Powerhouse Dynamics expects its first customers this week to receive its eMonitor home energy manager, a product that enters a crowded market for tracking where energy goes in the home.
There are dozens of companies working on in-home energy displays or home energy monitor systems, many of which will be tested as part of utility smart-grid programs.
A whole-house energy monitor from Powerhouse Dynamics gets data from sensors attached to individual circuits.
(Credit: Energy Circle)Newton, Mass.-based Powerhouse Dynamics, by contrast, plans to sell through resellers, such as online retailers, energy auditors and contractors, or solar installers. So far, the company has more than 30 dealers signed up, according to CEO Martin Flusberg.
Many energy monitors are geared at providing a real-time reminder of electricity use to prompt consumers to conserve or turn off unused appliances. During a presentation at the AlwaysOn GoingGreen conference in Boston last week, Flusberg said displaying a home's total electricity at a given moment is of limited use.
Instead, Powerhouse Dynamics has focused on giving home owners information on how much electricity individual rooms or appliances use. It also provides recommendations--via e-mail, text, or an iPhone application now under development--on how to cut down energy consumption Flusberg said.
The price of the eMonitor product itself is on the high-end: at an online retailer now, it's selling for $799, which includes five years of monthly service.
With projected savings of 5 to 20 percent from existing bills, a consumer who spends a lot on energy could save $400 to $500 a year, Flusberg said. But at this point, it seems that most interest has been from people who want clues for finding where they are wasting energy, he said.
"We're finding that for some consumers, it's not so much about the return on investment--it's all about waste. Even though they know they won't get an immediate payback, just the fact that they can control that waste is enough," he said. Others are motivated to lower their carbon footprint, he added.
To use the system, an electrician connects sensors to each circuit going into a panel. That data is collected by the eMonitor device, which is about 8 inches high by 3 inches wide. The monitor has an Ethernet port that connects to a home broadband connection to send the data to Powerhouse Dynamics.
Once collected, a person can view energy use circuit by circuit, showing things like how much energy individual appliances or specific rooms use. The device can also track home much electricity a home generates from solar panels.
The device has a Zigbee wireless antenna so the monitor should be able to communicate with Zigbee-enabled thermostats and smart plugs, Flusberg said.
The company is looking to raise a second seed round of funding and a series A venture capital round later this year. Its product plans include making a "mass market" monitor with a lower price point.
Top Japanese carmakers Toyota and Nissan helped set up a group to standardize fast-charge stations for electric cars on Monday in a bid to promote the spread of the zero-emission vehicles.
The group, led by Japan's biggest utility, Tokyo Electric Power, Toyota Motor, Nissan Motor, Mitsubishi Motors, and Fuji Heavy Industries, will set a standard for Japan and later aim for an international standard.
Some 158 companies and government bodies are expected to join, including 20 non-Japanese firms such as PG&E, Enel, Endesa, and PSA Peugeot Citroen.
A plug for plug-in power.
(Credit: Toyota Motor)Electric vehicles are seen as one solution to meeting stricter environmental regulations because they have no tailpipe emissions. But they face hurdles such as costly batteries and a limited driving distance compared with conventional cars, as well as the lack of infrastructure to recharge when away from home.
Forming a common "language" for fast-charging electric cars across various brands would save development costs for carmakers and ancillary industries, said the group, called Chademo. (Editors' note: According to Toyota's press release, "'CHAdeMO' is an abbreviation of 'CHArge de MOve', equivalent to 'charge for moving', and is a pun for 'O cha demo ikaga desuka' in Japanese, meaning 'Let's have a tea while charging' in English.")
"We will compete when it comes to vehicle performance, but we should cooperate on areas such as infrastructure," said Nissan Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga. Japan's No. 3 automaker will begin selling its first electric car later this year.
Mitsubishi Motors and Fuji Heavy, the maker of Subaru-brand cars, are the world's only mass-volume automakers now producing battery-run electric cars, with sales so far limited to corporate and government fleets in Japan.
"There are 1,000 electric cars and 150 fast-charge stations in Japan already," Tokyo Electric Power Executive Vice President Hiroyuki Ino told a news conference in Tokyo. "Our aim is to form a standard in Japan and make use of that in the world."
He said the group would lobby international bodies such as the Society of Automotive Engineers and the International Transport Forum to promote its technology.
