dimanche 31 octobre 2010

Le mobile solidaire, un exemple venu du Sud

Encore au stade de l'expérimentation en France, les moyens de télécommunication solidaires ont déjà fait leurs preuves dans plusieurs pays en développement. Ainsi, le téléphone portable a connu un essor inattendu en Afrique. Il est rapidement apparu comme un substitut à l'indigence des routes et du réseau de téléphone filaire, adaptant ses usages à la pauvreté des populations.

Effectifs. Emmaüs Défi emploie 90 salariés à Paris. Le projet de téléphonie solidaire est dirigé par Margault Phélip. Un autre membre d'Emmaüs s'occupe avec elle à mi-temps de la réception des clients, de l'action pédagogique et de la vente des cartes. Quinze salariés de SFR ont apporté leur expertise technique au projet.

Clients. Depuis le lancement de l'opération test en mars, 130 personnes dans le besoin ont adhéré au programme de téléphonie solidaire d'Emmaüs Défi. Un plafond a été fixé à 4 heures de communication mensuelle.

Les opérateurs, conscients du potentiel du secteur, ont créé des offres répondant au mode de consommation du continent. Le téléphone portable s'est, au fil du temps, transformé en banque mobile. Les minutes de communication sont devenues une monnaie informelle, que l'on peut échanger contre de l'argent réel, moyennant une commission de 10 % à 20 %.

Au Mali, il est possible de régler directement par téléphone sa facture d'électricité et certains de ses achats, et même d'obtenir un microcrédit.

FINALITE HUMANITAIRE

Au Kenya, les opérateurs proposent des abonnements à bas prix pour les plus démunis. Le marché africain de la téléphonie mobile enregistre ainsi la croissance la plus rapide au monde depuis 2002, avec plus de 50 % par an.

Ce développement fulgurant peut avoir aussi une finalité humanitaire. L'organisation non gouvernementale française Pesinet, qui oeuvre en Afrique subsaharienne et plus particulièrement au Mali, utilise les télécommunications pour réduire une mortalité maternelle et infantile élevée. Ses membres viennent directement chez les familles peser et ausculter les enfants malades.

Les données sont enregistrées sur un mobile puis transmises à un serveur, que les médecins participant à l'opération peuvent consulter en temps réel. Ils s'engagent ensuite à prescrire des médicaments à prix réduits aux patients.

En Inde, le projet "Childline" a pour finalité d'aider les enfants des rues. Un numéro, le 1098, est à la disposition de tous pour avertir les pouvoirs publics ou les associations locales de situations de détresse.

En Afghanistan, le gouvernement prépare un projet pilote qui utilisera les technologies de l'information et de la communication pour donner aux agriculteurs l'accès à des informations sur les techniques agricoles, les prix et la localisation des marchés, à l'instar de ce qui a été mis en place, par exemple, en Inde ou au Bangladesh.

Mathias Thépot
Source : Le Monde.fr, 26/10/10

"Les plus pauvres paient le téléphone plus cher"

Emmaüs Défi a lancé en 2009, en partenariat avec l'opérateur SFR, une activité de téléphonie pour faciliter l'accès des plus défavorisés à la communication. Ce projet est dirigé par Margault Phélip.

Emmaüs Défi a été créé en 2007 par Charles-Edouard Vincent, qui en est aujourd'hui responsable, et Martin Hirsch, alors président d'Emmaüs France. Le but était aussi de créer des emplois. Ce chantier d'insertion fait partie de la branche "économie solidaire et insertion" d'Emmaüs. Des personnes en difficulté y sont salariées dans des dépôts-ventes avec l'objectif de trouver un emploi traditionnel au bout de deux ans maximum.

