We do Cleantech Right. Countries that want to implement a comprehensive program to stimulate the developement of Clean technology and investment would do well to study the programs being implemented by the EDB (Economic Development Board) of Singapore.Singapore, a small city state has been at the head of the pack when it comes to innovation. I would like to point out also that Singapore implemented it first version of urban congestion pricing in 1975, decades before London. It implemented an updated fully functional version in 1998, which electronically priced the usage of roads, something that should be considered a future standard. New York City most notably is trying to still trying to muster the the political wherewithal to think about doing this 33 years later. I point this out because it is indicative of the way Singapore is able to fund, implement and refine longterm programs. Ramping up what can be considered emerging industries and technologies and using itself as a proving ground for development, implementation and testbedding. Singapore leads the curve so much that technology, economic models and administrative implementation that are 'done & done' there often have yet to be phrased in a coherent manner in other jurisdictions.
Another Center of InnovationRecently at the Clean Tech Investors conference in San Francisco, Kenneth Tang from from Singapore's EDB went into detail about what makes Singapore different. To begin with a little background about Singapore, it is a City State located off the Malacca Strait, one of the worlds busiest maritime passages transited by 70% of the world's shipping. Its population of about 4.5 million has one of the highest standards of living in the world. 3 billion people live within a 7 hr flight radius. There are over 30,000 companies located there. Its manufacturing capability is 35% of California, which is by itself the world's 6th largest economy. Taxes are low with a cap of 20% on personal income tax and 18% on corporate and Singapore is connected via its business relationships and sovereign wealth fund (Temasek) to 60% of the world's GDP.Singapore's EDB has for 45 years pursued a core development strategy of creating a high standard of living in a garden city environment with a strong emphasis on development that is both ecologically and economically friendly to its inhabitants. Certainly the lack of available fresh water was one of the earliest reasons for the consideration and implementation of conservation techniques in the 1960's. Water comes from either rainfall based cisterns, aqueducts or desalination. Singapore has innovated so consistently in water ways that it won the Stockholm prize for water managment and in some ways has succeeded in turning itself into a tropical version of Venice in SE Asia. This is part of a longterm strategy to become a world CleanTech Hydrohub.
Sunlight in the Tropics, 25% More. REC, the Norwegian Solar Energy firm is building the world's largest solar panel manufacturing plant there. The plant when finished will have an annual capacity 1.5 gigawatts, 75% of global capacity. Singapore's EDB is working to establish a solar value chain and industrial park capable of supplying the area's needs. Sensible I would say given that solar power in the tropics generates 25-30% more than in temperate zones and that there is also more need for clean electricity in this area. Thats just one project. The real secret to the approach is Singapore's policy of a having a CleanTech strategy for sustainable growth which is integrated into a holistic policy managed by the EDB. The rationale is simple: Cities are the new focus. Singapore will lead the way by building the infrastructure, passing the laws and training the people. Its infrastructure is open to testbedding projects and products. The R & D budget is $14 Billion over the next 4 years. To put this in perspective the the US is trying to get a 'Green Jobs' bill of $250 million passed for training and industry development over 2 years.Singapore looks to the future and intends to 'export social capital and solutions to the world' according to Ken Tang, with the city state itself acting as a CleanTech proving ground whose motto is almost 'Think, Try, Test & Trust.' One of the projects on the drawing board is building a sustainable city for 6 million inhabitants in the PRC from the ground up as a technology proving ground.
Really Big Green RoofsOne way to attract knowledge capital is to bring in the best and brightest. To that end Singapore is encouraging partnerships between the Public sector, Private industry and Universities. Overseas Universities and research institutes are being encouraged to setup satellite campuses in Singapore including Stanford, http://www.caltech.edu/ and Germany's Fraunhofer Institute.This includes providing the funds and facilities to get them setup and going. The EDB's policy is straightforward: to establish themselves as a 1 stop shop for any organization looking to setup shop in SG. One that is also in charge of policy & planning and one that can assist in:1-Setting up companies
2-Providing and training staff
3-Coninvesting and incubating new Clean Technologies
4-Providing office and manufacturing space
Xeriscaping at Changji AirportIn other words if you want to start a new business in the Cleantech sector or setup manufacturing Singapore is trying to be your one-stop solution.   It will also provide matching funds for CleanTech Ventures that meet its investment criteria including grants for hight school and college students to get a leg up early. All that in the environment of a Garden City, lets hope this model catches on worldwide.

