful life of the energy efficiency equipment continues well beyond the life of the ESA, customers continue to save for years to come.

“We are excited to bring our efficiency finance know-how to the small and medium sized project market. The Fund will enable these customers to access financing to upgrade their facilities and reap all the benefits that energy efficiency has to offer,” said Bob Hinkle, President and CEO of Metrus Energy, the Fund’s manager and creator of the ESA.

The Fund is an especially attractive investment for pension funds of the construction trades. It garners a substantial return on investment, while also generating new local construction jobs that will increase pension contributions. Such targeted investments are becoming more popular throughout the United States. Recently, Thomas P. DiNapoli, New York State Comptroller and trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, urged its portfolio companies to increase investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

“There’s a huge amount of money to be saved—and, for investors, earned—by improving energy efficiency throughout our economy and putting professional contractors and skilled tradesmen to work,” said Jim Willson, Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), and a 20-year pension trustee.

The Fund will sell efficiency as a service to building owners and provide tax-exempt returns to private foundations, pension funds, and other community-based financial institutions.

“The Efficiency Resource Fund is a unique opportunity for investors to put money to work in an area that will produce multiple positive outcomes,” said Cathy Halstead, trustee of the Sidney E. Frank Foundation, a long-time grantor to CalCEF. “We’ve supported the development of this novel financing mechanism because we see its potential for advancing green buildings, green jobs, emissions reductions, and cost savings for small and medium businesses.”

“We believe this new finance mechanism will help members of business organizations like ours save money by reaching their energy efficiency goals sooner. We want to bring regional chambers of commerce to the table,” said Diane Doucette, Executive Director of Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy, a national network of chambers of commerce. “Trade associations and other industry groups, like the Greater Cleveland Partnership’s Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE), will be key channels for helping identify suitable projects and for matching them with vetted local contractors.”

The Fund is now accepting customer applications from facility owners who have efficiency retrofit projects that cost less than $1 million.

CalCEF expects to raise $10 million from investors by the end of the year. Details of the Fund are explained in their concept paper, “The Sub-Million Dollar Question: Leveraging Impact Investment and Service Agreements for Small and Mid-Sized Energy Efficiency Projects.”

# # #

Bob Hinkle, President and CEO of Metrus Energy introduces the Efficiency Resource Fund in the below video:

The Efficiency Resource Fund taps into a massive underserved market of 4 million buildings nationwide by providing otherwise hard-to-get financing for businesses to make energy-efficiency improvements, with no upfront costs – helping unlock $150 billion in efficiency savings.

Paul Frankel, Managing Director of CalCEF discusses the market impact of the Efficiency Resource Fund in the below video:

The Efficiency Resource Fund unlocks $150 billion in efficiency savings through an innovative financing solution for some 4 million buildings nationwide – delivering customer savings, putting contractors and skilled labor to work, and providing attractive returns for impact investors.

# # #

Press Contacts
Sarah Golden, Danielle English
415-453-0430

About CalCEF
CalCEF (www.calcef.org) works to promote the transition to a clean energy economy by creating institutions and investment vehicles that grow markets for clean energy technologies. CalCEF is a hybrid organization that pursues statewide and national agendas via 1) CalCEF Innovations, a 501(c)(3) that leads CalCEF’s analysis and product development efforts; 2) CalCEF Ventures, a 501(c)(4) that executes and scales the CalCEF investment strategy via a fund-of-funds model, partnering with leading investment managers; and 3) CalCEF Catalyst, a 501(c)(6) a platform for the creation of replicable models for “demand driven innovation” requiring the sustained collective action of stakeholders from across the clean energy sector. The Efficiency Resource Fund is part of CalCEF’s nonprofit 501(c)(4) arm.

About Metrus Energy
Metrus Energy, Inc. (www.metrusenergy.com) is a leader in EE project development and financing for large retrofit and building upgrade projects at commercial, industrial and institutional facilities. Through its innovative Efficiency Services Agreement (ESA), Metrus pays for all upfront and ongoing project costs, removing initial investment as a barrier and providing facilities with the immediate financial, operational and environmental benefits of impactful EE measures. Metrus has developed and financed a wide range of retrofit projects for its customers, including high efficiency lighting, energy management and controls systems, HVAC equipment upgrades and replacements, motors and pumps and continuous commissioning programs. In recognition of its leadership position in the EE financing industry, Metrus was selected by the White House and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as a financial ally for the Better Buildings Challenge (BBC) program. Under the BBC, Metrus has committed to develop over $75 million in projects using its ESA structure to help the United States achieve its energy saving objectives.

