Cleantech

Elon Musk, chairman of Tesla Motors

(Credit: Stefanie Olsen/CNET News.com)

Corrected, Sunday 9:30 a.m. This blog incorrectly described Musk's relationship with the company. He is chairman of Tesla Motors.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Elon Musk, the chairman and major funder of Tesla Motors, said here Saturday that he plans to take his electric sports car company public by the end of 2008.

Before the IPO, however, Musk said he will raise a series E round of financing to bring the company to profitability and begin production on Tesla's luxury electric sedan, codenamed White Star, by 2010. The goals will be reached by selling a roughly 10 percent stake in the company in the series E round, and through a Department of Energy loan of between $100 million and $200 million, Musk said.

A future IPO would raise on the order of $100 million, he said.

Musk, who was speaking here at the TieCon conference ("Tie" is short for "The Indus Entrepreneur"), also said that he's considering how the company might allow customers of the $100,000-plus Tesla Roadster to invest before the IPO, similar to the auction-style offering that delivered Google to the public markets.

Meet Tesla's first two prototypes, and click on the image to see more photos.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

"We are trying to figure out if there's a way for Tesla customers to invest in that (series E) round...but we want to make sure we don't step on any legal landmines," said the 36-year-old Musk, dressed in his characteristic T-shirt (Solar City), jeans and cowboy boots.

Musk was here to give a keynote at the two-day conference, which drew as many as 4,000 attendees. During his interview on stage with Silicon Valley author Mike Malone, he talked about his three long-time passions: the Internet, renewable energy, and space exploration.

During the dot-com heyday, Musk of course founded two Internet companies--the most notable of which, PayPal, sold to eBay for $1.8 billion. Now, he owns two companies related to renewable energy, Solar City and Tesla Motors. And in space exploration, Musk runs SpaceX, a private rocketry company that has secured a contract with NASA to replace the space shuttle after 2010 in servicing the International Space Station.

Clearly a pioneer in these fields, Musk has bold predictions for these markets. One is that he will put a man on Mars by 2030. Though he admitted that might not come true by then.

He was more definitive about the other goals.

"Thirty years from now the majority of new cars will be pure electric, not hybrid," Musk said. On renewable energy: "We will derive more energy from solar than anything else in the United States."

My favorite green product of the week: Keetsa eco-friendly mattresses

What is it?

Keetsa mattresses are made with 100% recycled steel coils, scrap memory foam bits, and a variety of sustainable materials like bamboo fabrics and unbleached natural cotton. Keetsa offers six different types of mattresses.

Why is it better?

Most people sleep on mattresses. Most people spend one-third of their lives in bed. But most people don't know that conventional mattresses are covered in flame-retardants, petroleum-based pesticides, and other harsh chemicals. Well, not Keetsa mattresses. Not to mention, all those recycled materials I listed before? A lot of them can be recycled if you jump up and down a few too many times and need a new one.

One of my favorite things about the Keetsa mattress is that they can be compressed and rolled into box - that means that while 140 conventional mattresses can fit on one truck, 540 Keetsa mattresses can fit in the same space. The carbon footprint is much smaller from factory door to your bedroom door. (And the mattress boxes have wheels so you can take it home yourself.)

Last but not least, they're comfortable. I got to take two different mattresses for "test drives" at the San Francisco Green Festival. And I personally own the Keetsa Plus and I think it's incredibly comfortable (and my friends agree).

Where can you find it?

The Keetsa showrooms are located in San Francisco and Fairfield, CA. You can buy mattresses there, a variety of mattress showrooms, or order them online at the company website. Queen sized mattresses range in price from $549.99 to $1649.99.

Besides her green products column on Cleantech Blog, Cristina is a passionate advocate for green living at the Green Home Huddle at Huddler.com, which focuses on electric cars, energy efficient appliances, and other green products.

"Only the USA and China consume more oil than California," observes Jim Boyd, vice chairman of the California Energy Commission. With oil prices soaring, California must reduce its dependency on oil to sustain prosperity and achieve energy security.

As 38 million Californians deploy a range of solutions to reducing oil usage, the world will learn valuable lessons. In 2006, California consumption of gasoline peaked, even though population continues on the path of doubling over a 30 year period.

