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A bright idea from Milwaukee

(Midwest Energy News, November 7, 2011)—A mobile app that helps people perform their own home lighting audits is the winner of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “Apps for the Environment” challenge.

Light Bulb Finder was created by a Milwaukee, Wisc., app developer called Eco Hatchery. Co-founders Adam Borut and Andrea Nylund learned they won the challenge last week, and on Tuesday they’ll be in Washington, D.C., to accept the recognition.

Borut and Nylund started out in 2007 making home energy-saving kits that came with an online tool for tracking projects. As mobile phones grew in popularity, they realized that “mobile phones are really the perfect platform for people to do their own home lighting audits,” Borut said in an interview.

The app was released for iPhone and Android in late 2010. It lets people walk around their home and use icons to identify the type of bulb currently used in each light fixture. After entering a zip code and the estimated daily hours of use for each bulb, the app suggests more efficient replacement bulbs, as well as a detailed projection of savings, in dollars and carbon emissions.

“We want to provide people with meaningful, individualized feedback so that they can make the smartest decision based on their priorities,” Borut said.

Users can then email themselves a shopping list, or order the bulbs directly through the app. Eco Hatchery gets a small commission on each bulb shipped. It also earns revenue through partnering with utilities and municipalities to promote local energy-efficiency programs and rebates. Madison residents, for example, will receive additional information about financing for home energy retrofits through the Green Madison program.

The app has been downloaded more than 100,000 times and used to replace more than 41,000 bulbs. The savings from those bulbs is collectively worth nearly $500,000 a year and annually reducing carbon emissions by about 5,325,000 pounds. The average user replaces about six bulbs, although some people have used it to switch out several dozen bulbs. If a typical household replaced the most used incandescent bulbs, it could save around $120 on their electricity bills each year, Borut said.

The challenge called for developers to submit apps that pull in information from EPA databases. Light Bulb Finder uses EPA data on the carbon footprint of electricity by zip code to calculate the emissions savings from changing out older bulbs.

The free app is available in the Android Market and App Store.

Originally published November 7, 2011, on Midwest Energy News.

Posted 07 November 2011 † Dan § Energy § Entrepreneurs § Midwest Energy News § Technology ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

Self-serve kiosks provide automated dry cleaning

(Finance & Commerce, November 7, 2011)—You swipe a credit card at a vending machine-sized kiosk. A clothing rack whirls around inside until your shirt or blouse appears. A robotic arm plucks it from the rack by the hanger and passes it to a glass enclosure in front of you. You pop open a door, grab your receipt and your freshly cleaned garments, and away you go.

Is this the future of dry cleaning?

Two local dry-cleaning chains this fall have unveiled the Twin Cities’ first-of-their-kind “dry cleaning ATM” kiosks. White Way Cleaners installed one at a Minneapolis skyway location in September. Last month, Mulberrys Garment Care installed one in the Ridgedale Byerly’s store.

Both companies view the kiosks as a way to extend service into hours and locations that wouldn’t be feasible for staffing with employees. If the machines prove successful, Mulberrys and White Way envision them springing up in skyways, condo and apartment buildings, office towers, gas stations and grocery stores all across town.

“We want to be one of the first to bring dry cleaning into the modern world,” said Dan Miller, Mulberrys’ founder and CEO. He compares the potential impact to what ATMs did for banking or Red Box did for DVD rentals — giving customers a quick, easy, always-open option for dropping off and picking up their dry cleaning. Continue Reading »

Posted 07 November 2011 † Dan § Business § Entrepreneurs § Finance & Commerce § Minnesota § Technology ‡ Comments (0) °

Mixed rate impact from MN renewable standard

(Midwest Energy News, November 2, 2011)—In May, we surveyed a handful of electric utilities to ask how complying with Minnesota’s renewable portfolio standard was affecting their costs and rates.

For the most part, what we heard was that these utilities would be adding wind power capacity regardless of Minnesota’s renewable mandate because it’s economical and a good hedge against natural gas price volatility. There were outliers, though, namely Minnkota Power Cooperative, whose aggressive purchase of long-term wind contracts had resulted in a surcharge to customers.

At the time, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce was lobbying for legislation that would require regular reporting from utilities on how much it was costing their customers to comply with Minnesota’s renewable standard, which calls for 25 percent of electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025. The bill was signed into law later in May with little opposition, because both critics and supporters of the state’s renewable standard believed the data would be in their favor.

