Notre objectif est de mettre en partage sur nos trois spécialisations (stratégies et management de l'innovation business tous secteurs, stratégies de croissance ENERGIE et CLEANTECH, stratégies de croissance DIGITAL),
les analyses d'Innhotep, celles de nos invités et des articles tiers issus de notre veille.
Accélérateur d' "innovations business", Innhotep intervient comme conseil auprès de grands groupes et accompagne le développement de start-up high-tech.
Everyone's talking about all the new oil and gas being produced thanks to new drilling methods.
But there's another narrative nipping at the shale boom's heels: solar energy. And it's expanding just as fast.
It's just that the scale is not quite the same. But that's changing.
Citi has just named solar photovoltaics, which convert solar radiation into electric currents via semiconductors, to its list of 10 world-disrupting technologies.
In a note this week in advance of the disruption report, Citi's Jason Channell said that in many cases, renewables are already at cost parity with established forms of electricity sources.
The biggest surprise in recent years has been the speed at which the price of solar panels has reduced, resulting in cost parity being achieved in certain areas much more quickly than was ever expected; the key point about the future is that these fast ‘learning rates’ are likely to continue, meaning that the technology just keeps getting cheaper.
Below is a chart showing where "socket" or grid parity has already been achieved. (Grid parity is when a source of power becomes cost competitive with other sources.) The lines represent the pattern of expanding solar power in a given year — so at peak solar exposure, parts of the southwest U.S. are now already capable of meeting their electricity needs via solar panels.
Citi
He also adds this cool chart showing that the Age of Renewables has only just begun.
Citi
Channell writes:
The rapidly expanding parity provides enormous scope for growth in the solar industry, driven by standalone economics as opposed to subsidies, which are becoming ever scarcer in an austerity-driven world.
As a previous Saudi oil minister once noted, “The stone age didn’t end for a lack of stones...”, and this substitutional process can be well demonstrated looking at the US energy mix over the longer term.
Gas isn't going away, but renewables are coming on strong.
De nombreux projets et expérimentations illustrent le leadership du Grand Lyon à l'échelle européenne sur la thématique smart city.
Transition énergétique et smart grids
Sur le thème de la transition énergétique et des smart grids, le territoire lyonnais accueille un nombre tout à fait remarquable d'expérimentations et démonstrateurs : Lyon Smart Community (avec le NEDO) ; Greenlys ; Smart Electric Lyon ; Watt & Moi ; le déploiement expérimental de Linky ; le projet européen "Transform" en partenariat avec Amsterdam, Copenhague, Vienne, Gene et Hambourg, etc.
Dans le cadre de la réflexion sur les nouvelles formes de mobilité, des projets majeurs sont également en cours : Optimod'Lyon ; Move In Pure, E-Partage ; Auto-lib ; offre de co-voiturage dynamique ; projets européens "Freilot" et "Citylog", etc.
Des services dématérialisés et sans contact sont initiés très régulièrement sur les volets : paiement, information voyageurs ; information culturelle et touristique ; services publics dématérialisés, etc.
Waldpolenz Solar Park, was the world’s largest photovoltaic power system in 2008 at 40 MW output. The just completed Shams 1 is the world’s largest solar power system at 100 MW. [Source: Wikipedia]
They don’t do ‘small’ in the United Arab Emirates. The world’s thirteenth richest countrybuilds its own islands and boasts the tallest skyscraper in the world, the Burj Khalifa, which itself is surrounded by enough towering glass-covered skyscrapers to require afleet of robots to clean them. And now, this country that has risen from poverty to become the world’s thirteenth richest after striking oil, is doing renewable energy in a characteristically big way. They’ve just completed the world’s largest solar power station.
Built by Shams Power Company and named Shams 1, the gargantuan power station utilizes concentrating solar power, rather than the more well known solar voltaic system comprised of photovoltaic cell panels. A concentrating solar system differs from photovoltaic systems in that, rather than harnessing direct, they generate electricity from the sun’s heat. The parabolic mirrors concentrate heat onto receivers that contain either synthetic oils or, less commonly, liquid sodium or salt. The heat produced by the receiver is used to generate steam, which is used to drive a turbine that generates electricity.
