The Cleantech Show #32 (MP3 – 12MB – 34min)
Interview with Monique Conheady, CEO and Founder, Flexicar

Many of you in major cities are most likely aware of care sharing programs, albeit under potentially different names. Some of you probably fit the demographic just by listening to this show, and may well be participants. Car sharing has been a system that has been around in varying forms for decades. With the advent of modern wireless and internet technology it is becoming far simpler and cost effective, and showing signs of expanding from its cottage industry status. Evidenced by the recent merger of Zipcar and Flexcar in North America.

On this weeks show, I wanted to explore these developments and the car sharing phenomenon more broadly with a one of the car sharing companies in Australia, Flexicar. Our guest on today’s show is Monique Conheady, co-founder and CEO of Flexicar. In our interview, we discuss the growth challenges, as well as where the tipping points to the car sharing industry lie.

If your part of a car sharing scheme you will certainly find this show of interest, and if your not, well tune in, as the next 10 years may invite a new era for intergrated car sharing and intermodal public transportation.

Flexicar was founded as “Flo Carshare” in 2004. They started the car sharing business with the belief that Australia’s inner city residents needed a sustainable, affordable alternative to car ownership. They provide local residents and businesses with driving freedom and flexibility. The Flexicar car sharing service is now available around corner, around the clock.

Prior to establishing Flexicar Monique was an Assistant Director with the Federal Government’s Department of Health and Ageing. She has worked as a project manager globally for Ove Arup & Partners in Melbourne, London, New York and Cairo, and was involved in the development of an ebusiness venture for UK retailer, Sainsbury’s.

Enjoy the show.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #31 (MP3 – 8MB – 22min)
Interview with Dr. Michael Ottaviano, MD, Carnegie Corporation & CETO

Wave Power seems to be reaching a level of acceptance in the market such that I think its time in the sun i think is rapidly approaching. This is the case Particularly here in Australia where companies developing ocean power technologies are looking to couple power generation with desalination and colocating facilities close to capital cities.

My guest on today’s Cleantech Show is Dr Michael Ottaviano, MD of Carnegie Corporation a company that has been developing the CETO ocean power technology. One of the really interesting aspects of their technology is that it provides high pressure sea water, rather than electricity back to the shoreline. In their view this makes it the most efficient and cost effective way to desalinate freshwater from wave energy, and allow the production of electricity through traditional hydro electric turbine technology.

On the show we discuss in depth how the CETO technology operates, and the benefits it has in comparison to other forms of renewable energy. Michael explains the massive energy availability that is available in the 2m wave environment where the CETO technology operates efficiently. This is another great technology to watch, as the company aims to have a commercial product ready in the next 18 months. Make sure you listen in.

There are also some great animations on the CETO website that explain visually how the technology operates.

Listed on the Australian Stock Exchange since 1993, Carnegie (ASX:CNM) is a dynamic company focused on clean energy investment and development. Carnegie is currently involved in developing two clean energy technologies: the CETO Wave Energy technology & its 100% owned clean coal technology, Cleaner Coal Power.

Prior to joining Carnegie, Michael was a Senior Manager specializing in Technology and Innovation consulting at a global accounting and advisory firm. He has advised companies on new product development, intellectual property, innovation portfolio management and technology commercialization across various industries and ranging from start-ups to ASX-listed companies with market capitalizations in excess of $1billion.

Enjoy the show.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #029 (MP3 – 13MB – 35min)
Interview with Jan Dekker, Cleantech Ventures – Venture Capital Firm

Following on from our recent shows on Technology Transfer and Research Commercialisation, on this weeks show we look at the process of Venture Capital investment into Cleantech. My guest this week is Jan Dekker, Investment Principle of Cleantech Ventures.

Cleantech Ventures is a specialist venture capital fund manager focused on investments in companies developing clean technologies. As mentioned in previous blogs and shows they have recently released a report on the Australian Cleantech Investment Industry.

On the show we talk broadly about private equity investment into cleantech. Jan and his team have been investing in this space for the last 4 years and have assessed over 500 deals during this time. We discuss whether the drivers for cleantech have changed over this period, and what shifts we are seeing in the behaviour of industry with investment and exit approaches.

If your seeking capital investment in the cleantech sector, this weeks episode reinforces the approaches to capital raising that seasoned entrepreneurs know to well. If your struggling to raise capital or want to learn more about the process, please tune in.

Jan is a career cleantech investment professional. He has been employed in a variety of senior executive roles within the cleantech arena for almost 20 years. Prior to founding Cleantech Ventures, Jan was the Managing Director of the Centre for Energy and Greenhouse Technologies, an early stage venture fund manager targeting new sustainable energy technology investments.