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CNET's Caroline McCarthy in the driver's seat of a Chevy Volt test vehicle at SXSWi.
(Credit: CNET)AUSTIN, Texas--Analysts reported on Saturday that Apple sold 120,000 units of the iPad, an untested device that the vast majority of consumers have never seen or touched. Can you tap into that same gadget mania to sell an electric car?
General Motors thinks so. The company's Chevy division is a sponsor of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi), which it's using as a test platform for all sorts of edgy social-media marketing projects, but perhaps more importantly, it's previewing its forthcoming Chevy Volt plug-in electric car. The skeleton framework of a Volt was set up outside the Austin Convention Center, and Chevy had cleverly sponsored gadget-recharging stations around the venue for attendees to juice up their phones and laptops.
Alternative-fuel cars are typically marketed to environmentally conscious consumers or to buyers who hope to save on high fuel costs. But with the Volt, GM believes that it can find an additional target market in people who are drawn as much or more to the edgy technology of the Volt as the environmental or economic benefits.
I got to drive a Volt on Saturday morning. It's a blast. The touch-screen console and accompanying mobile application are sexy. And the idea of plugging a car into the same outlets where I can charge my laptop and iPhone is just awesome. This kind of marketing is selling a car as though it were a high-end smartphone, not an automotive vehicle--a way to make your life simpler, edgier, smarter, and more mobile.
I own a high-end smartphone (with a cringe-worthy bill every month), as well as an overpriced laptop that a Steve Jobs keynote convinced me to blow a paycheck on and some headphones that Bose swore would make my iTunes library sound better. But I don't own a car and don't foresee myself wanting one for, well, years.
I'm not alone in my sentiment at SXSWi. The challenge for Chevy, as well as any other automaker that hopes to target the high-tech futurists who tend to prowl around at SXSWi, is that they're addressing the same crowd that likes to talk about ditching cars altogether. These are the people who get giddy about the potential of new high-speed train routes, decorate their bikes with stickers from the dot-coms where their friends work, and wax philosophical about public transportation. Many of them are coming in from cities like San Francisco or Washington, D.C., where car ownership is optional, and New York, where it can be an outright inconvenience.
The majority of the 15,000 SXSWi attendees probably do own cars. But unless they're the sort who have cashed out their start-ups and splurged on a Ferrari, most of those people are buying cars for practical reasons, not out of some kind of sexy-gadget impulse. They're looking for one that will fit their kids (the Volt is a small four-seater), hold all their ski equipment (can the Volt make it to Tahoe on one charge?) or get them to and from the office in the absence of public transportation. And on that last note, I'd argue that SXSWi attendees are far more likely than the population at large to commute on mass transit, ride a bike, or work from home.
At the Volt driving course on Saturday morning, I told GM representatives that I don't own a car--and neither do most of the tech industry types I know in either New York or San Francisco--and they asked me what might make them want an electric car. True, they'd pretty much drool over the zippy little Volt and its accompanying software and iPhone app, and they'd appreciate having an electric car in a city where gas stations are hard to come by.
But I said I'd wager that every single one of them would rather spend a few hundred bucks on an iPad than on two months' parking garage fees. And auto insurance is just about as sexy as that cable bill that geeks love to talk about ditching.
The SXSWi crowd will most definitely talk about the Chevy Volt. They'll tweet about it, blog about it, and collect the commemorative virtual items on Gowalla. Using gadget-style fetishism to sell a car historically has worked with ultra-high-end aspirational vehicles that only a select few can afford (ahem, Tesla Roadster), the stuff of glossy muscle-car magazines--and that's not the Volt. Applying that tech fever to a mainstream sedan is a more complicated game.
Though, come to think about it, Steve Jobs probably could make it happen.
The case of the runaway Toyota Prius in San Diego highlights the challenges facing Toyota when claims are made about hard-to-trace glitches.
Jim Sikes: Prius driver who claimed uncontrolled acceleration
(Credit: CBS News)The incident, which received wide national coverage, happened Monday when James Sikes called 911, saying the accelerator in his Prius was stuck and he couldn't slow down. The happening was thought to be another in a string of alleged incidents related to glitches which, in rare cases, may cause uncontrolled acceleration in the Toyota Prius.
