Bloom Energy‘s Director of Product Marketing, Asim Hussain, made a rare public appearance at SVForum’sClean Tech Conference last week and shared some details about Bloom’s 2012 plans:
New manufacturing facility in Delaware.
“Here in California, we’ve created 1500 clean jobs and we’re going to do the same in Delaware when we build that (30MW) manufacturing facility.” Asim Hussain
Manufacturing in California
The privately held company currently has three manufacturing facilities – including its testing facility – and they employ two Bloom Boxes to power one plant, using a biogas source. They plan to extend that capability to the recently built second plant. Unlike many Silicon Valley companies, manufacturing operations are here in the valley, although they have a global supply chain.
Bloom Electrons
Fresh Dialogues asked about the future of Bloom Electrons, the energy-only purchase model the company announced last year. Instead of paying the hefty $800,000 upfront cost for a Bloom energy server, customers sign a ten-year energy purchase agreement at a fixed price. Hussain confirmed that this model allows Bloom to access a new market segment: the nonprofit sector. The poster child for Bloom Electrons is California Institute of Technology Caltech – which began a 2 MW Bloom installation in 2010. The program has also allowed commercial clients like Walmart to expand their Bloom installations from two to twenty eight stores.
Hussain was part of a panel discussion on green building, moderated by Abby Johnson of Abacus Property. The experts included Alain Poivet of Sunplanter, Swapnil Shah of FirstFuel and PG&E’s Andrew Yip. The conference was hosted by SAP‘s green gurus Peter Graf, and Rami Branitzky
Read transcripts, see photos and check out our ARCHIVES featuring exclusive interviews with Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman, Vinod Khosla and many more green experts and visionaries…
Days before the Global Climate Conference in Durban South Africa, NBC’s Special Correspondent Tom Brokaw delivered a strong message in Silicon Valley for those who deny climate change. “It’s real, we see it in our weather systems,” he said and made a somber call to action, saying everyone needs to take a part. Brokaw, who has hosted two documentaries about global warming for the Discovery Channel, says he’s planning an expedition to Antarctica with a team of climate scientists to record the glacial melting next January.
Brokaw cited carbon based fuels and energy consumption as major issues, and stopped short of making specific policy recommendations, but said that the Obama administration missed a valuable opportunity to do something substantial about energy and jobs. “People could have got allied with that,” he added.
He acknowledged his part in contributing to the problem (long commutes in polluting LA traffic to visit his beloved mother), but is now doing what he can to be greener. He recently adopted solar in his Montana Ranch, recouping his capital investment in only three years. In this intimate video, he waxes lyrical about the piping hot water and heating system – even during long Montana winters.
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Brokaw ended on an upbeat note, saying that he thinks the younger generation will change things for the better.
The video was recorded on November 21st, 2011 at the Commonwealth Club in Silicon Valley, moderated by KGO TV’s Dan Ashley. Brokaw is promoting his new oeuvre The Time of Our Lives, a conversation about America; Who we are, where we’ve been, and where we need to go now, to recapture the American Dream.
This week, we explore the progress of Novacem, the London based “green cement” manufacturer. On April 22nd, 2010, the company received an appropriate Earth Day honor: Novacem was named a Top 10 Emerging Technologyby MIT’s Technology Review Magazine.
“The annual TR10 spotlights the emerging technologies we find most exciting. These are the innovations most likely to alter industries, fields of research, and even the way we live and work,” said Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher of Technology Review magazine. “We celebrate the innovators making these accomplishments possible and look forward to their continued advancement within their respective fields.”
I caught up with Novacem’s Chairman, Stuart Evans at the AlwaysOn GoingGreen Conference in Sausalito last year to explore the company’s “secret sauce” and how it plans to compete with Khosla’s “favorite child,” Los Gatos based Calera. Here is the newly released video of our conversation.
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At the conference last year, Vinod Khosla, the green investment guru, was asked to name the company with the greatest chance of becoming the next Green Microsoft while onstage at the GoingGreen Conferencein Sausalito. He declined to name his “favorite child” but did praise Calera, the green cement maker he’s backing; and spoke about the huge potential growth in this sector. Since cement production creates 2.5 billion tons of CO2 annually, representing 5% of manmade sources, it offers great potential in both climate change impact and market opportunity.