In California, more people are driving fewer miles; importantly, fewer solo miles. More efficient vehicles are being used, often benefiting from hybrid-electric drive systems. As an alternative to oil, there is a growing use of biofuel, natural gas, hydrogen, and renewable electricity.

Solutions to the state's, the nation's, and world's transportation needs were presented at the WestStart-CALSTART Clean Heavy Vehicle Conference 2008.

Many of the solutions were discussed by managers of large fleets. These people can save millions with improvements that passenger vehicle drivers often ignore, such as low-rolling resistance tires. Fleet managers can also install the infrastructure for their fleets; such as fast-charge stations, hydrogen fueling, and specific biofuel blends.

Fleets often pilot new technology years prior to commercialization. Large prototypes are later miniaturized for passenger vehicles. All successful fleets continually improve efficiency. In the transportation lifecycle, 80 percent of all energy is lost, estimates Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.

John Boesel, President of WestStart-CALSTART, observed that linked trips, public transit, hybrids, and improved mileage vehicles are all factors in peak oil demand in California. Boesel is in a good position to observe future transportation trends. His organization facilitates bringing together fleet managers, vehicle and fuel producers, researchers, and top government officials.

Boesel discussed a number of reasons to be optimistic when we talked over lunch. Investment in clean tech and clean transportation is exploding. New lightweight materials are allowing vehicles to travel further with less fuel. There is ongoing innovation in materials. Hybrid-electric drive systems allow heavy mechanical components to be replaced with lighter ones. Engines are being made more efficient. Heavy vehicles that formerly burned fuel during the 40 percent of the time that they idle, now idle off. Major corporations and venture capital backed start-ups are creating next-generation biofuels and synthetic fuels.

WestStart-CALSTART encourages public policy makers to set performance standards and not attempt to pick technology winners. Government is also critical in early funding of new fuels and efficient vehicles. "There are many paths to the future," noted Boesel.

Biofuels will play a major role in reducing California's oil dependency. By law, California AB 2076 requires 20 percent alternative fuels use in 2020 and 30 percent alternative fuels use in 2030. The bulk of alt fuels are likely to be biofuel. By law, 40 percent of that biofuel must be produced in California by 2020 and 75 percent by 2050. This creates a challenge and an opportunity. California is the nation's leading agricultural state. Droughts and reduced snow accumulation are creating water scarcity for farmers. Corn ethanol and soy biodiesel generate tremendous greenhouse gases in their lifecycle of production and consumption.

New low-carbon fuels are being developed including next-generation biofuels. In pilot production, gasoline and diesel are being made from synthetic fuels.

To keep California's $1.5 trillion annual economy from running out of gas, the state is investing $200 million per year in clean transportation for the next 7.5 years. AB118 is the law that makes this possible. It was sponsored by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The money is funded with vehicle fees.

CEC will fund $120 million per year for the commercialization of alternative fuels and efficient vehicle technologies. The California Air Resources Board will fund $80 million per year for enhanced fleet modernization and an air quality improvement program.

All these initiatives promise to create millions of jobs for a state that continues to grow. Despite a state budget crisis, no one is trying to remove AB118's $200 million annual investment in the future.

With intermodal transportation solutions, integrated freight movement, light materials, hybrid-electric drive systems, efficient vehicles, and new fuels, California is leading the way to control its own destiny without being dependent on foreign oil.

John Addison publishes the Clean Fleet Report.

In the wake of setbacks to new coal powerplant construction in the face of likely carbon legislation, the coal industry has mounted a serious PR blitz, led by a group called Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC).

ABEC is a national non-profit organization with a claimed membership of 150,000, whose acknowledged primary funding source is "America's coal-based electricity providers" -- including such big-boys as American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), First Energy (NYSE: FE) and Southern Company (NYSE: SO). Not to mention large coal companies such as Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI) and CONSOL (NYSE: CNX), and railroads such as Burlington Northern Sante Fe (NYSE: BNI) and CSX (NYSE: CSX).

Quite aptly, Sourcewatch refers to ABEC amusingly as an "astroturf" support organization: "apparently grassroots-based citizen groups or coalitions that are primarily conceived, created and/or funded by corporations, industry trade associations, political interests or public relations firms." Given the corporate interests listed on the ABEC website, it is hard to call ABEC a true grassroots organization.

