The “ZEV SEED” (Zero Emission Vehicle Sustainable Equitable Employment Destination) program just graduated its first class of 20 trainees. The program is aimed at training 100 people and creating a talented and diverse workforce for the emerging electric vehicle industry. CleanStart has been helping the Community Resource Project and the California Mobility Center by reaching out to overlooked neighborhoods to explain the industry and the program in order to recruit trainees. The first graduating class was made up of recent immigrants from Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Russia.

A group of 20 recent immigrants to the Sacramento region were the first graduates of a unique state-funded program preparing them for jobs working with electric vehicles.

The “Ideal Zev” program will train 100 Sacramento residents to work in the fast-growing clean vehicle industry. 

Funded by the California Energy Commission, the program involves several nonprofits, led by the Community Resource Project. 

“The challenges of this program are many, including language barriers, trainer availability, translators, trust, transportation, childcare, and job placement, to name a few,” said Luis Sanchez, CEO of Community Resource Project. “Nevertheless, we have successfully provided the training using both virtual reality and hands-on instruction,” 

The first graduating class of this unique pilot program was awarded certificates and will now receive job placement assistance. The first class was populated with recent immigrants from Afghanistan and Russia. The second-class group, which is also underway, targets women.

Clean Start is spearheading participant recruitment. Click here for more information. 

The program starts with classroom instruction and hands-on training at the California Mobility Center (CMC). 

The instruction uses a cutting-edge approach that leverages virtual reality apps developed by Aura Planning to simulate electric vehicle exploration, EV battery replacement, installing EV chargers, and high-voltage safety training. 

Once students complete the classroom training, they move on to the CMC’s hands-on training, working on actual electric vehicles and equipment offered at their site. Together, both models enhance understanding and the opportunities available for entry-level careers.

The program was funded by a $500,000 IDEAL ZEV (Inclusive, Diverse, Equitable, Accessible Zero Emission Vehicle) grant from the California Energy Commission.

With Earth Day coming up, we take a look at the journey of two veterans of the sustainability transition and what they see down the road as our next greatest challenges and opportunities. 

V. John White has been a champion for a cleaner Earth for more than a half-century. He has worked on changing policies—laws, rules, and regulations.  In his view it has been a struggle and likely always will be.  What got him started on this path?

For him the trigger was growing up in the smog capital of California, Pasadena and then Riverside for college.  Jimmy Buffett had it right—“I spent four lonely days in a brown LA haze”.  John spent more than that.  Riverside sat in a funnel that concentrated the smog as it blew east from LA.  Stinging eyes, raspy throat—pretty awful.  It’s much better now, in part because of activists like John.  He ended up studying the science and politics of air pollution, getting a degree from UC Riverside.  He joined the legislative staff of the California Assembly working for Jerry Lewis and in 1977 became the senior consultant to the Committee on Natural Resources, Land Use and Energy when Victor Calvo took over as Chairman when Charles Warren left to join the Carter Administration.  In 1990, John joined the newly-formed Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies (CEERT), where he serves as Executive Director to this day. 

Leading CEERT, he has been in the front lines of advocacy for stronger clean energy laws and for more favorable treatment of clean energy at the CPUC.  He says he is amazed at how much progress has been made in fifty years, but also amazed at how much of a struggle it has been.  Now sustainability and fighting climate change seem firmly entrenched in state policy and more importantly in the mind of the public as good things to do.

Looking ahead, he sees challenges in creating the infrastructure to keep up with the need for clean energy.  That is evident to him in the upgrading of the transmission system to accept more renewables and to serve a growing population of electric vehicles.  He worries about the pace at which EV chargers are being added compared to meeting the state’s aggressive goals.  Geothermal to him seems like a technology that unfortunately got left behind in the push for incentives on solar and wind, and that may change.  He is also a nuclear advocate—but for fusion, not fission.  He sees enough progress among a handful of private companies to be optimistic that fusion, particularly versions which do not create radioactive waste, will become a reality.  No shortage of challenges and areas for improvement.

