toshiba

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CES has been crazy this year, with the launch of Palm’s new Pre, LG phones converting to watches, and thousands of other new products launching. One thing that’s consistently at the forefront of these announcements are new and improved green practices.
CES, the show itself is working with Carbonfund.org to offset 20,000 tons of carbon and invest over $100,000 on environmental efforts. They’ve also devoted a portion of the show to cleantech and sustainable technologies. They’ve named the area Sustainable Technologies TechZone….clever. Companies displaying their work and practices include Dell, Voltaic Systems, Freeplay Energy and Meraki Networks among others.
Three giants; Panasonic, Toshiba, and Sharp formed the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Co. LLC (MRM). The organization will manage the collection and recycling of old electronics. MRM has been running for 5 months in Minnesota and has already collected over 750 tons. This year, they plan expansion to 280 sites throughout the US. This goes along with all the other green moves Panasonic has been making lately.
Just following it’s announcement to enter the solar market, Toshiba continued to deliver the goods with a few notable green product announcements. They’re launching the Portégé laptop which is said to be the greenest laptop sold in the US (by EPEAT standards), a electric bicycle that goes 20-30 miles on a 5 minute charge (sick), a LED downlight that uses one seventh the power a normal light bulb, as well as some energy efficient LCD’s.
Garmin made one of my favorite announcements with their free “ecoroute” software update. Before they only had “fastest time” and “shortest distance” as route options. The new update includes a “less fuel used” option by suggesting the most fuel efficient route….nice.
Motorola seems to be doing all it can to stay current by introducing a new green phone to the mix. The MOTO W233 is made partly from recycled water bottle plastics and is 100% recyclable and carbon neutral. They make this claim by neutralizing the carbon emission from manufacturing and distribution with Carbonfund.org….one of the better announcements I’ve seen out of Motorola in while.
Keep your eyes up for more updates from Vegas….

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solar

If it weren’t for the economy, Solar in 2008 would have been killing it, both in VC investments and stock prices. We saw large sums invested into CIGS (copper indium gallium diselenide) solar startups like Nanosolar, Miasole, and Solopower; bringing in over $200 million each. We also saw solar thermal (slightley less efficient than CIGS) startups like eSolar, Solel, and Brightsource bring in over $100 million a piece.
The state of California called for utilities to increasingly pull from clean energy sources. Brightsource took in 900MW, while SunPower and OptiSolar locked in 800MW worth of solar power purchase agreement from Northern California utility PG&E.
Where’s the irony you might ask? Take a look at the top six performing solar stocks and you’ll see why. Keep in mind, all six stocks more than doubled their price through 2007.
First Solar, despite their recent grid-parity milestone and impressive profit growth, came in 1st place, losing only 48% of their stock price since the beginning of 2008. Coming in second, SunPower lost 72% throughout the year.
The next four; Yingli Green Energy, Suntech Power, JA Solar, and Evergreen Solar all lost over 80% of their stock value through 2008. There is, however, an upside to this whole equation.
We’re already seeing bold moves from big players, some not even involved in solar power until recently. Conergy & GE are beginning investment into an India/Asia renewable energy trust that could potentially generate over $7 billion a year. Panasonic will be upping their solar game big time once they buy Sanyo for $9 Billion by way of a public tender offer. Most recenlty, Toshiba formed a group exclusively dedicated to building solar power plants. JA Solar will be supplying Solar Power, Inc. with 60MW worth of cells over 2009. Not to mention, Obama could potentially invest over $100 Billion into energy infrastructure and green job creation.
Although 2008 was rough, and 2009 quite possibly could be worse, Solar and all renewable energies might just be in luck. Joseph Muscat, Ernst & Young’s director of cleantech and venture capital, believes “…that the cleantech renewable energy sector will be the first to emerge when the market stabilizes.”