Charles-Edouard Vincent

2007 Charles-Edouard Vincent cofonde, avec Martin Hirsch, Emmaüs Défi, dont il est aujourd'hui responsable.

2005 Après être passé par Netscape et SAP, il intègre Emmaüs en tant que responsable du développement.

1991 Il est diplômé de l'Ecole polytechnique, puis de l'Ecole des ponts et chaussées en 1994 et de Stanford (Etats-Unis) en 1996.

Margault Phélip

2010 Agée de 25 ans, diplômée de HEC (2008), elle intègre Emmaüs Défi en tant que chef de projet.

Comment est né le projet de téléphonie solidaire ?

Charles-Edouard Vincent. La communication par téléphone mobile est aujourd'hui un élément essentiel pour rester en contact avec la société. Or, peu de chose a été fait dans ce domaine pour aider les plus démunis.

Après avoir constaté que beaucoup de personnes qui gagnaient 700 euros par mois en dépensaient 100 en téléphonie pour seulement trois heures de communication, nous avons décidé de créer un programme de téléphonie solidaire. Ce sont souvent les plus pauvres qui paient le plus. Quand quelqu'un est surendetté, dans une situation précaire et parfois n'est plus bancarisé, il est contraint d'acheter des cartes qui coûtent trois à quatre fois plus cher que le prix des forfaits normaux !

Margault Phélip. Nous avons donc mis en place un système de cartes SIM prépayées rechargeables au tarif solidaire d'un peu moins de 5 euros de l'heure. Le dispositif est accessible pour une durée de six à dix-huit mois. L'objectif est de revenir ensuite dans des offres classiques où la personne paiera, par exemple, 50 euros par mois car nous l'aurons conseillée et orientée vers des forfaits moins chers et adaptés à son mode de consommation. C'est un coup de pouce temporaire.

Les personnes qui en bénéficient nous sont en général adressées par les travailleurs sociaux d'associations et de la Ville de Paris ; ce sont des ménages dont le budget téléphonique représente 10 % à 15 % de leur revenu. Le dispositif technique a été mis en place avec SFR. Nous avions déjà travaillé avec cette entreprise par le biais de bénévolats et de mécénats de compétence.

Ne craignez-vous pas que SFR participe à ce projet uniquement par souci de soigner son image ?

C.-E. V. Est-ce que nous sommes l'alibi de SFR ? Je ne le pense pas. Les choses ne sont pas blanc ou noir, ce n'est pas le gentil Emmaüs et le méchant SFR. Je pense que ça a du sens, pour les salariés de SFR, de travailler avec nous. La contagion en interne est bonne car elle rend l'entreprise plus humaine. C'est bon pour les clients, pour les salariés et pour l'écosystème de l'entreprise.

L'Etat vous aide-t-il dans ce projet ?

C.-E. V. Non, SFR en finance aujourd'hui l'intégralité. Nous achetons la carte à un peu moins de 5 euros et la revendons au même prix.

M. P. Mais SFR ne nous impose rien, notamment en termes d'objectifs chiffrés.

Pourquoi ne faites-vous pas d'offre gratuite ?

C.-E. V. A Emmaüs, rien n'est complètement gratuit. C'est une manière de valoriser le travail des compagnons et des salariés. Si nous voulons être dans une logique de création d'emplois pérennes, qui permettent de vivre de son travail, nous ne pouvons pas être gratuits. Emmaüs Défi n'est pas dans la logique du don.

Assurez-vous d'autres services autour de cette offre ?

M. P. Ce n'est pas qu'une offre à bas coût, c'est un programme monté en fonction des besoins que nous avons observés. Les cartes prépayées sont le seul moyen de télécommunication accessible à tous, mais les gens sont parfois perdus dans les offres des opérateurs, ils ont des factures énormes et ne comprennent pas pourquoi.

Il y a un réel manque d'information. Nous accompagnons donc gratuitement les personnes pour les aider à payer moins cher et à mieux comprendre leur facture. Certains bénéficient d'ailleurs de l'accompagnement sans nous acheter de cartes. Notre objectif est de les amener vers plus d'autonomie.