Here in Ohio, ABEC has launched a series of billboards and newspaper advertisements promoting coal, implicitly at the expense of other energy alternatives. Particularly objectionable to me is the ad that illustrates (as if algebraically) "Coal = Ohio Jobs", suggesting not-so-subtly that a shift to other non-coal forms of energy will cause a loss of jobs. I was compelled to write a counter-response, which appeared last week as an editorial in The Plain-Dealer.

In tandem with the Ohio media program, ABEC released a white paper written by "energy economist" Eugene Trisko -- identified on the white paper as "Attorney at Law" but otherwise silent on his representation of the United Mine Workers of America (did someone say "coal"?) for over 20 years -- entitled "The Rising Burden of Energy Costs on Ohio Families". Mr. Trisko points out correctly that Ohio's manufacturing-based economy has suffered mightily in recent years, and argues that "developing an energy supply strategy that maximizes the use of Ohio's local [low-cost coal] resource could help to reduce the impact of future energy supply and price shocks." In other words, Mr. Trisko stresses that Ohio should use more coal, because it's so cheap -- that is, as long as carbon emissions aren't taxed or stringent carbon controls aren't required.

Further, Mr. Trisko neglects to mention that almost 90% of Ohio's electricity generation comes from coal -- and yet that hasn't prevented dramatic economic deterioration in the state. Is it possible that the same mentality that led Ohio to put virtually all its energy eggs in the coal basket is the same type of thinking that has led to the pervasive economic stagnation in Ohio? Is more of the same -- stay the course, keep betting on coal -- the way to go for Ohio's economic future? Hmmmmmm.

Richard T. Stuebi is the BP Fellow for Energy and Environmental Advancement at The Cleveland Foundation, and is also the Founder and President of NextWave Energy, Inc.

My favorite green product of the week: Eco Touch Waterless Car Care

What is it? Eco Touch Waterless Car Care is a waterless car wash made with water, plant-derived surfactants (coconut and soy), a water-based polymer, and a soy-based solvent. It simply requires you to spray and wipe with a microfiber towel. One 22-oz. bottle should allow you to wash your car 4 to 8 times.

Why is it better?

I first came across Eco Touch at the San Francisco Green Festival in 2007. The founders were there and they had just come out with a waterless car wash. I picked up a bottle and have been using it ever since. It works very well on the every day wear and tear.

According to Eco Touch, the typical driveway carwash uses 100 gallons of water. That means each bottle of Waterless Car Care could save up to 800 gallons of potable water. That's a lot of water that doesn't need to go down the drain. Beyond that, Eco Touch is non-toxic, biodegradable, and phosphate-free. In December 2007, Eco Touch was approved as a certified green business by Co-op America.

The company has just added three new products to its line for dashboard and trim care, carpet and upholstery care, and metal polishing.

Where can you find it?

You can buy Eco Touch products directly from the company website. Each bottle costs $9.99.

Besides her green products column on Cleantech Blog, Cristina is a passionate advocate for green living at the Green Home Huddle at Huddler.com, which focuses on electric cars, energy efficient appliances, and other green products.

The Richmond Saunas in rural Richmond Corners, Maine -- about 40 minutes up Route 295 from Portland -- are heated by wood. In the corner of each sauna, private and communal, stands a wood burning stove and a cauldron of water which is used to douse the cairn of rocks sitting atop the stove.

In Colorado, and elsewhere in the West, lovers of steam and heat use vast geothermal hot springs to calm nerves, soothe aching muscles and sweat. From Idaho Hot Springs, Steamboat, Ouray, Granite, Bozeman to Thermopolis...from New Mexico to Montana, I've soaked in many.

In Richmond, perched on a top plank, in the corner of the communal sauna, naked and arms wrapped around my crossed legs, I meet a very large welder from Saco, a slight visitor from Massachusetts and a pleasant older man from I don't know where. It is strange sitting in this confined space...in New England...watching the cauldron burble, snow piled to the windows and sleet slicking the window, sweating among these strangers...naked, large and small, hirsute and corporally-bald men.

This particular evening in this particular sauna doesn't have nearly the same joie de vivre as the time I met a young musician at the Strawberry Park Hot Springs in Colorado; he was to fly home the next day to take a job with the Vermont Symphony. I watched him sit for a long time at the edge of an outdoor stone pool. When he finally stripped down and slipped into the water, he told me he was waiting for sunset when "clothing optional" would take effect. An east-coaster, beaming, he was gleeful to have permission to skinny dip in public.