Chris White is a Senior Manager with Frontier Energy, where she helps clients accelerate the adoption of zero-emission vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and alternative fuels. Frontier Energy was formed in January 2017 with the merger of three entities that had been acquired by GTI (formerly called the Gas Technology Institute) through its subsidiary GTI International.  One of those three was the Davis Energy Group, which was founded around 1980.  With 140 employees worldwide, Frontier sees its mission as providing exceptional programs, services, and tools that encourage the intelligent use of energy.  Frontier also manages the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Partnership in West Sacramento.

Chris has a very different path that took her to an 18-year career in sustainability.  She is much more attuned to working at a personal level, understanding what changes people’s behavior and being sensitive to the fact that many people live very different lives than the majority who focus on sustainability.  She knows that people at the low end of the income scale are eager to stop harming the planet, but want to know how to do that while still meeting basic needs for food and shelter.  

How do we not leave this population behind in our quest to address climate change and pollution?  That could involve helping people stay in school, get job training, recover from addiction, and find a safe place to live.  How does that intersect with sustainability?  As an example, Project Home Key (run by the California Department of Housing and Community Development) and Project Room Key (at the California Department of Social Services) repurpose motels, hotels, abandoned buildings and other structures into living spaces for the homeless.  How do we make those as energy efficient and low water use as possible—making them contributors to net zero carbon goals?  There’s an angle many of us may not be thinking about—and a good business opportunity.  A lot of funding is available for projects that incorporate these features.  It is the motivation behind the Justice40 initiative from the White House (https://www.whitehouse.gov/environmentaljustice/justice40/.  Justice40 made it a goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution.  This is an increasing theme in state programs as well.  

Chris is also very concerned about how we bring the benefits of electric vehicles to overlooked communities that cannot afford them.  For her, that could involve sharing vehicles and putting charging stations in convenient neighborhood locations.  

Overall, Chris doesn’t think the climate activists are doing enough listening.  They are focused on technology and not human beings.  If there were more listening, she suspects it would lead to faster and better behavior change.

Reflecting on more than a decade of action since that first Earth Day, what can we do now? Both veterans see a lot of work ahead–and not easy work at that.   It takes sustained effort.  One thing you can do is to look for a non-profit organization to which you can make a donation.  The stories here demonstrate that there are a wider range of possibilities than you might think.  Pick one.  Make a contribution to one you might not have thought of before.  Widen the path for all.  Keep the momentum of the past 53 years building.  Progress on sustainability comes not just from elected leaders.  It needs a bigger base.  Help grow that base.

Building Banking for Small Businesses: Insights from Rosa Cucicea, Senior VP of Clean Energy Division at River City Bank

Expert advice for managing risks and building relationships in banking for small and mid-sized businesses.

With the weaknesses in banks exposed recently, we thought it was time to check in with Rosa Cucicea, Senior VP for the Clean Energy Division of River City Bank, a regional bank founded here in 1973.  You can view our discussion with Rosa below.  She had a lot of insights in how to respond to the recent upsets and some positive messages for clean tech startups.

River City Bank serves customers in a small to middle range, those with $2 million to $30 million in annual revenue.  They have innovated a number of ways to serve this segment of the market and Rosa gave a lot of good tips.

First, she gave the clearest explanation of the problem at SVB we have heard.  Obviously, banks make money from loaning depositors’ money to others and paying depositors interest for the use of their money.  The key is to lend money at rates higher than what depositors are paid.  Pretty simple.  The key is not to fail to repay the depositors what they are owed.  

Most bank failures have occurred when loans go into default and there is not enough money to go around.  As a result, banks like to put a lot of money into government securities that have almost no default risk.  Those securities however can decline in market value when interest rates increase.   To manage this risk, a bank tries not to get saddled with much long-term debt in this bucket, so the possible drop in value is contained.  