C.-E. V. A terme, si ce concept se développe, nous n'arriverons pas à satisfaire tous les besoins. Nous sommes un laboratoire, nous voulons créer un modèle que d'autres s'approprieront.

Propos recueillis par Mathias Thépot
Source : Le Monde.fr, 26/10/10

samedi 30 octobre 2010

Brazil: A high-tech hot spot for innovation and investment

Brazil will surely be one of the most talked-about countries on earth over the course of the next decade as it hosts both the World Cup and Olympic Games. Equally impressive, it has risen to become the world’s eighth-largest economy (predicted to join the top five by 2030), and a charter member of what are known as the “BRIC” countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) that are all on the cusp of rapid economic expansion.



In addition to its well-known strengths in renewable energy, raw materials, agriculture, oil, and the aviation industry, Brazil is fast becoming a major player in electronics. Brazil’s forward-looking elected officials have teamed with its world-class universities to spur development of technology centers throughout the country, a model exemplified by Belo Horizonte in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais (west of Rio de Janeiro), and its highly regarded university, UFMG (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais).



Since opening Jasper’s Belo Horizonte R&D Center in 2006 we have tripled our staff, many recruited directly from UFMG, my alma mater, and one of Brazil’s most respected universities. Recognized by the government and society as having one of the top Computer Science undergraduate and graduate programs in the country, UFMG has a phenomenal teaching staff trained at leading institutions throughout the world including Stanford, CMU, Oxford, Princeton, and UCLA, to name a few. The level of technical talent available here today compares favorably with teams I’ve led during a long career in the United States, giving Brazil a well-deserved reputation as a computer science and electronics center of excellence.



The results of having created this world-class educational infrastructure are now bearing fruit: The country’s first, all-Brazilian semiconductor manufacturing facility is now in production; IBM selected Brazil as the site of its first new research facility in 12 years; Brazil accounts for nearly half of all IT spending in South America, and the government recently announced an ambitious plan to expand broadband service throughout the land.



Equally notable is the country’s success in attracting high-profile technology companies doing software, consumer electronics, Internet infrastructure and semiconductor development. Brazil’s high-tech business sector is poised for rapid growth as government and multinational firms (ARM, Freescale, Google, Intel among others) increase their investments, which will naturally lead to the next generation of local spinoff companies. To understand what is attracting so much interest and capital, let’s look at a statistical snapshot of Brazil:



● 200 million tech-savvy consumers

● 189 million installed mobile phones

● Exploding demand for PCs (in five years grew from 3 million units to more than 14 million)

● Steep increase in Internet usage

● 85% of electricity generated from renewable sources

● World’s third-largest stock exchange

● Second only to China as most favored destination for private equity investment in emerging markets



All in all, it’s a great climate for business, but of course there are minuses. The Samba beat may keep some awake during Carnaval (intentional), and a nearly 7,500-kilometer coastline (breathtakingly beautiful) could prove to be a distraction for even the most focused engineer. Those things aside, Brazil is a land of great people and great opportunity, ready to take its place as a global leader and high-tech hot spot for innovation and investment.



About the author:

Dr. Coelho is vice president of engineering forJasper Design Automation Inc. and manages R&D for advanced formal verification product development, and is a professor on leave at the Computer Science Department at UFMG.



Prior to Jasper he held technical and management positions in several U.S. companies including Integrated Information Technology, and Verplex where he directed the BlackTie team and was responsible for the development of OVL. He has also founded several successful startups, and was a counselor with FirCapital Partners in startup strategy and technology.



Dr. Coelho has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and masters in computer science from UFMG; a PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from Stanford; and an MBA from IBMEC/MG.
Source: EET, 28/10/10

Google, Avatar chiefs talk climate change

The chief executive of Google and the director of "Avatar" shared thoughts on technology, cinema and climate change in an on-stage interview at the Churchill Club here.

