Traveling Geeks

With the Traveling Geeks @ La Cantine

This second part of my report from the Traveling Geeks tour in Paris is focused on the companies we visited during the first two days, Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th of December 2009. With startups with short presentations, startups with long meetings, then larger companies (Orange, Parrot).

I’ll start here with the startups we met at La Cantine. I realize I’ll need more posts for the rest of this two days visits. (more…)

The Green Watch: Crowdsourcing Air Quality Measurements

Yesterday, during a meeting with a number of startups in Paris, we met up with the team behind the Green Watch project. Just like Google collects data from cell phones with GPS chips to aggregate real-time traffic information, this watch measures ozone levels and noise pollution. The watch connects wirelessly to the wearer’s mobile phone and sends updates to Citypulse, an open platform for receiving and storing environmental data. The Green Watch is currently only a prototype and not available for sale.

Sponsor (more…)

Do the Green Thing

I met Andy Hobsbawm, who I feel as if I must have run into at TED over the years.

Andy established the first international Internet agency in 1994 and was a founding director of leading British new media company Online Magic which merged with Agency.com in 1997. He is currently European Chairman of Agency.com, which sponsored a Traveling Geeks dinner at Soho House in London earlier this month.

His big passion is Green Thing, where he is co-founder. Green Thing is an award-winning non-profit service that inspires people to lead a greener life. With the help of brilliant videos and inspiring stories from creative people and community members around the world, Green Thing focuses on individual behavior change. (more…)

Updates From the Folks at Think London

A few updates from the folks at Think London.

A topic which is currently hot in is clean tech. London’s Mayor Boris Johnson (one of THE TIME 100 Most Influential People) has declared he wants to make London the ‘electric vehicle capital of Europe.’

Many of Think London’s clean tech clients, such as Tesla Motors, are setting up in London because of the Mayor’s clean tech and renewable energy policies.

They are planning quite a few events this year in the US, all based around business opportunities for US companies and the London 2012 Games. See the event schedule.

Another interesting development they are seeing, is the amount of Chinese companies setting up or expanding in London. They seem less affected by the economic crisis ‘angst’ and see it as a great opportunity to invest elsewhere.

Big Chinese financial services companies are particularly keen to set up or expand their operations in London, such as China Construction Bank and China Merchants Bank.

And, Think London is adopting all the social media tools to keep tabs on and in touch with people. More from them in the coming weeks and months.

Cambridge Consultants UMI Lowers Energy Consumption & Saves Money

Below, I’m talking to Eric Wilkinson at Cambridge Consultants in the UK to better understand their UMI (Universal Metering Interface), a new low power board-to-board wired interface. UMI is primarily aimed at smart metering of meters (electricity, gas, water, heat), displays and gateways.

Many metering product developments are being held up because the communications standards have not yet been finalized by the relevant national authorities.

UMI solves this problem by separating the metrology and communications functions into modules with a wired connection between them. This unbundling is useful because the metrology standards and regulations are stable.

Manufacturers can develop smart-ready MID-approved meters today by including one or more UMI ports. These meters can actually be installed in the field now; the primary aim is at ultra low power applications.

UMI will be launched as an open standard later in 2009. The below video shows how this technology can be used to regulate kitchen appliances.

By monitoring energy consumption, UMI can automatically turn off higher energy consumption appliances during expensive times and run lower priced appliances when absolutely necessary, saving consumers money.

Consumers can actually select what they are ‘prepared to pay’ on a dial on their wash machine or other appliance. Click play to learn more.

Colalife: using Coca-Cola distribution network for social good

Well, Colalife.org, something casually observed at NESTA, as part of the Traveling Geeks tour in the UK, is a bigger deal than I expected.

Economic Slump: Time to Tap into Nature’s Ancient Wisdom

Ever notice that when you stop writing for awhile, writer’s block takes over and cripples you? I’ve known for awhile that I needed to take a couple months off from blogging and from the web in general, but not because I grew tired of writing or new stuff. Disconnect from the web and new media when its your bread-and-butter? You must be mad I can hear you say.

When I was in Africa late last year through early 2009, I had laptop in hand and blogged but not nearly as much as I expected. Nor was I connected as much as I expected I’d be.

I’ve lived in Africa three times, so its not as if I didn’t know what to expect and yet somehow I figured I’d be so inspired since it had been awhile since my last visit, I wouldn’t stop writing. Blog posts would be pouring out of me.