Amidst the strangeness, steaming in a wood sauna strikes me, once again, that climate and geography and local resources must dictate sustainable energy practices. Maine has a lot of wood; the West has a lot of geothermal. Maine has a lot (a lot!) of water which it has used for hydro-electricity, and the West has a lot (a lot!) of coal...and wind. Both have a lot of sun, but as yet, I have not run across a solar-powered sauna. There is talk here in Maine of tapping geothermal for geoexchange heat pumps using vertical loops. And there's the wide-eyed talk by homeowners of mounting small-scale wind turbines on their roofs and in their fields. Mainers have used coal to heat their homes, and I hear it is an option considered by some here these days...and, indeed, there are hydro-electrical plants in the West.

But coal for Maine and water for an arid West are kind of like New Englanders sitting around naked, sweating in mixed company. As my brother in New York might observe, with dismay, "that's just wrong."

Heather Rae, a contributor to cleantechblog.com, is a consultant in sustainability. She currently manages a home performance program in Maine and serves on the board of Maine Interfaith Power & Light. In 2006, she built out a biobus using green building materials and wrote on cleantechblog of her drive from Colorado to Maine and her quest for biofuels. In 2007, she began renovation of an 1880 farmhouse using building science and green building principles.

Whereas diesel engines have made great strides in the European auto markets, here in the U.S., gasoline still dominates. Apparently, the prospect of much higher fuel mileage and lower CO2 emissions from diesels doesn't overcome the objections of U.S. environmental regulatory authorities concerned mainly about local air quality issues. I suspect that, even if (when?) these objections are overcome by continued refinement, diesels will still find it difficult to win market share in the U.S., largely because of the wider availability of gasoline.

A possible win-win solution may be forthcoming. A California firm named Transonic Combustion is working on technology that would allow gasoline engines to work at high compression ratios, thus enabling much better energy conversion ratios comparable to what is achieved in the typical diesel engine. Sounds like a great idea to me; hope it works. I wonder, though, if it will provide the throaty sound of those big-block V-8's that Americans seem to love so much.

Richard T. Stuebi is the BP Fellow for Energy and Environmental Advancement at The Cleveland Foundation, and is also the Founder and President of NextWave Energy, Inc.

Continuing concerns with economic conditions drove all the broad stock indicators into negative territory for the week. With one expectation our sustainable energy indices followed suit with three indices declining and one, Renewable Electricity, advancing.

The Solar index suffered another large decline dropping 5.9% bringing the YTD decline for the sector to -42.5%. In perspective, even with this large decline the index has some distance to go before it gives up the huge gains we saw in 2007. LDK Solar Co. LTD (LDK) led the declines down 21.3%, closing below its IPO price. Apparently there remains some lingering angst over inventory issues. Overall the sector had 4 advances and 29 stocks declining.

Biofuels suffered a significant 12.5% decline with all 16 stocks falling and 5 falling more than 20%. It looks like concerns about rising corn prices and declining margins affected the ethanol producers. Gushon (GU) reported a Q4 loss and, despite management explaining the loss was due to a large non-cash charge, the stock declined 24.9%

In the Renewable Electricity sector our index advanced 0.9% with 10 stocks advancing and 9 declining. Suzlon (SUZON.NS) is a big component of the index and was down 13.1% percent after reporting turbine blade replacement program for 1,251 blades. This represents a market cap decline of more than USD 1 million per blade against management's estimated cost of USD 24,000 per . blade.

Fuel Cells had a down week with the index decreasing 6.3% on 1 stock advancing and 6 stocks declining. FuelCell Energy Inc. (FCEL) led the movement downward with its stock price falling 14.3% for the week after their earnings call on March 6.

What did I learn this week? Oil prices hit record highs and sustainable stocks declined with the broader market. Given the relatively high beta of the Solar, Fuel Cell, and Biofuels indices, their stock performance seems to be weakly correlated to oil prices and much more strongly influenced by broad market trendsRenewable Electricity, with its lower beta, may offer some portfolio diversification benefit.

Mark is the founder of Camino Energy, a information provider specializing in globally traded sustainable energy stocks. He also is an investor in sustainable energy stocks. Mark doen't hold a position in any of the specifically mentioned stocks.