James Cameron talked about his use of behavior modeling in "Avatar," using video capture and image processing to create lifelike faces in computer graphics (see video here). Separately, he said believes stereo 3-D technology could go mainstream in as few as five years assuming technology breakthroughs to pack pixels into the ultra-dense displays needed for glasses-free screens (see video here).

Cameron said he is committed to his next project, filming two sequels to "Avatar." The movies will be created in tandem as part of one production flow. "Avatar 2" is slated for release in four years, followed a year later by "Avatar 3," he said.

The movies will hearken back to Cameron's earlier picture "Titanic" with some shots exploring the undersea world of the fictional planet Pandora. Just as Cameron helped advance the state of stereo 3-D cinema with "Avatar," he plans to make further technical inventions with its sequels.

Cameron said the sequels will be shot and shown at a higher native frame rate than the 24 frames/second standard used today.

"We are looking at the efficacy of 48, 60 and 72 frames/second solutions," Cameron said. "Projectors can run at 144 Hz today, but still generate 24 frames/s--the trick is how to multi-flash to display images at higher hertz rates," he added.

In addition, he hopes to develop real-time scene prototyping tools that eliminate what is today a six-month process to create realistic moving images using computer graphics.

Today in real time directors can "create what looks like a 1980's era video game product we then give to graphics companies--we want to eliminate that middle step," he said. "Fifteen years from now directors will work in real time using photo-realistic images," he added.

Cameron: Preparing to shoot "Avatar 2" in 48-72 frames/s

But the brunt of the evening's talk focused on climate change, a topic Cameron and his interviewer, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, share as a passion. In between making the "Avatar" sequels, Cameron plans to make TV and cinema documentaries about climate change.

Cameron said a two-degree temperature change in the world's oceans "will take out all the coral reefs. Sixty percent of species could be extinct in this century with climate change," he added.

"It's highly unlikely there will be [a carbon] cap and trade [law] in the next six years, so we have six more years of inaction on putting a price on carbon emissions, and that’s a fundamental problem," said Schmidt who serves on a panel of science and technology advisors to U.S. President Obama.

"All the modeling says even with the current modest reductions we are nowhere near the needed 60-70 percent reductions in carbon emissions" to halt climate change, Schmidt said. "In my view is its going to take some kind of event and a conversation among leaders [to motivate policy change], and I don’t think it will happen soon," he added.

"It's probably the toughest challenge the human race has ever faced," said Cameron whose blockbuster movie was in part a statement about the need for greater environmental awareness. "I believe ultimately this has to be approached as a children's crusade," he said.

Source : EET, 28/10/10

Schmidt: Foresees no cap and trade bill for at least six years

MOBILEBEAT GREENBEAT GAMESBEAT DEALSBEAT DEMOBEAT SOCIALBEAT MEDIABEAT 32 companies charging the Super Grid now

The super grid, the theme of VentureBeat’s next GreenBeat conference, involves a bewildering array of technologies and companies from industry behemoths like GE and Cisco to disruptive young startups. Together, they’re taking existing efforts to build a smart power grid to the next level. With billions of dollars of untapped potential in the profitable collision of information technology, energy, and cleantech, it’s no wonder so many pioneers are staking out territory.

In this article, we cover the major fields of super-grid opportunity and the companies, large and small, playing in them. It’s not an exhaustive list, but rather a guide to the companies we believe are currently best positioned to charge up the super grid.

Power generation

One of the biggest challenges for the super grid is integrating sources of renewable energy like wind and solar power. The current electricity grid is most efficient when the power is being consumed at the same time that it is generated and when supply and demand are steady. With renewables, supply peaks unevenly since energy is not generated at a constant rate or at all times of the day.

Many small local sources of energy like homeowners selling back energy to the grid may also become available. A connected collection of these sources is called a microgrid and can be managed like a virtual power station.