The post New Fund Unlocks $150 Billion in Efficiency Savings appeared first on CalCEF.

“Waste-heat recovery is the largest untapped potential for energy efficiency,” according to Alphabet Energy’s CEO, Matt Scullin.

Alphabet Energy is commercializing thermoelectric waste-heat harvesting technology developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and just raised $16 million in Round B funding, led by corporate strategic investor Encana, a developer of natural gas and other energy sources. Existing investors TPG Biotech, Claremont Creek Ventures and the CalCEF Clean Energy Angel Fund also participated in the round. This funding adds to the $12 million round A raised in 2011 and a $1M seed round in 2010.

Thermoelectrics are materials that, when placed in a temperature gradient, have the potential to turn waste heat into power. It’s a brilliant pursuit, but no one has brought it to market economically at scale just yet.

Traditional thermoelectrics use materials such as bismuth telluride or silicon germanium. Scullin suggested that these materials don’t scale and don’t work at higher temperatures.

Instead, the 20-employee firm’s technology path is in the use of silicon-based materials,reportedly silicon nanowires, with the potential to use the existing silicon ecosystem for process development and manufacturing. The CEO would not divulge the platform technology.

Alphabet’s first product is for a device that generates electricity from exhaust-gas waste heat — which makes investor Encana a great fit. “We have a vested interest in the advancement of waste-heat recovery, and Alphabet’s approach to generating power from exhaust gas shows great promise in delivering reliable and inexpensive reductions in fuel costs,” said Vince Elenko, the lead of Encana’s Environmental Innovation Fund.

Market size estimates from the firm are massive, with exhaust flows from engines in industrial applications seen as an “$8.5 billion opportunity within the $90 billion potential market for Alphabet’s products.” In reality, these are broad, diverse, and fragmented markets that will require a variety of custom approaches and sales channels.

The bottom line is cost, and the metric is payback time.

“We’ve identified over 100 verticals where our products could offer interesting payback times to customers.” He adds, “The most pull for thermoelectric is from the automotive industry.” That’s to help meet EU and CAFE automotive fuel efficiency standards, “but that’s not our first product.” According to Alphabet, in the near term, applications are in waste-heat-to-electricity generators that utilize hot exhaust gas from heavy industrial applications and engines.

Scullin said, “We’re competing with non-consumption,” adding, “we can offer a payback time that gets people interested, and interested in deploying across their portfolio of waste-heat sources.”

The silicon approach allowed the firm to create the highest efficiency in waste-heat recovery while using cheap materials, said the CEO. The company can operate in a capital-efficient manner because it “can use existing tool sets and scale up faster than other thermoelectrics.” He noted that “the thermoelectric is 100 times as power dense as a solar panel. We need 100 times less equipment and capital than a solar company.”

In residential and commercial settings, lighting and HVAC are the low-hanging efficiency measures. In heavy industry, waste heat recovery is on the top of folks’ lists when thinking about energy efficiency, according to the CEO. Alphabet’s technology is intended for the sub-megawatt-scale market.

Other companies developing thermoelectric technologies or capturing waste heat include:

• GMZ Energy, spun out of MIT with a $14 million Round C from KPCB, BP Alternative Energy, and Mitsui Ventures, is working on a bismuth telluride thermovoltaic device that converts solar heat directly into power via the Seebeck effect. In the Seebeck effect, a sharp temperature gradient can result in an electric charge. According to a press release, “GMZ Energy is developing its first product for the $8 billion residential, commercial and industrial solar thermal water market. Expected to launch next year, the product would integrate its thermoelectric material directly into conventional solar hot water collectors, enabling the production of electricity in addition to heat and hot water.”
• MTPV raised funding from Spinnaker Capital, Applied Ventures, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and Ensys Capital for a product the company describes as a thermophotovoltaic. MTPV uses a silicon-based MEMS emitter which takes heat and transfers radiation to a germanium-based photovoltaic device, according to an article inSemiconductor Manufacturing and Design.
• Phononic Devices is developing waste-heat capture devices with funding from Oak Venture Partners and Venrock for cooling, air conditioning and energy harvesting.
• Silicium, funded by Khosla Ventures, is investigating high ZT thermoelectrics for refrigeration. (GigaOm speculates on Silicium here.)
• Recycled Energy Development (RED) and Ormat have retrofitted factories to capture waste heat, not using thermoelectrics, but by adding CHP or cogeneration.