River City holds a portfolio of such securities that have an average term of about 18 months.  If all else fails, the government pays off the debt at the end of the term.  If the bank has adequate reserves, it can avoid selling the securities at a loss if interest rates rise.  The SVB situation was a different.  Its average duration of their government securities portfolio was about 7 years.  To make that work, SVB needed a big reserve—but it didn’t have enough.  In trying to sell equity shares to build a reserve, they spooked sharp-eyed depositors that something was wrong, and—POOF—that created the run on the bank.  

Tip #1.  Be aware of the average duration and size of the portfolio of government securities portfolio your bank holds.  That comes from asking questions and reading annual and quarterly reports.

Tip #2.  Spread your deposits in a number of accounts each under the FDIC limit if possible.  River City has a product that will do that for you, for example.  Diversify.  River City for example has had a net increase in deposits since the SVB problem was exposed.

Tip #3.  If you need a loan to smooth out the uneven cash flow in your business, look for federal and state loan guarantee programs to make lending you money a more attractive proposition to a bank.  (The Infrastructure Act and the Inflation Reduction Act makes more of this available than before.)  California has a Climate Tech guarantee program you should check out.

Tip #4.  Start developing a number of banking relationships in advance of your needs.  Get to know what terms are out there, who is in charge of the lending decisions, and share with them what you need.  Do this even if you are pretty sure you are not bankable right now.  Paint a picture of your future and find out who could possibly help.   Networking is almost always a good idea.

She had a lot more to say, so don’t miss the opportunity to tune into the whole session to get the full message. You can follow up  with her directly at Rosa.Cucicea@rivercitybank.com.  She is specifically focused on clean tech companies and wants to meet more of them.

“Ideal Zev” Trains Sacramento Residents for Electric Vehicle Jobs; First Class Graduates Soon. Women and Recent Immigrants Among Participants. No Education Prerequisites; Virtual Training Available.

A group of 20 Sacramento area residents will soon be the first graduates of a unique state-funded program preparing them for jobs working with electric vehicles.

The program dubbed “Ideal Zev” aims to train 100 Sacramento residents to work in the fast-growing clean vehicle industry. The first graduating class is populated with recent immigrants from Afghanistan and Russia. The second class group – which is also underway – targeted women.

Community Resource Project is the leading gaggle non-profits implementing the California Energy Commission-funded program. Clean Starts is spearheading participant recruitment.

On a recent weekday, one of the program trainees Mohammed attended a meeting of the Sacramento Electric Vehicles Club at the California Automusem. There the former state department contractor gave a detailed presentation on electric vehicles. After the meeting, he exchanged information with a local businessman installing charging stations, a business Mohammed would like to start someday.

The ladies’ class is still learning the terms for the critical components. On a recent morning, a dozen women started the session identifying EV terms on a crossword puzzle, before downing bulky grey virtual reality headsets to practice changing an EV battery (and other tasks) in a virtual environment.

Observing the class is somewhat comical seeing the students move about, squatting, reaching, and manipulating virtual vehicle parts. Some are wearing baggy sweatshirts, others traditional Arab headcoverings.

The review session ended with a spirited game of EV Jeopardy with two of the three teams in a neck-and-neck battle for first place. The prize: pride.

The upcoming classes start in April, May, and June. Each has a slightly different target group. Class 3 seeking people with some background in construction or electrical starts on April 4. Class 4 seeks people with an automotive background and starts May 12. Class 5 is for youth between the ages of 18 and 25 and starts June 19.

There are no education prerequisites and those that don’t fit the class grouping description are still encouraged to apply.

Trainees receive 144 hours of training, learning about electric vehicle manufacturing, repair, and charging equipment installation.

The rapid adoption of electric vehicles is part of California’s strategy to curb emissions in response to climate change. In 2035, car dealerships will not be able to sell new internal combustion engine vehicles in California.

