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Green Light Distrikt
Green Light Distrikt is about entrepreneurship focused on the cleantech sector. Edited by Chris Williams with frequent guest posts from friends, experts and industry insiders from clusters across the globe. Our goal is to provide a place where cleantech entrepreneurs in various clusters across the globe can learn from one another. Green Light Distrikt is creating the "Hitchikers Guide to Clentech" to provide a resource for cleantech entrepreneurs. Read more
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October 24th, 2011
The Plan to Make Boston The Leading City for Clean Energy Prototyping
BICEP -BICEP is the Boston Institute for Clean Energy Prototyping.
It’s run by me, Ethan Labowitz. My goal is clear: I want to make Boston a world class city for clean energy prototyping. A world class city has the resources and knowledge to build the most high quality prototypes the fastest, for the least amount of money, and with the fewest errors. While Boston has great engineering talent, many of young engineers lack experience in actually building effective, low-cost prototypes.
What is BICEP’s goal?
Make Boston the best place in the country to prototype a clean energy product. Simple.
What specifically will BICEP do to complete this goal?
BICEP will work to quantifiably decrease prototyping time and costs by offering shop training, reduced rate fabrication and consulting services, and free office hours.
Why is BICEP’s mission important?
The more prototypes that are built and tested, the greater likelihood of building a product that will sell. Products that sell create companies. If the company builds their prototype in Boston, they are likely to stay in Boston.
What is the problem with Boston right now?
While Boston produces a high number of engineers, few recent graduates have any of the hands-on experience needed to build a prototype. This often causes them to make simple, yet costly mistakes and use private contractors that are not experienced in clean energy prototyping. Experienced engineers are too expensive for young companies with no revenue.
What is BICEP’s solution?
1 – Offer discounted shop services that are subsidized from donations. BICEP will become a 501c3 and accept donations and grants from organizations and government agencies that see the value in Boston becoming a cleantech prototyping hub.
2 – Offer open office hours, so any cash-strapped startup can get valuable prototyping advice on a first-come, first-served basis.
3 – Cleantech Prototyping Academy – BICEP will host short, intensive workshops for students and professionals who are interested in the space but lack hands-on knowledge.
4 – Be a non-profit. Being a non-profit is key to success because it will allow BICEP to be more transparent and share lessons learned from prototype to prototype. By not making the same mistakes twice, BICEP will be able to further bring down the costs and time to build prototypes.
What is BICEP’s business model?
All businesses, whether non-profit or for profit, must make money in order to succeed. Here’s how BICEP will make money:
1 – Charge money for workshops
2 – Charge money for shop services
3 – Accept donations from organizations, foundation, government and private companies that understand the benefit of building quality prototypes
What is BICEP working on RIGHT now and how can I help?
1 – Building a shop
2 – Schedule office hours
3 – Creating relationships and schedule for Cleantech Prototyping Academy.
If you’d like to help with any of these initiatives or keep up to dates with BICEP’s status, let me know:
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October 21st, 2011
What You Need to Know About Ethanol, Part I
Business Insights -Ethanol is so five years ago. 2011 is the year of electric cars and shale gas. Or is it? Considering the following:
- Since 2004, U.S. ethanol consumption has grown four-fold, while gasoline consumption has been flat.
- Driven to cut the national deficit, politicians are increasingly advocating for the reduction or elimination of government supports for ethanol. Two such House bills were introduced earlier this month.
- The Obama Administration supports both the ethanol mandate and increased fuel economy. Since ethanol delivers fewer miles per gallon than gasoline, this will lead to an inevitable clash between the Administration’s energy and economic priorities.
- “High energy prices contribute to high food prices by making food production more expensive and encourages more people to use grains like corn to make ethanol, which also drives up corn prices” (Slate).
So even though ethanol isn’t the sexiest energy story of 2011, it’s incredibly relevant to the politics of energy, food and global trade. Read past the break for the full story and join the Green Light Distrikt Facebook group for updates on new events, blog posts and more.
October 12th, 2011
The Ultimate Solar Startup Guide
BOSTON -If you’re interested in starting a solar installation company, you’ve just found a gold mine.
