CleanStart Perspectives on EPIC Funding from the CA Energy Commission

CleanStart Perspectives on EPIC Funding from the CA Energy Commission

Join us as we chat with Erik Stokes about the California Energy Commission’s EPIC Funding program.

The California Energy Commission’s Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program invests in scientific and technological research to accelerate the transformation of the electricity sector to meet the state’s energy and climate goals. Join us as we chat with Erik Stokes about how companies can connect with the CEC and take part in the future of Epic Funding.

Erik Stokes is the head of the Energy Deployment and Market Facilitation Office at the California Energy Commission. In his 13+ years at the Commission, Erik has spearheaded numerous initiatives to advance low-carbon technology solutions. Over the past five years, Erik has worked to strengthen California’s innovation ecosystem for cleantech entrepreneurship. This included establishing a statewide network of incubator/accelerator programs, testing facilities and other entrepreneurial support services; as well as developing several non-dilutive funding programs for clean energy entrepreneurs including the world-renowned CalSEED program. These efforts have helped cleantech startups supported by the California Energy Commission attract over $1.8 billion in private investment.

CleanStart Perspectives are short online conversations to connect the greater Sacramento clean tech entrepreneurship community and share insights, experiences, and outlooks. Join us as we welcome our featured guests to share their perspective on what entrepreneurs and innovators can do to thrive and grow.

Register and we’ll send you the Zoom login information prior to the meeting time.

CleanStart Perspectives are recorded through Zoom.

CleanStart Perspectives with Sabya Das, Partner at Moneta Ventures

CleanStart Perspectives with Sabya Das, Partner at Moneta Ventures

Join us as we chat with Sabya Das, partner at Moneta Ventures.

Moneta Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Folsom, CA that invests in early stage technology companies. Sabya Das, partner at Moneta Ventures, will share insights on the current state of venture capital investment in early stage startups.

CleanStart Perspectives are short online conversations to connect the greater Sacramento clean tech entrepreneurship community and share insights, experiences, and outlooks. Join us as we welcome our featured guests to share their perspective on what entrepreneurs and innovators can do to thrive and grow.

Register and we’ll send you the Zoom login information prior to the meeting time.

CleanStart Perspectives are recorded through Zoom.

LoanPal and AQUAOSO Join the Funding Bonanza

LoanPal and AQUAOSO Join the Funding Bonanza

We might exceed $2 billion in funds raised for our cleantech companies this year.  If so, this region would represent a significant fraction of all the money raised in cleantech deals in the US.  That would undoubtedly raise eyebrows.  

The first quarter has been great for 4 companies in raising money so far this year.  We have written about Origin getting $925 million in new investment, and Infinium raising an undisclosed but likely substantial amount.  Now Hayes Barnard and the team at LoanPal in Roseville have gotten $800+ million in private equity for their business financing of energy efficiency and solar on homes.  Hayes had created Paramount Solar in 2003 doing financing and installation.  He sold that business in 2013 to Solar City and the team stayed on for a while.  After the merger of Solar City with Tesla, the team apparently decided they had come up with a pretty good financing vehicle and recreated it in 2018 in LoanPal.  What they do is provide a platform to arrange for loans and then assemble them in packages that are sold off to investors, recycling the money back into more loans.  Over 12,000 sales professionals are using the platform so far.  Originally the focus was on clean energy loans but it looks like they are branching out into a wider range of conventional mortgage loans.  Since inception, they have provided $5.9 billion in loans to over 175,000 families nationwide, adding offices beyond their roots in Roseville.  You can read their press release here.  Also check out Mark Anderson’s article on them in the Sacramento Business Journal.

At the same time, AQUAOSO has raised a $2 million seed round.  That’s a huge proof point for Chris Peacock and his team who we profiled back in 2017.  It will likely be a springboard to much more. Like LoanPal, AQUAOSO also provides a software platform to users, in this case to assess more accurately and efficiently the water risk inherent in their businesses.  This is especially important for growers in applying for bank loans.  It is like providing the equivalent of a credit risk score for water risk.  It simplifies the loan decisions for banks, but also provides insights into how growers can reduce that risk.  With more volatility in precipitation year to year and a trend to drier conditions, it is easy to see how the AQUAOSO tool is getting attention.  Chris explains his product in a video you can watch here.

