Sage advice to Startups at Davis Meet Up

Sage advice to Startups at Davis Meet Up

At the most well-attended MeetUp yet, the audience heard from the leaders of three companies—two seasoned veterans and one newcomer that had decades of research experience.  The focus was not so much on the technology but on the journeys each had taken in their careers—and the lessons they learned. Don’t miss watching the videos of each of the presentations from this evening, especially Chris Soderquist’s ten “rules” for success as an entrepreneur.  After decades of entrepreneurship, he provided a perspective on why bigger is not always better, and why being “hyperlocal” in focus is not such a bad idea. The crowd was mesmerized.

Danny Lee of Blue Oak Energy talked about the evolution of his company and the importance of culture in its success.  He was candid about some of the missteps the company had taken and what the consequences were. It was especially interesting to hear his perspective what the downsides of growing too fast were.  

Engineering Professor Jae Wan Park talked about moving his clever ideas on re-using lithium ion batteries from electric cars in stationary storage devices and the challenges that had to be overcome.  He also talked about the importance of the choice of a name in their success to date. And that success included winning UC Berkeley’s “Big Ideas” competition in the energy category this week, besting over 300 competitors.  

The crowd was very impressed with how good this MeetUp was—the networking, the talks, and even the food.  We definitely will be coming back to Davis for more of these.

Our next MeetUp is set for May 30 to talk about mobility, and we will return to Sacramento for that.  Be on the lookout for our announcement of the details.

And also take the opportunity to gaze into the future and find out what kinds of product and service opportunities may emerge as the whole utility business transforms in the coming years.  Join us for a roundtable discussion the morning of May 7 in downtown Sacramento.

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.

Blue Oak Energy Pivots Back to Its Original Role

Blue Oak Energy Pivots Back to Its Original Role

We recently had the chance to catch up with one of the pioneers in the regional clean tech cluster, Blue Oak Energy.  Blue Oak was founded in Davis in 2007 by Tobin Booth to provide some specialized and integrated engineering and project management to developers of large-scale solar installations.  It grew rapidly to about 60 employees with over $15 million in revenue. It had a cumulative portfolio of over 2400 MW in projects, including the landmark 2 MW system at Google’s headquarters. It was then acquired by nationwide turnkey solar developer Coronal Energy in stages between 2015 and 2017.  The idea behind the deal was that Blue Oak would become the captive engineering team for Coronal, and would phase out of working for unrelated third parties.

Tobin moved on to become CEO of Stokes Vannoy in Seattle, a solar energy developer for commercial and industrial customers.   Long-time Blue Oak veteran Danny Lee, a Ph. D. in Mechanical Engineering, took the helm of Blue Oak as the new subsidiary of Coronal.  

As a part of Coronal, Blue Oak became less visible locally.  It pulled back on sales and marketing, getting all the work it could handle from Coronal.  Then the world changed. With tariffs on imported solar panels and a phase-down in the Investment Tax Credit for solar beginning in 2020, fewer Coronal projects were initiated.  In December 2018, Coronal asked Lee to reignite Blue Oak’s work for third parties in order to support the talented team Blue Oak had assembled.

Blue Oak provides a fairly unique service in the industry, having comprehensive experience in dealing with projects from start to finish.  The team’s experience in project and construction management gives it lots of insight to inform the whole design and project concept stages to result in an installation completed on-time and within budget.  Blue Oak’s services are highly prized and they are getting plenty of work.

Danny now has a team of 26 working with him and is looking beyond solar to apply their skills to projects.  Business is picking up again. They have about 500 MW of projects in the pipeline. They are looking at storage projects, both as a component of solar installations and on a standalone basis.  And they are looking at applying the same skills to the development of other renewable projects. One of Blue Oak’s key assets is trust. Customers trust them to do a good job, and that trust can transfer to projects beyond solar.

Danny indicated that Blue Oak is now cash-flow positive and wants to pace its growth to what can be sustained organically.  He notes that building a cohesive team takes time and he doesn’t want to rush it. It is also about to make a move to Sacramento to a facility better-suited to its needs and closer to its employee base.  

Danny will be presenting the Blue Oak story at our next MeetUp set in Davis for April 25 at the Indigo Hammond and Playle building from 5:30 to 8:30 pm.  If you want to hear more, please register for this event.  It’s free, but donations are quite welcome to keep us going.

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.

Turmoil in the Utility Business: Openings for New Products and Services?

Turmoil in the Utility Business: Openings for New Products and Services?

There are so many things changing in the utility business it is almost certain to be a rich source of opportunity for clever startups.  What might those opportunities be?