I’ve been editing HeatSpring Magazine while helping a friend start a solar business. I’ve found myself constantly answering the same questions, what do I need to go to start a solar company. So, with help from HeatSpring instructors and based on my own experience, I created this handy guide.
There’s a complete reading list below for anyone who’s really interested in the solar industry. If you’ve like to see or download the guide, you can find it here “Learn how to Start a Solar Company with the Solar Startup Guide”
Reading Guide for a New Solar Company
Marketing
- How to Build a Renewable Energy Division in an Existing Construction Company
- Create a Workshop and Have Customers Come to You
- Designing a Sellable Solar Company
Sales
- How to Create a Sales Presentation for a Homeowner Workshop
- 5 key Items to Writing a Solid Solar Sales Proposal
- How to Overcome the Top 5 Objections when Selling Solar
- 3 Things You May Not Know About Solar PV Sales
- Top 5 Ways to Spot a Bad Solar Roof
Solar Financing
- Solar Financing Options and the Benefits of Each
- What is an SREC?
- HS TV Ep 3. The Development of the US SREC Market
- The 4 Ownership Structures Used to Finance Solar Projects
- Beginners Guide to Financing Solar Projects
- 5 Basics Elements You Need to Know to Finance a Solar Project
- How to Create a Solar PPA
Design and Installation
- How to Use Lean Startup Methods to Increase Renewable Energy Profits
- The Solar Interconnection Process 101
- 9 Things You Must Know to Become a Solar Designer
- What Licenses Do You Need to Install Solar
- 90 Second Solar PV Training
Other
October 11th, 2011
What I Learned at EnerNOC’s EnergySMART Conference
TOPICS: BOSTON, CleanTech Events
The other week I had the pleasure of attending EnerNOC’s EnergySMART conference. It was a great opportunity to meet, learn and share ideas with other smart-grid, cleantech and sustainability professionals. I summarize my experience below.
Energy Management is a Vastly Untapped Resource
Did you know that the US is only 24th in the world in terms of energy efficiency utilization (and still a novel idea in the UK)? Being able to measure and manage energy consumption to smooth out energy peaks and transform commercial and industrial complexes into virtual power plants is just the beginning of harnessing the power of energy efficiency. It is a “great time to be in energy management”, said opening keynote speaker Bill Aulet, there are so many great Boston start-ups such as Next Step Living that provide a service that enables real bottom line saving, a positive ROI for energy efficiency projects and a strategy for mitigating risk factors. “This is not your father’s energy industry,” and as it evolves, it will be important to stay nimble, constantly learning and applying new technology.
…and Demand Response is Just the Beginning
With DemandSMART, EnerNOC’s enterprise, SaaS product, companies can easily measure and cut their energy consumption, receive payment for lowering demand and gain a competitive edge (Iron Mountain are you listening?). As the correlation between sustainability and profitability becomes more direct, cost centers can become revenue centers enabling companies to see new opportunities and innovate. Given how easy it is to partner with EnerNOC and start receiving checks almost immediately in the mail – I was surprised that customers were not beating down their doors – but, as I have learned, it will take some time before their solution becomes as “widely accepted a business practice as accounting.”
Looking Beyond DR – Carbon Accounting Helps Mitigate Risk
Looking to go beyond just measuring kWh? EnerNOC’s CarbonSMART solution is designed to give organizations data collection capabilities, analytics, reporting and mitigation planning for scope 1-3 activities. Akamai “reduced its carbon intensity by 50% in 2 years” and gained a greater understanding of its energy drivers. With companies such as Walmart who are ushering in more transparency in their supply chain, companies will be pressured into disclosing and eventually mitigating their GHG – so why not be proactive? EnerNOC’s product helps companies stay ahead of the curve, avoid cumbersome spreadsheets by providing “Carbon Counseling” to help measure, prioritize and deploy GHG mitigation strategies.
Networking & Building Partnerships is Key
It’s all about making connections and learning from one another, remarked Gregg Dixon, EnerNOC’s SVP of Sales & Marketing, who actively encouraged networking at the event. By engaging, collaborating and building bridges across various industries new solutions can be developed to make energy data more meaningful. Because the market is still relatively young, fragmented and lead times for energy projects are quite long, building support networks within business, political and non-profit arenas will be key in moving our country towards energy transparency and independence.
