By Steve Marshall, Guest Blog Contributor Today is Election Day and soon we will know who our next governor will be. Here is what we want to tell the next governor about how to transform transportation: Dear Governor-Elect ____: The personal computer and the internet have transformed the global economy. It is hard now to imagine… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Technology
Subscribe to Technology RSS FeedTransforming Transportation – Part Three: Autonomous Vehicles–Friend or Foe?
Posted in Electric Vehicles, TechnologyWhat do you think when you think of autonomous vehicles? The future? The “Jetsons” coming to life? Scary? A way to save lives on U.S. roads and reduce congestion? On the 25th of September, California Governor Jerry Brown did something bold: he signed California Senate Bill 1298 legalizing autonomous (“driverless”) cars for further evaluation and… Continue Reading
Transportation is About to be Transformed in the Northwest – Part Two: An intimate dialogue with Amory Lovins
Posted in Energy Conservation, Events, Fuel Efficiency, Tax, TechnologyIn my blog last week (Transformation is About to be Transformed in the Northwest- Part One), I discussed the highlights from the Beyond Oil: Transforming Transportation conference held at the Seattle Center on September 7, 2012. Graham & Dunn held a private lunch reception for industry/government stakeholders in honor of Amory Lovins, Chief Scientist at… Continue Reading
Transportation is About to be Transformed in the Northwest – Part One
Posted in Clean Energy, Electric Vehicles, Energy Conservation, Entrepreneurs, Events, Fuel Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Technology, UncategorizedOn September 7, 2012, Steve Marshall, executive director of CATES (Center of Advanced Transportation and Energy Solutions), Next 50, and Washington Clean Cities hosted the Beyond Oil: Transforming Transportation in Century 21 conference at the Seattle Center. Amory Lovins, chief scientist at the Rocky Mountain Institute, and Bob Lutz, former vice chairman of GM (North… Continue Reading
A Traveler’s Observations about Energy Consumption in Spain
Posted in Fuel Efficiency, Renewable Energy, TechnologyFor my first blog post of the fall, I’m starting with my favorite back-to-school essay topic from when I was a kid: “what did you do on your summer vacation?” It’s easy. It doesn’t make you really get serious yet. And it lets you think about what you actually might have learned from the time… Continue Reading
Don’t Miss It: Only 10 More Days Left—Register Now for the Beyond Oil: Transforming Transportation Conference on September 7, 2012!
Posted in Electric Vehicles, Energy Conservation, Entrepreneurs, Events, Fuel Efficiency, Renewable Energy, TechnologyA Conference About Transforming Transportation in Century 21 This full day conference and summit on September 7, 2012 is part of Seattle’s Next Fifty celebration that will look to the future of transportation with a conference focusing on the market and technological transformations that will move us beyond oil. Speakers and exhibits will discuss how… Continue Reading
Sustainability 3T: Transforming Tomorrow’s Transportation
Posted in Alternative Fuels, Clean Energy, Electric Vehicles, Fuel Efficiency, TechnologyI believe that we are on the cusp of the next great NW economy: the transportation economy. We have had a lumber/natural resource economy, an industrial economy, a software/information economy (of which we are thankfully still in), and we are about to witness the rise of a great transportation economy as drivers naturally adopt more… Continue Reading
Liaoning Province, Washington State, and UniEnergy Technologies
Posted in Clean Energy, Energy Conservation, Entrepreneurs, TechnologyA high-level delegation from Liaoning Province, a major industrial center in Northeast China, and officials from Washington and the City of Bellevue recently conducted two days of meetings in Seattle, Bellevue, and Mukilteo, Washington, to foster collaboration between the two economic areas on the development and commercialization of clean technology including advanced energy storage. The… Continue Reading
Can a New Political Consensus be Found to Keep a 75-Year Supply of Natural Gas from Dooming Renewable Energy?
Posted in Capital and Funding, Legislation, Natural Resources and Environment, TechnologyIn an April 12, 2012 article in the New York Times, Jad Mouwad wrote about the transformation in United States’ energy fortunes that is fundamentally changing much of what we thought we knew about domestic and international realities. After decades of viewing ourselves as energy depleted, he writes, the United States now finds itself cutting… Continue Reading
Sustainable Transportation Visions
Posted in Clean Energy, Electric Vehicles, TechnologyLast week I went to the WCTA sustainable transportation meeting and got pretty jazzed by a rousing discussion. The main presenter was Mark Frohnmayer, CEO/Founder of Portland-based Arcimoto. Arcimoto’s mission is sustainable transportation. Its concept is a 3-wheeled EV offering called the SRK that is designed for everyday use for the short term driving (think… Continue Reading
On Disappointment
Posted in Capital and Funding, Clean Energy, Events, Smart Grid, TechnologyVery early in the morning on November 17, 2011, long before the sun came up, the president of smart grid company GridMobility and I drove from San Jose to SFO for a first flight back to Seattle. The prior two days, the CleanTech Open had held its national business competition. The vehicle was thick with… Continue Reading
Doubling Down on U.S. Car Efficiencies by 2025 and Our Local Opportunities
Posted in Energy Conservation, Fuel Efficiency, Legislation, Patents, TechnologyOn November 16, 2011, President Obama and his administration made a bold announcement: The EPA and Department of Transportation reached a deal with all of the top U.S. based automakers (including Ford, GM, and Chrysler) where the annual mileage improvements will be 5% for cars in 2017. But, here’s the biggie: by 2025, these same… Continue Reading
Litre of Light — A Novel and Inexpensive Way to Bring Light to the Masses
Posted in Alternative Fuels, Clean Energy, TechnologyAs I have written about new innovations in light sources in the past, someone close to me told me about a BBC story in which 2 litre plastic bottles are cheaply being made into “solar light bulbs” in poor but sunny regions of the world. And it apparently works great: these solar light bulbs each… Continue Reading
And the Winner is…..