 

This will be explored in a roundtable discussion set for May 7 from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm.  We have invited a number of experts to kick off the discussion, and then we will open it up to the audience to explore the questions that are raised.  The idea is to speculate what might be in store five or ten years out, and use that to spark some ideas as to useful products and services that might result.  

 To register to the event, use this LINK.

 The potential questions we have in mind covering are these, to the extent we can:

 Will the investor-owned utilities become just a poles-and-wires business?

  1. If so, will that business also involve network management (clusters of microgrids, CCAs, and public-owned systems)?
  2. Can network management become a profitable business?  What’s the latest experience in managing multiple microgrids?  What insights does this provide?
  3. What would be a viable pricing strategy for network management?  A fixed monthly fee?
  4. What role would the network manager have in setting prices for various services like load management, frequency and voltage control, reactive power, ramp up and backup?  Will it all be regulated?
  5. Would a network manager be allowed to invest in equipment to provide those services itself rather than purchasing them from third parties?
  6. Could there be an integrated network manager arise that does not own the poles and wires?
  7. How would the future of public-owned utilities be different than for investor-owned utilities?  Would they remain integrated utilities?
  8. With the rise of CCAs supplying now over 25% of all power in the state, and likely to reach 50%, what will happen to the existing power purchase agreements with the utilities?  Will they be successfully remarketed? 
  9. The same will occur as Direct Access is potentially expanded.  Will there be a new “stranded cost” if they are sold at prices below the original contract price?  Who will pay that?
  10. What might be the business opportunity in refinancing these contracts to achieve lower prices?  How will the PG&E bankruptcy play into this remarketing?
  11. What will happen to net-metering?  If there is a fixed monthly poles-and-wires charge, will in effect net metering prices fall to just the avoided wholesale power supply price?  How will that affect the installation of rooftop solar?
  12.  Will the new mandate for rooftop solar on new dwellings intensify the interest in storage?  
  13.  Will the economics be better for distributed storage or centralized storage?  Currently, local marginal prices for power are sometimes negative. Will that happen more frequently?
  14.  Will demand management and load control significantly lessen the need for storage?  What kind of software would be needed to make this extremely responsive to changing conditions?
  15. With huge economies of scale in acquiring, delivering, and managing power, will the CCAs consolidate?  Or will someone arise to provide services to CCAs on a consolidated basis, while multiple CCA local governing boards continue to exist?
  16. Will the new structure of the utility business make local generation projects more attractive?  They tend to be higher cost than big projects.  Will anything change that?
  17. Will the gas utilities be immune to these changes?  Would the introduction of a “renewable gas portfolio standard” and provision for customer direct access to discrete supplies trigger the same evolution?

 This is a lot of questions.  We may not be able to get to them all, but it frames the extraordinary range of the opportunities that may exist.  We will cover as much as we can. Then we might have another session later in the year.

 

Limited Space Sign Up Now!

Big changes are underway for utilities.  What doors might that open for some new solutions and new business opportunities? Will the traditional utilities become more like network managers?  What would be their software needs? How would rates change?

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.

Great Opportunity Coming in May to Boost Your CEO Skills

Great Opportunity Coming in May to Boost Your CEO Skills

Have a good idea for a business but not sure what you need to do? Already launched a business but feel overwhelmed?  Want to learn how to run your venture like a seasoned pro? Would you like to learn the basics of creating a business, led by experts, and in only a few convenient sessions?  Then you should sign up for the Startup CEO Crash Course being held in the Sacramento area this Spring, brought to you by Blue Tech Valley, CleanStart, and Valley Ventures.

It is FREE*, but a limited number of seats are available. It will be held in three sessions on May 3, May 10, and May 17 from 1 pm to 6pm.

Attendees will (1) be introduced to a set of essential knowledge and skills required to develop their ventures, (2) get individualized mentoring, (3) benefit from networking opportunities to connect with other companies and domain experts, and (4) be provided with opportunities to publicize their companies and ideas.  By the end of the course, you should have developed concrete ways to advance your venture including marketing, human resources, funding, and business model development. Invited speakers will have expertise in investment, legal, sales and marketing, technical development, human resources, and more.

This course will be led by one of the pre-eminent professors of entrepreneurship in the country, Dr. Dan Wadhwani. He is the Fletcher Jones Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Eberhardt School of Business of the University of the Pacific.  He will be joined by Dr. Mehdi Khazaeli, professor of industrial engineering and product design, along with an all-star team of veteran CEOs, attorneys, and specialists.

This kind of deal doesn’t come around often, so act now.  Go here to sign up.

*A $200 deposit by each participating venture will be needed to secure a spot. The deposit will be returned upon completion of the CEO CC, which would entail participating in each of the three sessions

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.