Sham 1 includes 258,048 mirrors that cover about 628,000 square meters. The parabolic mirror design had been proven efficient at the Solar Electric Generating System (SEGS) in California’s Mojave Desert over the past two decades. All together, Sham 1’s parabolic array concentrate heat to produce 100 MW.
Shams 1′s array is built with parabolic mirrors that concentrate sunlight heat, which produces steam to turn a turbine and generate electricity. [Source: Wikipedia]
Compare the Shams 1 to the largest solar photovoltaic system in the United States, the White Sands Missile Range systemdedicated at the beginning of this year. Its 10 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year allow it to provide 10 percent of the total power usage at White Sands, reducing the installation’s carbon emission by 7,400 tons per year. But while it is the largest in the US, at 4.1 MW, White Sands’ output is yet a fraction of what Shams 1 can produce.
If you’re going to build a large power array, with lots of sunlight, and flat, empty land, there’s no better place than the desert. The Shams 1 is located about 120 kilometers southwest of UAE’s capital Abu Dhabi. Now incorporated into the existing gas and power grids there, UAE hopes the power array will help bolster economic activity in the western, relatively underdeveloped part of the country.
White Sands took about six months to complete and cost the army $16.8 million. Shams 1 took nearly three years to build and cost $600 million. The gargantuan array already has an annual output of 210 gigawatt-hours. In ten years time the country plans on building up its parabolic trough systems to a capacity of 1.5 GW. If it does, the small country could become the world leader in concentrating solar power. At the moment that title belongs to the US who produces about 1 GW of concentrating solar power, followed by Spain at 500MW. But as its name suggests, Shams 1 is just the beginning. Despite its oil-rich land, UAE seems to be making a serious push to go green.
Battery startup Aquion Energy is raising another round of $35 million from Bill Gates and other new and existing investors. The company has been planning to build a factory in Pennsylvania that can produce its low cost power grid batteries.
Bill Gates is continuing to fund next-generation battery startups. On Tuesday, battery startup Aquion Energy announced that it is working on raising another round of $35 million, with a first close on that round from Bill Gates, as well Bright Capital, Gentry Venture Partners, and existing investors Kleiner Perkins and Foundation Capital.
Aquion Energy, based in Pittsburgh and founded in 2007, is using basic materials like sodium and water to build modular batteries that will be able to provide energy storage services for the power grid. The technology was developed out of Carnegie Mellon University by founder and chief technology officer Jay Whitacre.
The company’s battery pairs a carbon anode with a sodium-based cathode, and a water-based electrolyte shuttles ions between the two electrodes during charging and discharging. Many batteries have solvent-based electrolytes.
Aquion Energy employees assembling batteries at a rotary dial table
The purpose of using basic materials is to make a battery that is super low cost. That’s one reason why Aquion is focused on stationary applications, like the grid, where lower energy density can be an acceptable trade-off for lower costs and longer life. The battery can also withstand a wide range of temperatures without losing storage capacity, so could be installed alongside a solar installation without sapping a lot of energy for air conditioning to keep the batteries cool.
Aquion Energy has been planning on building a factory in Pennsylvania that could make its sodium batteries starting this year. About a year ago Aquion said it had leased a facility from theRegional Industrial Development Corporation in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and the company hopes the factory could create 400 jobs by the end of 2015.
Such a factory could cost between $75 million and $80 million to build, so it’s likely this funding will go towards moving into production. In the summer of 2011 Aquion raised $20 million. The Department of Energy has also supported Aquion’s technology development with a $5 million stimulus grant.
Kleiner Perkins’ David Wells played a key role in helping incubate this technology. Whitacre and Wells started talking in late 2007 and a year later Kleiner sponsored an incubator at Carnegie Mellon for Whitacre to develop the tech. Following that, Whitacre spun off the venture and began to work on commercializing the battery.
Bill Gates has also invested in battery startup Ambri (formerly called Liquid Metal Battery), which like Aquion is building a grid battery and looking to begin production in the coming years. Gates has backed at least 5 battery startups,according to a talk he gave back in 2010.