But no. Not even close. Notice the break in between my last South African blog post and the most recent ones. The closer I got to nature — on a regular basis — the more disconnected I felt from the blog. It was all about immersion.

Think about it: all of the best coaches in the world pitch immersion and language courses based on immersion or living in the country are the best way to go. That’s what off-site business retreats are based on and one of the reasons why the Aspen Institute and Renaissance weekends are so insightful and inspiring.

We’re human. We need immersion or as the Aussies put it: walkabout time. Frankly, most of us don’t get enough of it. I read a Brad Feld tweet recently that updated us on his run in the mountains behind his house and that because of it, he was “completely and totally broken.”

Of course he was. Bravo. Nature does that to people, particularly when you’re really present with it. It’s our roots – all of us regardless of what continent we were born on or connect to.

There was something about being so close to the African earth, particularly in the parts of the continent where humanity began, that begged me to listen to its silence. Over and over again. Listening to its silence calls for a dismissal of machines, at least it was the case for me. As much as I was inspired to write, I couldn’t do so on a “machine.” It would have disrupted the silence. And so, I took it all in, digested it and secretly hoped it was getting ‘baked’ into my DNA so I wouldn’t ever lose the feeling.

I felt the same way in the Israeli desert, the Arizona desert and when I drove across country a few years back. I thought I’d blog about the whole trip and instead, took notes along the way and blogged after the fact.

The downside of the latter is that the posts ended up reading like a travel log rather than the richness you get from live-blogging. I’m a fan of the latter but when I’m that close to dirt, flowers and trees, its as if the force of Mother Nature herself pulls me away from anything that has a power cord or battery.

Isn’t it a great time to reconnect with nature, in an era where you’ve either been laid off, your contracts are smaller than they’ve been in years or you have a full time job but most of your budgets have been slashed by ten?

When I was 21, I traveled around the world with my 32 year old British boyfriend, who was at the time a marketing rockstar in the London scene where we were living at the time. He took nearly two years off if I recall correctly, but not without thought. Would he be able to slot back in after being intimately plugged into every thread and conversation twenty four months later? After all, he was a 32, not 22. Unforgiveable? Perhaps, but certainly not traditional. We returned, he got a job and life carried on.

Years later, I did the same thing. I took off for a few years – Africa, Europe, you name it. I’ll never forget an experience I had a month or so after my return.

I used to do PR for Computerworld so there were a ton of old copies of the magazine in my grandparents basement where we stored everything at the time. The industry stories hadn’t changed all that much and while there were new versions, new companies and new solutions, I couldn’t believe how easy it was to slot back into the industry without being connected with anyone for a few years. It took me three long days of reading to get back up to speed.

Today, the story may be a little different. With countless examples of Kurzweil’s Singularity coming into play, everything is moving at a much faster pace and jumping out of the game and back in a couple of years later may be tougher. Perhaps true, perhaps not.

This much I know. Despite all the articles and blog posts I’ve read that traditional media and PR is dead, Jeff Jarvis’ WWGD book tells me that the middle men are dead and that the economic recession means marketers will starve for quite awhile, there are always opportunities.

Remember Helen Keller’s famous quote, something I remind myself of often: “When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we don’t see the one opening before us.” Newspapers have been doing this for years, Hollywood too.

Wherever there are threats, there are opportunities; it just may mean taking a step back (for awhile), taking less money (for awhile) and looking at the world a little differently (for awhile). Reinventing oneself or simply a role can be magical and rewarding.

If you’re good at what you do and you listen and think strategically, there will be a need for your skills even if they get used in a way you never imagined. And trust me, if you’re in marketing or communications, they will.

Ignite the universe, spend a little time with the trees and ask them for ancient wisdom. Ask them what your “real value” is. And then listen. In that silence, you may just learn something very powerful about yourself and about what is happening around us.

Remember that not just the industry is seeing a significant shift, but the world is undergoing a dramatic change as well and if you’re not tapping into that energy source too, you’re missing the mark (we just elected a black president baby and money is getting pumped into energy at home and countless other things…..)

While it may sound like a flighty “new age” solution to the changes we’re undergoing, I’m not suggesting that asking the ancient skies and trees for guidance is all you do. I’m simply suggesting that you do it.

Green Sheen for 2010

South Africa is working hard to make the 2010 World Cup environmentally friendly, reports John Gartner in (or is it on?)  the Huffington Post.  John was on the Brand South Africa bloggers tour. Read more of his reports from South Africa here. To the right is a picture of John on the way to the Richtersveld.