So the total disclosed from the Origin, LoanPal, and AQUAOSO financings is $1.727+ billion.  Infinium hasn’t revealed its number, but given the pace they have been on we are guessing they raised over $100 million.  It wouldn’t take that much more to bring the total over $2 billion, almost a ten-fold increase over the best year achieved previously in the region.  Just considering the first quarter alone, the known total is a really big deal.  One thing is sure now—we are on the map for investors looking for cleantech investments.  When we started CleanStart 16 years ago, this was one of the most important milestones we said would be needed to make us a recognized hub for cleantech activity in the US and the world.  Now the question is whether this pace continues.  

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.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | TobinBlueTech Valley, Revrnt, 

Moss AdamsPowerSoft.biz, Greenberg Traurig, Momentum,

College of Engineering & Computer Science at Sacramento State

Four More Rising Stars Pitch at Spotlight Event

Four More Rising Stars Pitch at Spotlight Event

On November 12, we held the last Spotlight Pitch event of the year.  Over 70 people signed up.  The presenters made an extra effort to tune up their pitches and the result was some of the best pitches we have heard this year.  The videos of the pitches and the Q&A are available below.  You can review the quick version or the full version.  You should take the time to explore them.

Kevin Wolf of WindHarvest talked about his vertical axis wind turbine that fills-in on the used land between the big horizontal wind turbines and captures the near-ground, turbulent air that is missed now.  He has a lot of interest and in fact has raised his minimum amount in a crowdfunding campaign to order a prototype of his latest design, the one he thinks is ready to commercialize.  When manufacturing in volume, he believes his standard 70 kW machine will cost $1800/kW, which would be very competitive.  His unique turbine has been perfected through careful “aeroelastic” modeling and he believes that will be the key to his success.  He has gone through several versions with increasing success, but this latest one will be the real test.  He hopes to have results in 2022.

Ezra Beeman of Empower Energy in Davis reported on his latest 14 kWh home energy storage device.  Because his device combines several functions into one integrated unit, he believes his product will be the most cost effective and easiest to install one on the market.  He is looking to start sales in 2021.  Most of the questions were centered on whether he should raise more than the $1 million he is currently seeking.

Ever get annoyed at the glare from the headlights from on-coming traffic at night?  What if that could be virtually eliminated by tightly controlling the headlight beam to light the highway?  Dick Flasck of RAF Electronics showed off his latest version of his LED-based directional lighting product.  He thinks he may have cracked the code on solving the headlight glare problem with the bonus of saving two-thirds of the energy now used in the best LED headlights now used in vehicles.  In electric vehicles, that gain in efficiency would translate into greater range.  But that is not where Dick is starting.  He identified another market where he thinks entry is much easier—theatrical lighting.  In that application, his technology would reduce energy consumption 80% over the conventional incandescent lights (from 750 watts per light to less than 80 watts), and improve the quality of the lighting.  Disney is very interested in this for its cruise ships that have big theaters for live performances.  The lower power use also translates into cooler fixtures that can be put in more confined spots that the hot lights can not.  The theatrical lighting market is a lot bigger than most know, so he sees this as a good place to start to build his business while he works to get his technology qualified for vehicle use.

