Scaling Clean

Note: this article was updated in August 2022 to reflect recent changes in the industry.

The Global Clean Energy Investment Landscape

The cost of renewable energy continues to become more competitive with fossil fuels as LCOE drops. Following passage of tax cut legislation at the end of 2017, Greentech Media reports, "Much of the conversation in clean energy circles…has revolved around a potential shrinking of the tax equity market -- which accounts for between 40 percent and 60 percent of finance for individual solar and wind projects -- because of the reduction in value of renewables credits." According to Greentech Media, however, it appears that - so far at least -  corporate America is showing "continued interest in direct renewables investments." 

A recent article in the Financial Times yet again drives home the fact that dirty energy, particularly coal, "has no future."

See below for video of Chris Brown of Vestas, keynoting the opening session on day two of WINDPOWER 2017, concluding today in Anaheim, CA. According to Brown, who is completing his tenure as Chair of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the next five years will be the "best five years of your life" for the wind power industry. Brown adds: "So along with the success that we've been having, if you've become afraid, then I say good! Welcome to life as an energy industry disruptor." And Brown notes that "critics criticize...but ask yourself, why do those critics pay attention to us? Because we're a threat, because we're winning." A few more quotes from Brown's excellent speech:

Chris Brown, chairman of the board of the American Wind Energy Association and president of Vestas-American Wind Technology, Vestas’ North American business unit, has a piece in the Austin American-Statesman that explains very well why wind power is winning in Texas and across America. A few key points worth highlighting include:

We read with great interest cleantech industry leader Andrew Beebe's thought piece, The Revenge of the Long Tail: Small, distributed solar companies are retaking the industry. Here’s why.  The following excerpt captures what Beebe's main point is.

Over at The Guardian, Vestas' CEO Anders Runevad argues convincingly that "the future belongs to clean energy." Not surprisingly, given that that Vestas bills itself as "the global leader in wind energy," Runevad focuses on wind power, as opposed to other forms of clean energy. Among other things, Runevad argues that:

A new INDIEGOGO video by Green Commuter explains, "every year American spend nearly a week stuck in traffic," which takes time away from other important stuff and adds to environmental pollution. To address this problem, Green Commuter has "developed an App that allows you to use our own fleet of Tesla Model X for van pools during commuting hours and as a car share the rest of the time." This is both "affordable" and "environmentally friendly," and given that the vehicles are used efficiently, "we can afford to make our rates one of the lowest in the industry." In the end, the goal is "saving the planet as well as saving your dollar."

We recently had a chance to speak with Haruumi Shiode, founder and CEO of a startup called Nature, Inc. This company’s focus is on improving residential demand management, and specifically through the use of smart controls for window-mounted or through-wall air conditioners. These types of A/C units are very common in parts of the United States like the northeast, where 58% of households with air conditioning have them. According to Shiode, Nature’s goal is to make it easy for people to save energy – and money – by allowing them to control their room air conditioners remotely.

The great folks at DeSmogBlog have yet another excellent piece up, this one looking at "How Propaganda (Actually) Works." Here's an excerpt, followed by a few possible lessons for the clean energy industry.

The B2B (business-to-business) environment is rapidly changing. Most of this change is driven by businesses modeling the purchasing behavior of the general population by using personal and professional networks, as well as information available online, to inform decision making. This “crowd sourcing” of solutions is a paradigm shift for any business that provides products, services or information to other businesses.

Last fall, we highlighted great work by the Checks and Balances Project (C&BP) watchdog group on the fossil-fuel-funded front group, the National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC), which has been a vociferous opponent of clean energy and climate solutions.  We also wrote about C&BP's October 28, 2015 lawsuit against the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), demanding immediate access to public records on Commissioner Bob Stump’s taxpayer-funded smartphone.

We've been beating the drum for several years about the need for cleantech to play "full contact" against the fossil fuel lobby. Back in December 2010, for instance, Tigercomm Founder and President Mike Casey argued that the growing success of solar and wind power had caused "dirty energy industries [to spend] significant resources to harden the marketing and sales environment against cleantech's success." Casey related key lessons learned from a panel of cleantech communicators convened during the 2010 Solar Power International (SPI) trade show:

Recently, we summarized a fascinating, 132-page report by Citi, which confirmed (yet again) that switching from fossil fuels to clean energy makes sense not just environmentally, but also economically. Now, we've put together an easy-to-read, easy-to-share infographic, highlighting the key findings from Citi's report. If you're interested in receiving the infographic, just click on the image below, provide us with your contact information, and we'll email it to you right away. Thanks!

We thought that a quick guide to a few cleantech podcasts would be helpful for communicators, analysts, investors and industry professionals who want to stay on top of this dynamic, far-flung sector. Here are a few that jumped out at us; please let us know if there are others you listen to and would recommend in the comments below.