Energy Alternatives

Underground coal gasification, solar power, the pebble bed modular reactor and Inga 3 were among the topics discussed when Eskom hosted the bloggers to dinner on Dec 8. Presenters were Barry MacColl, Technology Strategy and Planning Manager, Dave Lucas from the Climate Change and Sustainability Department and Dr Steve Lennon, Managing Director for Resources and Strategy.  Q&A here. If you don’t immediately see links to each of the names, be patient, they should load shortly. Also don’t miss that audio buttons under each of the slideshows.

Developing Nations’ Carbon Conundrum

World leaders have reached consensus on the need to go on a carbon diet to combat climate change, and most are acting to reduce their respective greenhouse gas emissions. Global emissions are expected to continue to rise, however, with much of the net increase coming from developing nations that are not subject to the landmark Kyoto Protocol agreement.

While G-8 nations may want developing countries to follow their lead in pledging to cut emissions within the next decade, the distinctive energy environments in South Africa and other growing nations make it much more challenging to make similar commitments.

Like its developing counterparts of China and India, South Africa, from where I recently returned after a 10-day tour, wants a first world standard of living, and therefore a first-class power grid that encompasses the entire nation. Unlike the U.S.’ patchwork of utilities, South Africa has one major utility, Eskom, that is wholly-owned by the government.

You might think that having a single entity providing more than 95 percent of its power would make it easy for a nation to transition to renewable power and to introduce energy-efficient technologies. However, the economics of cheap energy from coal, a lack of competition, and government inaction are impeding South Africa’s desire to cut carbon emissions.

Eskom is expanding service to many of South Africa’s rural communities that have little to no power for homes. According to a 2006 report by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, 41.9 percent of South African households were “unelectrified” in 2001.

The utility is having trouble meeting existing demand, which has been increasing by approximately 3 percent per year. Providing power to new customers, many which are great distances from the coal-rich areas where power is produced, requires not only more coal power plants, but also significant investments in transmission infrastructure to reach them.

In January 2008, Eskom resorted to rolling blackouts because it could not produce enough power. “We effectively shut down the South African economy because of concerns about a national blackout,” said Steve Lennon, Eskom’s managing director of corporate services.

Keeping the power on and affordable for the industries that are driving South Africa’s surging economy — gold, diamond, and platinum mining, telecommunications and auto manufacturing — is a federal priority, even if it means further tapping into the nation’s abundant coal reserves. To meet the expected demand, Eskom is building additional coal power plants and bringing shuttered plants back online.

More than 90 percent of South Africa’s electricity comes from coal, and that energy mix (which includes one nuclear power plant) is highly unlikely to change anytime soon. The country has among the cheapest energy in the world, with customers paying about one-fifth as much as those in developed nations, and the government has no intention of derailing the country’s hard fought economic progress by substantially raising the cost of power.

However, keeping the price low, and therefore limiting Eskom’s revenue stream, means there’s less money to invest in clean energy projects.

Even with the rapid advancements in energy efficiency and recent mass production of wind and solar power components, renewables can’t come close to competing with coal’s average price of 2 cents per kilowatt hour, according to Lennon.

Only a hefty carbon tax could help to tilt the playing field towards clean energy. The South African government is taking its first steps in that direction, as Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk announced a “small” carbon tax this summer that would likely begin in early 2009 and increase in size over time.

The South African government is also expected to pass feed-in tariff legislation in 2009 that would pay producers of renewable energy an incentive for delivering power to the grid. While Eskom will receive wind and solar power from these “independent power producers,” the company is not likely to develop its own wind or solar farms in the immediate future, according to Lennon. He does not believe in subsidies, saying that clean power needs to “stand on its own two feet” and only be undertaken when it is cost-competitive with coal power. Lennon expects several years of lag between when the feed-in tariffs are passed and when any renewable resources go online.

First Steps Towards Improving Sustainability

Because of South Africa’s continued industrialization and expansion of residential electrification, Eskom expects to double power production by 2025, which because of the country’s use of coal, makes a reduction in carbon emissions impossible. After that time, Eskom, which is among the top 20 entities in greenhouse gas emissions, expects to slowly start reducing emissions, according to environmental manager Dave Lucas. For now the focus is on reducing demand and the carbon intensity of electricity generation, he said.