We’ve just had a chance to review the first round of reporting generated by that legislation. The reports were due Friday and can be viewed in the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission’s edocket filing system (Search for docket #11-852). Continue Reading »

Posted 02 November 2011 † Dan § Energy § Midwest Energy News § Minnesota ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

Solar suppliers try to find place in the sun

(Finance & Commerce, October 24, 2011)—On their way to becoming solar-electric panels, more than half of the world’s silicon solar cells produced today reportedly pass through a furnace made by a century-old Lakeville manufacturer.

What’s more, the company only started supplying the solar industry four years ago. Despatch Industries now owns more than 60 percent of the global market for firing furnaces used in solar cell production, according to John Farrell, managing director of Despatch’s solar business group — its largest segment last year.

Despatch has shipped hundreds of solar cell furnaces to China, Taiwan and other Asian countries, where most solar cell manufacturing occurs. Yet its role in the solar industry is mostly unknown in Minnesota.

More than 100 years ago, the company began making heaters for Minneapolis streetcars. Today, Despatch is part of what Lynn Hinkle, policy development director for the Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association, calls the state’s “invisible” solar supply chain, a cluster of companies quietly producing parts and equipment for the global solar industry.

A new push is under way to shine more light on these solar suppliers in hopes of further building up the industry in Minnesota. Continue Reading »

Posted 24 October 2011 † Dan § Business § Cleantech § Energy § Finance & Commerce § Manufacturing § Minnesota ‡ Comments (0) °

How will Silicon Energy and TenKsolar manage in oversupplied solar panel market?

(Finance & Commerce, October 24, 2011)—Silicon Energy became Minnesota’s second solar-electric panel manufacturer when it started shipping rooftop units from its Iron Range factory in mid-September. It joins Bloomington-based TenKsolar, which began selling its commercial systems in 2010.

The companies are getting a boost from a made-in-Minnesota solar rebate program for Xcel Energy customers. And given the state of the industry, they’ll need all the help they can get.

“New startup companies are going to have a very, very difficult time competing with established companies,” said Junko Movellan, an analyst with Solarbuzz, a market research group in San Francisco. There’s a worldwide oversupply of solar modules now, and she predicts the industry faces a big shakeout in the months ahead.

On top of that, Minnesota isn’t the easiest place to sell solar-electric systems, but not for the reason you might think. Our weather is actually an asset; solar-electric systems perform better in the cold. Rather, it’s the state’s comparatively cheap electricity rates that make it harder for customers to recoup investment costs.

The industry has been called the “solar-coaster” because of all its ups and downs. How do these Minnesota startups plan to hang on? Continue Reading »

Posted 24 October 2011 † Dan § Business § Cleantech § Energy § Entrepreneurs § Environment § Finance & Commerce § Manufacturing § Minnesota ‡ Comments (0) °

Sick of Corporations? Co-Op Evangelists Want You on Their Side

(GOOD, October 13, 2011)—Brian Van Slyke didn’t want to be a boss‚ and he didn’t want to have one either. But as his one-man record label grew to a three-person operation, they needed some type of organizational structure.

“We wanted to be our own bosses, together,” Van Slyke says. In 2006, Fall of the West Records was reincorporated as a worker-owned cooperative, giving each member an ownership stake and convincing Van Slyke to tailor his college education around cooperatives.

Last week, Van Slyke was at the National Cooperative Business Association’s annual conference in Minneapolis to show off the board game he created, Co-opoly, where everybody wins or loses together and learns how a cooperative works.

With rising discontent about the economic status quo (see: Occupy Wall Street) and a United Nations resolution declaring 2012 the “International Year of the Cooperative,” co-op advocates at last week’s conference were optimistic about what they see as a ripe opportunity to grow their movement—if only people knew about it. They need more public education, from board games to marketing.