The market for software to integrate renewables and microgrids with existing power generation seems to be at an early stage. Gridpoint delivers a suite of smart grid applications that aggregate and manage distributed sources of load, generation and storage including integration of renewables and electric vehicles. Homer Energy provides modelling software to analyze and optimize power grids that incorporate high penetrations of renewable energy sources. Balance Energy produces microgrid and renewable generation solutions which integrate and aggregate distributed generation and storage resources.

There is a glut of new companies making solar microinverters and the software to manage them. A microinverter improves the efficiency of a solar array by allowing individual panels to operate independently. Normally panels are connected in a series and are only as strong as their weakest link, i.e. a panel which is shaded or soiled. Contenders include Enphase, Abound, PVPowered and Satcon. Some vendors like Satconalso makes solar energy management solutions for solar power plants. Satcon’s system breaks a large solar array into small strings of well matched modules in order to optimize the performance of the entire array.

Power storage

Energy storage is expensive so utilities tend to keep power stations running on low output, a state known as “spinning reserve,” so they can be ramped up quickly to deal with peaks. This is not very efficient and not possible at all with renewables so several companies are tackling the storage problem.

BeaconPower specialises in flywheel energy storage which works by accelerating a flywheel to a very high speed and maintaining the energy in the system as rotational energy. The energy is converted back by slowing down the flywheel. Stored energy is brought online when demand peaks. A single flywheel can store 25 kilowatt-hours of electricity.

Distribution and substation automation

While smart meters — networked, computerized energy meters which replace old analog devices — get all the attention, equipment and software to manage the distribution network itself could actually be a bigger business opportunity. The Cleantech Group’ssmart-grid vendors reportsays that this market is worth $1.4 billion in 2010. GTM Research’s smart grid market forecast goes even further and pins the 2010 market value at $2 billion rising to $5.6 billion in 2015. In spite of this, only 7 percent of venture capital dollars invested in smart-grid startups have been in the distribution sector.

Power is transmitted along high-voltage power lines from power stations to local distribution substations. These substations then distribute to homes and businesses. Smart-grid applications for distribution focus on automating those substations to a great degree and monitoring, fault detection and optimization of the power lines distributing electricity. The Cleantech Group estimates that only 56 percent of the more than 100,000 US substations have any automation. Utilities also need new distribution management systems to process and manage all the new data being generated by the distribution network.

The dominant companies in this market are legacy grid vendors like ABB, GE and Schneider Electric. Suppliers like Telvent specialize in particular areas like substation automation. Communications giants such as Siemens and Motorola provide the communications. A few smaller companies have broken into the market. Ruggedcom makes communications equipment like routers and switches specifically adapted to harsh electrical environments like substations. According to the Cleantech Group’s report Ruggedcom owns 54 percent of the substation routers and switching market.

Another interesting distribution company is Powersense. Recently selected as one of CleanTech’s Group’s global clean tech 100 list, the Copenhagen-based company produces sensing technology for substations and medium voltage distribution grids. For high voltage transmission grids Gridsense sells overhead line recorders which can monitor the condition of the line.

Smart meters

Smart meters bring information technology to the edge of the grid, recording electricity consumption and communicating data back and forth to a local utility. The Cleantech Group estimates the advanced metering market at $1 billion in 2010 while GTM Research optimistically forecasts $2.5 billion.

Any smart-meter rollout involves not just the meter manufacturers but also communications companies, meter data management systems and system integration. The diagram above from Itron shows where all that stimulus money is going and how it is divided between the different suppliers. 50 percent of all VC dollars going into the smart grid were invested in metering, in particular communications companies.

Communications are needed between the meters, local smart appliances and a concentrator which links the home network (HAN) to a local or wide area network to return the data to the utility. The HAN network in the US is dominated by a low power wireless technology called Zigbee. This isn’t true, worldwide, however. China, which plans to deploy 150 million meters by 2015, uses a powerline communications technology as does most of Europe.