Susan Preston, General Partner of CalCEF Clean Energy Angel Fund and an investor in Alphabet, told GTM, “For our Fund, the interesting part is the potential game-changing nature of the technology.  We all recognize the enormous amount of wasted energy in the form of dissipated/waste heat. To have the real possibility for commercialization of a cost-effective solution to capture that waste heat comes as close to a silver bullet solution to climate change as I have seen in a long time.”

The post Alphabet’s Silicon-Based Thermoelectric Tech Gets $16M in VC appeared first on CalCEF.

But with antipathy for renewable energy subsidies running high among many Republicans, the industries are bringing a new plea to Washington: allow wind and solar companies to qualify for some of the tax advantages that are used by the oil, gas and real estate industries to raise money from investors.

“We’ve made great progress in bringing down the cost of renewable energy technologies like wind turbines and solar panels,” said Dan Reicher, who is executive director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford and who has been pushing for the changes. “Where we haven’t made the necessary progress is on bringing down the cost of financing the projects that use that equipment, so the cost of renewable energy is higher than it needs to be.”

The industries are looking to two investment structures – the master limited partnership and the real estate investment trust – to help make financing easier and cheaper. Mr. Reicher estimated that opening them up to renewable companies could cut the cost of their energy by a third.

There are many challenges to changing the tax code – particularly in an era when many in Washington are trying to raise revenue, not reduce it. But the proposals are receiving serious attention.

The Internal Revenue Service is considering allowing at least one company to form a real estate investment trust, or REIT, for a group of renewable energy projects, with a decision expected soon.

And last month, 31 lawmakers, including Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Jerry Moran of Kansas and Representative Ted Poe of Texas, sent a letter to President Obama urging him to support the changes. All three are Republicans supported by gas and oil interests, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware who was a sponsor of a bill on master limited partnerships, or M.L.P.’s, during the last session, said he plans to reintroduce it this year. He said he had been meeting with Obama administration officials and lawmakers and building support for the measure, including among Republicans.

Allowing solar and wind firms to use a tax break offered to oil and gas companies fits into the worldview of “an all-of-the-above energy strategy,” he said, “not picking winners and losers in technology.”

But the effort may run aground in the larger tax overhaul that Congress and President Obama are pursuing.

Although White House officials say they see expanding REITs and M.L.P.’s as keeping with their larger clean energy goals, they are more focused on eliminating direct subsidies and loopholes for fossil fuels and establishing a permanent production tax credit for renewables.

Clark W. Stevens, a White House spokesman, declined to comment on particular programs, saying, “The administration continues to support a number of provisions that provide needed support to the development of cutting-edge technologies and clean energy projects here in the United States, expanding renewable energy production and ensuring the jobs of the 21st century are created here at home.”

As with conventional power plants, the cost of building wind and solar farms can run into the billions of dollars, involving elaborate planning, construction and equipment.

Under current law, the federal government offers renewable energy companies a generous tax credit against their income. But since few of them make enough profit to use the credits, they need to find investors – typically companies seeking to shield nonenergy profit from taxes – to take advantage of the breaks. Because the pool of such prospects is small, the investors that do jump in, like Google, have been able to command high rates of return.

By using a REIT or M.L.P. for renewable energy projects, the companies could reach a broader range of investors. M.L.P.’s and REITs are similar in that they do not pay corporate income taxes, passing most of their income to their investors, who then pay taxes on it at their own personal rates. Both are also often traded publicly like stock, giving companies access to a much larger pool of investors who are willing to take a lower rate of return, according to tax lawyers and experts.

