California Clean Tech Open

Over the past few weeks I ran across a green technology related business plan competition called the California Clean Tech Open. The competition is sponsored by Acterra: Action for a Sustainable Earth, a non-profit organization based in Palo Alto, CA. The competition focuses on 6 different clean tech categories:

• Air, Water & Waste
• Energy Efficiency
• Green Building
• Renewables
• Smart Power
• Transportation

Each category winner will receive a "Start-up in a box" prize package worth $100,000. During the course of the competition, there are many opportunities for entrants to attend workshops receive mentoring, and meet many venture capitalists and industry professionals. The entry deadline is June 30.

I'm interested in the clean/green tech field, but I'm not sure I have a good enough idea for a start-up. I did sign up for the Technology and Entrepreneur Matching Event on June 4. This event attempts to match entrepreneurs with researches in the clean tech field. Who knows, maybe I'll find a partner to team up with.

Last year there were more than 500 entries in 5 categories. The winners and finalists are listed here. My favorite entry from last year is a company called SoCool. They are making a solar powered AC for cars which fits into a standard sunroof footprint. It keeps you car cool without wasting gas. It even keeps your car cool while parked on a hot, sunny day! That really is So Cool. Why didn't I think of that? I'm not sure if this product, called Helios, is commercially available yet.

Gumbo Limbo and Turtles

I went to the Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex in Boca Raton, FL. It's located in Red Reef Park on the barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway. The main purpose of the complex is to protect a stand of forest known as the tropical hammock. The small park includes coastal dunes, sable palm hammock and mangrove wetlands. There are also a lot of the park's name sake, the Gumbo Limbo tree (picture left).

There's a nice boardwalk through the hammock and along the Intracoastal. There are a lot of different trees in the hammock, though some of it was damaged by Hurricane Wilma in October 2005. The damage has allowed some different plant species to emerge. For example there are a lot of papaya trees growing which haven't been seen in the area for some 60 years. A 40' tower provides a nice view from above the canopy. There's supposed to be a family of gray foxes living under the boardwalk, but I didn't see them.

There's a research center at the complex including 4 outdoor aquariums. One of the aquariums contained small nurse and lemon sharks. They are being used for perception research by the Florida Atlantic University. Another tank contains various reef fish and crustaceans. The final two tanks contain fish and turtles. One tank has a Kemp's Ridleys Turtle and the other contains 3 Loggerhead Turtles (left). There are also some tortoise there. The staff leads turtle walks during the nesting season to see egg laying and later hatching. Unfortunately I was there a couple weeks before the first walks start. There are apparently some Leatherback Turtles laying eggs along the SE Florida coast, but they are very protected and the nests are not publicized.

It's a nice complex preserving a small glimpse of the natural Florida coast. There are more pictures in the Gumbo Limbo section of my Gallery.

Green California

I am continuing my investigation into green technologies and potential related careers. There are many different technologies in areas such as monitoring and conservation, alternative fuels, power generation, power storage, transportation, etc. Many of these areas require completely different experience from my career in semiconductors and consumer electronics. Most of my hardware experience in ASIC and logic design falls short of the device level physics and materials knowledge required in some of these areas. A lot of the fuel and transportation technologies center more around chemical and mechanical engineering. There are a few opportunities with embedded control systems and more general project management. This is my current focus for now.

There are more and more venture capital funds focusing on green technology, clean energy, etc. There are even some non-profit entities such as the California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF) receiving funds from the likes of PG&E. One of the biggest hurdles seems to be the federal governments close ties to the fossil fuel and transportation industries. Without a strong commitment from the US government, I'm afraid the industry will not move as quickly as it could. In the mean time countries like Germany have enacted Renewable Energies Laws which have stimulated huge growth in their solar industry. At least some states are starting to take action such as California's Green California program. How do we get the federal government to follow suit?

In the mean time, the San Jose peregrine falcons are doing well. It is fun to watch Jose and Clara feeding and protecting their three chicks on the webcam. They seem to be doing a pretty good job. The chicks are getting bigger each day. They are starting to look like baby birds rather than boneless lumps of white fluff. I haven't had a chance to spot the falcons during my visits to downtown, but I hope to do so. I'll be especially interested watching them when the chicks start to fledge.