July 27th, 2010
For the first time, the energy ministers of 24 industrial and threshold countries came together in Washington last week, to discuss energy efficiency and renewable energy. 11 initiatives were launched during the meeting to address these issues. The projects include electric vehicles, solar energy, smart grids and household appliance efficiency.
Everyone at the conference has agreed that the issue of renewable energy is extremely important and many proposed a doubling of investments in clean technologies, but no actual financial commitments were made. These meetings will now be held on an annual basis, the next one scheduled for the United Arab Emirates and the 2012 meeting is set to take place in the United Kingdom.
One important initiative created at the meeting was the Carbon Capture, Use and Storage Action Group. This group aims to establish infrastructure around the world for carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS) by 2020. Germany will be a part of this initiative, as well as the following three other: the Electric Vehicle Initiative, the super-efficient equipment and appliance deployment initiative and it will head the Multilateral Solar and Wind Working Group, together with Denmark.
If you would like more information about the meeting and the initiatives, you can read the following article: http://nyti.ms/aMEgVd
Tags: clean technology, renewable energy
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July 8th, 2010
- Market. This is possibly the most important factor to consider: is there market demand for your product? If there isn’t you will have a chance even with a mediocre product, however, if there is already a strong market, even an extraordinary product might not do the trick.
- Momentum. You have to continuously show that you are working on your product. You need to have people using your product, not just once, but also coming and a good marketing strategy. This will indicate that you have some traction in the market.
- Team. You need to have a reliable team around you. Only hire people you know and that will stand behind your product and work on it with 100% effort.
- Naysayers. If people are saying what you are attempting can’t be done, that is a good sign. It means that they don’t know how to do it and as a result you know you have discovered something new.
For a more detailed account please see http://bit.ly/d99jDF
Tags: entrepreneurship, funding, innovation, start-ups
Posted in Venture Capital, entrepreneurship, innovation | 1 Comment »
July 6th, 2010
Last week, vice president of the European Commission, Antonio Tajana, initiated a mandate to the European norms organisations CEN, CENELEC and ETSI, to create EU-wide standards for charging stations of electronic cars.
Such unified standards will allow electronic cars to cross borders without major complications. Some of the most important points of discussion are standardized plugs, battery standards and general safety standards.
Tags: clean technology, Electric cars, Europe, European Commission
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July 5th, 2010
The trend is continuing as once again we see a rise in Clean Tech investment. The preliminary results for the second quarter of 2010 show a total investment of 2.02 billion USD in 140 different companies. There was a slight decrease compared to last quarter (2.04 billion USD), but an increase of 65% in the first half of 2010 (4.02 billion USD) compared to the same period last year.
The forerunner of the investment increase was the solar sector with 811 million USD alone. This is far ahead of the money put in the biofuels (302 million USD) and the smart grid (256 million USD) industries. Based on the total number of deals, the solar sector was second to energy efficiency, the former having accumulated 26 deals and the latter 31 deals.
North American countries accounted for the largest amount of the total investment, namely 72 percent of 1.46 billion USD. European follows in second with 24 percent or 476 million USD. India (3 percent or 59 million USD) and China (2 percent or 30 million USD) follow in third and fourth respectively.
For more detailed information please visit http://bit.ly/bCrWhR
Tags: clean technology, funding, venture capital
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June 28th, 2010
Many companies have had to cut back on spending during the past year due to the economic crisis. However, this year they want to start spending money again, but the banks remain reluctant to readily give out cash. They have become much more careful when checking the operative cash-flow and the debt of the companies. Thus if you have a high debt and your cash-flow is negative, you have to find a VC, because the likelihood is, that banks will not give you any loans.
Tags: entrepreneurship, venture capital
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June 25th, 2010
Even though the numbers are better than last year, this year will be a tough one for the private equity scene. In other European countries, private equity investment has already begun picking up, but Germany usually follows with a delay of up to one and a half years. Private Equity companies are going through a tough time and have to invest over 50% of their own capital and are settling for very small transactions.
However, in the PE scene investors are trying to demonstrate that private equity is not dead. It is argued, that the current state is a consolidation of the private equity market. Within 10 years it will have become a lot stronger, which is a necessity, as private equity companies are an indispensible means to stimulate the German economy.
If you want to read more, please visit: http://bit.ly/cWoRlw (Link to the “Handelsblatt”, article only in German)
Tags: private equity
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June 22nd, 2010
The Russian president ordered the setting up of an international centre for technological innovation earlier this year. Through this, he hopes to attract young entrepreneurs and venture capital and private equity companies to the region. Construction on offices flats and labs will be started shortly, just west of the capital Moscow.
