It has been nearly 50 years since California began in earnest to eliminate waste in the use of energy in the home with the adoption of energy-efficient building codes and appliance efficiency standards.  In those five decades, those codes and standards have been updated and extended many times. You would think that there would be little more that would be squeezed out of this sector.  This is illustrated by looking at the differences in energy consumption per person in the residential sector in some similar states.  

Annual Residential Energy Use Per Capita – 2018

(EIA Data)

There is a big BUT though. The average home in California is nearly 45 years old and the price of energy is higher in California. Increased energy efficiency has helped, but most homes were built well after the state’s efficiency standards and higher energy prices discourage consumption.

Our MeetUp on August 24 demonstrated the surprising reality that more and more ways are being discovered that can reduce home energy use and shrink energy bills, as well as ways to displace carbon emissions from the home.  In part this comes from advances in end-use technology (LED lights replacing incandescent bulbs for example) but also from helping customers look at their energy use and discovering ways they can save more. 

Diana Eastman talked about her innovation, Thermeshade.  It is a shade screen that cuts out over 50% of the heat gain or loss through a window, even if it already is an efficient window.  The screen material is lightweight and almost transparent.  This is so much better than tinting the windows or putting on the heavy plastic shade screens that you can barely see through.  It is an easy retrofit and can be removed and used again if residents move.  Windows is about R1-R2.  They are not good at blocking heat gains (summer) or losses (winter).  Thermeshades are such an easy retrofit. 

Mudit Saxena of XeroHome showed off his AI-based software that can tell a resident where they are losing the most money and creating the most carbon emissions—without ever going to the home.  The app uses building permits, utility bills, property sales data, and Google Earth to make a good estimate of what must be going on in the home.  This is so much easier than the old way of having an on-site energy audit done one by one.  The City and SMUD have paid XeroHome to make their tool available to residents here.  The tool in a matter of hours analyzed all 185,000 residential units in the City and made that information available on a confidential basis to the residents.  The tool looks at both energy cost savings as well as reductions in carbon emissions, showing how dual-use heat pumps and induction stoves can be much better investments than most would think, especially with all the incentives available.  XeroHome takes all those into account in coming up with a return on investment.

Jerry Pepper, an Energy Specialist with SMUD, briefed the crowd on all the incentives and programs SMUD has to encourage more savings in the residential sector.  SMUD sees gaining more efficiencies and emissions reduction in the residential sector as vital to achieving its zero carbon goals.  He also laid out the utility’s plan to address upgrading entire neighborhoods at a time.  Priority neighborhoods are those that are disadvantaged.  Pepper listed these opportunities available in the neighborhood program:

• Renter – Apartment: eligible for an advanced power strip, fan, and LED light bulbs 

• Renter – House: eligible for a programmable thermostat, advanced power strip, LED light bulbs, insulation, and minor efficiency upgrades*

• Homeowner: eligible for some heating and cooling repairs or replacements, energy efficiency upgrades (or switching from gas to electric appliances), and electrical vehicle chargers

And for the disadvantaged areas, SMUD would also provide:

1.  Rate Assistance

Reduce bills via rate discounts:

• Energy Assistance Program Rate (EAPR)
• EAPR for non-profits (residential and commercial
• Medical Equipment Discount Rate (MED Rate)

1. Dwelling Assistance

Reduce energy burden, by improving energy efficiency and creating a safer, healthier home

• Virtual and in-person energy assessments and education
• Weatherization, energy efficiency, building & transportation electrification, and solar
• Energy saver bundles for renters

1. Bill Assistance

Reduce bills by applying funds: 

• EnergyHELP
• HEAP
• Community-based organizations
• Churches & Tribe commitments

1. Outreach & Education

Educate and inform:

• Networking and community meetings
• Workshops & trainings for communities
• Video, phone, email, and in-person energy education
• Outreach and communication about programs

By no means did we cover in this MeetUp all the things that could yield more savings in the home?  It is a topic we will continue to cover.