Green auto maker Antro has created the Moveo, a lightweight
electric scooter that can be collapsed and carried like a rolling
suitcase.
Consumers have been familiar with foldable bicycles for a while now thanks to brands such as Brompton. Now, eco-friendly Hungarian automotive firm Antro, has taken the logical next step and has created the Moveo, a lightweight electric scooter that can be collapsed and carried like a rolling suitcase.
The company has spent the last five years refining the prototype,
getting the weight down to 25 kilograms and the top speed up to 45
kilometers per hour, with its battery charge able to take it 35
kilometers. The current model has stylish gold carbon-composite bodywork
and sleek design, while a full scooter seat has not been sacrificed.
When drivers reach their destination, the vehicle can be easily folded
and carried around using the extendable handle and caster wheels. When
folded, bodywork protects users from the machinery inside and the design
means that owners don’t have to look for a parking space or lock up
their vehicle. Rather they can carry it with them on alternative modes
of transport.
Much like the Hiriko Fold,
the Moveo reduces the amount of space vehicles take up on crowded city
streets and gives drivers more options when the scooter isn’t in use.
Antro hopes to get the Moveo into production early next year and is
currently looking for investors. Once it hits the market, consumers are
set to pay between USD 3,100 and USD 4,600, according to reports. Could your financial backing help bring this innovation to life?
Website: www.solo-duo.hu
Contact: info@antro.hu
Spotted by: Murray Orange Source: Springwise
Both the cleantech sector and groups fighting climate change have suffered a major branding and marketing problem in recent years. Is “advanced energy” the hot term to use going forward? That’s what the non-profit the Advanced Energy Economy Institute (AEEI) are pushing and on Tuesday morning announced, via a report created by Pike Research, that the advanced energy sector is already an over $1 trillion sector, and it is estimated to have grown 19 percent in 2012.
That growth last year is in sharp contrast to the recent numbers that came out around cleantech in 2012. According to the Cleantech Group venture capitalists invested $6.46 billion globally into cleantech startups, which was down 33 percent from the $9.61 billion that VCs invested into cleantech startups in 2011 (see more in our GigaOM Pro research note).
It’s all in how you categorize it. So what is the advanced energy market? It includes all kinds of next-generation energy technologies, from more efficient transportation technology, to synthetic diesel and gasoline, to gas turbines to more efficient land use. “Advanced energy” technologies make energy consumption and generation “more secure, clean, and affordable,” but they don’t exclude some lower emission fossil fuel sources like natural gas. Coal seems to be the only thing left off the list.
Slicing it that way, Pike Research and AEEI say that the advanced energy market was a $1.1 trillion market globally in 2011, making it larger than the pharmaceutical manufacturing globally, or the international trucking sector. And with its growth in 2012, the U.S. now sees revenue of $157 billion from the advanced energy sector.
The group sums it up like:
With global energy consumption projected to rise nearly 40 percent by 2030, future prosperity depends on meeting this growing demand with energy that is secure, clean and affordable. Just as the Internet economy transformed society in unexpected ways, the advanced energy economy has the potential to create dramatic new opportunities for economic growth in the U.S. and around the world.
We knew 2012 would be a tough year for many solar companies when we posted the top 10 trends to watch over a year ago. In 2013 expect to see a slow recovery that will continue to weed out more players in a market that still has too many manufacturers, including startups.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t bright spots on the horizon, and major opportunities for certain kinds of solar startups in 2013. Here’s our list of 13 solar startups to watch in 2013 — some may be under the radar, but all have managed to do one of the following recently: raise money, build factories, launch innovative products and services or otherwise make progress despite the hard times (or because of it).
1). Solar Mosaic: The company brings solar power investments to the masses with its recently launched public online site. Residents of California and New York (as well as accredited investors) can invest in any of the projects for as little as $25 and get what should be a steady, long-term return (of 4.5 percent for the first projects). The company sold out three projectsless than 24 hours after the launch this week.
