A lot more green at this year's Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show

Last year I blogged about the lack of green products and services being showcased at the 2007 Pittsburgh Home and Garden show. The vendors at this year's show, which took place at world's largest LEED certified building - downtown Pittsburgh's David L. Lawrence convention center, did a complete 180 degree turn from last year's event. Energy efficient products were marketed by a host of vendors, and so were green energy service providers in the form of Geothermal heating and cooling and also solar and wind power (all pictured to the right). While the sales people at the solar energy installer quoted me an 8000 kw system consisting of 26 solar panels ( a typical residence shouldn't need more than half of that) I was happy to finally meet a solar installer that was breaking into the Pittsburgh market.



The highlight of the green Home & Garden show was an environmental exhibit that was put on by several organizations including the Bidwell Training Center, Steel City Biofuels, and GTECH Strategies, among others. The exhibit showcased green roofs, some environmental projects from the region, and also some of the projects and work being down by both GTECH and Steel City Biofuels.





Over the last few months I have gotten to know both Andrew Butcher, CEO of GTECH, and Nathanial Doyno, Executive Director of SCBF, and I think they are both rising stars of the local green economy. Below are both Nathanial (center) and Andrew taking a break from the action to talk to KDKA radio.


So what were some of the green products that we were interested in purchasing? Since we've been in the market for outdoor furniture for some time but could not bring ourselves to purchase the Chinese manufactured goods from Lowes, we were very intrigued by an Amish furniture company from New Wilmington PA that made it's outdoor furniture out of recycled plastics. While we did not pull the trigger that day, the prices were very reasonable and we intend on making a purchase soon.

Breakthrough for Pittsburgh's leading cleantech company

Plextronics just released news that it has achieved a world record for solar power conversion for single layer organic solar cells.

From the press release:

Plextronics, Inc. announced today that its organic photovoltaic technology achieved a world record in the conversion of solar light to power efficiency. The company's result of 5.4 percent establishes a new world record for single layer organic solar cells as certified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in Golden, Colorado.

This is huge news for not only Plextronics but for Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is behind in the race to build a clean tech economy, but I believe we have a gem here in Plextronics, an early stage developer of printed electronics and thin layer photovoltaic cells, and with its success and the national press coverage Plextronics could very well be in the process of buiding the foundation for Pittsburgh's clean economy.

While I expect this record to be broken, the old record was somewhere around 5.2%, I also expect Plextronics to continue to improve their technology and remain one of the leading developers of these thin layer solar cells. I'll post again as I learn more on their progress.

Latest news on my pursuit to get solar power at my (former) company

Nearly a month after my initial request for their services, I was finally contacted by the solar panel vendor SunPower. The person who called from their sales department was clueless. I told her she was about a month late since I left the company a few weeks back. Since I was no longer with that company I gave them the contact information for the other individual that was championing the project with me. Then I mentioned that there would be a need for consulting services, which they said they did not provide unless the installation was over 1 Megawatt. I said we were not sure how big of an installation we would need since we would need a consulting firm to give us that information. They also mentioned that they did not have a partner in PA that could help with the assessment.

So, while I doubt SunPower will follow through and I doubt that my former company will get their act together, I do recognize the huge business opportunity for a company that bridges the gap between solar panel, or wind energy manufacturers and the commercial marketplace. A lot of organizations recognized that "going green", as one VP my old firm said "is the thing to do these days." Unfortunately, most companies do not have the time and expertise to do the financial evaluation and cost benefit analysis for a large solar installation. Most manufacturers I have been in touch with are too busy trying to fill their large backlog of orders, and have little or no consulting services, and a very weak partner network.

For now I plan on using www.mymave.com to market my consulting services but I may eventually form an LLC and bring on a few partners to start up a consulting firm if there is indeed a very high demand for these types of services.

Entrepreneurship + Environmentalism = Enviropreneurship

Sounds like a great idea for a new business school major! From Trendhunter.com (very cool site by the way!) - "If 'Green Business' (by any other name) means business embracing the concepts of environmentalism, then Enviropreneurship (ENVP) means environmentalists learning the concepts of business. ENVP is about “bringing market principles to resolve environmental problems.”

I love it. Love live Environpreneurship! This brings me back to a few posts I made last month regarding getting my company (former company!) to adopt solar power. More on this in the next post but check out my profile at mymave.com where I am now an official "green" consultant for businesses looking to get their act together.


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Special Report on Green Business

This special report, from Business Week, covers a lot of ground on green tech and green business.

Stories include ethanol, electric cars, green investing, and even green weddings, to name a few. One particular highlight for me was the story Green Growth for Entrepreneurs. The story mentions Investor's Circle, a group of angel investors who select their investments based on a target's social responsibility. If you are a green entrepreneur like myself the firm does have an application on their site for their Spring Venture fair, where, if accepted, you get a chance to rub elbows and pitch your green business idea to targeted investors. Unfortunately, the deadline has passed so I'll have to wait until next spring's fair, which is good because I'm not even close to being ready.

The mantra of the Investor's Circle reads:

"The Investors' Circle mission is to galvanize the flow of capital to entrepreneurial companies that enhance bioregional, cultural and economic health and diversity."

5 questions for Vinod Khosla

Sun Microsystems cofounder, Carnegie Mellon Alum, and cellulosic ethanol evangelist Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures recently spoke to Fortune Magazine about the future of ethanol and alternative fuels.

You got on the ethanol bandwagon early. What's on tap for 2007?

This will be the year of cellulosic ethanol - fuel made from grasses, wood chips, and other underutilized biomass. New fuels like butanol will also come along. I wouldn't be surprised to see biogasoline either. We'll see biofuels move from their role as an additive to gasoline to a primary fuel for automobiles.

What still stands in ethanol's way?

You'll see critics, often funded by the petroleum interests, increase their attacks on biofuels through surreptitious PR campaigns, while publicly supporting these renewable fuels. We might even see oil prices manipulated down to thwart this transition, which is essential for our planet.
What 10 top leaders and thinkers see on their horizon

What other areas of alternative energy should we be watching?

Coal. We will continue to see a push for "clean coal," as it's a way for a few of the traditional power-generation firms to delay action. Clean coal will be in a horse race with wind and solar. I'd personally handicap solar thermal, not photovoltaic solar or clean coal to win.

How will Congress and the presidential candidates affect the equation?

The biggest leverage will come from the similar positions of the presidential candidates for 2008. Most of the rumored candidates already support an aggressive biofuels policy, as do the Democratic majorities in Congress and the Bush administration.

Where are you investing, outside of green tech?

We're excited about mobile applications and see breakthroughs in semiconductors and batteries.

A great analysis of Kholsa's stance on alternative energy and ethanol can be found at The Oil Drum blog.

Venture backed startup has "game changing" battery technology - Hype or Hope?

I don't know much about the engineering behind this new technology but a Texas startup, EEstor, and its investors are claiming it will replace lithium ion batteries in everything from electric vehicles to laptop computers. Technology Review has a nice writeup on EEStor and the technology.

Judging by the comments posted to that article there seems to be plenty of debate among the geeks regarding the feasibility of the EEStor's ultracapacitor technology. I tried to decipher but alas, I am an MBA and not a PHD.