Mobility MeetUp Draws a Big Crowd and Cool Cars

Mobility MeetUp Draws a Big Crowd and Cool Cars

Last Thursday’s MeetUp was our most popular so far.  Clearly talking about electric vehicles and new car technology is a hot topic.  The event was made all the better by the display of 8 electric vehicles in the parking lot.  The crowd got to see the new Honda Clarity and Toyota Mirai fuel cell cars, plus the newest, longer-range (150-mile) Nissan Leaf, a Tesla Model X (very comfy), a Bolt, Tesla Roadsters, and others.  There were three presentations. Chris White of the California Fuel Cell Partnership (now a part of Frontier Energy) gave an update on where things are on fuel cell vehicle sales (almost 4500 in total) and hydrogen refueling station installations (just added number 35).

KC Marrs talked about his passion to build affordable electric motorcycles and brought one to show.  His designs are elegantly simple. He has built several one-offs for enthusiasts as he experiments with features for one to put into production.  His key insight was making sure the bike is Vehicle-to-Grid compatible. He noted that since most bikes are parked at home most of the time, used mostly on weekends, the battery pack is available to extend the use of power from solar panels on the home or to avoid peak power charges from the utility. Clever.  

The most fascinating talk was by Marc Lurie of SmartPedal.  He has a device which snaps into the sensor on any pedal-by-wire system.  These are used mostly on all-electric vehicles, but apparently are increasing in use for hybrids, gas and diesel cars (did not know that).  These are replacing the conventional cable systems linking the pedal to the engine. His insight was that people are unintentionally making small adjustments on pedal position as they drive and these are eroding efficiency.  He had data showing a 4-8% gain in miles per kWh with his little device. But the best parts of his talk were about the lessons he learned in designing, manufacturing, and selling. These war stories were great and we likely will invite him back to talk more about those.  He had good reasons why one should avoid outsourcing too soon, why one should keep control of most of the product designs in the early stage rather than depending on “experts”, and the huge difference between “industrial”-grade and “automotive”-grade designs. These were all lessons that could be applied broadly to those trying to bring a manufactured product to market.

These events are attracting larger and larger crowds.  In surveys, attendees say these are the best things going in clean tech in the area.  It’s like a graduate education in launching businesses. Our next one is on May 24 and will focus on water–reducing waste, improving quality, and using it wisely.   Don’t miss it.

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Simon is the Chair of CleanStarts Board. A seasoned energy executive and entrepreneur with 45 years of experience in business, government, and non-profits.

JLM Energy Establishing Substantial Foothold in Energy Storage Market

JLM Energy Establishing Substantial Foothold in Energy Storage Market

One of the hottest areas for clean energy startups is battery storage to smooth out fluctuations in renewable energy availability to match the time when power is needed.  Founded in 2011, JLM Energy in Rocklin has been designing and building battery packs locally for three years, now with sales nationwide.  JLM sells a number of behind-the-meter (BTM) products, but its best-seller is a clever compact box that is mounted underneath each solar panel and uses lithium iron phosphate batteries.  This modular product, called Phazr, sits in the circuit between the solar panel and the inverter, the opposite of what most others do.

 

The idea grew out of a brainstorm in 2014 that the nearly constant current out of the solar panel could charge a battery string without much of a charging control system, and that the batteries could then feed a nearly constant level of voltage and current to the inverter which kept it in its happy spot. The simplicity and efficiency of this design has meant the product can be lower cost and is a breeze for installers to hook up.  It also means the Phazr is compatible with many of the inverters on the market. One of the most popular of those is the Enphase microinverter that also clips onto the mounting rack of each solar panel. About 900,000 Enphase inverters are sold every quarter, creating a ready-made market.

Approximately 2,000 Phazr systems have been deployed to date (April 2018). JLM currently sells its product through installers and distributors.  JLM sources circuit boards, batteries, and chassis externally, using two providers each for the batteries and chassis, and performs assembly in-house at its Rocklin location.  Its strategy is to get inverter and solar panel vendors to certify that the JLM products are compatible with these other devices, and so attractive as an add-on plug-and-play device  This makes distributors of these other products eager to sell JLM boxes.