Overall, I Thought this Was a Great Event!
The combination of excellent speakers, content and location was a great mix for learning about current energy issues as well as EnerNOC’s product offering. I will be looking to see how the company develops mobile apps that enable customers to access, monitor and implement energy measures right from their smartphone. I will also be interested to see how EnerNOC leverages customer learnings that can benefit the entire network. I also hope that the low social media adoption rate for this industry improves to help increase awareness, facilitate learning and enable real progress.
October 5th, 2011
Two Questions to Ask About Any New Product Feature
TOPICS: BOSTON, Prototyping
In the past 3 weeks, I’ve had 10 conversations with people about creating new products, both physical and software, or discussing how an existing product will be sold; pricing, messaging, including a sales video or not, etc. I’ve noticed that that the decision about including a feature in a product or not is boiled down to 2 questions and 2 possible next steps.
Here are the questions to ask when determining a product feature or how to sell a product.
- Do you have any evidence that people are buying your product because of this feature (or because its priced this way, discussed in xx way, etc)?
- Do you have any evidence that people are NOT buying your product because it has this specific feature, or more commonly, because its sold at this price, or discussed in this way.
Based on your answers to these questions, there are two possible outcomes.
- If you can answer one of the above questions, you’ll know what to do. Make sure your answer is based on actual customer feedback, not a guess made by someone on the internal team. If you can’t answer either of these questions then you must make decision #2.
- Create an experiment where you can test the product, feature, pricing, etc with a customer to see if it will make them buy, or not buy. When looking for evidence keep in mind you should have a way of measuring it both in terms of anecdotes and hard metrics, best would be combination of both.
I find this logic especially important for cleantech companies, that are dealing with physical products that are very capital intensive, because it will force them to strip down the product to things the customer actually cares about. Not only is this important during the product development process, but the sales process as well. Many cleantech companies are dealing with customers that have very long sales cycles and their tends to be a large investment put into each sale. Thus, eliminating the waste from the sales process allows the development of the sales process to happen faster and also makes it more standardized.
October 3rd, 2011
The Hitchikers Guide to Cleantech: A Global Resource for Cleantech Entrepreneurs
TOPICS: Hitch Hikers Guide to Cleantech
At first, the Green Light Distrikt was just a place for me to jot down some thoughts that had been brewing for a while. Last year, it turned into a place to write about what was happening within the cleantech industry in a specific city as it pertained to young professionals, notice the different cities in the header. Now, the the Green Light Distrikt is making a third, and perhaps final, shift in focus. In the past two years, I’ve noticed that the articles I most enjoy writing and the ones that get the most comments are always about strategies and reflections on attempts to find opportunites to start successful companies within the cleantech industry. This is also the theme that has created many of the relationships between myself and individuals I have come into contact through writing. We know their’s a huge problem, it seems like a large and profitable opportunity, but it’s going to take a lot of trail and error (and sharing those learnings) to figure out the solution. There’s many people I have come to respect through my blog that I don’t think I would have otherwise come into contact with. I’d like to focus the Green Light Distrikt on connecting with more individuals that are working on solving and taking advantage of this problem.
To begin the third stage of Green Light Distrikt I’m going to launch Green Light Distrikt’s first project, “The Hitch Hikers Guide to Cleantech”. The story of the hitchhikers guide is below.
Story of “The Hitchhikers Guide to Cleantech”
In the first half of 2011 I decided to take a trip to Europe. I had never been there, and wanted to visit some friends and family. While I was there, I thought I would have some causual conversation with professionals working in the cleantech sector in the various cities I was going to visit. Why? The stereotype in the US is that Europe is lightyears ahead of us, so I wanted to do research for myself. I shared the types of questions I’d be asking and why I was curious.
At first, the “research” was simply out of personal interest. As an entrepreneur, I was looking for opportunities. I was going to be Copenhagen, London, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich and other parts of Europe anyway, why not see what was going on? I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and if Europe is trully ahead, and if so how, and if the markets are very regional as they are in the US.