But now, Sikes' motives are being questioned by car site Jalopnik, as well as by USA Today. A report from a local Sacramento TV station investigated Sikes' past, also calling into question his motives.
All reports state that Sikes, who filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2008, had large debt loads. And USA Today says Sikes had cars repossessed in the past and that his leased Prius was his only remaining car, which he would have to give back in a few months. Though these facts alone do not necessarily add up to an indictment, the veracity of his claims are now being questioned on technical grounds by car Web site Edmunds.com.
Sikes did not return calls to his business.
Dan Edmunds tried to recreate the San Diego "runaway" Prius incident (see embedded video below).
(Credit: Edmunds.com)"It doesn't add up," said Dan Edmunds, director of vehicle testing at Edmunds.com, which just completed a test Friday of a Toyota Prius that's the same generation as the Prius in Sikes' case. (See the Edmunds.com video here.) "I just held the throttle wide open with my right foot and then I pressed on the brakes with my left foot. When you overlap the brake and the throttle in that car, the engine decouples, and the brakes take over completely."
"That's protection that's in the Prius drive train because of the hybrid nature of the vehicle," Edmunds said.
Sikes has claimed otherwise. ... Read More
BOSTON--Perhaps not surprisingly, wrapping a home in an air-tight seal and adding insulation dramatically lowers utility bills. But the question is: can people afford it?
On Thursday, contractors who could be considered pioneers in "deep-energy retrofits" presented results from their projects at the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association's BuildingEnergy conference here. In general, the data from early projects in Massachusetts shows that these energy makeovers delivered big gains in efficiency--on the order of 50 percent to 70 percent.
A superinsulation project under construction in Arlington, Mass. where two layers of foam insulation are added on the outside of the home.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)There are a number of techniques to cut building energy but the one these contractors often focus on is superinsulating, or sealing the building "envelope" and adding insulation, both inside and on the exterior of buildings.
In one multiphase project in western Massachusetts, the homeowners anticipate getting a 70 percent reduction in energy use by adding a layer of foam insulation on the roof and outside walls among other enhancements. Slashing energy use means lots of insulation: the roof will have an R-value, or insulating value, of 59, which is two or three times that of a typical New England home.
Closer to Boston, a superinsulation project at an 85-year-old, two-family home in Arlington, Mass., was able to reduce the amount of heating oil by about two-thirds in its first year, according to homeowner Alex Cheimets. In that case, homeowners decided to seal and add insulation to the exterior of the home when they had to replace the aging shingles.
Another project where only the roof was replaced and extensive air sealing done was able to reduce cut energy usage by 44 percent based on the same average heating days, according to David Joyce, the president of Synergy Companies Construction, who worked on the project.
Although it may sound fairly straightforward, the actual detail work of sealing a building envelope and adding insulation can be very difficult, contractors report. For example, adding insulation to the exterior walls requires builders to treat windows in a very different way, taking into account sealing as well as drainage. Once homes become air-tight, they need to have a mechanical ventilation system, such as a heat-recovery ventilator, to circulate outdoor air into the structure.
Another barrier to deep-energy retrofits is the cost. The project in Arlington cost about $100,000, although a smaller home could be roughly half of that, according to Synergy Companies Construction. Another approach to keeping costs down is to phase the construction over many years.
In these initial cases, the building owners are obviously highly motivated to cut energy for environmental or other reasons. But that doesn't mean there isn't a return on investment. A deep-energy retrofit at North Hampton Brewery is six years on a $200,000 investment, said the contractor, Sean Jeffords from Beyond Green Construction in western Massachusetts.
When on-site power generation is added, such as solar panels for electricity and hot water, it's possible for these super-efficient homes to become net-zero energy homes.
Tools needed
Deep-energy retrofits are still uncommon, not only because of the cost. Massachusetts is running a pilot program in which it plans to have 150 deep-energy retrofits (or 300 partial retrofits) over the next three years, which will be funded in part through utilities energy-efficiency programs. The size of the rebate ranges from about $25,000 to $40,000, according to Larry Masland, an energy efficiency planner in the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources.
But even when subsidized, there remain challenges, speakers said Thursday. Finding contractors with experience in deep-energy retrofits is difficult and homeowners generally don't have access to a lot of information. Meanwhile, subcontractors such as electricians or plasterers typically don't take great care in preventing air leaks, which is vital in this sort of project.