5 step Cleantech Program by GE

Wind - In 2002, GE bought Enron Wind out of Enron's bankruptcy for about $300 mm, making GE one of the top 5 wind players overnight (it's now well in excess of a billion in revenue). It was their first cleantech steal, right before the wind industry got amazingly tight (and huge).

Power - In 2003, GE acquired one of the leading gas engine manufacturers in Jenbacher, making GE an overnight leader in small, clean power systems, and powering their way into everything from distributed generation to landfill gas markets.

Solar - In 2004, just before the solar boom, GE acquired Astropower, one of the top 5 solar energy companies in the US, for less than $20 million out of bankrupcty, after the company was delisted following accounting irregularities. You cannot even build a single solar manufacturing line for $20 mm. Only the subsequent silicon supply shortages, and a lack of the needed investment in the business and next generation technology kept GE from making a homerun out of it. But despite that, there will never be another steal in solar quite like this.

Water - In 2005, GE acquired one of the largest water technology businesses in the US, Ionics, to complement its previous acqusitions in the water sector. Paying a full price of $1.1 Billion, it virtually guaranteed GE a top 5 position in the reverse osmosis, desalination, and water purification markets going forwrad, right after Ionics was shored up through a merger with Ecolochem.

Ecomagination Brand - Then on the back of these deals, in 2005 GE launched its Ecomagination initiative, and anchored the entire company's image around its new cleantech empire.

That, my friends, is the way you make money in cleantech venture capital. I would venture to guess that GE has made 10x its money, no matter how you spin it. Or put another way, an IPO of the GE cleantech business would be the hottest thing in years.

Neal Dikeman is a founding partner at Jane Capital Partners LLC, a boutique merchant bank advising strategic investors and startups in cleantech. He is founding contributor of Cleantech Blog, a Contributing Editor to Alt Energy Stocks, Chairman of Cleantech.org, and a blogger for CNET's Cleantech blog.

My favorite green product of the week: The Freshaire Choice Paint

What is it?

The Freshaire Choice Paint is a zero volatile organic compound (VOC) paint. It comes in 65 colors and three different sheens. It is an interior paint, a ceiling paint, and an interior primer. It is manufactured by ICI Paints and became Greenguard http://www.greenguard.org/ Certified in September 2007. Greenguard Environmental Institute sets strict limitations on environmental toxins including VOCs, formaldehyde, aldehydes, phthalates, and particles.

Why is it better?

First, let's talk about VOCs. VOCs are emitted as gases from some solids and liquids; they include a variety of chemicals, some of which have short or long-term negative health effects. For example, several types of VOCs are known carcinogens and are directly related to childhood asthma. According to the EPA's Total Exposure Assessment Methodology, indoor levels of VOCs are 2 to 5 times higher than they are outside. This isn't such a good thing since each of us spends an average of 90% of our time indoors and specifically 65% inside our homes, according to the National Safety Council.

I think it logically follows that you would want to choose products that help you better your indoor air quality and create a healtheir space for you and your family. That's where your paint comes into play. According to Aerias Air Quality Sciences, conventional oil-based paints contain 420 to 450 parts VOCs per gallon. That's quite a bit in comparison to low-VOC paints that have VOC levels of less than 100 parts per gallon. And in comparison to The Freshaire Choice of zero VOCs? Well, there's no contest.

Many paints that offer claims of zero VOCs forget to tell you that when you add color, you're adding back the VOCs. But The Freshaire Choice leaves out the VOCs in both the paint and the colorant. They call it the ColorFresh system: a pre-mesasured colorant pouch dissolves into the base free of organic chemicals (and free of that new paint smell). Beyond the indoor air quality benefits, The Freshaire Choice offers chips and brochures made from recycled materials which can be further recycled, a can made from 100% recycled materials, and a label made from 75% recycled fiber and printed with soy ink. As their tag line says, "no matter which color you choose it's guaranteed to be green."

Where can you find it? Come April 1st, you can find The Freshaire Choice Paint at your local Home Depot. One gallon will retail $35-38.

Besides her green products column on Cleantech Blog, http://www.cleantechblog.com/ Cristina is a passionate advocate for green living, and manages the content for GreenHome.Huddler.com.