The rapid adoption of electric vehicles will only sharpen the shortage of technicians who can work on electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, industry officials say. The number of needed technicians is expected to grow by 23% by 2024, with median pay above $60,000 annually.

People seeking more information about the program or applying can do so here.

Revolutionizing Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings with Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the way energy is managed in commercial buildings.

Here’s a shocker:  About 30% of the energy used in commercial buildings is simply wasted.  While billions of dollars have been spent by building owners to install energy management systems to cut waste, these systems are not well-utilized because they are not “tuned” to get the best results.  So, commercial buildings represent a huge potential source of carbon emissions reductions and cost savings that is largely untapped.  Recognizing this potential, BrainBoxAI is applying artificial intelligence to existing buildings to improve their energy and emissions performance dramatically.

In our March 7 Perspectives webcast, Blake Standen, CEM, CMVP Standen (Global Senior Manager of Sales), and Bob Sobczak (Senior Director of Sales for California, based in Cameron Park) made a great presentation on what BrainBox AI can do.  Here is the bottom line:

• 40% reduction in carbon footprint
• 25% reduction in HVAC costs
• 60% improvement in occupant comfort (no hot and cold spots, adequate air changes, etc.)
• 50% improvement in equipment life

BrainBox does not need to install new equipment.  It just adds a layer of control to the equipment already there. At least for now.

Only offering a commercial product since 2019, BrainBox has grown to 150 employees and serves a global market with approaching 200 million square feet worldwide.  They are based in Montreal where they found a pool of AI programmer talent but now have targeted California for a serious push after focusing in the US mostly on the East Coast.  BrainBox is getting to market in three ways:  Direct sales to building owners, through system installers and integrators that adopt the BrainBox product, and with large OEMs that provide the building energy systems.

As the product stands, it allows buildings to participate in utility VPP programs adding to grid resources, as well as exploiting rate signals to achieve even more savings for the building owner. A cellular network and a VPN provide the communication architecture.  Future additions could add predictive maintenance, for which some temperature and vibration sensors may need to be added, along with an expansion into other types of buildings.  It wasn’t discussed, but systems like this could be easily adapted to manage EV chargers in building parking lots as part of the overall VPP scheme.

BrainBox has raised $45+ million to date to propel its launch into the commercial market and is now planning to raise more to keep that momentum going. Their largest investor is ABB and they have an impressive slate of other investors and partners.  They haven’t started managing buildings in our region yet, with Sobczak being added to the team only last November.  This is probably pretty fertile territory for them.

California leads the Nation in EV adoption. Over 40% of all EVs sold are sold in California. Much of this results from ambitious targets and zero emissions goals. But where is the charging to support them? A critical bottleneck in EV adoption is the availability of charging infrastructure. We have seen significant installs of DC fast chargers but not Level 2 chargers, which are necessary for day-to-day charging needs. It appears California is falling short of its goals for Level 2 charging infrastructure, leaving EV drivers struggling to find convenient charging options.

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has set an ambitious goal of installing 250,000 Level 2 EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment) chargers by 2025. This goal was established in response to Governor Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order N-79-20, which mandates that all new passenger cars and trucks sold in California be zero-emission by 2035. The CEC estimated California would need at least 1.5 million charging ports to meet the demand for electric vehicles. The CEC has approved $2.9 Billion for ZEV Infrastructure.

However, as of 2022, the number of Level 2 EVSE chargers in California is significantly lower than the CEC’s target. According to the CEC’s dashboard, there were only 71,599 Level 2 EVSE. This is less than one-third of the CEC’s target for 2025, and a significant shortfall from the 1.5 million charging ports required to support the expected growth in EVs.

This lack of charging infrastructure has a profound impact on EV adoption. With a limited number of Level 2 chargers, drivers often face long wait times and difficulty finding available chargers. This creates a significant barrier, as range anxiety and charging inconvenience are among the biggest concerns for prospective EV buyers. It also affects the state’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

To address this issue, the CEC is taking steps to accelerate the deployment of Level 2 charging infrastructure. In July 2021, the CEC approved a $384 million plan to fund the installation of 38,000 Level 2 charging ports across California. The Federal Government is providing support too. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) has $7.5 Billion for charging infrastructure. These plans aim to expand the existing charging network and make EV charging more accessible to Californians.