Michael Carroll of Helios Altas presented his very clever micro-hydropower generator, intended for remote locations where the water flowing in a channel or stream is only 15 cm deep.  Other microhydro units generally require several feet of water depth to work.  Micro hydropower is so challenging because most ways to tap it are so costly on a cents/kWh basis.  They require a great deal of civil works and the turbine-generator itself is heavy and expensive.  Mike has turned all this on its head.  His PowerWheel is lightweight, simple, and inexpensive.  Two people can install it.  The installation itself is simple and can be done without skilled labor.  It’s a little hard to describe but the best way to understand it is to look at the pictures on his website (https://www.heliosaltas.com/), especially the 5 minute video.  Once you see it, you get it.  He announced that Siemens has now agreed to partner with him and market the product through its channels.  That’s a big deal for HeliosAltas, so congratulations!  Mike has installations both overseas and in the US, so the product is getting a lot of attention.  The smallest unit has a 500-watt capacity, and the largest is planned to be 5-10 kW.  The individual PowerWheels can be ganged together in series in a water channel or in parallel across a stream.  And they can be moved to other locations if stream conditions change.  When you see it, you wonder, “Why didn’t someone think of this before?”  That’s a sign of a good idea.

Our next Spotlight Event will be next year, probably in March, so keep on the lookout for our announcement.  Be sure you subscribe to our newsletter.  It’s the best source to keep on top of cleantech innovation and startups in our region. 

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.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | Tobin, EYBlueTech Valley, Revrnt, Moss Adams, PowerSoft.biz

Momentum, College of Engineering & Computer Science at Sacramento State

Helios Altas Getting Ready to Move to Scale in Small Hydropower

Helios Altas Getting Ready to Move to Scale in Small Hydropower

Helios Altas is getting ready to go big. We have reported on them in the past and they continue to hit new milestones.  They are now getting ready to scale, looking at manufacturing around the country. We hope they stay here. They certainly have opportunities to install their equipment in the state.

Clean energy advocates are of two minds on whether hydro should be counted as “green”.  Large hydroelectric dams supplied by huge reservoirs have been controversial as creating too much collateral environmental damage–destroying fish and wildlife habitat, interfering with fish migrations, trapping nutrient-rich silt, among other things.  As a result, there has been a compromise to favor only “small” hydro as part of the qualified renewable resources used to meet the 100% renewable goal or to qualify for funding from multilateral sources like the World Bank. Further, the expressed preference is for sites either where dams already exist but have never installed power generation turbines, or which do not require big water impoundments (“run of the river” installations).   However, the smaller the installation, the more costly it is in terms of cost per kilowatt. His solution overcomes many of those concerns and has been deployed in a variety of environments around the world while in demonstration mode.  

Helios Altas, founded by Mike Carrol and headquartered in Roseville, has taken a very clever, low-cost approach to come up with a simple device for taking advantage of even the smallest water flows. HIs device has a very elegant simple water wheel that requires only a channel to direct flows underneath it.  The company’s flagship products, PowerBall and PowerWheel produce clean electricity from moving water in canals, industrial water loops, rivers, tidal flows and the base of dams. They have been prototyping, deploying and confirming it is efficient enough to work in many circumstances. With this success, they are looking to move towards manufacturing and scaling to deploy the devices in California, where they already are used to power remote monitoring equipment, and in the rest of the world where they could power village microgrids.  They see applications to bring power to 900 million people in remote areas that currently do not have power. They have a great video explaining their device and its applications at the bottom of their home page.

Mike has had success in getting small irrigation districts and public power districts in the state interested and is working toward some substantial PPA agreements in the Philippines and Malaysia.  He has 1 kW and 2.5 kW units operating in demos and intends to produce units up to 10 kW in size. He believes he will soon see orders for 300 units. That would open up about two dozen new jobs to assemble and install the units.  

Helios Altas is one of the many companies in our region that have been working steadily and patiently for years to commercialize their innovations.  Now they seem ready to make a break-out move that will solidify their success for the future.

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas is the Executive Director of CleanStart. Thomas has a strong background in supporting small businesses, leadership, financial management and is proficient in working with nonprofits. He has a BS in Finance and a BA in Economics from California State University, Chico. Thomas has a passion for sustainability and a commitment to supporting non-profits in the region.

Sponsors

SMUD
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RiverCity Bank

California Mobility Center, Revrnt, HumanBulb, Witanlaw, Eco-Alpha, Momentum