Increasingly, general contractors can use software for modeling and blower door tests to check air tightness. Certifications and rating systems are emerging, including the HERS score, which gives an overall efficiency grade. Some contractors are also pursuing the PassiveHouse certification, a super-efficient building design system which originally took root in Germany. Other certifications are the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Homes rating and EnergyStar.
Homeowners (and builders) need ways to measure the effectiveness of contractors' work and anticipated return on investment, said Jeffords of Beyond Green Construction. "At the end of the day, (homeowners) need tools and have a lot trust in what you do because their neighbors haven't done it," he said.
Other barriers to adoption are a lack of financing options for what are large investments and skilled workers, Jeffords added.
But when builders and homeowners focus on efficiency, the results can slash the ongoing expenses of heating and cooling a home.
Simon Hare last year began started a project to rebuild an 1850 gunshop in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston that would be so energy-efficient that it wouldn't need a heater. With the coldest months now behind him, Hare on Thursday reported that his family was able to survive the New England winter with only occasional use of an electric space heater when temperatures dipped below 30 degrees. Because of the lack of drafts, his family has felt comfortable with the indoor temperature at 60 degrees, he said.
Clearly, deep-energy retrofits are on the extreme end of cost and effort when it comes to making homes more energy-efficient. But creating a tight seal and insulating can be done whenever there are major renovations to a home, such as replacing a roof or siding, said contractors.
In many cases, homeowners can significantly cut their utility bills--and environmental footprint--on their own by turning off unused appliances and plugging holes around their homes with caulk and expanding foam.
(Credit:
Sanyo)
More and more electric bicycles are being developed in Japan to give riders a little help when commuting or going grocery shopping. They're a common sight on the hilly streets of Tokyo, where "mamachari" bikes with baskets and kid seats over the wheels are the norm.
Sanyo recently unveiled a new series of two-wheel drive eneloop electric hybrid bicycles whose lithium ion batteries can recharge while the bike is being pedaled on level terrain. Previous models relied on braking or downhill energy to re-power.
The Eco Charge Mode featured on the SPL series gives you more recharging opportunities while the bike is in use. It reads foot pressure on the pedals, as well as pedal torque and the revolution speed of the dynamotor on the front wheel, and charges the battery along flat roads, on downhills, and during braking. When the rider comes to an uphill gradient, the motor assist function kicks in automatically.
The Eco Charge Mode increases driving distance per charge by 53 percent compared with just biking in a high power-assist mode; Sanyo says the new SPL bikes can travel about 34 miles per charge.
By traveling 1 kilometer (1,093 yards) on flat ground in Eco Charge Mode, you can generate enough electricity to go about 300 meters (328 yards) in Power Mode, which provides lots of power assist. A power reserve function stores an extra bit of juice for those times when the battery runs out before you arrive at your destination.
To be released in Japan in April, the 26-inch CY-SPL226 and the 24-inch CY-SPL224 will have a price tag of about $1,700.
(Credit:
Sanyo)
Meanwhile, industrial products maker Iwatani recently showed off a hydrogen-powered electric bicycle at FC Tokyo, a gathering of companies in the fuel cell business.
... Read MoreNevada is about to become home to one very large wind turbine plant.
A-Power Energy, U.S. Renewable Energy Group, and American Nevada Group announced Thursday a joint project to build a mega-factory in Nevada for producing wind turbines.
The factory will produce and assemble advanced wind energy turbines for supplying wind projects in North and South America, producing an estimated 1,110-megawatts worth of turbines per year.
The 320,000-square-foot facility when completed will ultimately employ over 1,000 people, in addition to the temporary jobs its development and construction will immediately create.
Apparently, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was instrumental in convincing the China-based wind turbine producer A-Power to put a plant in his home state.
"Senate Majority Leader Reid's vision for the development of clean energy industries in his home state, Nevada's position relative to the major wind corridors, and the strength and sophistication of Nevada's skilled workforce made Nevada the best option for our headquarters and assembly plant for North and South America," Jinxiang Lu, CEO and chairman of A-Power, said in a statement.
The project's leading investor, U.S. Renewable Energy, also credited Reid's lobbying efforts for landing the project in Nevada.