Previously he was an Associate Director at the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) in NSW where he was responsible for managing its renewable energy business units (solar, wind, co-generation, waste coal mine gas, green power and bio-energy), and the company’s Renewables Investment Fund – a project investment vehicle. Jan has also held positions with Sydney Water, the NSW EPA and as an environmental consultant.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #024 (MP3 – 15MB – 42min)
Interview with Dave Holland, MD of Solar Systems

There have been a lot of developments in the solar energy sector recently and we have had a number of companies on the show present their unique approach to capturing the sun’s energy. Solar concentration is a core component of many solar systems installed or being developed today.

Many different approaches to focusing sunlight have been used in these systems from mirrors, traditional lenses, fresnel lenses, and even holograms, in both small and large scale generation solutions. By concentrating sunlight these systems enable smaller amounts of PV to be used, or greater temperatures able to be reached for thermal applications.

My guest this week is Dave Holland, Managing Director of Solar Systems, a world leader in electricity production from solar concentrator methods. Solar systems has received significant funding both privately and from the Australian federal governments Low Emissions Technology Development Fund. As well as a number of ~40MW projects around Australia, Solar Systems has announced a 154MW heliostat solar concentrator power station in northern Victoria. The A$420 million project will generate 270,000 MWh per year, enough for more than 45,000 homes.

On the show we discuss the technology approach Solar Systems has taken to both achieve viable energy generation, but also how to demonstrate broader and larger installations effectively to prospective investors.

One of the critical aspects of Solar Systems technology is that once the collector systems are established, as higher efficiency photovoltaic devices are developed they can be retrofited quickly into existing systems. Something which the solar systems team has done on projects already. They are also developing a component that allows a high efficiency generation of hydrogen through both electrolytic and thermal processes for base load and stored power.

Dave Holland joined Solar Systems in October 2000. He has been responsible for establishing the go-to-market strategy, establishing the contracts in the Northern Territory and driving the commercialisation of Solar Systems’ activities. Dave is Deputy Chairman of Renewable Energy Generators Australia Ltd, an organisation that represents the interests of more than 90% of Australia’s renewable generating assets.

With significant interest from overseas companies and investors Solar Systems is one company to watch
cheers

Nick Bruse

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At the launch breakfast this morning we heard from Jan Dekker (CV) and Anastasia O’Rourke (CN) present the key findings of the study. I’ve summarised some of these below, but you can download the full report from the Cleantech Ventures website.

Key findings

• A$540m of venture capital dollars invested from 1999-2007
• 174 rounds in 75 companies
• Around 3% of total VC invested
• 66 IPOs between 1974-2006 and 24 in 2005-06 alone

The Cleantech space in Australia is becoming more and more interesting as international and domestic investors are realising that Australian cleantech investment opportunities are relatively untapped, compared with the rest of the world.

Key drivers that are seeing a growth in the sector in Australia are:

• commodity boom increasing economic activity
• technology readiness from research institutions
• environmental pressures including water shortages and climate change impacts
• increasing policy push as a result of upcoming election
• strong media interest in the sector
• increasing capital availability

However there still remains some challenges for Australian Cleantech including:

• lack of early stage capital
• more technology transfer to business required from Australian University and Research institutions
• more corporate venture funds and company investment & engagement required
• stronger policy particularly around Mandatory Renewable Energy Targets, emissions trading and Kyoto
• better analyst coverage of listed companies

By way of reference Cleantech Ventures has screened around 450 companies and made 11 investments via its CEGT fund over the last 4 years. In October this year Cleantech Ventures announced it has completed the first close of its new Cleantech Australia Fund.

The fund’s first closing of $50 million is made up of $20 million provided through the Australian government’s Innovation Investment Fund (IIF) program and $30 million from VicSuper, a superannuation fund committed to sustainability.

The exchange is the creation of Brian Price, whom I interviewed recently on the cleantech show during which we discussed the FEX-SIM in detail. You can listed to the show here if you didn’t catch it earlier.

The launch has been covered in a AAP news article to a degree particularly about the FEX-SIM, if you want a few more details at a glance the FEX website has a press release.

Much of what Mr Gore had to say was about the worlds past experiences and success in dealing with the global problem of chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) and ozone layer depletion, a future where in 25 years we may no longer have an artic sea ice in summer, and the near future and how select countries and companies are showing the way by moving quickly to deal with climate change.

He highlighted that both in Australia and in the US we are seeing significant movement amongst the state legislators and governments in driving emissions reduction targets and signing onto the Kyoto protocol limits at a state and city level. In the US he stated that 600 cities and 12 states are in the process of have done this already. In Australia state governments have moved quickly also to push an emissions trading and reduction goals.

In fact he went so far as to say that activities and the speed of change in industry, investment and policy in Australia may well allow it to regain a leadership position in this issue if it continues on this path.

He highlighted during question time that we do face significant challenges when it comes to issues of nuclear proliferation based around nuclear energy as a solution to climate problems. He highlighted that historically all cases where nuclear material has found its way into weapons program in countries have been found to be associated with nuclear energy programs.

An innocent question was asked by a young 10 year old student, there as a result of winning a school competition, which was “If you were elected to be the president of the united states in 2008, what would you do to deal with climate change.”