Stuart Evans, Chairman of Novacem, shares Vinod’s bullishness about the market for green cement. This British entrepreneur has assembled a team from Imperial College, London (he dubs it the MIT of the UK) and claims to have invented a carbon negative cement.
How does Novacem technology differ from Calera’s?
“The big play at Calera is that they want to go next to power stations to absorb the carbon dioxide there (carbon sequestration)… We’re making cement without a carbonate based feedstock. Vinod was talking about his materials being used in aggregate applications; we’re really replacing Portland Cement…we’re in the same space, we’re not head to head…we’re possibly even complementary. Besides, in a 2.5 billion (volume/ $150Billion) market, there are room for a couple of players…”
“Our cement doesn’t emit carbon dioxide, it absorbs carbon dioxide. We start with the material magnesium silicate (not calcium carbonate)… they have no carbon in them, so right there we’ve got a stunning advantage. We only work at 800 degrees centigrade (compared to Portland Cement which requires 1400 degrees) so the energy sources we can use include biomass fuels which have a much greener footprint. ..We add a magic sauce to it (a mineral additive) which means that the cement absorbs carbon dioxide rather rapidly.”
The importance of team
“The team is everything; money is important but the team is even more important.”
On Vinod Khosla’s expertise
“We are tremendously flattered that Vinod is following our lead and investing in green cement.” (A display of typical British humor here)
For more Fresh Dialogues interviews and transcript with Vinod Khosla, click here
The interview was recorded at the GoingGreen Conference, Sausalito on September 15, 2009. The background sound you hear is nautical ‘music’ from buoys, as container ships make their way under the Golden Gate Bridge.
For more info on Green Cement, check out these links
Silicon Valley’s Kevin Suracehas just achieved Rock Star status – of the Green Biz variety. The CEO of Serious Materials was picked as Entrepreneur of the Year by Inc. Magazineand joined Time Magazine‘s list of Tech Pioneers Who Will Change Your Life, along with another Silicon Valley Green Rock Star: Bloom Energy’sKR Sridhar. It’s an incongruous status for someone from the mundane world of building products, but Kevin is being described as ‘savior of the world’, ‘the Larry Ellison of green’ and has even turned down an invitation to the White House. He knows he’ll be invited back.
In an exclusive Fresh Dialogues interview recordedbefore the accolades descended, Kevin revealed his motivations for waging war on climate change and the lessons learned in building a green company. He discussed the influence of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truthin helping create a market for green products; how Serious Materials changed its focus; and whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for green. Kevin outlined how his company uses new media to get its message out and what the future holds for this rapidly expanding company.
On Kevin’s motivations for wanting to help save the planet
“When you have children, you start to think what world are you leaving them? I think that affects everybody.”
When did he focus on energy saving products at Serious Materials?
“If I sat here and said in 2002 I had the great vision to design energy saving building materials – there was no market in 2002 – people would think I was nuts. By 2005, the climate issue had come to the front of minds: on scientists’ minds, at the United Nations, in the world. By ’06, we began coming out with energy efficient windows… ”
Vinod Khosla, the green investment guru, was asked to name the company with the greatest chance of becoming the next Green Microsoft while onstage at the GoingGreen Conferencein Sausalito. He declined to name his “favorite child” but did praise Calera, the green cement maker he’s backing; and spoke about the huge potential growth in this sector. Since cement production creates 2.5 billion tons of CO2 annually, representing 5% of manmade sources, it offers great potential in both climate change impact and market opportunity.
I caught up with Stuart Evans, Chairman of Novacem, who shares Vinod’s bullishness about the market for green cement. This British entrepreneur has assembled a team from Imperial College, London (he dubs it the MIT of the UK) and claims to have invented a carbon negative cement.
Kevin Suraceis serious about tackling global warming and argues that producing energy saving building materials can go a long way to cutting down CO2 emissions and reducing energy consumption in the United States. He’s CEO of Serious Materials, a Sunnyvale based maker of eco drywall, windows and other building materials; and frequent speaker * on global warming and the built environment. *His TED speech is worth checking out.
We discussed the influence of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truthin helping create a market for green products; the pace of global warming; and whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for green. Kevin outlined how his company uses new media to get its message out and why his company is growing rapidly, despite the shrinking economy.
