11 Green World Economic Forum Pioneers
The World Economic Forum has released their annual list of Technology Pioneers for 2009, and out of 34 pioneering companies, 11 of them are cleantech firms. Among them are companies that are building utility-scale solar and smart grid technologies, energy-reducing sensor networks, methane emission-reductions programs, recycling programs and efficient lighting tools. That’s what we like to see! Here they are:
BrightSource Energy: Oakland, Calif.-based BrightSource Energy is one of the leaders in the utility-scale solar industry, and is working on building a massive 400MW solar farm in the Mojave Desert. The company has raised over $115 million from investors like update: VantagePoint Venture Partners Kleiner Perkins, Google.org, BP Alternative Energy, and StatoilHydro. California’s PG&E has signed a deal for potentially 900 MW of solar farms with BrightSource.
Current Group: Current makes smart grid technology, including software for sensor networks that can monitor and manage the grid. The Germantown, Md.-based company was founded in 2000 and investors include EnerTech Capital, Google, Goldman Sachs, and Liberty Associated Partners.
Cows to Kilowatts Partnership: This project is a collaboration among four groups: the Nigerian organizations Global Network for Environment and Economic Development Research, the Centre for Youth, Family and the Law, the Sustainable Ibadan Project and Thailand’s KMUTT. Together they are building a biogas pilot plant that will turn waste from cattle slaughterhouses into natural gas that can be used for household cooking and electricity, and fertilizer. Gruesome but resourceful.
GreenPeak Technologies: The Netherlands-based startup sells battery-free wireless chips and network hardware for wireless sensor networks that can harness tiny amounts of energy from things like movement or solar. The company was formed in July 2007 through a merger of two wireless companies, and is backed by €10 million ($12.74 million) from a long list of venture firms, including DFJ Esprit, GIMV, Motorola Ventures, Allegro Investment Fund, SenterNovem, and IWT. The company’s network gear can be used for sensor networks to make energy usage in buildings more efficient.
Lemnis Lighting: Lemnis Lighting makes LED light bulbs and was founded by Warner Philips (of the Philips family, founders of lighting corporation Philips) and Frans Otten. The company says its LED bulbs are 90 percent more efficient that conventional light sources and last for up to 100,000 hours.
NovaTorque: NovaTorque, founded by John Petro, Don Burch and Ken Wasson, has developed an electric motor the company says provides an operating efficiency of over 90 percent, is small in size and is lower cost than conventional motors. The company, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif., says its motors can be used in everything from hand tools to air conditioners to dental drills.
RECYCLA Chile: Recycla is a Chilean e-waste recycling company founded in 2003 by brothers Victor and Pedro Nilo. The company has developed a deal with Maxus Technologies to help with the recycling process.
RecycleBank: RecycleBank is a Philadelphia-based startup that runs incentive-based recycling programs. The company has raised over $40 million from Kleiner Perkins, RRE Ventures and Sigma Parters.
SemiLEDs Corpo.: SemiLEDs makes LED chips that the company says are among the brightest and most efficient available due to the use of a copper alloy substrate and design. The company is based in Boise, Idaho, but has operations in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and is backed by Powerchip Semiconductor Corp., one of Taiwan’s biggest DRAM companies.
Virent Energy Systems: Virent is a biofuel startup based in Madison, Wisc., that has created a “bioforming technology,” which catalyzes sugars into hydrocarbons, creating molecules similar to those produced in oil refineries. The company says their process can use a variety of feedstocks including sugars, starches, cellulose and glycerin (a byproduct of biodiesel production). It’s collected $10 million in government grants and a sizable $40 million in venture capital from Stark Investments, Venture Investors and Cargill Ventures, in addition to a 5-year partnership with Shell.
ZPower: ZPower makes a silver-zinc battery that the company says will be rolled out in laptop computers sometime next year. ZPower says the battery has a 40 percent longer runtime than lithium ion batteries and is a more stable technology — in other words, less likely to blow up.
Cool list! I’m surprised to see companies for Nigeria and Chile making the list, but I guess that just shows my ignorance.
I really enjoyed reading through all these post, some I hadn’t heard of until now. Thanks for posting.
qgeksbpqudnjbaqewell, hi admin adn people nice forum indeed. how’s life? hope it’s introduce branch ;)
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Nice Green Street blog,
Thought you might be interested in http://www.culgreen.ie – a project I’m working on to make Croke Park, Ireland’s largest sports stadium carbon neutral. It involves various environmental changes within the stadium and also encouraging fans to make carbon saving pledges. Hopefully useful for people interested in minimizing carbon footprint of public buildings around the world ……….
Just an overview of progress on the Cúl Green (www.culgreen.ie) initiative to make Croke Park (Ireland’s largest sports stadium) carbon neutral. Since the launch of Cúl Green in May 2008 and the completion of the energy efficient audit there have been several changes at the stadium.
The first change saw Croke Park switching to a “green electricity” tariff with ESB Independent Energy (ESBIE), meaning that its electricity now comes from a 100% renewable source which has immediately cut its annual carbon emissions by two thirds. This means that all electricity needs at Croke Park; from special pitch maintenance lighting to its 140 square meter stadium screen will come from renewable energy provided by wind farms.
Secondly fans are being encouraged to leave their cars at home when travelling to the stadium – a “Park & Ride” scheme was introduced during the summer with several GAA clubs and it is being run for all major match fixtures and a Public Transport Guide with details of all public transport options for getting to the stadium was published.
Thirdly, recycling initiatives have been developed at the stadium these include large recycling stations, wheelie bins for recycling plastic bottles, cardboard balers and a recyclable compactor. Plans are underway to further develop recycling facilities at the stadium with the introduction of plastic bailing and wet waste composting of food waste.
Fourthly the environmental engineers are currently assessing sources of sustainable energy. They have installed wind monitoring equipment at the stadium to help them decide if wind energy is a realistic option for Croke Park given the wind energy generation technologies currently available.
Finally monitoring systems providing data in real time on a web based interface that will enable the Operations Department at Croke Park to identify and eliminate unnecessary electricity, gas and water consumption. Particular attention is being paid to the identification of night time electricity loads and action is being taken to minimise wastage.
Equally important has been the part played by the fans, there has been an excellent response from the public in supporting the Cúl Green initiative with over 14,000 pledges made so far, amounting to over 1,500 tonnes of carbon saved. Although in its early stages Cúl Green is effectively encouraging people across Ireland to reconsider their energy usage and helping them to form more carbon efficient habits.
For more information visit http://www.culgreen.ie
Sounds interesting, would be good to see more detail on the environmental engineering work that is happening in the Croke Park stadium, couldn’t see much about that side of the project at http://www.culgreen.ie
Might be a good case study for other sports stadiums and public buildings ………
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