My Point Exactly

Here's a blog post (from late last year) on our local Seattle PI website that expresses the crux of my concern: Seattle is ripe for green tech investment, but it's just not happening. Dennis DuBois writes:

Ted Bernhard, Managing Director of the Stoel Rives Energy Ventures Group, blogged about the Northwest's straggling clean-tech investing scene.

"I continue to be struck by the fact that there is enormous regional, national, and global institutional investor interest in clean tech, a lot of high quality, clean tech companies and deal flow in the Seattle, Portland and the Northwest, a wide range of new angel organizations focusing on cleantech in the region and a boom (verging on an overly exhuberant bubble) among bay area venture capitalists, yet there is so little or no activity in Oregon and Washington -- the supposed cleantech leaders of the nation."

Read the rest of the article here:

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/energy/archives/125006.asp

Other Companies of Interest

The following is a list of other companies or products that I find interesting and whose progress I enjoy following. They're not located in Seattle, unfortunately.

Electric Vehicles:

• Th!nk - (also called Think) Norwegian electric car manufacturer (see more complete info on wikipedia here). They have some really cool ideas for their cars, including local assembly shops to cut down on transportation costs, and a monthly fee that covers the battery pack and a communications service so that you can communicate with the car ('hey car, I just found out I have to go to a meeting 20 miles away - how much juice do you have?'). The monthly fee for the batteries has a dual advantage in that it allows one to lease the batteries which cuts down on the initial cost of the car, and it also allows you to exchange the batteries for new ones at no add'l cost when the old ones wear out. Think has a deal with Tesla to buy Tesla's battery systems.
  
• GM-Volt.com - awesome fansite for the Volt. Lyle Dennis is Volt fan who has created one of the best sites for info on the Volt.
  
• Tesla - high end electric sports car. Tesla is cool because they are focusing first on a high end car for people with alot of $$, and will parlay success there into a car for the masses.
  
• Miles Electric - US-based manufacturer with plans to release a high-speed sedan with a 100+ mile range.
  

Alternative Fuels:

• Clean Solutions

Solar Solutions:

• 
  

[I have more to add, but I'll do it a little later when I have more time]

Finding Green Jobs in Seattle

Green Tech jobs sites:

• Seattle Greendrinks
  
• About.com's Green Jobs Search
  
• Greenjobs.com
  
• SustainableBusiness.com
  
• JustMeans.com
  
• Renewable Energy World

Salary Info:

• Top 6 paying jobs in green tech
  
• Interesting salary search engine
  
• Might be some stuff at vault.com, but I didn’t have time to register and check it out.

Local Seattle companies that deal with green technology

Here's a list of companies I've found that deal with green tech locally here in Seattle.

• 3Tier - create maps for wind, solar and wave energy assessments
• Global Energy Concepts - clean energy consultancy
• Infinia - actually these guys are located in Spokane, but they're the only solar technology company I can find in WA
• Imperium Renewables Seattle-based biodiesel company
• Verdiem - products that reduce PC power consumption at locations with alot of PCs (an office, for example)
• AltaRock Energy geothermal startup - no content on page
• PowerIt Solutions intelligent energy management products for buildings
• V2Green manage communication between the plug-in EVs and the grid
• Optimum Energy develops networked building control applications and products to reduce energy consumption in commercial buildings

Sources for Green Tech news

Here are some sites I frequent for information on green technology:

• CNET's excellent Green Tech Blog
• Mr. Cleantech - local VC's blog on clean technology
• WSJ's green biz blog
• EV World - Great site for news on electric cars
• Seattle EV Association
• GreenTechMedia - good source of financial/funding news.
• Earth2Tech blog - daily updates on what's going on in the world of clean technology
  

Purpose for Seattle Green Tech blog

Background and Goal

We live in a very progressive state, and an even more progressive city. While we’re blessed with this, we are also cursed with very cheap, and relatively clean (depending on your point of view) electric energy. This “curse” means that people have little incentive to explore solar or wind energy options. I am confident that Seattle will be at the forefront of greener energy usage, and I want to be part of that industry here. In order to do that, I believe we need to get involved in the industry locally now, so that we’re experienced and knowledgeable when the industry really takes off.

So, I’d like to start a discussion about the green energy industry with others because a) I don’t know much about the industry, b) I’d like to find ways to get connected locally with the industry, and c) I’d like to figure out what jobs are local that have to do with clean technology.

Boundaries

Here are my initial thoughts on boundaries (e.g. things I want to explore, versus things I don’t care about right now). I’m not saying I don’t want to learn about other alternative energy options, so don’t view this as me trying to set limits on anything, but there are some things I care about more than others.

1. I’m primarily interested in electric energy. I’m not that interested in biofuels, ethanol, hydrogen, etc.
2. My ideal next career would be with a company that produced clean electric energy (e.g. solar panel company or related), or used clean electric energy to offset some other dirty energy (electric cars, for example). Some ideas:

o Build infrastructure for electric cars

o Build software applications for electric cars (ala the Think City approach to possibly allowing 3^rd party apps onboard the vehicle)

o Be part of a movement to make solar electricity or solar hot water heating an affordable option for average homeowners

Anyways, for now I'll use this blog to post information that I find useful as I explore green technology in Seattle.