Much of the State funding has been allocated. The CEC reports over 100,000 charging stations have been funded but are not in the total counts. Counting the funded charges, California is on the path to reaching its ambitious goals. However, based on the CEC’s own dashboard, California falls significantly short. Hopefully, with the CEC’s recent funding plan and private investment, California will be able to rapidly expand its charging infrastructure and support the growing number of electric vehicles on its roads.

With remarkable speed, the Sacramento region now hosts what appears to be the second-largest US manufacturer of solar PV modules. In June 2022 Solar4America began production of monocrystal silicon-based panels (the most efficient kind) at McClellan Business Park, moving into the facility originally built for another potential solar manufacturer, CSUN Solar, in 2017. CSUN filed for bankruptcy in January 2021. SPI Energy moved quickly to make a commitment to the facility, assigning it to the Solar4America installation subsidiary it had recently acquired from Peterson Dean Roofing Company, and moving the company headquarters to it from Santa Clara.

It quickly added equipment to begin manufacturing panels in June 2022 and recently added a more state-of-the-art process line with $10 million in new equipment. Take a virtual tour here. They now employ about 150 people and produce 700 MW of panels per year. They plan to add a third 550 MW capacity line in their existing 139,000 square foot building, and then grow into an adjacent 56,000 square foot space with room to add a fourth and a fifth line. That would complete their growth plan for Sacramento, with a capacity of producing 2200-2600 MW of panels if they ran 24/7, with close to 500 employees.

They are taking advantage of the federal incentives favoring panels built in large part in the USA. President Biden extended by four years to 2026 President Trump’s 30% import tariff on panels imported from China, where over 70% of all panels are now produced. In addition, the Inflation Reduction Act not only extended the 30% investment tax credit and production tax credit but also provided a bonus 10% adder for panels meeting domestic production criteria. The Infrastructure Act provides an incentive amounting to about 4 cents/kWh for US-made solar modules. They see this “Made in America” angle as a big boost to their prospects, and their sales pipeline is showing its reality. They are now making 410 Watt and 550 Watt solar panels with peak efficiencies in excess of 21%. They believe that will drive above-average profitability—and at prices that make them very attractive.
They are on their way to making another move—toward more vertical integration in the US. They currently source their source silicon wafers from China. They would be eligible for further federal incentives if they would instead use US-made wafers. Recently they created a subsidiary, SEM Wafertech, to establish a high-efficiency production line for wafers and hired a world-class CTO to run it. Likely that unit would be based in South Carolina.
In our opinion, they are also positioned to make an important advance that will lead them to be able to push their solar conversion efficiency by close to 30%. There has been a lot written lately about inexpensive perovskite materials for solar cells. Think of them as a spray-on coating. Alone they are not so efficient, but if layered on top of a compatible crystalline solar module, they can capture light otherwise not used and allow the rest to penetrate to the underlying cell. There are a number of companies pursuing this path and looking for crystalline silicon solar panel partners. The manufacturing process chosen by Solar4America could be very compatible with this kind of production. Clearly, getting more kWh per panel by boosting efficiency creates a whole new ballgame in cost/kWh competition.