Time and time again, after I completed a conversation/interview the person whom I was speaking with would ask. “Wait, so what are you doing again?” I would tell them I’m travelling around and speaking with people as I go. I’d tell them that my goal was to understand what was driving each cluster from the perspective of an entrepreneur. I wanted to identify opportunities. After describing my reasons they would undounbtably say “that sounds very interesting. Please keep in touch, I’m interested to read about what’s happening in other regions.”
From Personal Interest to a Public Guide
After going through the above conversation many times, I realized there was more to what I was doing then just personal interest. Everyone is interested in hearing an “on the front lines” account of what is going on other clusters. Here are my guesses as to what’s driving interest.
- The industry is growing quickly but is extremely regional. Thus, the industry is growing differently in different places for different reasons. The industry is still driven by policy. Thus, what is driving each industry is regional in nature (prices of fuel, building codes, local regulations) so what’s happening in cluster X may not apply to another cluster. Thus, people tend to not pay attention to other clusters because they’re so focused on their own cluster.
- While the clusters are driven from regional conditions there is a lot of beneficial collaboration that could happen, and people see this. For example, leveraging different regions technical or policy strengths to quickly prototype while selling to regions that have customer demand.
- The industry has developed in a culture of collaboration and cooperation while also sharing many ideals with the internet industry. This drives an interest in transparency but there is still not sufficient information.
- There’s a lot of things to go under the radar of largely read news sources. Mainly because there are a few huge companies and tons of smaller ones. The smaller once go under the radar.
- What’s being published tends to be news and not targeted structly to providing USEFUL information for entrepreneurs looking to create companies.
What is the purpose of the guide?
My personal goal when I was completing research was to answer the really simple questions that would allow me (or others) to get “plugged” into a region very quickly. By “plugged” in, I mean understanding the landscape of the cluster in order to find an opportunity to building a company or leverage a clusters strengths while building a company.
To put it another way, I wanted to solve the following experiment. “My name is Chris, I’m moving from Boston to lets say London, and I want to start a company in the cleantech industry, what do I need to understand about that region to get started?”
Thus, my focus was; knowing the policy that’s driving the space, the current companies, how the universities are playing a role, the sentiment of the local investment community and the resources available to entrepreneurs. And by quickly, I mean that I wanted to be able to get “plugged” into a region in under a month rather then the 3 to 6 months it would take a person who was completely new to a region. It’s a small amount of focused information but it’s incredibility useful if you’ve ever tried to tap into an industry within a region.
During my conversations, I spoke with people about a large number of things. For the hitchhikers guide here’s what I want to share.
- Technology: What technology sectors (solar, wind, biomass, smartgrid, etc) are growing the fastest in your region and why?
- Policy: What federal, state or local policy is driving cleantech growth in your region? What technology is the policy focused on?
- Investment Sentiment: Is investment being put into R+D, commercizilation of companies, or project finance? What is the source of these funds? (Venture capital, private equity, public, corporate)
- Company Landscape:
- University: How is the univeristiy system supporting and interacting with the industry? Please provide specific examples.
- Resources: What reoureces are available that would help entrepreneurs looking into your region? For example, incubators, business plan competitions, etc
September 10th, 2011
Remembering 9/11: A Tribute to America’s Love-Hate Affair with Oil
Government Policy -Friday morning, the New York Stock Exchange took a moment of silence to remember the nearly 3,000 Americans who lost their lives in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The constant vigilance of the Bush and Obama administrations against al-Qaeda over the past decade has thwarted no fewer than a dozen major terrorist plots, killed the top two al-Qaeda leaders, and in general weakened terrorist cells around the world. “After a decade of intelligence-gathering, counter-attacks and defensive measures, America does seem a good deal less vulnerable than it was on September 10th ten years ago (“September 11th 2001: Ten Years On,” The Economist).
Just prior to this moment of silence, a Bloomberg TV anchor stated: “The terrorist attacks on 9/11 saddened our country and strengthened our resolve to maintain the American way of life.” Read past the break for the full story and join the Green Light Distrikt Facebook group for updates on new events, blog posts and more.