It is unclear how much the proposed financing changes would cost taxpayers. But M.L.P.’s for conventional energy industries like oil, gas and pipelines have a market capitalization of about $300 billion and are expected to cost the Treasury roughly $1.2 billion over five years, from fiscal 2011 through 2015.

Recent forecasts estimated that the renewable energy industries could raise as much as $6 billion from fiscal 2013 through 2020, so the tax break would probably run much lower, less than $1 billion over a 10-year period, according to a rough estimate from Senator Coons.

By contrast, the investment and production tax credit programs now in effect for renewable energy projects are expected to cost the federal government $11.6 billion from fiscal 2011 through 2015.

“If we can get access to these long-term capital-formation strategies, that will lessen the burden on public finance, on tax credits, on subsidies,” said Dan Adler, managing director of the California Clean Energy Fund. “As these technologies continue to mature, and their costs drop – and the cost of capital drops at the same time – it becomes more purely competitive with the fossil energy industry.”

There are differences in the ways the two investment vehicles work. REITs, which are typically used to bundle groups of apartments or office buildings into tradable investments, cannot take advantage of tax credits. So a solar REIT would not be able to use the 30 percent investment tax credit still available to such projects through 2016.

M.L.P.’s can use tax credits, but the partnerships are more complicated, tax lawyers said, which might keep investors away.

The I.R.S. could effectively open up the use of REITs on its own. Mr. Adler’s group has invested in a company, Renewable Energy Trust Capital, that has petitioned the I.R.S. for a private letter ruling allowing it to use a REIT structure.

If the request is granted, others pursuing similar projects would be likely to copy the approach. (Similar rulings have allowed cellphone towers and electrical transmission systems to be bundled into REITs.) The Treasury Department could also push through a more formal regulation change.

It would take an act of Congress to change M.L.P.’s, which have helped drive development of conventional energy infrastructure, particularly pipelines. The partnerships are required to derive 90 percent of their income from certain sources, including only depletable natural resources like oil and coal.

Whether the clean-tech industries’ efforts to gain access to either mechanism will bear fruit is uncertain, but policy advocates and some lawmakers say they are optimistic because there is something in the plan to appeal to both Democrats and Republicans.

For Democrats, “if the idea of investing in these companies is opened up to a broader array of the American public, then people have more of a stake in renewables besides just buying electricity from wind or solar,” said Kelly Kogan, a lawyer at Chadbourne & Parke in Washington who advises clients on the tax consequences of renewable energy investments.

At the same time, she added, Republicans might respond to the idea that “the government’s going to get out of the direct subsidy through credits: they’re going to make renewables equivalent to hotels and office buildings and pipelines and what-have-you, and the free market can play more of a role.”

The post Renewable Energy Industries Push for New Financing Options appeared first on CalCEF.

The post Solar Costs to Fall as REITs Emerge as Source of Funding appeared first on CalCEF.

“2012 was a difficult year for the sector,” Sheeraz Haji, CEO of the Cleantech Group, said during a conference call Thursday. “Anyway you cut it, there’s been a significant drop-off.”

Haji cited several reasons for investor skittishness. The low price of natural gas has made it harder for renewable energy to compete on cost. Venture capitalists are shying away from capital-intensive deals after seeing companies like Santa Clara-based Misasolé sold at fire sale prices. And global economic uncertainty took a toll: Several privately backed cleantech companies, including Oakland’s BrightSource Energy, were forced to shelve their IPO plans and raise additional funds from existing investors.

The one bright spot belonged to SolarCity, a San Mateo-based solar financier and installer that had a successful IPO Dec. 13. SolarCity slashed its share price but ultimately raised $92 million.

“It’s been a very difficult IPO environment,” Haji said. “SolarCity was a big success, and that was the exception.”

Cleantech includes a variety of technologies and sectors, including biofuels, electric vehicles, the smart grid, solar and wastewater treatment. The number of venture deals recorded in 2012 was 704, 15 percent lower than the 829 deals tracked in 2011. The deals mostly were smaller, follow-on rounds of funding. Sixty percent were Series B or later rounds, accounting for 90 percent ($5.83 billion) of all money invested during the year.