Here’s one we didn’t see coming:  Using the concrete slab on which your house is built as a 10 kWh storage unit at almost no additional cost.  How?  MIT researchers say to add carbon when it is poured.  The carbon creates its own electrode net.  It is not really a battery, but a capacitor instead—just a huge one.  In a capacitor, no electrochemistry is involved.   It just holds a separate positive and negative charge.  Usually, one thinks of capacitors as not delivering much energy.  But that’s different if it is as big as the slab foundation on a home or a big commercial building.  We have no idea how practical this discovery is or what it will cost, but it is not ready for prime time yet.  Read more about it here.

Putting Level 2 EV chargers in multifamily housing is one of the hottest areas of attention in the whole EV industry. A lot of people live in multifamily housing and want to do the majority of their charging there. Check out this article on all the options being proposed, many with innovations to reduce cost. The most intriguing are ways to share existing circuit capacity in a building so that huge utility service upgrades can be avoided. The article makes reference to about two dozen companies trying to break through in this market and how they are doing it. If you have any interest in opportunities in the multifamily market, be sure to read this article. It could save you a lot of time researching what solutions are out there.

Sometimes you just have to see a technology to “get it”. That’s what happened when we made the journey to the backwoods of El Dorado County to see what CR Flight was doing at its development shop. The article we published on them in April of 2021, based on an interview, has consistently been among the top 5 most-read articles we have ever done. It racks up substantial new views every month. We wanted to find out why. 

The answer is that CR Flight has done something pretty remarkable, which you cannot appreciate properly until you see it in operation. Clearly, they have impressed some substantial motor manufacturers with their demos at trade shows because they now have some of them very eager to get their hands on the technology.

In a nutshell, here is what the CR Flight team has done: In a standard electric motor, you bolt the shaft down, and the outside spins. That spinning part is the rotor, and it is an outside cover with permanent magnets. The inside part has all the coils and wires and it is called the stator. It doesn’t move. However, a lot of force is exerted on the mount to try to turn it in the opposite direction from the rotor. Newton’s Third Law and all that.

CR Flight’s out-of-the-box idea is to let them both spin and put a propeller on both the rotor and the stator. In this configuration, the stator is now an armature and is no longer static. A lot more thrust can be delivered from the same motor with less electricity being used. In fact, by actual measurement, 27 to 47% more thrust is needed because that sounds like magic; you have to see it to believe it. No laws of physics are violated. It just takes some clever engineering, which is now fully patented, to make it work. And a willingness to ignore people who said it was impossible.

What that added thrust means is drones that can deliver much larger packages, electric airplanes that are lighter and can go much farther on a single charge, and motors that can last much longer because they are running cooler as the armature is now spinning and sucking air through the motor.

The additional benefit of the counter-rotating props is that they cancel out the torque of the single propeller and the wasteful spill of energy, creating a spinning cone of air that provides lift. The energy now all goes into downforce. In the usual way of creating counter-rotating props, a complicated shaft-within-a-shaft design, and some gears are needed, all of which add a lot of weight. In the CR Flight approach, it is just some parts that bolt on either side of the motor case itself.

For a manufacturer of electric motors, the great advantage of CR Flight’s innovation is that it does not require any changes to the internals of the motor. Just modifications added outside of the motor housing.

For the past two years, CR Flight has been gathering data and documenting each of its claims. It has some enthusiastic followers now that have become believers, including one of the manufacturers of popular axial-flux electric motors for aircraft. It seems to be just the right innovation for these times when drones and electric passenger aircraft are looking for ways to squeeze out more range and carry heavier loads. These are not incremental improvements made by CR Flight, these are breakthrough-scale improvements that could be the key to getting the whole electric aircraft industry off the ground, pun intended.

The team is looking at other applications for its invention. The most obvious is to employ the same insight into electric drive motors for watercraft. Early test results show just about the same dramatic improvements in performance.

Their next step is to manufacture a small volume of products on behalf of interested manufacturers to get them hooked on the technology. Then they want to license several manufacturers to employ their innovation in particular markets.

Keep an eye on these guys.