 

JLM also has been selling a much larger capacity system they call Gridz, an energy management and optimization system (Measurz), a trailer-mounted integrated solar and storage system (Foldrz), and home backup storage (Energizer 100).  Total annual revenues are now approaching $15 million and the company employs about 60 people. They expect to be breakeven soon.

JLM was self-funded by the founders Farid Dibachi (CEO) and Kraig Clark (Chairman), and is actively looking for expansion capital.  

Future plans call both for a system compatible with more complicated inverters and more energy management products.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ken-Ichi is a director with the Cleantech Group, where he works with clients throughout the cleantech innovation ecosystem across the energy, transportation, agriculture, and water sectors. Prior to joining Cleantech Group, Ken-Ichi held positions in strategy consulting and energy project development and financing. Ken-Ichi holds a BA in mathematics and economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

CleanTech Companies Pitch Investors at Five Star Bank Event

CleanTech Companies Pitch Investors at Five Star Bank Event

If you hadn’t heard much about Five Star Bank’s “Shark Tank”-style event putting local entrepreneurs in front of investors, that was  by design. The Bank made this an invitation-only event and focused its attention on getting the best of best young, fundable companies in front of several dozen serious investors on March 29.  This made the event very attractive both to the companies and the investors by maximizing the quality of the connections made. CleanStart was pleased to help gather up clean tech companies to take advantage of this opportunity and to participate in coaching and judging the presenters.  Fortunately, among the 24 companies selected to pitch, 3 were members of the clean tech community here–Terzo Power, InspecTools, and California Safe Soil. Only a about third of the companies that applied made the cut, so it was all the more impressive that these three made it. The other sectors represented were health care, IT and apps.

Congratulations to all three on some great presentations.  We hope you generated some serious investor interest.

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Simon is the Chair of CleanStarts Board. A seasoned energy executive and entrepreneur with 45 years of experience in business, government, and non-profits.

Welcome EnerDapt to our Community!

Welcome EnerDapt to our Community!

One of the newest cleantech startups in our region is EnerDapt, and we recently met with CEO and Founder Zach Denning to find out what they are doing.  

EnerDapt is an early-stage HVAC SaaS company that provides 24/7 monitoring service, cost-driven analytics, and automated HVAC management system to commercial real estate owners, targeting small to medium size existing buildings that usually cannot afford sophisticated energy management systems. Check them out at their website.  They are based at McClellan Park.  

HVAC accounts for 41% of total energy consumption among commercial buildings on average. Commercial buildings are incredibly inefficient, resulting in massive amounts of wasted energy. The average commercial building wastes about 30% of the energy used to run it.  

With the help of a CalSEED grant, EnerDapt is in a proof of concept phase, collecting data on demo installations to demonstrate what it can do.  They have shown through the case studies so far that their AI-powered platform has helped property managers to lower operating costs by 18-22% and extend equipment lifetime by 22-28%.  (Use this link to see the case studies.) EnerDapt’s goal is to demonstrate how those savings can be achieved with a very quick (under 12-month) payback with a minimal sensor infrastructure and charging a monthly service fee.

Besides directly addressing the impact of energy waste, EnerDapt’s machine learning algorithms combined with existing sensor technologies can automatically discover, quantify and autonomously repair problems before tenants even notice them.  Overall the platform enables property owners to increase both top-line and bottom-line immediately by capitalizing on tenant’s satisfaction while saving more on operating expenses, capital equipment expenditures, and even HVAC contracts with third parties. All factors will ultimately boil down to a substantial increase in operating income.

EnerDapt joins a number of other companies in our region targeting reduced energy waste in commercial buildings, including Grid Rabbit and Synapsense both of which focus on larger structures.  

Currently, EnerDapt is running additional case studies for commercial buildings of any size above 150,000 square-feet. If you have a small commercial building and are interested in saving on energy-related expenditures, you are welcome to contact EnerDapt or us for more information.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Qidong is a CleanStart Associate who follows new technologies that can connect with his passion for sustainability, education and economic empowerment. Helping CleanStart and clean tech startups in the Sacramento Region, he is looking to help positively impact the world. He recently graduated from UC San Diego and has a B.S. in Managerial Economics. His multicultural background helps companies approach problems from new perspective.in the region.