“The silver lining is that by pulling back, VCs are getting better at investing in the sectors of cleantech where it makes sense,” said Alex Trembath, a policy analyst in the Energy and Climate Program at the Oakland-based Breakthrough Institute. “The crash we’re seeing is VC culture realizing that.”

In 2008, the solar industry accounted for 60 percent of all cleantech venture deals. Six years later, it was just 12 percent of the total.

“It’s quite difficult to raise money for a solar startup in this climate,” Haji said.

The leading cleantech sector in 2012 by amount invested was biofuels and biochemicals ($952 million), followed by transportation ($927 million) and energy efficiency ($907 million).

San Diego-based Sapphire Energy, a developer of algae biofuels, raised $144 million from investors that include corporations like Monsanto. Fisker Automotive, which has struggled to manufacture its luxury electric car, raised an additional $381 million in VC funding during the year.

The most active global cleantech investors were well-known Silicon Valley firms like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Khosla Ventures. But large global corporations like GE and Siemens are increasingly active in the cleantech space.

The role of corporations will be key as federal funding for clean technologies has largely ground to a halt. In 2009, federal spending on renewable sources of energy reached an all-time high of $44 billion as one-time stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act pumped additional millions of dollars into clean technologies. But the stimulus funding has wound down.

“When times are tough, corporate investors are a sign of insurance,” Haji said. “When BrightSource looked to go public and times got tough, they were able to raise $84 million, a monster private round.”

MidAmerican Solar, a subsidiary of billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, stepped in and bought San Jose-based SunPower’s (SPWRA) Antelope Valley solar farm, currently under development in Southern California. The deal, worth an estimated $2.5 billion, sent SunPower’s stock soaring 48 percent Thursday to close at $9.07. MidAmerican Solar also owns the 550-megawatt Topaz Solar Farms project in San Luis Obispo County.

Looking forward to 2013, Haji predicts growing corporate interest in the water space, noting that desalination startup NanoH2O raised $40 million this year. He also predicts that the “clean Web,” which refers to startups that use mobile technology to enable sharing of resources like cars, remain hot.

The post The Cleantech Cliff: global venture capital investment plunged 33 percent in 2012 appeared first on CalCEF.

Cleantech Venture Capital is having a rough go. Venture capital firms are pulling back from the greentech sector. The number of cleantech-focused VC partners is thinning. Exits are scarce.

However, the increased involvement of corporate VC arms and strategic investors is a relative bright spot in the cleantech investment landscape. Corporate venture investment in cleantech was $620 million in Q2 2012, up 319 percent from Q1 2012, according to CB Insights. Corporate funding has become a bit of a cushion for  VCs in difficult times.

Bill Reichert of Garage Technology Ventures believes in a new approach to cleantech investing and working with corporate investors.

Reichert said, “We’ve seen a lot of pain in the cleantech market as cleantech VCs have backed away. But the corporates still need this innovation. We’ve seen corporates come in as VCs have backed away.”

Garage has raised funding from an unnamed vendor as the initial LP in a new strategic corporate investment program. The new fund “is not set up with a traditional fund structure, because corporates have been frustrated by the typical fund structure.” Garage is co-managing an investment off the corporate’s balance sheet and is being paid a management fee “with an opportunity for upside.”

The first fund is focused on energy technology and cleantech materials.

Reichert said, “This helps corporates get into the innovation ecosystem earlier. It’s a way to work with corporate partners that have a strategically important need.”

“The big guys usually invest in later-stage deals,” Reichert added, and he contends that these investors don’t have a lot of experience working at the earlier stage. Joyce Chung of Garage notes that this investment vehicle can help these corporate investors “understand the game of early-stage venture.”

“The innovation for us as Garage, a trusted brand, is to act as a bridge between the entrepreneurs and the corporates. There needs to be a bridge that can talk to both sides, said Reichert, adding, “We are identifying their domains of strategic interest and identifying technologies that are not on their radar.”

Corporate investors have different revenue expectations and timeframes than standard VCs. They also have potentially deeper pockets. But the traditional complaint hurled toward corporates by VCs is that the deals took too long and that goals were not always aligned. This type of investment vehicle might change that perception.