However, South Africa has a relatively modest carbon footprint compared to developed nations, according to data from the United Nations. The country ranks 41st in the world in per capita CO2 emissions, with less than half (9.19 metric tons per year) the output of the U.S. However, its reliance on coal for both electricity and transportation (through coal to liquids fuel that powers a majority of vehicles) places the country well ahead of China (91st) and India (133rd).

Eskom, which has more than 500 people working in its climate change group, is working to clean up its coal operations and to change customer behavior to be more energy efficient. Lucas said the company can shave off about 3000 megawatts of demand by 2011 by working with customers.

Instead of preemptory climate change tactics that would begin to reduce emissions by phasing in renewable energy, Eskom and the government are focusing on “long term mitigation strategies” to prepare for the anticipated fluctuations in temperature and water availability in areas that are often starved of precipitation.

While richer nations are aggressively building renewable energy plants despite the higher cost, in South Africa, the coal economy will likely give way to a nuclear era, according to Lucas. As cheap coal reserves dwindle in future years, Eskom anticipates expanding its nuclear power program as a “carbon-free” alternative. Eskom recently put on hold plans to build a nuclear reactor because of the global financial situation, but that is expected to be a short term delay.

Barry Macoll, Eskom’s technology manager, said his personal opinion is that the country will be powered “by coal for the next 50 years, then by nuclear for 50 years, and then switch to renewables.”

Therefore, with Eskom and the South African government’s philosophy of maintaining cheap electricity rates and the need for clean power to be cost-competitive, it is not surprising that Eskom has no wind or solar plants delivering electricity to the national grid. Its functioning renewable power assets are limited to hydro-power plants, which currently provide less than 2 percent of its overall electricity.

Eskom is taking its first steps towards a goal of building up to 1,600 MW of renewable power by 2025. South Africa currently has just two small wind farms — an Eskom pilot plant of three wind turbines totaling 3 MW in Klipheuvel in the Western Cape, and a privately run 5 MW wind farm in Darling.

However, ample wind resources are available to South Africa. A 2003 study concluded that up to 5,000 MW of wind energy could be added to the national grid, and rural and small off-grid wind farms could add up to another 27,000 MW of power.

Eskom is currently studying the feasibility of installing a pilot 100 MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in the Northern Cape Province. The company is preparing an environmental impact study for the plant, which would use a series of heliostat mirrors to focus solar energy on a central tower, which transfers the heat to molten salt that is used to create steam to power a turbine. The CSP plant could be in operation by 2012.

Another as yet untapped renewable resource in South Africa is geothermal power. Lennon said Eskom has not yet “seriously looked at it.”

Eskom is more likely to reduce its carbon footprint by increasing the energy efficiency of its coal power operation. The company is hopeful that by burning coal where it lies underground it can cut CO2 emissions by up to 30 percent. Eskom’s Lennon said the underground coal gasification technology (UCG) “can revolutionize the way we produce energy around the world.”

The UCG process sets fire to coal seams, and uses the escaping gas to power a turbine and produce electricity. This also saves money because it eliminates the steps of mining the coal, bringing it to the surface, and then crushing it before burning it to produce power. Another benefit of UCG is that the fly ash resulting from the burning would also be kept underground, reducing the overall environmental impact.

UCG technology has been tested elsewhere, but Eskom engineers are “perfecting the process,” according to Lennon. Safety studies are still underway, but Lennon said the fires can quickly be put out by controlling the flow of oxygen. If all goes well, the plan is to begin an initial UCG project in the city of Majuba with a 1,200 MW capacity.

Going Forward

While action on climate change within the country may be limited so far, both the South African government and Eskom profess urgency in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

Earlier this month government minister van Schalkwy urged world leaders to proceed with combating climate change despite the global financial crisis. Eskom’s 2008 annual report highlights the need for reducing carbon emissions, and outlines the plan for gradually reducing the amount of emissions relative to energy output during the next two decades.

Eskom also acknowledges that it has work to do to become a sustainable organization. An independent study of corporate sustainability for 2008 found that Eskom failed in all four areas of evaluation (technical, economic, environmental, and social) with the scores falling across the board relative to 2007.

South Africa may have good intentions for becoming more sustainable as it modernizes, but the internal economic forces and a lack of impetus to immediately embrace renewables indicates there will be no significant shift in energy policy in the coming years. Developed nations shouldn’t expect South Africa to reduce its carbon footprint, unless they provide significant financial resources (such as investing in wind and solar IPP projects), or unless they can exert sufficient international political pressure.

Read more about South Africa