But the story is a lot more interesting than just what is going on at McClellan Park. The parent company SPI Energy has a long-term connection to Sacramento and is doing many things beyond manufacturing solar panels. The company actually was founded in 2006 in Roseville as Solar Power, Inc. As a way to get an edge, it was sourcing panels from China, one of the pioneers in doing so, and actually set up its own manufacturing line there in 2008. It was financing and installing panels throughout the state (anyone remembers Yes! Solar?), but it was a small fish in a booming market. The founder, Steve Kircher, brought in a Chinese investor, Denton Peng, in 2011, to get the money to go big. Peng owned a panel manufacturing and installation business in China and had been developing modest (a few MW to a few hundred MW) solar farms around the globe that were sold to investors once finished. That business evolved. Peng sold off his China assets in 2018 to focus on developing more solar farms outside China, but these were not building value very quickly. They did not give up that business, though. SPI still owns about 225 MW of solar projects in the US, Asia, and Europe, and is pursuing a 250+ MW pipeline of new projects.

Clearly, Peng was “bitten by the bug,” and wanted to do more in clean energy, recasting SPI as “Smart Power Innovation.” As a result, he started building a global cleantech conglomerate now referred to as SPI Groups. In 2015 he acquired 80% of SolarJuice, the leading wholesale distributor of PV products in Australia. He moved the solar installation business acquired from Petersen Dean into SolarJuice, giving it US roots as well. SolarJuice was made the parent of Solar4America. Now SPI is planning a partial spinoff of just under 50% of SolarJuice to raise money to keep growing the sales/installation business as well as PV manufacturing. The offering could raise as much as $19 million, and resolve concerns about whether the company had enough cash available to keep operating. The new stock would trade under the symbol SJA in the US if the offering closes. It would also trade in Australia where SolarJuice remains headquartered.

Peng acquired Phoenix Motor Cars in 2022 (partially IPO’d as PEV). Phoenix originated in Anaheim producing medium-duty EV trucks and buses in 2003. That business expanded into all-electric forklifts, some of which are at the McClellan plant. Now it is pursuing a nifty all-electric crew cab truck under the brand name EdisonFuture. It has a solar PV rooftop and a cool unfolding cover on the bed that adds more PV area. Those vehicles will likely be produced in Greenville, South Carolina.

Phoenix also has an agreement to develop bidirectional chargers for its vehicles, a feature likely to be much in demand. It has a line of portable battery products under the brand Romeo Power. Late in 2022, it acquired a long-time Sacramento fuel cell company, Altergy, to give it a foothold in using hydrogen for long-duration storage for solar projects. And for fun, SPI created a rugged fat tire e-scooter it calls the Zoomer—great fun at 30 mph for $1500. There are now over 420 employees worldwide for the company.

SPI Groups is forecasting a solidly profitable year for 2023. Revenue is projected to be $250-300 million with profits of $29-36 million, including the first profits for Solar4America in the fourth quarter. This would be a big advance for SPI which previously had not achieved profitability for any sustained period, or had annual revenue of more than $200 million.

Throughout all the twists and turns, one constant has been engineer Hoong Kheong (“HK”) Cheong. He is back now as COO of Solar4America and on the Board of other units of the conglomerate as well. It was probably HK who recommended a move of the company back to Sacramento. The Company had been in Shanghai and Silicon Valley. HK knew the building would be economical and that SMUD rates were going to be among the lowest in California. Now the global headquarters of the company is also in McClellan Park.

So welcome back SPI, in your many forms! Glad to see that of all the places you could be, you realize this is home and a great place to do manufacturing.