This year, late-stage funding from firms such as Monsanto, BASF and Wanxiang Group have funded Sapphire, NanoH20, and GreatPoint Energy, respectively. Five of the top ten VC deals in Q1 had corporate participation, as did a quarter of all deals.

Reichert wants the cleantech community to know that the investment firm is “open for business and looking for brilliant entrepreneurs” in advanced materials and renewables. He said, “There’s fresh money coming into cleantech.”

(On an unrelated note, Garage was one of the few parties, excepting perhaps recent CEO John Carrington, to land real returns from thin-film solar firm MiaSolé. Garage “sold a big chunk of stock in the third round,” when MiaSolé stock had a valuation of $400 million.)

The post Garage Ventures Launches New Corporate Fund for Cleantech appeared first on CalCEF.

SAN FRANCISCO – Dec. 3, 2012 – A new California innovation accelerator for energy storage firms is getting a “fresh charge,” thanks to the U.S. Department of Energy.

CalCharge – a partnership between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and CalCEF, a family of nonprofit organizations working to promote the transition to a clean energy economy– will play a central role in the newly announced Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), the latest U.S. Department of Energy Innovation Hub.

JCESR, led by Argonne National Laboratory in Indiana, will combine the R&D power of five DOE national laboratories, five universities, and four private firms, all committed to achieving groundbreaking advances in battery performance and energy storage. The Department of Energy’s commitment includes up to $120 million dollars in funding over the next five years.

“Playing a role in the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research further cements California’s role as a national leader in cutting-edge energy technologies,” said Venkat Srinivasan, head of the Energy Storage and Distributed Resources groups at Berkeley Lab. “Because of JCESR we can bring even more to a partnership with CalCharge and its members.”

The formation of CalCharge was announced earlier this year, with an operational launch planned for the first quarter of 2013.  CalCharge will bring together emerging and established California companies, academic and research institutions, government bodies, and financing sources to jumpstart a new era of energy storage technologies for the electric/hybrid vehicle, grid, and consumer electronics markets.  Through its programs, CalCharge will enable diverse stakeholders to collaborate, identify barriers to emerging technology success, develop solutions, and help provide access to resources that clear the path to commercialization.

“CalCharge is a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership working to accelerate energy storage commercialization and market adoption,” said Jeff Anderson, interim Executive Director of CalCharge.  “It’s all about turning great ideas into sellable products that help address our sustainable energy challenges.”  Working with Berkeley Lab’s world-class scientific facilities and personnel, CalCharge will offer programs to support technology development and commercialization, workforce training, and market insight.

“The Joint Center for Energy Research will integrate efforts at several successful independent research programs, and it will create enormous opportunities for the members of the CalCharge consortium to engage with this newly expanded ecosystem of potential partners and resources,” Anderson said.

JCESR is the fourth Energy Innovation Hub established by the Department of Energy since 2010. The other DOE hubs are focused on efficient buildings, fuels from sunlight, and nuclear energy. Plans call for a fifth hub to focus on critical materials research.

CalCharge’s plans for the first quarter of 2013 include naming founding Charter Corporate Members; launching Battery University, its continuing education program in conjunction with San Jose State University; and holding a half-day open-house tour of energy storage research facilities at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  Information and mailing list registration are at www.calcharge.org.

# # #

About CalCEF
CalCEF (www.calcef.org) works to promote the transition to a clean energy economy by creating institutions and investment vehicles that grow markets for clean energy technologies. CalCEF is a non-profit umbrella organization that pursues statewide and national agendas via 1) CalCEF Innovations, a 501(c)(3) that leads CalCEF’s analysis and product development; and 2) the California Clean Energy Fund, a 501(c)(4) that executes and scales the CalCEF investment strategy via a fund-of-funds model, partnering with leading investment managers.

About Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world’s most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab’s scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The post $120 million DOE grant boosts California energy storage accelerator appeared first on CalCEF.

“As part of my 17-Point Jobs Plan, CleantechSF is designed to drive job creation in the cleantech and green sectors,” said Mayor Lee. “This innovative partnership brings together the California Clean Energy Fund and key City departments, with the singular goal of keeping San Francisco the leading center for cleantech.”