Back in November, we alerted you to a potentially significant development in non-lithium long-duration storage.  One of the companies was Form Energy, which based its battery on oxidizing and reducing iron. Oxidized iron is, of course, also known as rust.  Clearly, iron is a lot cheaper and more abundant than lithium.  An iron-air battery was an old idea, but Form was touting a 100X improvement in cycle life with an initial 1 MW product that could hold 150 MWh of energy.  That put it squarely in the “desirable” range as a commercial product.  This first system is going to Great River Energy in Minnesota but has not yet been installed.

Now Form has signed a contract for two 10 MW, 1,000 MWh systems with XCEL Energy and a 15 MW system with a 1500 MWh capacity with Georgia Power.  As one commenter noted, the Georgia Power system would hold more MWh than all the other utility storage systems installed in the country to date.

Form’s battery releases energy slowly, so it is not really a technology ideal for EVs.  But slow discharge is perfect for long-duration applications.

You can read more about this update from this article and the company’s news release.

Did you miss out on our latest networking event? Well, no worries, because we’ve got something exciting coming up that you won’t want to miss! Picture this: an exciting networking session where you can kick back and relax at Lucid Winery. We recently had one on June 22, and let me tell you, it was a blast!

This wasn’t our first rodeo, though. We’ve already done one session like this before [blog], and it was a hit. Lucid Winery (next to the Fox and Goose on R Street) is the perfect spot for a meetup, and their drinks are pretty darn interesting too. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed!

We had a bunch of new faces join us along with our old pals. It was fantastic getting to know everyone and hearing about all the cool stuff they’re working on. Plus, we had the pleasure of co-hosting the event with JCT Growth, a Roseville-based company that specializes in helping businesses grow faster through Search Engine Optimization. Their work might seem like magic to the uninitiated, but if you want to take your business to the next level, Jesse and his team can work wonders. They’ve got some seriously practical advice to offer.

Speaking of connections, let me tell you a story. Our friend Adam Busch, who volunteered to help us out with a Techstars Weekend for cleantech companies a while back, introduced us to JCT. It just goes to show that you never know when an opportunity like that will lead to a valuable connection. It was so great to catch up with Adam again!

By the way, we purposely choose venues near the state agencies involved in clean tech. It’s a strategic move because we want to make it convenient for you to swing by after work. Trust me, you won’t regret it. You never know what you might learn or who you might meet. More connections mean more opportunities, right?

And hey, don’t just take my word for it. Check out what some of our attendees had to say:
[Insert awesome testimonials here]

So, mark your calendars and save the date for our next event. You won’t want to miss it! September 28th, 2023.
Come join us for an evening of great company, interesting conversations, and who knows, maybe even a little bit of magic. Can’t wait to see you there!

At the finals of the UCD Big Bang competition on May 23, Badaye Technologies won both the Clean Energy + Sustainability prize, and the Food + Ag prize, scooping up a total of $20,000.

CEO Ismael Mayanja came up with a simple, inexpensive device to process hand-harvested corn in Africa and efficiently remove waste chaff.  Their flagship product (SUNSULA) efficiently cleans maize in seconds and produces quality grain for safe and longer storage, easy processing into other foods, and healthy consumption.  The conventional method is to winnow the grain by hand, which leaves a lot of chaff in the product and lowers its value.  You can watch an animation of the product in action here.

Key points: 

• The Community Resource Project’s board of directors meeting was interrupted by a celebration for 15 women who completed electric vehicle job training, including immigrants and those seeking new career paths.
• The pilot program, funded by the California Energy Commission, aims to train nearly 100 Sacramento area residents, with a focus on immigrants, women, and youth from traditionally underserved communities.
• The training program involves classroom learning with virtual reality headsets followed by hands-on experience with smaller remote vehicles, with the goal of empowering participants to start their own businesses and contribute to the green tech solution for climate change.

A recent meeting of the Community Resource Project’s Board of Directors was interrupted by a little child dancing, smiling, and handing out diplomas as the 15 women who recently completed electric vehicle job training were congratulated.

Unique Pilot Program Targets Underserved Communities

The unique pilot program, funded by the California Energy Commission, is set to train nearly 100 Sacramento area residents to work with electric vehicles. The program aims to benefit traditionally underserved communities with focused recruiting of immigrants, women, and youth for class groupings that target specific groups for focused attention. 