The meter world is dominated by a small number of global companies such as Itron, Landis & Gyr, Elster and GE. Itron alone accounts for 50 percent of the smart meters installed in the US. They in turn buy components from smartgrid chip vendors like Accent and Teridian.

The communications software and chips are supplied by people like Silver Spring Networks, Trilliant andSmartsynch. Silver Spring networks in particular has received a massive amount of VC investment ($247 million) and commands significant market share. On the powerline side there are companies like Ambient who create high-speed data communications networks over medium and low voltage distribution lines.

Finally, utilities need new metering data management systems to clean up and process the massive amount of data generated by the meters. There are a few pure play vendors in that area like Ecologic and eMeter but the giants like Itron also supply their own systems.

The smart meter can form one pillar of a home energy system such as Google Power Meter, Microsoft Hohm or Opower. Comprehensive home energy systems like those supplied by Tendril add smart sensors, appliances and plugs to the mix but are expensive and currently at an early stage in terms of deployment.

Demand response

Some commentators maintain that demand response (DR) is the killer super-grid application. Demand response means reducing the demand on the grid when it exceeds supply. By 2019, DR could be capable of reducing peak usage by 20 percent.

The Cleantech Group’s smart grid vendors reportputs the demand-response market at $1 billion in 2010. Traditionally this is a services market where a few major players likeEnerNoc (which alone owns 25 percent of the market) and Comverge enforced DR contracts with large commercial and industrial power users.Now these vendors are also moving into residential DR. Comverge is currently the leader in that area.

There are many different ways to implement demand response. Utilities can directly shut down devices. Customers can trade load reductions with utilities as a sort of commodity on an energy marketplace. It may be cheaper for a utility to “buy” large reductions from customers rather than increase power generation or storage. DR policies can be automated and linked to real-time pricing so that, for example, certain devices are shut down or slowed down when the price exceeds a certain level.

Tendril and Gridpoint provide DR systems linked to pricing. The increase in automation and complexity of DR systems is also creating the need for a new type of DR management system such as those supplied by EnerNOC and Echelon.

Electric vehicles

Most smart-grid applications upgrade or optimize existing grid elements and processes. Electric vehicles (EVs), however, are a completely new addition — a major reason why we need to move from the smart grid to the super grid.

Take, for example, the Nissan Leaf, which has a 24-kilowatt-hour battery pack. The average American household’s daily consumption of electricity is 30 kWh. Electric vehicles will probably also cluster, as early adopters set trends for their neighbors. Those close concentrations of EVs will place a major strain on the local grid.

It’s not all bad news. Managed correctly, EVs could bolster the grid rather than just strain it. Their batteries could be used by the utility companies as a cheap alternative to other forms of electricity storage. Researchers estimate that each car could potentially provide up to $4,000 worth of storage capacity per year.

Large volumes of EVs require battery monitoring software and charging point systems as well as increasing the need for many of the previously discussed technologies like demand response. One of the leaders in this space is Better Place which plans to not only supply car batteries and charging points but also all the software to manage them. Another big player is Coulomb Technologies whose ChargePoint networked charging stations provide myriad applications from tracking charging point usage to billing and fleet management. In both of these cases, the companies create software for usage with their own products. Gridpoint supplies more general-purpose smart charging solutions to utilities.

That’s a brief introduction to just some of the companies building the super grid, which will look far more like the Internet than the energy-distribution network of today: distributed, adaptable, and ever-changing.

GreenBeat 2010Are you a green executive or entrepreneur? If so, sign up now for GreenBeat 2010 — the year’s seminal conference on the smart grid — November 3-4 at Stanford University. World leaders in smart grid initiatives will debate how the new “Super Grid” is creating huge opportunities in cars, energy storage, and renewables. GreenBeat 2010 is hosted by VentureBeat and SSE Labs of Stanford University. Go here for full conference details and to apply for the 2010 Innovation Competition.

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Source: venture beat, 30/10/10