"He told us that Nevada was poised to be at the epicenter of America's commitment to renewable energy technology. With a strong commitment to renewable energy and business-friendly climate, we felt that Nevada would be the ideal place to invest in this manufacturing hub," Ed Cunningham, managing partner at U.S. Renewable Energy, said in a statement.
It's certainly clear why Sen. Reid proposed a bill to reform oversight of electric transmission lines across the U.S. in February 2009. In addition to providing a solution to an obvious logjam in deploying renewable energy across the country, such a law would clearly help his own home state as it becomes more and more invested in the renewable-energy industry.
An exact location for the facility within Nevada has not yet been chosen.
Rovigo, Italy, whose motto is "the city of change," will soon be home to the largest photovoltaic power plant in Europe, according to SunEdison.
MEMC Electronic Materials subsidiary SunEdison announced Thursday it has received final approval from the Italian government to build a 72-megawatt photovoltaic solar power plant.
The solar services company has found a home for its plant just outside Rovigo, Italy, a city roughly halfway between Bologna and Venice. The choice is not surprising given the community's many progressive green policies and initiatives already in progress.
Rovigo's motto is "the city of change" and it's a member of CLEAR (City and Local Environmental Accounting Reporting), an EU project in which member towns and cities pledge environmental accounting and sustainability plans as part of standard governmental budget operations.
Construction of the solar power plant, which will start mid-year and take about six months to complete, will be led by Spanish construction firm Isolux Corsán and should create approximately 350 temporary local jobs for Italy's Veneto region.
Once completed, the SunEdison solar plant will be the largest PV solar plant in Europe generating enough power to supply over 17,000 homes annually with electricity. Currently, the largest photovoltaic plant in Europe is a 60-megawatt facility in Olmedilla, Spain, according to SunEdison.
Banco Santander is working in partnership with SunEdison to finance the project.
BOSTON--Corporate America needs to track its use of energy and resources as closely as it does its hiring and cash flow if it wants to keep pace with social concern about climate change and other sustainability issues, an activist U.S. investor group argues in a new report.
Population growth and a rising standard of living across the world will bring opportunities--but also risks of higher energy costs, scarcer water, and other possible consequences of climate change, the Ceres coalition of socially concerned investors, companies and public interest groups said.
Over the next decade, investors and consumers will expect more comprehensive disclosure from businesses about what climate-related risks they face and what they are doing about them, said the Boston-based group, whose members oversee some $400 billion in assets.
"It's time for a new generation of best practices, new expectations of what sustainability is," said Mindy Lubber, president of the group.
Leading U.S. businesses ranging from top conglomerate General Electric to No. 3 railroad CSX to the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores have already gone public about their efforts to make their products and operations more environmentally friendly.
"The next step is moving into a comprehensive set of practices, from the board room to the copy room," Lubber said. "Companies need to take sustainability into account, just as they would other major risks and opportunities in the marketplace."
"Environmental and social issues are core to business performance in the 21st century," Anne Stausboll, chief executive officer of the California Public Employees Retirement System, the biggest U.S. public pension fund and a Ceres member, said in a statement. "We are looking for companies that are managing these risks and developing opportunities."
In an 84-page report, the group spells out 20 practices it believes investors and consumers will come to expect from companies by 2020. The report is called "The 21st Century Corporation: The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability" and is set for release on Thursday.
The practices it urges range from tying executive pay to progress on sustainability, to providing greater detail on the environmental impact of products, to setting firm targets on improving energy efficiency, such as cutting greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.
The credit crunch and financial scandals of the past two years have shown investors that businesses can make choices that are far riskier than their executives may consider them to be. That has made some more attuned to the dangers that climate change may pose to business, Lubber said.
Ceres' report also cites some examples of what it considers the new decade's standards in corporate sustainability. Among them are a McDonald's drive to install energy efficiency control systems at its restaurants and Wal-Mart's adoption of a sustainability index intended to help shoppers pick environmentally sensitive products.
Further evidence of corporate America's changing thinking on climate change came last year, when companies including Apple and utility PG&E broke ranks with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of the nation's top business lobbying groups, over its opposition to pending U.S. legislation intended to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and limit climate change.