The question often comes up whether clean tech is really a good investment for the little guy. There are billions being invested—but what is the result in building wealth for investors? Of course, Elon Musk and a few other individuals have gotten rich. But is the wealth being spread more broadly? One way to answer it is to look at the performance of public clean tech stocks. There is now more than a decade of history to look at.
You can try to follow all the public cleantech stocks, but there are now so many that would be an enormous job. As a better alternative, there are a number of indexes purporting to track clean tech, For some, though, when you look at what stocks are in the index, they don’t seem so clean. You find oil and gas companies, large utilities, big software companies (like Microsoft), and big industrials as well as a smattering of smaller clean tech companies in their list.
However, there is one index that has been doing a pretty good job of focusing on a “pure play” list of what most would consider cleantech companies. CleanEdge, Inc. has created the CELS index, and it is tracked on NASDAQ. It is still a blend of very early-stage public companies with their more mature cousins but stays closer to what one would ordinarily think of as clean tech. Ten years ago there were not many public clean tech stocks. Now CELS follows 62 companies. CleanEdge has also created indexes focused on certain clean tech sectors: HHO for clean water, QGRD for smart grid infrastructure, and GWE for wind energy.
While the CELS index is listed on NASDAQ, you cannot trade on it. To do that, you must look for an exchange-traded fund or ETF that holds the same stocks as CELS. The only one so far is done by First Trust Advisors with the symbol QCLN (First Trust Clean Edge Green Energy Fund). As an investor, the advantage of a managed index such as CELS is that periodically the weakest companies that no longer meet established criteria are dropped and new ones are added. This may not give a good picture of the overall trend in cleantech companies listed on public exchanges, but it is a better way to invest in a portfolio of clean tech companies than trying to manage a basket of stocks yourself.
The performance record of CELS has been good in the long term (a dollar invested in 2012 became over $400 today), but a bummer in the last two years. The volatility year-to-year is a bit frightening.

Source:
https://indexes.nasdaqomx.com/docs/FS_CEXX.pdf 

In CELS, there are a number of companies that now pay dividends, albeit small ones. The aggregate yield is now 0.28%. Recognizing that investors may be looking for less volatility and more reliable income, NASDAQ and Clean Edge, Inc. recently announced the creation of a new tracking index for such companies, called the Global Green Income Index (GGINC™). It contains several of the dividend-paying stocks in QCLN and adds a related set of companies (real estate trusts, yield, cos, investment trusts) that are cleantech-oriented and focus on income generation. It is a measure of the industry that one can even put together such a fund in clean tech now.

It will probably take a little time for some firms to create an ETF around this new index while some history is accumulated. Watch for that next step. If it occurs, it may open more fixed-income funds to be willing to invest in this way in clean tech, and that may boost share prices as well.

PortLabs

PortLabs is an incubator and prototyping space that is ready to help clean tech startups in our region from its home base in downtown Oakland, near the 19th Street BART station.  They have a new 22,000 square foot office space.  They offer shop space, coworking space, classes, and most importantly coaching and community.  Building a startup can be an isolating and lonely experience.  It is important to get involved in groups that keep the motivation up.  PortLabs looks like one way to do that.  We recorded our discussion with them and you can view it here.

They operate on a membership basis, but it’s pretty inexpensive, especially for a part-time membership.  And they offer a number of webinars for free.  They work with technology companies of all kinds, but do include clean tech.  Founder Sal Bednarz and his colleagues Matt Kelly (Community and Workshop Manager) and Kyle Valiton (Product Engineering and Manufacturing) have years of experience in prototyping and in connecting to experienced mentors and economic development funding.  They offer some of their services virtually, which may be of particular value here.  A promo video is available here.  

They are having some upcoming free events online.  You can sign up for any of these events, and others, at this site.  Just browse and see what looks interesting.  

Here are some topics that may be of interest:

Crowdfunding 101: Funding Your Small Business Through Kickstarter, Feb 22 @ 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm PST

Closing the Best Deal – Negotiation for Start-Ups and Small Businesses, Mar 2 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm PST

Capital Planning Deep Dive, Mar 14 @ 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm PST – the start of a four-session overview of how to make a capital plan for your startup or growing business.

Measure and Manage Your Company Valuation, Mar 23 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm PST

As an example of their connection to clean tech, they have one clean tech company in particular, a zinc ion battery company called Salient Energy.  They started with space for 2 engineers and now are at 7 staff, hoping to double soon—and then probably move out into their own space.  ChargePoint and EVGo similarly were members at their early stages and now obviously have become larger, successful companies.

Matthew says drop in any time you might need a place to hang your hat if you are doing business in the Bay Area.  They have one-day free passes.  They would love to give people a tour.  The door is open.