Mr Gore’s response was “Bless your heart” with a lot of laughter in the room, followed by, “I’m not running for president… but… if I was in that situation I would look at abolishing employment taxes and instead place taxes on pollution.” He said it was ridiculous that we live in a world where we are happy to penalise employment but not penalise pollution [including emissions]

I had the opportunity to pose a question myself, and asked Mr Gore if over the last year since he was in Australia had he come up with a dinner party ‘Zinger’ response sceptics of climate change, as posed by Andrew Denton in an interview on Enough Rope in September 2006, given we still need to move more quickly.

His response was no he didn’t have the zinger yet to convince climate sceptics but said that the challenge with climate change is “This this change is hard… really hard.. in fact its at the limits of what we as a society can do.” He went on to say that for laggards and sceptics at this stage of the process, we must lead by example, help bring them along, as the world is changing under their feet and its tough.

I’ll leave you with the quote from the end of his presentation, an old African quote, which sums up our future pretty well.

“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together” The problem Al Gore highlighted is that we need to go quickly and far, so we must devote ourselves close to completely to this challenge.

If you want to catch the first 5 mins of his 20 minute presentation you can catch it on the FEX website

Cheers
Nick

The Cleantech Show #013 (MP3 – 16MB – 45min)

Earlier this month I blogged about the announcement of the new FEX-SIM Sustainability and Cleantech Stock Market. The Financial & Energy Exchange (FEX) is set to open a new trading board on the Newcastle-based National Stock Exchange (NSX), with high profile green campaigner and former US Vice President Al Gore to give an address at the opening.

On this weeks show, Brian Price CEO of the FEX-SIM and I discuss the foundation and motivations behind starting the exchange, the opportunities for investors and advice and process for cleantech companies looking to list. We explore Brian’s expectations for the success of the FEX-SIM, and he provides some clear advice on how to create a successful market and the strength and commitment to the initiative they are undertaking.

Brian has over 22 years of experience in complex derivative transactions, option market making, highly specialised tactical portfolio overlay construction through use of synthetic and derivative products. Has featured in the book ‘Master of the Markets’ in 2003 and 2005 as one of Australia’s top 10 investors and has been a member of the strategic advisory board of HFA Ltd since its inception in 1998.

An Australian based specialized market risk asset manager and derivatives consultant, he has traded over 5 million futures and options contracts as principal and millions more for clients. Brian has extremely strong and broad relationships with well over 50 high level key derivative market participants ( fund managers , market makers, traders and investors ) as well as an excellent working knowledge of the Australian derivatives market space.

The FEX Sustainability and Cleantech Investment Market (FEX-SIM) will open on 14 September, and we wish you all the best success Brian and team.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Financial & Energy Exchange (FEX) is set to open a new trading board on the Newcastle-based National Stock Exchange (NSX), with high profile green campaigner and former US Vice President Al Gore to give an address at the opening.

The FEX Sustainability and Cleantech Investment Market (FEX-SIM) will open on 14 September, with Gore the special guest speaker. FEX-SIM will operate under the NSW license, targeting the sustainability and cleantech industries.

FEX-SIM board listings will centre around companies committed to identifying and promoting business solutions to promote the transition to a clean and sustainable future. All companies listing on the FEX-SIM board will be subject to NSX listing rules.

Richard Symon, chief executive of NSW, said he was pleased to be a part of the FEX initiative.

“We are delighted to be working with FEX to develop the FEX Sustainability and Cleantech Investment Market.”

FEX-SIM will launch at FEX in Sydney on 14 September.

The NSX has been operating in its present form since 2000 and specialises in the listings of small to medium size companies of capitalisations around AUD$500,000.  Many companies that stuggle to find capital in Australia, or are too small or don’t have the funds for an ASX listing have pursued this pathway.
The NSX website in their press release highlights that:

FEX-SIM will be a purpose-built Australasian equity market, operating as a board, and under the Australian Market Licence, of the National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSX). FEX-SIM will be promoted exclusively by Financial & Energy Exchange Limited (FEX) . FEX-SIM will target the fast emerging sustainability and cleantech industry sectors

Cheers
Nick

Without going into detail about the politics around this issue in Australia at the moment, essentially we are waiting to see if John However is willing to put the pressures of climate change ahead of the pressures of political change.

The report follows on from an initiative by the Australian States and Territories to set up a emissions trading scheme by 2010, which essentially lay down the gauntlet to the Australian federal government to do something.  Read more here

The key outcomes of this are whether we will see an acceptable cap set for emissions, and that the resulting price of carbon emissions is somewhere above $20/tonne as the bare minimum. For real change we want prices closer to $40/tonne at which renewables will be able to compete viably with existing power generation. For more commentary on this go to the 7.30 report transcript.

So, grab a cup of bonox or bosco ,  download the report and curl up for a night of reading.

Cheers
Nick