Steven Chu

According to the press release, “At the world’s first Clean Energy Ministerial, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced that the United States is helping launch more than 10 international clean energy initiatives.  These initiatives will cut energy waste; help deploy smart grid, electric vehicle, and carbon capture technologies; support renewable energy markets; expand access to clean energy resources and jobs; and support women pursuing careers in clean energy.  The new programs offer partners concrete, technical actions to promote economic growth while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants.  The initiatives will eliminate the need to build more than 500 mid-sized power plants world-wide in the next 20 years.

“The Clean Energy Ministerial has brought together leaders from around the world to take unprecedented actions to deploy clean energy technologies – from energy efficiency to renewable energy to smart grids to carbon capture.  These steps will promote economic growth, create jobs and cut greenhouse gas emissions,” said Secretary Chu.  “What we’ve seen here is that working together, we can accomplish more, faster, than working alone.”

At this week’s Clean Energy Ministerial in Washington, D.C., countries are launching and joining innovative initiatives to accelerate the global transition to a clean energy and low-carbon future.  Ministers from 24 governments are participating in the two-day Ministerial.  These countries represent more than 80 percent of global energy consumption and a similar percentage of the global market for clean energy technologies.

The United States helped lead the development of several initiatives as part of a Global Energy Efficiency Challenge.  These projects will cut energy waste around the world by deploying super-efficient appliances, improving industrial and building efficiency for large-scale facilities, implementing smart grid technologies, and helping to put millions of electric vehicles on the roads.

Under the Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment (SEAD) Initiative, for instance, governments will work with the private sector to transform the global appliance market.  The program will address both ends of the efficiency spectrum – incentivizing the deployment of super-efficient appliances while implementing and enforcing stronger appliance standards that push the most inefficient appliances off the market.  The program will initially focus on televisions and lighting – two globally-traded products that together account for about 15 percent of household electricity use.  Leading experts estimate that international efforts to improve the efficiency of televisions alone could reduce energy use equal to about 80 power plants by 2030.

As part of the Global Energy Efficiency Challenge, governments also joined the U.S. to improve efficiency in the buildings, industrial and vehicles sectors.  The Global Superior Energy Performance (GSEP) Partnership will help large buildings and industrial facilities measure and manage their energy use, which will save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Under this public-private partnership, governments will establish internationally-recognized certification programs to recognize facilities that adopt approved energy management systems and achieve significant and independently validated efficiency improvements over time.  To start, eight companies representing over $600 billion in annual sales and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will pilot the program.

In the transportation sector, the U.S. and other countries are participating in the Electric Vehicles Initiative (EVI) to enhance global cooperation on the development and deployment of electric vehicles.  Through sister-city partnerships, high-level discussions, and information-sharing on electric vehicle investments and best practices, EVI will help countries deliver on their respective deployment targets.  According to the International Energy Agency, this initiative will help put participating countries on the path to deploy at least 20 million electric vehicles by 2020 and reduce global oil consumption by approximately one billion barrels over the next decade.

To further accelerate the introduction of electric vehicles, improve the reliability of the electrical system, promote the growth of renewable energy, and help consumers and businesses better measure and lower their energy use, 15 governments also joined the International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN).  This partnership will accelerate the development and deployment of smart electricity grids around the world by facilitating cooperation in key areas, including smart grid policy, regulation and finance; standards policy; technology research, development and demonstration; workforce skills and expertise; and consumer engagement.

Governments also came together to participate in an additional seven initiatives that will support the growing global market for renewable energy and carbon capture technologies; bring solar LED lanterns to more than 10 million of the world’s poorest citizens by 2015; launch virtual Clean Energy Solutions Centers to help developing countries transition to low-carbon technologies; and encourage young women to pursue careers in clean energy.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the United Arab Emirates offered to host the second Clean Energy Ministerial in spring 2011.  The United Kingdom offered to host the third Ministerial at a date to be determined.”

Read more: DOE Press Release

When it comes to research, the universities of the San Francisco Bay Area are some of the finest institutions devoted to that task. Due to this incredible amount of advancement in a geographically small area, many businesses have developed in fields of scientific advancement, thus giving graduates a place to apply their skills. The U.S. Department of Energy recently approved a $151 million dollar stimulus package for transformational energy research projects, and the San Francisco Bay Area received a sizeable portion.

Companies and universities in the San Francisco Bay Area will receive 10% of the total stimulus amount, with Stanford University taking a third of that with 5 million. The funds will go to help the university conduct research in the field of building efficiency, using different methods to track how humans use electricity and how that amount can be lowered.

The rest of the stimulus money in the bay area goes to four other projects that deal with: energy storage, desalinization, wind power and carbon capture.

At the Argonne National Laboratory in Hayward, Envia systems is conducting researching on Lithium-ion batteries that can store up to 3x more energy than their current counterparts.

NanOasis Technologies Inc., in Richmond, California is focusing on developing new ways to reduce the cost of desalinization, which historically quite expensive. Using new green methods they hope to lower the costs, creating more water that can be used for human and crop use.

In San Rafael, PAX Streamline is working on a new kind of wind turbine technology. Using federal stimulus money, they are developing an improved airfoil that can maximize power despite weather conditions. This new airfoil will also cost a fraction of what one traditionally costs today.

Porifera Inc., working with UC Berkeley at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are working on ways to create cheaper carbon by using carbon nanotubes with polymer membranes. This would capture more carbon.

We can see that the stimulus money is trickling down to green startups and that green businesses are getting a chance to sprout.