The first graduating class was populated with immigrants from Afghanistan and Ukraine. The Women’s Cohort is the second to graduate. The 15 graduates included immigrants, two mother-and-daughter pairs, and other women seeking a new career path.

After four weeks of learning in a classroom with virtual reality headsets, the class moved to hands-on learning at the California Mobility Center. Rather than jumping straight to full-sized vehicles, the class started with smaller remote vehicles.

Positive Testimonials Highlight Program’s Impact

“I learned more about cars or vehicles than I could have ever fathomed from participating in this program. I learned how to put together a remote control car by assembling all of the parts,” wrote program participant Degrata Brown. “It was amazing to build something from scratch and see it become powered by an electric battery. I began to understand that we were working with something unseen or invisible, and that is energy. To me, understanding that component was incredible.”

Two additional class groups, each with about 20 students, are currently meeting. The fifth and last scheduled class group is set to start on June 19. 

Apply here:

Organizers said it is important to recognize the accomplishments of program graduates at the late May Community Resource Project meeting. 

“It was exciting to watch the participants celebrate their accomplishments,” said Gary Simon, chairman and founder of Clean Start. The hope is that the program will lead to real-life change for participants.

While private funding from venture capitalists and angel investors becomes increasingly scarce, entrepreneurs should not be disheartened. There are numerous avenues for non-dilutive funding that business founders can explore. A variety of grant programs are available, offering significant financial support to grow businesses without the need to give up equity. These programs provide the much-needed capital infusion that can help startups thrive in their formative years and beyond.

Exploring Grant Programs for Startups

Looking for a grant. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) offers a tool called the Funding Wizard to streamline the process of applying for grants for sustainability projects. Originally developed to encourage more applications for funds from the sale of cap-and-trade offsets, the tool has expanded to include a database of funding opportunities from local, state, and air quality agencies, as well as power utilities. The tool, which is continuously updated and improved, also offers modules to help calculate carbon footprint reductions and build solid project plans. Despite being focused on opportunities in California, it can be used widely if a connection to the state can be established.

There is also OpenGrants. OpenGrants is working to help companies find the right contacts in granting agencies and begin building positive relationships. OpenGrants offers a basic “freemium” service that will develop a profile of those seeking grants and matching them through an extensive database to what might be good candidates to approach. The idea is to offer a “no-regrets” entry point to encourage people to give OpenGrants a try.

The CalNEXT initiative is open again, looking to accelerate the development of emerging technologies that contribute to California’s decarbonization efforts. Managed by Energy Solutions, CalNEXT is funded by ratepayers of investor-owned utilities in the state. The initiative funds projects ranging from $20-400K, providing opportunities for energy-efficiency innovators to focus on impactful and marketable ideas. CalNEXT operates through “Technology Priority Maps” that detail desirable innovations across six technology groups. CalNEXT also assists in connecting companies to stakeholders that can further support demos and commercialization opportunities after project completion.

Highlighting Startup Grants

The Business journal recently highlighted grants for startups in general.

Visa Everywhere Initiative: Startups can win up to $70,000 at the TechCrunch Disrupt event. The North American region winner competes against global startups for an additional $50,000. Deadline: June 26, 2023.

Venmo Small Business Grant: Offers $10,000, professional consulting services, and promotional opportunities. Application deadline not yet announced.

WomensNet’s Grants: Provides several grants, including a monthly $10,000 Amber Grant and a quarterly Startup Grant for businesses with less than $10,000 in revenue. Deadlines: Amber grants are monthly, Startup Grants are quarterly.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Top Small Business Awards: Offers a $25,000 cash prize for startups with fewer than 250 employees or gross revenues of less than $20 million. Deadline: July 7, 2023.

LegalZoom’s Fast Break for Small Business: In partnership with the NBA, WNBA, and NBA G League, offers $10,000

Networking Events and Team-Building Opportunities

And be on the lookout for RocketFund, CalSEED, and CEC Epic Opportunities. And if you are looking to build a team, join CleanStart’s networking events. The next informal one is June 22 at Lucid Winery on R Street downtown.