Posted in Events, TechnologySeattle Business Magazine hosted its Green Washington 2011 awards dinner on September 21, 2011 and announced its “Green 50″ list. We are pleased to report that client Transformative Wave Technologies of Kent, WA not only made the list but won the Technology award (small company) for its patent pending CATALYST HVAC energy efficiency solution. Congratulations… Continue Reading
Washington Start-ups Should “Swing for the Fences” in the Efficient Energy Sector
Posted in Capital and Funding, Entrepreneurs, TechnologyI was struck at a recent meeting with a “player” in the Cleantech financing space that all of the deals on which that firm is working involve companies located elsewhere than the State of Washington. Why should that be when Washington continues to rank as the #2 sustainable state in the U.S.? Part of the… Continue Reading
Building Green with Net-Zero Energy Technologies
Posted in Green Building, LEED, TechnologyBy Cynthia Kennedy This spring, we reported on two buildings under construction in the Seattle area that are designed to use net-zero energy. The engineering team for the new commercial net-zero energy building, the Cascadia Center for Sustainable Design and Construction, recently released a report describing how they plan to accomplish this feat. The six-story… Continue Reading
New Domain Name Extensions and the GreenTech Business
Posted in Entrepreneurs, Intellectual Property, TechnologyGet ready for another cyber land rush! New generic and branded domain names will soon be available– but this time there will be new challenges and significant costs associated with the process. All businesses, GreenTech or not, now know that having a Web presence and often directly offering goods/services through the business Web site is… Continue Reading
Funding Cuts for Clean Energy
Posted in Capital and Funding, Legislation, TechnologyPressure to trim the U.S. budget deficit means cuts in funds available to the Department of Energy (DOE) to support the development of technologies that can help us achieve our energy efficiency and renewable energy goals and to encourage use of such technologies. The U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee released information last week on… Continue Reading
EVs and the “Electriconomy”
Posted in Entrepreneurs, Events, Renewable Energy, TechnologyYesterday I attended the Washington Clean Tech Alliance presentation on electric vehicles (EVs). One of the presenters was James Billmaier, author of JOLT! The Impending Dominance of the Electric Car, as well as entrepreneur, businessman, lecturer, and EV enthusiast. While there were all sorts of interesting parts of his presentation, I want to focus on… Continue Reading
Is Nuclear Power Cleantech?
Posted in Renewable Energy, TechnologyJust when it seemed nuclear power was enjoying a rebirth as a “cleantech” (a.k.a. greentech) alternative to greenhouse gas emitting power sources like coal-fired plants, the unfolding events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in Japan have everyone taking a closer look. Our recent blog post by Denny Wong highlighted some of the economic… Continue Reading
EcoWell Kiosk- Implementation of a Good Idea
Posted in Entrepreneurs, Intellectual Property, TechnologyA group of WSU students hit upon a good idea: what if all of those beverage vending machines did away with the bottles, cups, and containers and made you “bring your own” cup or bottle to access the contents—and did it in a healthy way? Thus, the concept of the EcoWell kiosks took root, and… Continue Reading
Carbon Sequestration and Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) Technology- Hot Things on the Horizon!
Posted in Alternative Fuels, Climate Change, TechnologyThe largest and arguably most revolutionary carbon sequestration project is slated to break ground in Texas this fall and the Pacific Northwest has taken a leadership role in this development. Summit Power Group, Inc. out of Bainbridge, Washington, in conjunction with The Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP) were awarded a $350 million award in late… Continue Reading
Seattle Investors Want “Low-Tech” Too
Posted in Capital and Funding, Sustainable Business, TechnologyBy Rebecca Anderson Maybe it’s because we are Seattleites that the term “low-tech” initially seems like something negative, but “low-tech” deals are in demand by the local angel investing community. This is a good reminder that Seattle is an epicenter for innovation – of all types. Yes, we have some of the very best innovative… Continue Reading
Build, Buy, License, Strategic Partner – And The Legal Strategies That Go With Them
Posted in Capital and Funding, Sustainable Business, Tax and Tax Stimulus, TechnologyThere is a straightforward way to think about and plan the growth strategy – and corresponding legal strategy – for your green tech company: • Build • Buy • License • Strategic Partner “Build” is Invented Here – development and commercialization of green tech products and services – When the growth strategy is Build, the… Continue Reading