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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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Resource Efficiency
April 18th, 2011
A Tale of Shale: Drill Baby Drill or Too ‘Fracking’ Risky?
BOSTON -In 2008, when National Grid and NStar started to offer 50% or 100% wind energy as an alternative to natural gas as an electricity source, I was thrilled. The apartment renter in me has always struggled with the surprisingly few options that I have to reduce my dependence on polluting, foreign energy sources. But then something strange happened. Over the ensuing years, my electricity bills remained low while the wind offset fee grew threefold. On Saturday at the Tufts Energy Conference, I learned that part of the answer was tied to something called shale natural gas.
According to Stephen Leahy, Vice President of Policy & Analysis at the Northeast Gas Association, natural gas prices have been slashed in half over the past decade due to the “staggering” numbers of shale drilling sites and estimated 2-8 million cubic feet of natural gas per day that are extracted from each site. American. Plentiful. Lower emissions than other fossil fuels. According to Mr. Leahy and fellow panelist David Rosner, Associate Director of the National Commission on Energy Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, shale natural gas is one of the few good news energy stories over the past few years. Or is it?
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September 3rd, 2010
6 Characteristics of a Perfect B2C Energy Efficiency Company
TOPICS: BOSTON, Entrepreneurship, Resource Efficiency
4 weeks ago, Green Light Distrikt Boston had an event, ‘Energy Efficiency: Why is the Low Hanging Fruit so High?” The speakers discussed what they’re working on and why, if energy efficiency (EE) has such high returns, the adoption of these behaviors and technologies seems to be happening at a snails pace.
Based on the presentations there were 6 things that I learned why EE adoption is not happening quickly enough. If you need a refresher on the those 6 items see the previous link.
Using these 6 points, I’ll outline the 6 characteristics of what a BLOCKBUSTER company addressing homeowner and small business energy efficiency would and/should look like. If you’re a VC and reading this, your welcome, you can pay me later.
Here’s the 6 characteristics of the perfect EE company I would invest in, start, or work with.
1) The technology is simple, works, and is cheap. You need the technology to be ‘in the game’ but the technology itself won’t solve the problem. The winning combination will be a mix of technology + service. This is why, as Rob Day points out, angels will be the heros of EE technology space because the technology is so cheap to build. It is the selling, servicing, monitoring, and changing of behaviors that will make or break a great EE company.
August 25th, 2010
6 Reasons the High ROI of Energy Efficiency Doesn’t Matter
TOPICS: BOSTON, CleanTech Kingpins, Resource Efficiency
All I can say is “Energy Efficiency: Why is the Low Hanging Fruit so High?” the second event hosted by Green Light Distrikt Boston in our Cleantech Kingpins series was a HUGE success. It was completely packed, it was fun, and we learned a ton. Boston insider Aaron Lindenbaum wrote a great follow up about his take on how to make energy efficiency (EE) sexy and Brian Hayden wrote an awesome piece about how the event inspired him to take action in his home and what he learned.
A huge thank you to all the speakers, everyone did an amazing job, and Alex from Wattzy who helped me find everyone. Another shout out to NEXUS for hosting us. The NEXUS Green Building Resource Center is the Mecca of green building in Boston and probably the country, in short, they’re awesome. A third thank you to everyone who came, watched, asked questions and joined in on the conversation at the end. I had a great time meeting you and can’t wait to see guys more in the future.
Here’s the little agenda for post
1) Presentations: Below are both the presentation videos and slides. Note, I’m couldn’t upload Lilah Glick’s presentation from the Cambridge Energy Alliance and I didn’t get Alex’s presentation on video.
Here are the speakers:
- Alex Patriquin – Founder, CEO at Wattzy
- Martin Flusberg – Founder, CEO at Powerhouse Dynamics
- Lilah Glick – Director, Community Outreach at Cambridge Energy Alliance
- Brenden Endicott – Senior Manager, Energy Markets at EnerNOC
- Geoff Chapin – Founder, CEO at Next Step Living
2) Problem with Energy Efficiency Adoption: The speakers addressed 6 main issues that I’ll summarize that explain why energy efficiency adoption is NOT happening.
August 4th, 2010
Connecting the Oil Dots: Spill, Idling and Asthma
TOPICS: BOSTON, Resource Efficiency
With the on-going news of the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the Kalamazoo River, many people and businesses feel confused and overwhelmed about what they can do to help. Send hair clippings to make oil-absorbing booms? Boycott BP stations? The best and most effective way to help, according to experts is to decrease our use of oil – reducing overall demand for fossil fuels. The disconnect between oil and its impact on health and the environment is widening, even during the biggest oil disaster in US history. Many don’t realize that Massachusetts has an anti-idling law: MGL, Chapter 90, 16A and 310 CMR, 7.11, which defines limitations and imposes fines. + Continue Reading
May 4th, 2010
When it comes to Energy Efficiency, Do We Need Walmart?
BOSTON -
Most of my friends have never heard of Mass SAVE, but my good friend Tom signed up for a Mass SAVE energy audit. The auditor spent half an hour in his place, promised big rebates, and Tom agreed to have weatherization and insulation work done. Four weeks later (two days before the scheduled work), Tom got a call from a customer service representative informing him that he no longer qualified for the rebate and would have to spend an extra $1700 out-of-pocket. “Never mind.” Said Tom.
Let’s assume the end goal is an enormous wave of energy efficiency retrofits. Looking at that end goal from an entrepreneur’s perspective, regardless of your political views, isn’t the current setup in Massachusetts almost comically bad? And MA has one of the best programs in the country.
I think there’s a fear of spending the money too fast and administering a huge program like that is clumsy. There’s always a balance between wanting to spend the money and fear of spending it badly. I think fear is winning. We need to find alternate routes around these programs and not rely on them to fix everything.
Here’s a thought exercise: How might Walmart make energy efficiency easy and affordable for homeowners? I know Walmart is evil, but what might they get right that we’re currently getting wrong?
