Energy & Clean Technology Connections: Your Law Firm Link to Industry News

May 2014

In the May edition of Energy & Clean Technology Connections, we bring you recent industry highlights, the latest news from Capitol Hill, and a list of upcoming energy industry events. For links to industry grant opportunities and stories from the business, policy, and research sectors of the energy and clean technology industry, please see our new Energy Navigator.

We are proud to support the World Energy Innovation Forum on May 14 and 15 at the Tesla Factory in the San Francisco Bay Area. Chaired by Ira Ehrenpreis, the event will assemble prominent industry leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, and policymakers to discuss important energy issues and opportunities of our time. For additional information, please see the Event Highlights section.

In This Edition

» Leaders in the News
» Washington Update
» Event Highlights
» Innovator Profile
» Energy Navigator
» Events

Leaders in the News

Congratulations to the MIT Clean Energy Prize for hosting another successful competition in 2014. The MIT Clean Energy Prize is an entirely student-run entrepreneurship and innovation competition that awards over $300,000 in prizes to cutting-edge start-ups from universities across the US. It prepares tomorrow’s clean energy leaders by advancing their relationships with academic, industry, and government to help them meet the world’s pressing energy challenges.

A big congratulations to Unified Solar, the Grand Prize Winner of the 2014 MIT CEP competition! Unified Solar will greatly benefit the solar industry through its revolutionary, cost-effective solar panels. The solar panels employing Unified Solar’s technology act as a single “super cell” rather than a series or string of solar cells. The single “super-cell” behavior solves the weakest-link problems caused by partial shading, dirt collection, and manufacturing process variation. This patent-pending technology doubles the energy capture for less than a third of the price compared to the currently available solutions. We look forward to seeing the accomplishments this promising company will achieve in the future!

We would like to congratulate FloDesign Sonics, Inc., a leader in acoustic separation technology, for successfully closing a $10 million Series A financing round, which was led by Bright Capital and Ventry Industries, LLC. FloDesign Sonics announced that it will use the proceeds to further develop its core acoustic separation technology platform and fund commercialization efforts in the bioprocessing market application. The application of the core acoustic separation technology spans various industries, potentially benefiting a range of processes — from blood transfusion and management to the cleaning of contaminated water. For additional information, please read the full press release here.

Washington Update

In Washington, energy issues still garnered significant attention even though Congress was in recess for two weeks. In early April, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory released a report warning that a failure to revive the production tax credit could significantly harm the wind industry. The report finds that wind capacity additions could fall from an average of 8.7 GW per year from 2008 to 2012 to between 3 GW and 5 GW per year from 2013 to 2020 if the credit is not extended. The American Wind Energy Association released a report concluding that uncertainty over the extension of the production tax credit cost the United States wind industry 30,000 jobs last year. The report found that the uncertainty resulted in a drop in new capacity from 13.1 GW in 2012 to 1 GW last year, a 92% reduction.

On April 10, Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said that her bipartisan energy efficiency package (S. 2074), could see floor time in May, after consideration of the minimum wage bill (S. 2223). Leadership is still negotiating a process to limit floor amendments to the measure. House Energy and Commerce Chair Fred Upton (R-MI) said last October that he would move the bill through his committee if it passed the Senate. The House passed energy efficiency legislation (H.R. 2126) in March that included some aspects of the Shaheen-Portman package.

The State Department’s recent move to delay a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline has reignited a Congressional interest in forcing approval of the project. A plurality of senators are on record supporting the pipeline, but no legislation other than a nonbinding resolution has passed in the chamber because supportive Democrats have not wanted to usurp the president’s authority to make the final call. Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) has reached out to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Mary Landrieu (D-LA) to strategize, and Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) has gone on record saying that she is interested in reopening the discussions again. The House has already passed measures requiring the Obama administration to approve the pipeline. Meanwhile, project opponents Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) sent a letter on April 25 to Secretary of State John Kerry asking him to commit to a comprehensive human health study of tar sands oil and the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

The weekly Energy & Environment Update from ML Strategies, LLC provides an overview of what’s happening on and off Capitol Hill and around the world that may impact energy and environmental policies and industry players. Read the Update here.

Event Highlights

We look forward to the World Energy Innovation Forum to be held at the Tesla Factory in California’s Bay Area on May 14 and 15. The World Energy Innovation Forum will be chaired by longtime energy technology investor and industry leader Ira Ehrenpreis. The forum will assemble the who’s-who in the energy innovation sector to discuss the important energy issues and opportunities of our time. The event will host the leading investors, entrepreneurs, corporates, policymakers, and other prominent members of the energy ecosystem for two days of conversation, dialogue, and networking.

Attendees will have the opportunity to hear first-hand from Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, just named Fortune’s 2013 “Businessperson of the Year,” who will help kick off this year’s forum. The forum will feature many other key leaders in the energy innovation sector, all of whom will take to the podium to address the pivotal energy issues and opportunities of our time. This event marries the best in thought-provoking discussion with the best in industry networking in the most exciting venue in our industry. We look forward to seeing you there!

Innovator Profile

On April 16, 2014, the Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office issued a draft loan guarantee solicitation of up to $4 billion for renewable energy projects focused on clean energy innovation. The draft solicitation is particularly significant in that it is the first offer for renewable and efficiency projects under DOE’s 1703 Loan Program since 2008.

The solicitation focuses on projects in the following five areas: (1) advanced grid integration and storage, (2) drop-in biofuels, (3) waste-to-energy, (4) enhancement of existing facilities, and (5) efficiency improvements. The application process for this program will be split into two parts. Part I requires a description of the proposed project so that DOE can determine overall eligibility. Upon successfully passing Part I, applicants that move on to Part II will be asked to undergo a more rigorous full application process.

The Loan Programs Office is conducting a 30-day comment period on the scope of the solicitation, which is due to end May 16. The final solicitation is then expected to be issued in June or July of 2014.

For further information, please view DOE’s press release and the draft solicitation.

Energy Navigator

Please visit and bookmark our Energy Navigator to easily view all of the latest headlines from the most trusted publications reporting on developments in the energy and clean technology industries. It is housed on our blog, Energy & Clean Technology Matters.