CleantechSF is a partnership between the Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation (MOCI), the Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD), the San Francisco Department of Environment (SFE), the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) and the California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF).

“San Francisco is the center of the largest cluster of cleantech businesses in the nation, and we are confident that this partnership will help maintain and expand that leadership position,” said CalCEF Managing Director Paul Frankel. “This initiative is another example of how CalCEF’s Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) program creates implementable solutions that address critical issues in the clean energy market. As a result, we believe that CleantechSF will help create replicable models to accelerate innovation, the adoption of new technologies, and business growth.”

Mayor Lee made the announcement during remarks at the Greenstart Demo Day in downtown San Francisco, where four of San Francisco’s newest cleantech startups were launching. Greenstart is an investor and design studio for digital cleantech startups.

“A big challenge for young startups is finding organizations that are willing to pilot their products,” said Greenstart Founding Partner Mitch Lowe. “We met with Mayor Lee over a year ago, and asked what the city could do to help with this problem. CleantechSF is the answer – Mayor Lee heard our request loud and clear, and this demonstration and piloting program is exactly what the cleantech startup community needs.”

In this first phase, CleantechSF will focus on three key program areas:
1. Establish Living Innovation Zones: CleantechSF will support cleantech company and job growth by supporting the demonstration and testing of clean technologies. Through CleantechSF, CalCEF will work with the City to create an institutionalized and streamlined citywide process to use City properties, buildings, and other public assets to pilot and evaluate a broad-array of innovative new products and design concepts including those from the clean technology sector. This may ultimately take the form of enabling legislation, master agreements, special zoning or building permits for limited term pilot projects, concept demonstrations, and strategies for organizational structuring and process flow.

2. Support New Company Growth and Jobs: CleantechSF will support new cleantech company growth by addressing constraints to growth and seizing on opportunities to improve and strengthen the San Francisco Cleantech ecosystem. This will include developing a support network of mentors and services for San Francisco cleantech startups; recruiting cleantech incubators and cowork spaces to the city; and connecting cleantech companies to our workforce system so we can ensure San Franciscans are able to find jobs in this industry.

3. Attract Cleantech Anchoring Institutions: CleantechSF will work to attract additional cleantech industry anchors to San Francisco including science and engineering universities, national laboratories, research centers, non-governmental organizations, and other major firms.

San Francisco is home to more than 208 cleantech companies – one the largest and most concentrated cleantech clusters in the world. In 2012, the city was named Cleantech Capital of North America by the Cleantech Group.

About CalCEF
CalCEF is a family of non-profit organizations working to advance clean energy using tools from finance, public policy and technological innovation. We believe that a new model of entrepreneurship and financial innovation in the public interest is required to speed the transition to a clean energy economy. Our mission is the serial creation of institutions and investment vehicles that accelerate the adoption of clean energy technologies, and their movement along the continuum from innovation to infrastructure. For more information, go to: www.calcef.org.

About Greenstart
Greenstart is an investor and design studio for digital cleantech startups. Accepting only 2 percent of startups that apply, Greenstart invests $115,000 and runs an intensive 3-month Startup Design accelerator program focused on business model, UX, and brand design. Startups also receive extensive coaching from more than 50 world class mentors, collaborative work space in downtown San Francisco, and introductions to hundreds of investors during the program, culminating with a Demo Day and fundraising roadshow.

The post Mayor Lee Announces CleantechSF Initiative to Support Growth of Cleantech Industry in San Francisco appeared first on CalCEF.

Lee said the CleantechSF initiative will focus on three areas first: using city buildings as demonstration sites for new technologies, attracting institutions to create a cleantech ecosystem here a la Mission Bay and supporting startups through attracting more shared work space and incubators and supplying mentors and services.

CleantechSF is a partnership between the Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, the San Francisco Department of Environment, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the California Clean Energy Fund.

The initiative is designed to create jobs in the cleantech sector, said Lee, who made the announcement a demonstration day for cleantech startups held at Greenstart, which describes itself as “the lovechild” of accelerator Y Combinator and design studio IDEO.

San Francisco is home to some 208 cleantech businesses.

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