Green companies to watch: Renewable energy
Which are the companies to watch in clean tech? Most are definitely not household names but they are having an impact.
Below the photo is a list of some of the newsmakers in the renewable energy business, with a focus on start-ups. Along the way, you'll get a feel for the technology categories that define this corner of green tech.
A trial balloon or the face of solar power in the future?
(Credit: Cool Earth Solar)Mirrors reflect light onto a liquid that makes steam, which drives a traditional electricity turbine. Other companies have different designs including BrightSource Energy which recently signed a huge deal with Pacific Gas & Electric and eSolar, which is reported to have just raised $130 million. Honorable mention goes to Infinia, which uses a Stirling engine to make distributed solar electricity.
2. SolFocus: Another technology for utility-scale solar power is concentrating photovoltaics (CPV), where light is magnified onto high-efficiency solar cells. SolFocus, incubated at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, is well funded and already has a few customers.
3. Southwest Wind Power. There are several companies taking different approaches to small wind turbines, designed for homes and buildings. Southwest Wind Power has turbines for remote off-grid locations but it now also has a ground-mounted one for homes. Another company to watch is Aerovironment which just had its small turbines installed at Logan Airport in Boston.
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4. First Solar. In the traditional solar photovoltaic market, First Solar the one to catch. The reason is simple: cost per watt. Its cadmium telluride-based panels take up more space than silicon cell panels, but its overall cost has set the mark in a highly competitive field. Hot in pursuit are other thin-film solar companies--Heliovolt, Global Solar Energy, and Nanosolar, which are making cells from yet another material, CIGS (copper indium gallium and diselenide).
5. Cool Earth Solar. Apart from the great name, this company is taking a potentially disruptive approach to solar electricity. Never mind expensive plants out in the desert. Why not just float reflective balloons in open fields?
Overall, you'll see that a lot of the action in renewable energy is not in the residential solar panel world, perhaps what most people would think.
Instead, most of the money is going to utility-scale power plants to make power at peak times of the day. And businesses, helped by favorable financing models, are the big buyers.
Expect it to stay that way in the coming years but not without some bumps. Lux Research predicts a shake-out among the larger companies because supply of polysilicon will overshoot demand in a few years, bringing prices--and a few solar vendors--down.
And will this influx of capital result in cheaper solar panels for average consumers? Yes, but government policies make a huge difference on the economic equation. What's also needed to make solar really widespread is more flexible financing to lower the hefty upfront cost.
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin. 
The future of outfitting will require third party audits, not just carbon credit purchases. Sin City isn't just the land of extreme excess anymore.
Media Contact: Alicia Surgeoner
PR & Marketing Director
Escape Adventures
Alicia@escapeadventures.com
702.596.2953
Las Vegas, June 7- Escape Adventures, a Las Vegas based multi-sport touring company, recently received the highest rating ever granted by Sustainable Travel International, making them the greenest touring company on earth. With hundreds of tour companies claiming to be environmentally responsible, this will undeniably raise the bar for outfitters who claim to be running their tours in an eco-friendly fashion.
Companies can claim to be sustainable; not leaving carbon pollution in their tracks, but essentially they are only paying to pollute when purchasing energy credits and not truly offsetting their carbon footprints. Consumers are hungry for a more logical and honest approach when deciphering, "light green" companies who use "green" as a marketing ploy, from those who are truly working to make a difference. If you drive your Hummer to shop at Whole Foods, you may fall into this category. Escape Adventures would like to congratulate their efforts and persuade them to seek other avenues of sustainability. It's not as daunting a task as most believe, just a bit of old fashioned elbow grease!
Jared and Heather Fisher of Escape Adventures have worked many years to acquire this outstanding honor. Their mission is simple: Support human power and the natural environment. Give back to the earth for the boundless free services it awards us.
The Fishers differentiate themselves from other outfitters in many ways.
· Grow their own organic garden & they feed its fare to guests on tour
· Collect used kitchen vegetable grease from local restaurants to fuel tour vans (80% less emissions)
· Recycle 90% of waste; tires, bottles, paper, plastic, glass- on tour & at shops
· Provide public recycling bins
· Installed solar panels at their home & shops
· Awarded, "Certificate of Environmental Stewardship," by Rocky Mountain Power, for purchasing 30,000 kilowatt hours of renewable wind energy
· Offer all employees $5/day to ride to work rather than drive
· Try to not buy products from China, the trail of oil from China to the US can be seen from space!
· Use only recycled products and buy merchandise with little or no packaging
Third party auditing by organizations like Sustainable Travel International, which has over 1200 companies adhering to their uber-strict guidelines worldwide, will hold the key to knowing whether a touring company, or any company for that matter, is truly green. Escape Adventures has received a four-star rating, with one star left to acquire...a five-star rating is almost unattainable, so as to give companies something to strive for. If it were easy, everyone would have one. STI ratings should be as prevalent and necessary as those A, B or C ratings you see in the window of your favorite restaurant.
For more information on Sustainable Travel International, please visit http://www.sustainabletravelinternational.org.
For more information about Escape Adventures and Las Vegas Cyclery please visit www.escapeadventures.com or call toll free 800.596.2953
Alicia Surgeoner
PR & Marketing Director
Escape Adventures
702.596.2953 O
702.838.6968 F
Alicia@escapeadventures.com
www.escapeadventures.com
"Travel the world, save the planet."
Named the GREENEST RACE in the country, the marathon is ranked in the Top 20 Marathons worldwide. The Austin Marathon/Half Marathon combination is the 7th largest in the country.
In 2008, all 50 states were represented, with the largest participation coming from Texas, Colorado, California and Illinois. Twenty countries participated with close to 500 runners coming from Mexico. There was an almost even split of men and women between both events, with females being the fastest growing demographic.
Race weekend also hosts a Health & Fitness Expo and pre-race dinner.
Of course, being hosted in the LIVE MUSIC CAPITAL OF THE WORLD, more than 40 bands will perform during the race, which benefits 26 charities, also showcased throughout the route.
Sponsors will become the focal point of all pre-event publicity material. This is an excellent opportunity for raising awareness in the community about your business while entertaining prospective or current clients and a wonderful opportunity to showcase your company.
Please let me know if you are interested or can recommend any others interested in supporting (sponsors, volunteers, donations for runner-packs, publicity, etc.) this event. We?ll tailor a program to meet your objectives.
Your support it greatly appreciated.
Alicia Parrish
Director of Sponsorship
Austin Marathon? -- ConleySports Inc.
512.448.4566