It seems that Russia wants to build its own Silicon Valley and it is clear that they are doing their best to attract both capital and intellect. They will be offering low rents, income tax exemptions and other perks to those willing to settle down in the area. The organizers are using the following pitch to attract companies: “Come, live, create and do good for yourself, Russia and the whole of civilization” (WSJ, 2010). For the moment, the main focus will be on ICT, Biotech, energy efficiency and nuclear technology.
If you want to read more on the topic, please visit: http://bit.ly/9IHDyu
Tags: entrepreneurship, Europe, innovation
Posted in entrepreneurship, innovation | 1 Comment »
June 18th, 2010
The Economic Crisis has led to a decrease of investment in high-tech startups by 70 percent in 2009. The most hard-hit from this have been the high-tech industries, which mainly need money in the seed phase to get off the ground. In 2009, only 8 million Euros were invested in seed funding, which is detrimental, as especially high-tech startups need a lot of money at the beginning.
The Problem is that investors want security that seed funding generally does not offer; most of the time it means high risk and low cost-efficiency. In Germany the selection of high-tech startups is limited, which leads investors to invest internationally rather than locally. Currently there are too few people risking to become self-employed, which is in part due to the lack of seed-stage investments.
The mentality in Germany has to be changed in order to get the startup motor running again. Financing should already occur in the research phase, which will increase the likelihood of people creating startups, as this idea is being encouraged very early on. With private investors not willing to invest in the seed phase, public investors have to step up and help the high-tech market get back on its feet.
Tags: innovation, start-ups, venture capital
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June 4th, 2010
In light of this week being dedicated to European Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Antonio Tajani, commissioner for industry and entrepreneurship and vice president of the European Commission spoke on the subject. His main argument was that financial assistance to SMEs is essential for the European economy to recover.
It has been shown that around 45% of Europeans would like to be their own boss, but only 11% of those actually start their own business. If this percentage could be increased, these new creative and innovative companies would rejuvenate the European economic base. This would make it more robust and resilient to economic crisis, like the recent one, and at the same time create many jobs.
Between 2002 and 2008 the number on SMEs increased by 13 % or 2.4 million, which created 9.4 million jobs. In the last two years, following the economic crisis, 3.25 million jobs were lost in the SME area. Of course, SMEs usually can’t help themselves; they need assistance from banks, which recently have often rejected loan applications based on fears of another crisis.
Thus, the onus is on the European Commission to take action and facilitate access to financial assistance. In light of this, the Small Business Act has been created and it “aims to improve the overall approach to entrepreneurship, to irreversibly anchor the “Think Small first” principle in policy making from regulation to public service, and to promote SMEs’ growth by helping them tackle the remaining problems which hamper their development” (http://bit.ly/9Y6be4).
Further measures that the Commissioner aims to take are to create a permanent dialogue between entrepreneurs and financial institutions, a reward system for entrepreneurs and even integrate entrepreneurship into the curriculum at all stages of education. A program called ‘Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs’, where entrepreneurs can exchange experiences and network, has already been set up.
Tags: entrepreneurship, Europe, European Commission, SME
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May 31st, 2010
Solar energy has great potential to be the energy source of the future, but it is unreliable. What happens when the sun goes down at night? Or when the sky is cloud covered all day? These questions are currently being addressed, as researchers are experimenting on ways to store the energy captured from the sun.
One current solution used in Spain in parabolic trough power plants, is to use solar energy to heat up a thermo oil, which in turn heats up liquid salt, and when the sun goes down, the heat of the liquid salt is used to power a steam turbine. However, liquid salt is very expensive and it is not allowed to cool down, or else it will congeal and destroy the container. Furthermore, liquid salt is not compatible with solar thermal power plants, thus different containment methods have to be developed for the varying power plants.
In a solar power plant In Jülich Germany, solar panels reflect the sunlight to a huge tower, which stores the heat. In this case we are dealing with heat in gas form, which makes a storage container of molten salt not feasible. Thus, in this situation ceramic is used, which is however also very expensive. Currently the researchers are working on an alternative solution that uses salt. The salt falls into a collecting container and in the process, the warm gas is blown onto the sand, transferring its warmth onto it.
The salt method is also not perfect, as it cannot be as easily pumped through pipes as liquids or gases. A final method is the chemical thermal storage, where, for example, calcium hydroxide would be split into Calcium and Water. Then the two elements would be brought back together and heat would be released. This way, the energy can be saved for a long period of time and released at whatever temperature necessary. However, this method has only been tested in the confines of scientific labs and would require the construction of a special chemical reactor.
There is a lot of potential for development in this area and experimentation with different materials and processes. If renewable energies are to replace current non-renewable sources, a process for their storage has to be developed, so that we will still have energy when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind dies down.
Tags: clean technology, renewable energy, solar power
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