2). Alta Devices: Portable solar chargers could cut the number of batteries a soldier must carry onto the battle field and provide an alternative source of power for drones. Alta Devices is focusing on the military first with its highly efficient solar cells and hopes to use these contracts to scale upmanufacturing, slash costs and eventually enter the more conventional solar market where much cheaper solar cells now dominate.
3). Clean Power Finance: The company raises funds to offer power purchase agreements or leases for solar panel installers to market and sell them to homeowners. The company also launched an energy credit trading service and assembled a database of local permitting rules in 2012 so that retail service providers could spend less time and money for figuring out the paperwork they need to do.
4). GlassPoint Solar: With its novel greenhouse design for its solar thermal energy equipment, GlassPoint Solar is targeting the oil industry with its solar steam production, which pries loose oil from wells for easier extraction. Oil companies are warming up to using solar energy to produce steam rather than natural gas, which remains expensive in regions such as the Middle East.
5). QBotix: The company uses robots that move along a tracking system and tilt solar panels during the day to follow the sun. GPS and wireless technology are used to detect problems and monitor the systems.
6). Genability: How do you show customers the amount of energy savings they could achieve or money they could make by going solar? You need accurate data on utility rates, and that’s what Genability specializes in. The startup collects and crunches electric rates — which change often — from utilities across the country. SunPower, SolarCity and SunEdison are customers.
7). Semprius: The prices of silicon solar cells have tumbled in recent years thanks to mega factories by manufacturers mostly in China. To compete, solar cell manufacturing startups must develop something much more efficient that can find other uses as well. Semprius, like Alta Devices, is achieving this by using gallium-arsenide for its cells, but it also is making the solar panels for housing them. The company raised $7.5 million and opened a small factory in North Carolina last year and is targeting the military as well.
8). Stion: After Solyndra’s bankruptcy in 2011, few venture capitalists wanted to invest in using copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS) to make ultra-thin solar panels (that’s the same material Solyndra was working with). Many CIGS startups went out of business or got scooped up in firesales. Stion has survived so far after lining up investments in Taiwan and Korea, and it started shipments from its Mississippi factory last year.
9). SoloPower: The company is another CIGS startup that has made progress toward commercializing its technology while its peers disappeared into oblivion. SoloPower turned on its 100MW factory in Oregon last year and secured a federal loan guarantee to help it expand if it meets milestones.
10). SCS Renewables: As interest in investing in solar power generation grows, investors will want to know where they can find quality projects. SCS Renewables runs a match-making service that also helps developers to massage their projects into presentable shapes in front of banks and other investors.
11). Silevo: With a new type of hybrid solar cell technology and its first factory in China instead of the U.S., where it’s headquartered, Silevo has mapped out a plan to scale up production and keep production costs low enough to attract customers with its efficient cells.
12). TenKsolar: Out there in Minneapolis, tenKsolar has designed a wave-like solar energy system that combines solar panels with a reflective coating to direct more light to the solar cells. The unusual design caught the attention of Korean conglomerate Hanwha, which led a $15.5 million round in 2012.
13). OneRoof Energy: The startup teams up with roofers and electricians to sell rooftop solar systems and financing products such as leases as part of new roofing or re-roofing projects. OneRoof Energy is part of a group of solar installers, such as the now public SolarCity and high-profile startups Sungevity and SunRun.
While not all of the picks are focused on clean energy — one’s an enhanced oil recovery company — they all have early stage technology that could break through next year.
Lux Research has put together a group of cutting-edge emerging technology companies to watch in 2013 and we’re stoked that they’ve picked a whopping nine in the energy field. While they’re not all focused on clean energy — one’s an enhanced oil recovery company — they all have early stage technology that could break through next year.