“There is not the on-the-street knowledge of the cooperative and its success that there ought to be,” says Charles Gould, director-general of the International Cooperative Alliance and one of the conference’s opening speakers. “As a result, we have people who are very frustrated who simply don’t know there is a potential solution for many of them just around the corner.” Continue Reading »

Posted 13 October 2011 † Dan § Business § Economy § Entrepreneurs § GOOD ‡ Comments (0) °

Improved forecasts for wind farms could save billions

If the weather report says it’s supposed to be sunny and breezy tomorrow, do you trust that forecast enough to plan a picnic or hike? Probably. But what if instead of a soggy lunch or wet boots, the efficiency and reliability of the region’s electricity grid was at risk? Those are the stakes that grid operators face around the clock as they incorporate wind power into the system. Wind is a variable energy source, which means, unlike coal or gas plants, grid operators never know precisely how much power wind farms will generate at a given time. They depend on weather forecasts to estimate how much power turbines will produce in the hours and days ahead. Those forecasts are critical for getting the most value — economic and environmental — out of wind energy. A grid operator needs to trust a forecast before it will shut down or reduce generation at more expensive and polluting fossil fuel plants. “If grid operators have more confidence in our weather forecasts, they’ll be able to avoid burning excessive fossil fuels,” says Melinda Marquis, a renewable energy program manager with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That’s why NOAA recently partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy on a study called the Wind Forecast Improvement Project, which will attempt to measure the economic value of improved forecasting to the energy industry. There’s reason to believe that it’s significant. Marquis is co-author of a report published in the September issue of the Bulletin of American Meteorological Society that pegs the number somewhere between $1 billion and $4 billion annually, based on previously published studies.(Continue reading…)

Posted 06 October 2011 † Dan § Cleantech § Energy § Midwest Energy News § Minnesota ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Closing the Loop on Electronic Waste

Make no mistake: Best Buy likes to see customers lining up for that next new, must-have gadget. The consumer electronics retailer is in the business of helping people upgrade their technology, whether it’s a mobile phone or a big-screen television.

For every new product, though, there’s often an old one made obsolete: last year’s iPhone, or a clunky analog TV set, or that computer your media collection outgrew. All of this stuff eventually starts to pile up in closets, landfills or incinerators.

It’s an environmental hazard, and it’s a customer hassle. That’s why Best Buy is seeking to help close the loop on the millions of pounds of electronic waste its stores and customers generate each year.

Best Buy has rapidly become a national leader in e-waste recycling since launching an in-store drop-off program in February 2009. Customers at its U.S. stores can bring in just about any old electronics, regardless of where or when they were purchased, and Best Buy will make sure they get recycled responsibly. Last year, the company collected more than 75 million pounds of unwanted electronics. (Continue reading…)

Closing the Loop on Electronic Waste

Posted 01 September 2011 † Dan § Business § Environment § Minnesota § Momentum § Retail § Technology ‡ Comments (0) °

States find new ways to make energy efficiency pay for utilities

(Midwest Energy News, July 26, 2011)—Imagine pulling into a gas station and being offered a complimentary tune-up to improve your car’s fuel efficiency. You’d probably wonder: what’s the catch?

So how about when your electric utility gives you a free compact fluorescent light bulb? Or your gas company offers to help pay for new windows or a more efficient furnace?

Gas and electric utilities have unique relationships with their customers in that they actually spend money on programs to reduce demand for the products they sell.

Why is this? Most states require utilities to invest in conservation programs as part of the regulation they accept for being able to operate as regional monopolies. In other words, they’re doing it because they have to.

A growing list of states, however, are experimenting with a new approach. Instead of mandating a minimum investment in energy-efficiency programs, policymakers are designing incentives that reward utilities with new revenue for meeting or exceeding conservation goals.

The hope is that giving utilities a path to earning a profit from encouraging efficiency will inspire more companies to proactively ramp up their conservation programs beyond what might have been achieved through mandates only. Continue Reading »

Posted 26 July 2011 † Dan § Energy § Midwest Energy News ‡ Comments (0) °

Read my story on water scarcity in Twin Cities Business

I spent a few months this spring looking into the potential risks and opportunities for Minnesota companies as development, pollution, population growth and climate conspire to strain our planet’s fresh water supply. The risk may seem distant here in the land of 10,000 lakes, but in an age when global supply chains span the globe, few industries will be unaffected. Some are already feeling the effects. Meanwhile, the Twin Cities is home to a promising cluster of companies and technologies that could play a role in addressing the coming global crisis. Read more in the July issue of Twin Cities Business magazine.

Posted 01 July 2011 † Dan § Business § Cleantech § Energy § Environment § Minnesota § Technology § Twin Cities Business ‡ Comments (0) °