When Pigs Can Fly! Some speeches you just have to love for their absurdist qualities.  What could have possibly been a mundane speech by an Assistant Secretary of Energy was turned into a 45 minute exercise in surrealism in front of an audience of 600 venture capitalists from Silicon Valley.  The Asst. Secretary went a long way towards livening up a post lunch doldrum in the schedule with his colorful description of the current state of the CleanTechnology industry.   Many listeners found it bizarre and amusing, others just walked out in bewilderment. Overall it did not make the second in command of a major government department who seemed to believe he was speaking to an audience of the converted, look very good.  After the first five minutes comments at our table ranged from 'this man is just smart enough to be dangerous' to 'whichever Administration takes office next should sack him immediately.'  There was a complete lack of stated policy in the the odd jumble of words, concepts and metaphors that came out.   As source material for a Terry Gilliam  movie it could not have been better.   For a roomful of relatively hard bitten Silicon Valley VC's, not the right audience for an evolved dark comedy play leaking out of the energy departments collective unconscious.
Something Smells FunnyAfter an introduction which eulogised  Lee Raymond, former Chairman of Exxon as 'a great apostle of the climate change discussion'  the Asst. Secretary  went on to explain that 'demand for oil will continue to outstrip supply'   leading to as the Dallas Fed Chairman had said the previous day to 'oil prices in excess of $300 a barrel by 2015.'    Scary stuff which was then described as 'a great opportunity for everyone in this room.'  That certainly could be construed as true, in a way.  But a  description of Bush administration policy which started out with the line 'when is a lame duck not a lame duck' and then jumped to  a reference that the National Governors Association had declared 'Red, White & Blue' the new Green began to provoke odd looks from the attendees.  The Asst. Secretary then made the jump to China where he spoke about his first trip to the Shenzhen special economic zone when it 'was a dirty little place' and his recent visit when it 'had blossomed into a dirty big place, showing the world that Chinese Capitalism is a new model for the future.'
Brave New ModelThis started to be a bit much, one of my neighbors leaned over and eloquently commented 'he either wields the subtle knife of caustic wit or suffers from a terrifyingly large disconnect from observable reality.'  Climate changed then metastasized 'into the war on terror that was before the war on terror' creating the need for 'Apollo like mandates to get back to the moon of energy.'  'We can,' as the Secretary then said, 'Drive this Science all the way back to Kansas because this is the time of good ideas whose time has come.''Disconnect?'  Another gentleman from San Jose commented.  'I would say schizophrenia is a better description.'  'Naw' someone else piped up, 'this is the Wizard of Oz meets  K-Street speech, wait'll he pulls a white rabbit out of his ass thats the finale.'Continuing on the Secretary  invoked the phrase 'phasing out Edison by getting rid of the light bulb and coming up with a new zero emission strategy for home appliances.'  I thought cars emitted more CO2 than dishwashers but they were never mentioned.  We were told that Bali had also 'nailed down the post 2012 world.'  I couldn't help wondering which world this guy was talking about as he looked forward to the next annual 'Big Bang Conference' in Copenhagen.   A place where in the US's  view 'Every Country gets to decide its own problem.'   One translation of that could be 'If we don't like it we won't do it' which was pretty much the pre Bali state of Kyoto.  The Energy Under Secretary also proposed a 'US sponsored CleanTech Fund to accelerate the commercialization of CleanTechnology.'  In theory this sounds good but no numbers were mentioned (e.g. Singapore's Cleantech development fund is allocating $14 Billion over 2 years to for education, incubators, matching funds and satellite university campuses) or details given.  
Cushy Job if You Can Get itWhat was interesting came next, and reveals much about this administration's view of capitalism: 'If you want to do well in the Government's new Manhattan-like program for Cleantech innovation you had better participate in ESCOPs.'  This was emphasized 3 times  to a crowd that probably got it the first time.   An ESCOP is an 'Energy Saving Contract Procurement'  it seems to be descended from a predecessor instrument called an ESCO.  It is bureaucrat-ese for being 'on board with the government' for 'future contracts' and apparently has something to do with being in the right place to take advantage of the huge windfalls that will be associated with the auction of carbon offsets after one of the pending pieces of cap & trade legislation passes and for letting of new 'energy efficient contracts' across the board.  Definitely something to look out for if you are at the governments feeding trough or have just been bailed out from a subprime debacle.  For closing I agree with the Asst. Secretary that we 'have never been up a mountain this big before'   and that the future is definitely too important ' to leave to bumper sticker diplomacy' and  'if we continue on this path we will lay a big fat federal goose egg.' 
A Bleak ViewAbout this time the remaining two people at our table decided it was time to leave, none of us could take it any longer. 'We've gone from 'When is a lame duck not a lame duck,' to big fat Federal goose eggs.' said one, the other said 'It all sounds like Tofurkey to me and time to get out of here.'  That pretty much sums up the reaction of the entrepreneurs and investors who are expected to create a new 'CleanTech' economy to the current U.S. Administration's energy policy Except for one last comment overheard in the lobby: 'not much we can use coming out of Washington these days is there.' Believe it or not? This could be the state of an energy policy somewhere in our World today!

