The FountainBlue clean
energy newsletter is designed to communicate and connect regularly with our
clean energy members, to make special offerings to our members, and to share
wisdom gained from our community. It is sent free monthly to all FountainBlue
clean energy members of our community, with additional information and access
to our members through our Wild Apricot site.
To sign up for our
monthly newsletter, complete the form to the right, or e-mail us at info@svcleanenergy.com.
January 16, What's New with FountainBlue: Members as Referral Partners
At the request of our members, we
will be sending out our job reqs to our members, inviting everyone to
strategically forward them on to their networks of contacts. Thank you in
advance to everyone who elects to forward our reqs. Please tell your contacts to
mention that you connected him/her to us, so that we can track the origin of
our candidate leads. We are happy to pay a referral fee to members who recruit
candidates who get hired and stay for a ninety-day period. You may also elect
to donate your referral fee to a FountainBlue-approved nonprofit or a nonprofit
of your choice. For more information about our job leads, visit http://www.fountainblue.biz/openreqs.html.
January 9, What's New with FountainBlue: Giving
Back
Since our launch in January 2006,
FountainBlue has been committed to giving back to the community through active
participation and financial support. As we shift into recruiting and
consulting, we are pleased to contribute financially to nonprofit causes providing
executive education, educational benefit, and women-in-leadership. Currently we
are supporting the following types of organizations:
Executive Development Organizations:
Career Actions
Educational Organizations:
A Schmahl Science Workshop, as
a member of the advisory committee.
Women-In-Leadership organizations:
Global Fund for Women
Global Women Leadership Network
Women's Initiative
Please e-mail us with the
following information at info@whenshespeaks.com
or complete the form above if you would like to considered an approved, adopted
FountainBlue cause.
Your name
Recommended Nonprofit
Your involvement with Nonprofit
Why you would recommend this Nonprofit
Why FountainBlue's membership of clean
energy, high tech, and life science entrepreneurs would find this nonprofit
beneficial to the community overall
We are happy to profile a
nonprofit each month, and recommend any of these nonprofits as worthy causes.
If you’re interested in catching
up over the phone or in person, please visit http://meetwith.me/lindaholroyd and
suggest a good time to connect. Please also let us know if we can support you
with your recruiting, consulting and coaching needs as you grow your business.
January 2 Update: A New
Year, A New Newsletter Format!
We are looking forward to an
exciting new year, and an exciting new time for the valley and the global
community! It is our hope that our weekly newsletter will provide you with
relevant, useful information about business and market trends and their
implications for your business. We invite your inquiries, suggestions, feedback
and interest as we continue with our consulting, coaching and recruiting
efforts! If you’re interested in catching
up over the phone or in person, please visit http://meetwith.me/lindaholroyd and
suggest a good time to connect. Please also let us know if we can support you
with your recruiting, consulting and coaching needs as you grow your business.
This Month's Hot Clean Energy Trend and Profiles in Innovation
2011 was a pivotal year. As the
first cleantech market (solar) went through consolidation many announced its
bust last summer despite a few IPO's in Silicon Valley in the first half of
2011. The last three months have shown that cleantech companies can hold pretty
well in difficult times. Here are the top 5 highlights of 2011:
1 - Electric cars are here. From
the Chevy Volt to the Tesla Model S, automakers have held their schedule and
new mid-priced electric vehicles have hit the mainstream. If sales have not
have been as high as some predicted, the numbers are solid and most industry
specialists recognize that all new models will be hybrids or electrical in 3
years. And it is not just about energy efficiency, it also about all the new
Telematics services that are changing our driving experience... the connected
car is here.
2 - Dominance of Chinese market.
The US is no longer the #1 place for cleantech. We knew that about solar
(Germany is biggest market) but it has also come true for liquidity events.
Most IPO's in wind and solar have been on the Chinese stock market and many
European Fortune 500's acquired start-ups in Smart Grid and Solar. Overall,
China leads in Government subsidies and in financial transactions. They are #1
for better or for worse. And it is not just about energy. Another top story on
2011 was sustainable seafood. A large majority of fish is processed in China...
consider the carbon footprint of what you are eating in your plate next time!
3 - Solar sector is maturing out
of Government subsidies. From the reduction of subsidies to reaching cost
parity in some countries, the solar sector is entering a new phase. It did
include a few busts like Solyndra but also many M&A and IPO transactions.
Everybody is counting dollars: from Presidential candidates in the US
Government overseeing the DOE, to energy giants in Europe, to investment
bankers in China. There are still more coal plants built than solar farms in
the world (including in China and Germany) but real value can be created
outside Government subsidies and that is the best news moving forward.