Correction, March 12, 1:02 p.m. PST: This story originally gave an incorrect figure for the assets overseen by Ceres members. Ceres says its members oversee some $400 billion in assets.
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BOSTON--In green-tech investing, expect mini bubbles and endless discussion of what role government should play in energy.
A panel of big thinkers and investors at the AlwaysOn GoingGreen East conference here on Wednesday found little agreement on the ongoing financial bubble question, with most of the talk focused on the role of government policies.
Since the dot-com boom, there have been recurring questions of whether new sectors, such as clean-energy technologies, are in danger of overinvestment. As the green-tech category has attracted billions of money in venture capital over the past decade, there's concern that money will be lost, particularly since there are so many relatively new investors in energy technology.
If there was consensus among panelists, it was that there have already been "mini bubbles," driven either by overzealous investors or government subsidies. The most recent examples are solar, where dozens of companies were formed over the past few years, and corn ethanol, an industry which grew rapidly based on supportive government polices.
The standard assumption is that people should avoid speculative investment bubbles, since they're bound to lose money. But Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe, who is now a venture capitalist at Polaris Ventures, argues that bubbles and even "boondoggles" are an important "source of innovation."
Metcalfe, who has given a talk on the parallels between the Internet and the energy industry over the past two years many times, thinks that entrepreneurs should continue trying to innovate in energy despite mini bubbles.
The role of government is central to the discussion of investment bubbles in energy because power and fuel markets are far more regulated than the Internet. Also, governments around the world, in general, seek policies that encourage domestic and clean sources of energy.
Solar power, for example, is more expensive than generating electricity from burning coal. But the cost per kilowatt hour does not figure in what economists call "externalities," or costs not directly attached to a price, said David O'Connor, a partner at ML Strategies, a government relations consulting company. Some externalities associated with importing oil or burning coal could be negative health effects, increasing global warming, and the military costs to the U.S.
O'Connor believes that there is a bubble in clean energy and clean tech fueled in part by government policies, but the idea behind those subsidies is to figure in the cost of externalities.
"What's important is that those policies are trying to capture costs that are real...but are not captured in the price of gasoline or our current energy sources," he said. "Whether the externalities are environmental, social, or energy security--all of these are real costs. Young Americans dying in the Middle East is a relevant cost when thinking about national energy costs."
Government policies to remove air pollutants that cause acid rain is an example in the past where governments set up a system to put a price on environmental costs, noted Jurgen Weiss, the principal of the consulting company the Brattle Group.
George Gilder, the chairman of Gilder Technology Publishing, dismissed the importance of government policies with regards to making energy cleaner, saying that government subsidies are not likely to yield more than their costs. He said that the dot-com boom was not a bubble because it created valuable companies and vastly expanded wireless and telecom bandwidth.
Upstream or downstream investment?
Governments around the world are now more actively encouraging domestic and low-carbon energy sources. The challenge for entrepreneurs and investors in energy is handicapping which policies will be persistent, said O'Connor. For example, at the moment it's unclear what regulations could be to cap carbon dioxide emissions. Policies to promote energy efficiency, by contrast, seem more durable, he said.
Many green-tech companies are formed around a technology with a potential to undercut existing energy generation sources, such as solar power that is cheaper than coal. As such, they aren't counting on subsidies.
Many venture capitalists, Metcalfe said, argue that their companies don't need subsidies, and that's part of their "sales pitch." But in fact, they often do, he said.
In the U.S., policies designed to promote clean-energy technologies are often in the form of a tax credit, noted Weiss. But an alternative is to focus subsidies "upstream" in the form of government-sponsored research and development.
None of the panelists offered specific suggestions on how to promote energy innovation. But all agreed that the government does a poor job of picking specific technologies and funding them, such as the FutureGen carbon capture and sequestration project that was suspended in 2008.
One area where the private sector falls short in funding green technologies is construction of expensive energy equipment, such as power plants or refineries to make second-generation biofuels, said Weiss. In general, venture capitalists don't have the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars needed. And bankers and private equity companies shy away from projects with technology risk.
Because of the high capital costs associated with solar power and biofuels, many investors have turned to smart-grid technologies but that, too, may be getting oversaturated. "The smart grid is overhyped but in a sense it's not as bad because the incremental investments are smaller than building a nuclear plant," said Weiss.