Yesterday, we posted on two recent interviews with Vestas CEO Anders Runevad. One of the questions, by a CNBC on-air correspondent, really jumped out at us:

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Cleantech is one of the fastest growing sectors in the economy, with over 1 million jobs created worldwide in 2014 alone.  This growth means the cleantech sector is pulling in engineers, finance experts, communication professionals, human resources heads, etc. from other industries. Entering a new position anywhere can be challenging, and the world of cleantech certainly has many terms of art.

For years, we've watched as the entrenched, increasingly antiquated, but politically-well-connected and heavily-subsidized dirty energy industry has attempted to slander wind, solar and other clean energy sources as...well, basically lame in every way.  One of the dirty energy folks' implicit themes has been that, somehow, fossil fuels are uniquely suited to fulfilling the American Dream, while clean energy is some sort of alien force that is inherently more suited to "socialist" Europe than to the "capitalist" United States. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, which is why it's great to see articles like the one by Jigar Shah and Raj Pannu in Fortune on how green energy is, in fact, quintessentially "red, white and blue." Here are a few great lines that jumped out at us.

By Lowell Feld, Guest Columnist

Here are five recommended reads for today (6/1/15).

Here are five recommended reads for today (5/12/15).

Here are five recommended reads for today (5/4/15).

Here are five recommended reads for today (4/17/15).

Here are five recommended reads for today (4/13/15).

Here are five recommended reads for today (3/24/15).

Here are five recommended reads for today (3/17/15).

Here are five recommended reads for today (2/20/15).

Here are five recommended reads for today (1/21/15).

In attempting to communicate with customers or policymakers, you have a number of options at your disposal.  That includes both analog and digital methods, and all the many subsets within each of those areas.  Along those lines, a recent article article on this subject, entitled Just a Handful of Social Media Comments Can Grab the Attention of Congress, Study Shows, caught our eye, if for no other reason than it made a strong claim for one widely popular communications method (social media) over a tried-and-true one (email).

Here are five recommended reads for today (12/29/14).

Here are five recommended reads for today (11/11/14).

Here are five recommended reads for today (10/22/14).

Is your state benefiting from, or missing out on, the national solar power boom that's well underway (note: click on the map to enlarge). That question is at least partly answered by the new Solar Means Business Report, released this morning by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). Among other things, the report finds that the "average price of a completed commercial [solar] PV project in Q2 2014 has dropped by 14 percent year over year and by more than 45 percent since 2012." That's great news, of course, and a continuation of the long-term trend which has seen solar power costs fall by 99% since 1977 - a trend that's continuing.

Here are five recommended reads for today (10/7/14).

Here are five recommended reads for today (9/2/14).

Here are five recommended reads for today (8/26/14).

This article isn't directly cleantech related, but it does apply to those working in cleantech - or any other industry for that matter. Specifically, it highlights the importance of segregating electronic interruptions and social media, and of taking work-free, electronics-free vacations.

Here are five recommended reads for today (6/26/14).

David Briggs has long-standing experience in the solar industry, including three years at a cleantech communications firm and three years as Marketing Manager at microinverter manufacturer Enphase Energy. Briggs now works as Director of Marketing at mounting systems provider IronRidge. Recently, Briggs took a few minutes from his busy schedule to talk to us about an important topic for the solar industry: how best to engage and market to your customer base, and ultimately to "truly out-compete traditional energy." We greatly appreciate Briggs' insight-filled responses to our questions.

By Tom Matzzie

Here are five recommended reads for today (5/21/14)

Here are five recommended reads for today (5/12/14).

This past September, Tigercomm President Mike Casey interviewed former “super lobbyist” Jack Abramoff. Whatever else you think about him, the fact is that Abramoff knew the business of Capitol Hill influence peddling inside-out. What Abramoff said to Casey was that the fossil fuel industry is deadly serious about this game, and that the clean energy industry needs to fully understand that. Case in point? A new analysis on The Great Energy Challenge blog by Bill Chameides, Dean of Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. The key takeaways?

Here are five recommended reads for today (5/7/14).

On April 11, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) held a fascinating media roundtable at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. ACORE President Michael Brower set the tone for the panels with his introductory remarks, in which he stressed that "renewable energy resources have historically held the goodwill of the majority of the American public," but that media coverage doesn't necessarily reflect that - or "align with the reality of the marketplace." As Brower explained, the media has over-reported the relatively infrequent cleantech failures, while under-reporting its overwhelming successes. And, Brower added, many of those successes are happening in the states, where from "Maine to Georgia, to Kansas to Oregon and all those states in between," we see "a new emergence of bipartisan-ism on clean and renewable energy."

An article in the Washington Post, "Serious reading takes a hit from online scanning and skimming, researchers say," got us thinking: What impact, if any, might this change in the way we process information in the digital, social media age impact cleantech marketing? We'll share our thoughts in a minute, but first, here are a few key points from the Post article.

Katie Fehrenbacher "launched GigaOM’s greentech channel in 2007 and closely tracks energy entrepreneurs and investors," so she's definitely got her finger on the pulse of the industry,  particularly in Silicon Valley.  Which is why her take-down of the meme that "Silicon Valley doesn’t seem to be creating anything meaningful anymore" is worth highlighting. Fehrenbacher makes  a few key points.