4 - Bio fuels make the day of US
VCs. VC's in Silicon Valley have made money this year on their bio-fuels bet
(Amyris, Solazyme, Gevo, etc.). That was not obvious a few years back when
analysts predicted Smart Grid or Solar companies to make more IPO's. With the
help of the Military bio-fuel companies took off in the US and are now signing
contracts with airline companies. It is still not enough to make a big change
on the overall carbon footprint compared to countries like Brazil that have
embraced bio-fuels more fully. Yet, it is certainly the success story in
cleantech this year. Khosla Ventures raised a new major cleantech fund as a
result.
5 - Gamification of cleantech.
The advent of social networks did not just impact cleantech on the stock
market... it also changed the way green solutions are marketed. OPower signed a
partnership with Facebook to bring their energy efficiency solution to the
mainstream after winning the heart of many utilities. New start-ups have
received seed funding to make it easier for customers to embrace new greentech
tools. It is not clear if VC's are trying to reproduce valuations in cleantech
that they have seen in social media, but there is definitely something that
needs to be done about changing our consumer behavior. If "what gets measured gets
managed" is the motto in the Enterprise business, then "I won't use
it if I can't pay with it" could be the phrase in the Consumer business.
Past Clean Energy Trends and Profiles in Innovation
For
January 2012, we are featuring ‘Six Investment Themes for 2012’, from
International Business Times, written by, Moran Zhang, December 23, 2011,
Opinion of Kent Croft, portfolio manager at Croft Value Fund.
1. Natural Gas
Natural gas prices should begin
to benefit from liquefied natural gas exports and increasing sources of
domestic demand. Croft believes that exploration and production companies with
large natural gas exposures will be prime beneficiaries of higher natural gas
prices going forward.
2. Fresh Water
The supply and demand function
for fresh water is a compelling theme with far-reaching consequences. As water
demand grows via emerging markets while supply is reduced via pollution and
other forces, providers of water infrastructure and pump and sanitation systems
should see market growth and pricing power.
3. Agriculture
Croft remains bullish on the
overall theme of agriculture and rising crop prices via ever-increasing world
food demand. Emerging market growth has driven up consumption patterns for
higher-protein food sources which have led to higher prices of grain, corn,
soy, etc. The major beneficiaries are producers of fertilizer, irrigation
systems, and farm equipment.
4. Broadband Internet (see high
tech trends newsletter for full article)
5. Timber
Despite a continued weak domestic
housing backdrop, timber remains an attractive investment opportunity. This is
largely due strong foreign demand prospects and an eventual bottom in the U.S.
with stocks in the group trading at a discount to net asset values with solid
dividend yields.
6. Electric Grid
A lack of investment in the
electric grid by developed countries over the past decade and longer has
created pent-up demand for new infrastructure as population growth and
increasing consumption trends drive higher overall demand.
Gridata is a January profiled company on smart grid innovations.
Gridata's SiteAlert saves grocery chains and restaurants on their energy
and maintenance costs through diagnostic analytics on data coming from onsite
sensors.
Gridata’s innovation is “Cloud Analytics for Sensor Telemetry,” which
serves as an online decision support system for small and medium businesses in
cold-chain sectors like grocery, restaurant, pharmacy, and food processing. We use real-time sensors to detect
emergencies, energy hogs, poor maintenance conditions, and improper equipment
use. Our flagship SiteAlert product then
delivers the right diagnostic information to the right user at the right time.
Gridata also continues to make its Energy Intelligence platform available
to OEMs. This embedded energy management integration solution is designed for
consumer and commercial electronics manufacturers who are adding energy
management to their product lines. For more information, visit www.gridata.com.
Zuvo Water is a profile in water innovation, supporting our January trend.
Zuvo Water LLC is a global
innovator of chemical-free water products. Zuvo Water’s product portfolio is
based on a patented technology platform that reproduces the photo-oxidation
process that naturally occurs in the environment. The Zuvo® Water Filtration
System goes beyond simple carbon filtration. By combining ultraviolet light,
ozone and carbon filtration, the Zuvo system recreates nature’s way of
cleansing water. It is a sophisticated yet simple under-counter,
drinking-water-treatment appliance that reduces chemical, particulate, and
microbiological contaminants.
Zuvo Water practices sustainable
design to keep products in use longer, thereby reducing its impact on the
environment and keeping them out of an already crowded waste stream. The
company’s goal is to innovate with the environment in mind, using materials and
methods that minimize the use of energy, optimize recycling, and reduce the
cost of transportation. Zuvo Water is working towards a day when everyone has
access to safe water.
Subscribe to the Zuvo Water Blog
and join the company in its mission.
If you are interested in
nominating a company for an upcoming newsletter, please visit or e-mail your
profile to info@svcleanenergy.com
with the following information:
Name and Company
100-word description of why it is
innovative
Link for more information
URL with picture of innovation
Company Contact Details
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