We also haven’t heard of most of these firms, so I wanted to include the whole list here and see what you guys think of their choices. The picks include everything from startups to publicly traded companies, and from American firms to companies in Canada and Germany. 1).Beta Renewables: A $350 million joint venture between Gruppo Mossi & Ghisolfi and TPG, Italian company Beta Renewables is scaling up a commercial cellulosic ethanol factory, which it began operating in the fourth quarter of 2012 in Italy. The plant is supposed to eventually make 20 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year, starting from an initial volume of 40,000 tons. Beta Renewables uses enzymes to break down non-food biomass and then uses a fermentation process to turn it into biofuels. 2).Materials Innovation Technologies: The company makes carbon fiber parts for lightweight vehicles from recycled materials, and it’s also been working on natural fiber bio-based parts and recycled fiber parts. Founded in 2004, Materials Innovation Technologies has big partners like Boeing, and has a factory in Lake City, South Carolina. 3).N-Solv: N-Solv injects heated gas into oil sand reservoirs to extract more oil, but says its process is more efficient, more sustainable and cheaper than competitive processes. The company has a pilot plant that is supposed to start production in spring of 2013 in Alberta. 4).Imprint Energy: Imprint Energy makes zinc-based flexible, slim batteries for electronics. The company, based in Alameda, Calif., was founded in 2010 and the technology was developed at the University of California, Berkeley. 5).Phosphagenics: The only non-energy company on the list, Phosphagenics is an Australian publicly-traded biotech company that makes skin-based drug delivery technology (like a patch or a cream). 6).Azzurro Semiconductors: A German semiconductor maker that develops gallium nitride on silicon substrates, called GaN-on-Si. These semicondcuctors are used to makes LEDs and as the basis for power electronics. The company is backed by Good Energies, Emerald Technology Ventures, Wellington Partners Venture Capital and GoodVent. 7).Enbala Power Networks: Enbala creates a network that can manage building power devices — like boilers, chillers, and battery stations — to sell what’s called regulation services, or making sure the grid is kept in balance in real time, to utilities and power companies. With headquarters in Toronto, the company is backed by Walsingham Growth Partners, Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, and others. 8).Boulder Ionics: The company makes ionic liquids that can be used as the electrolyte for energy storage technologies like batteries and ultracapacitors. The company raised $4.3 million from Pangaea Ventures, 9th Street Investments, CalCEF Clean Energy Angel Fund, JSR Corporation and Protonic Capital. The company also has a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Air Force (USAF) and U.S. Navy (USN). 9).Silevo: One of the few companies on the list we’ve profiled, Silevo’s solar cells use silicon to convert sunlight into electricity, but its cells use more efficient single-crystal silicon (as the substrate) and amorphous-silicon to manipulate the voltage and current of the cells. The company also uses copper instead of silver, which is more expensive, to create the ultra thin lines that ferry electricity out of solar cells. The result is a solar cell that is more efficient at converting sunlight into electricity than the dominant silicon-only cells on the market today. 10).Desalitech: Desalitech is a water desalination tech company that says its water cleaning process is more reliable, flexible and costs 20 percent than competitors. Israeli water company AquAgro Fund and private equity fund Liberation Capital are investors.
A test project in the Netherlands seeks to use the energy generated by the sun to heat bicycle paths during the winter.
If commuters’ surplus body heat can be used to keep an office building warm,
then why not store the heat that beats down on bike paths during the
summer and use it to keep them ice-free in the winter months? That,
indeed, is precisely the premise behind a test project currently being
conducted in the Netherlands with help from Dutch engineering firm Tauw.
Currently under consideration in the Dutch province of Utrecht as
well as the city of Zutphen, the proposed plan would call for
underground pipes to be placed some 50 meters below the bike paths in
question, according to a TreeHugger report.
There they would collect the heat generated during summer months and
store it for use later to de-ice and warm the paths in the winter, thus
making travel by bicycle both safer and more appealing.
The cost of the heating system would reportedly
be between EUR 30,000 and EUR 40,000 per kilometer, but that may well
be made up for in the savings reaped via the salt and straw that would
otherwise be used in winter as well as through reduced accident costs.
Transportation entrepreneurs in other wintry parts of the world: one for
inspiration?
![Waldpolenz Solar Park, was the world's largest photovoltaic power system in 2008 at 40 MW output. The just completed Shams 1 is the world's largest solar power system at 100 MW. [Source: Wikipedia]](http://singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/image3A7.jpg)
![Shams 1's array is built with parabolic mirrors that concentrate sunlight heat, which produces steam to turn a turbine and generate electricity. [Source: Wikipedia]](http://singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/arrayA.jpg)