Cleantech Venture Capital Network comes to Franfurt this month. From May 14th-16 at the Marriott hotel over 400 clean technology investors convene to evaluate the investment potential of new clean technology companies in Europe. The Cleantech Forum will institute a Global Showcase beginning at this years Frankfurt Show which will feature some of the best new innovations from around the world. The conference is a good place for inistitutions, individuals and companies to hang to search for potential investment capital. The Venture Capital investing in the United States topped $2.9 billion last year with Cleantech Network firms responsible for as much as a quarter of that sum.

Register Here
Other individual Venture Firms have stepped out with Clean Initiatives including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers announced the Greentech Innovation Network which will bring together 50 leading entrepreneurs, scientists and policymakers from around the world to award a $100,000 prize for the best new technologies.

"This award will encourage innovation in sustainable, green growth," said KPCB partner Brook Byers. "We will bring worldwide recognition to entrepreneurs who achieve breakthroughs in green energy generation, storage, conservation or policies, whether from an individual or a team, whether public or private, anywhere in the world."

Greentech Innovation Network

San Francisco Venture Capitalists were out in force last week in Silicon Vallery for tours of the many new start ups in the area's emerging Clean Tech Sector. Clean Technology is a new-ish watchword among venture capitalists as they see the immediate potential to develop and market a wide range of new generation technologies. Silicon Valley hasn't seen anything like this since the beginning of the tech boom in the mid 90's. There are some who say this is the new tech boom.Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Star War's release visitors started at the Skywalker Ranch and continued on to visit a number of the area's new technology startups including such local headliners as Solarzyme, Sunpower, Terapass and Nanosolar. All are sustainable startups in the process of developing new clean technologies. Solarzyme just completed raising $8 million to continue their development of a 'Biocrude' type technologies which makes fuel from Blue-green algae. A more efficient process with less environmental impact than making gas out of corn syrup. It also currently has fewer government subsidies and is less likely to encourage commodity speculation. Many of these companies are not suprisingly in the San Francisco area, a traditional hotbed for startups. Others are in San Antonio and Boston. Places that are generally home to technologically savvy early adopters and universitys incubators. There are claims that Clean Tech has generated over 3800 sustainable sector jobs in SF over the past year and it cretainly has pulled in about $35 million in Venture Capital over the past 6 months.

Solarzymes BlueGreen Algae

The algae beneath Harrison Dillon’s microscope could one day fuel your car” declares SFGate.com.  It goes on to state that “Dillon’s Menlo Park company, Solazyme, has tweaked the algae’s genes, turning the microscopic plant into an oil-producing machine.  If everything works the way Dillon wants, vats of algae could create substitutes for diesel and crude oil.”  Solazyme is a biotechnology company devoted to harnessing the energy-harvesting machinery of photosynthetic microbes to produce valuable products.  To find out more about this innovative young start-up

Other Cleantech Startups in the Silicon Valley Area:

Nanostellar

Terapass

Sunpower