Sustainability: A Cleantech Industry Perspective

Shailendra Kumar

Co-Chair, ESIP Energy and Climate Working Group

ESIP Summer 2013 Meeting

UNC Chapel Hill, NC

July 11, 2013

Sustainability: A Cleantech Industry Perspective

Agenda

• Introduction

• Sustainability Challenge and Megatrend

• Quest for Clean Energy

• Energy-Water Nexus

• Business Infrastructure and Operations

• Global Outlook

• Summary

2 Shailendra Kumar (The E2C Group) 07/11/2013

Global annual average temperature and CO2

3

• Global annual average temperature (as measured over both land and the

4 oceans; scale on left) has increased by more than 1.4°F (0.8°C) since

1880. • May 9, 2013 - measured concentrations of CO2 surpassed 400 ppm. • Not likely to arrest CO2 at 450 ppm, making adaptation and resilience

necessary, while continuing to find ways to mitigate impacts.

Source: US National Climate assessment – Draft for Comments , January 2013.

Source: The Keeling Curve – May 2013

Shailendra Kumar (The E2C Group) 07/11/2013

Societal Impact Areas

4

Disaster/Extreme Events • Droughts, wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods • Frequency and intensity

Water • Melting Ice • Freshwater

Agriculture • Growing seasons • Land use

Energy • Demand for A/C • Water for cooling power plants • Hydropower

Public Health • Heat waves – morbidity & mortality • Vector-born diseases • Air and Water Pollution

Ecosystem and Biodiversity • Natural habitats, wetlands • Species migration/ extinction


Rising World Population

5

The current world population of 7.2 billion is projected to increase by 1 billion over the next 12 years and reach 9.6 billion by 2050.

Source: United Nations report, 13 June 2013 Shailendra Kumar (The E2C Group) 07/11/2013

Sustainability Megatrend

• Stages of Value Creation & Lessons from IT and Quality Megatrends*

1. Do old things in new ways: Focus on reducing cost, risks, and waste

2. Do new things in new ways: Redesign products, processes, or business functions

3. Transform core business: Drive revenue growth by integrating innovative approaches into core strategies

4. Differentiate value propositions through new business models

• Venture investing in cleantech

– $7B in 2012 (The Cleantech Group 2013)

6

Environmental issues impact on creating value

Globalized workforces

and supply chains

Geopolitical competition for

natural resources

CO2 and water use central to

firm’s performance

Source: GreenStart Ventures 2013 Source: http://hbr.org/2010/05/the-sustainability-imperative


http://hbr.org/2010/05/the-sustainability-imperative





GLOBAL TOTAL NEW INVESTMENT IN CLEAN ENERGY: 2004–2012 ($Billion)


History of Solar vs. Conventional Energy

8

Disruptive technology - while conventional energy prices remained pretty flat in inflation adjusted terms, the cost of solar is dropping fast.

Electricity - Solar

Crude Oil

Electricity - Retail

Natural gas

Energ

y C

onte

nt

($/g

igajo

ule

)

1980 2010 1995

Source: Brian McConnell, April 2013

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/05/06/1966071/four-must-see-charts-show-why-renewable-energy-is-disruptive-in-a-good-way/





























PV Prices


Wind Power Prices


Quest for Clean Energy: Renewables

Issues

• Solar and Wind intermittent - need storage and connection to grid

• Scalability challenging to replace a coal-fired or nuclear plant

• Project finance hampered

• Innovation needed in tidal, geothermal, and nuclear fusion

Best Practices

• Smart Energy Instruments

– building chipsets for fast sensors

– Unparalleled visibility into the grid

• Green Power Labs

– finding solar price parity in many locations

– In Hawaii, solar costs less than infrastructure for coal and nuclear

• Terrapass

– More corporations installing small (<5 MW) power plants

• Solar, fuel cells, and wind

11

Advances in energy storage could be the big game changer


Shale Natural Gas and Shale Oil

Pros

• Energy Independence

• Low gas price

• Cleaner than Coal

Cons

• Air and Water Pollution

• Still adds carbon to the atmosphere

• May impede renewables growth

• Exports and political unrest could lead to higher gas prices

12

By 2050, more than 50% of the energy mix may still be

oil, gas and even coal


Energy-Water Nexus: Low Carbon Energy and Water Conservation Trade-offs

• Need 3000 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of corn based Ethanol

– Impact on food prices in Mexico

• Fracking of shale gas,

– Chemicals added in water for fracking

• leakage -> environmental impacts

– 3-5 million gallons of water needed per well

• water returned much more salty than sea-water; hard to treat

• Thermal Power plants

– Evaporative water loss from cooling towers

• In 2008, global demand for water exceeded supply

• In 2025, total fresh water demand may exceed supply by 56%

13

Sources: (1) Paul Faeth, July 2012 (2) The World Water Organization 2013 http://www.theworldwater.org/water_facts.php


http://www.theworldwater.org/water_facts.php

Water Use for Cooling Power Plants

14

EPRI 2010 (some 15% of coal plant waste heat is discharged through the stack, rather than cooling water). NB US gal =3.79 litres

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Current-and-Future-Generation/Cooling-Power-Plants/#.UeQveo2UTLI


http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Current-and-Future-Generation/Cooling-Power-Plants/














Water for Agriculture: Competition with Energy Sector

Issues

• Large waste of irrigation water

• Farm subsidies for efficient irrigation systems ineffective

– Resulted in more water use (irrigating more land)

• Farmers trading water rights to other industries

Best Practices

• HydroPoint, a Chrysalix company

– Intelligent irrigation management systems using weather data

• Toro or Rainbird

– Low-flow technologies can reduce water demand by 50-70%

15

A pivot sprinkler system waters crops in Kansas (Source: New York Times, June 7, 2013) Farming in China


Cleantech in Transportation: Ford Case Study

Issues

• CO2 emission from auto tailpipes

• Pure Battery based EVs are nowhere close to price parity with gasoline powered vehicles

• Rapid rise in shale natural gas and oil is keeping the gasoline prices low in the US

– May push the adoption of non-fossil fuel

based vehicles further out

Best Practices

• Efficiency

– More focus on better gas mileage (a change in mindset)

• Smart automobiles

– Role of IT through vehicle to vehicle communication and cloud information driving cost out

• Electric Vehicles

– hybrid, plug-in hybrid (15-30 mile), and pure battery based

• Fuel Conservation

– Less driving

– Shared vans

– More use of public transportation

16 Source: Ford Motor Company 2013


http://corporate.ford.com/microsites/sustainability-report-2012-13/default

17

Chevy Volt 2013 display at the Raleigh, NC Science Museum

A Day at the Museum


Vehicle to Vehicle Communications

18

Telematics solutions in connected automobiles will enable safety and efficiency

Source: Consumer Reports 2013


Cleantech in Communications: Verizon Case Study

• Hughes Telematics solutions

– In connected cars > reduced idling

• Partnership with NREL

– Onsite power for remote cell towers

• Efficiency

– Energy efficient end user and network components

– Shared vans for truck-roll

• Recycling

– Recycled or repurposed 28% of all devices in 2012;

– Targeting 33% in 2013

• Disaster Response (Sandy)

– Wire-line services down, but…

– Wireless vehicles worked like charm and served as command centers

• Robust Network

– Building most robust fiber optic network in Manhattan

– Redundancy built-in

• Sandy gave an opportunity to fine-tune

• Carbon Footprint

– Reduced 37% since 2009

– 2020 goal: 50% reduction

19

Source: Verizon 2013


Crowdsourcing for Sustainability

• SunFunder

– Vision: solar energy for 1.5 billion with no electricity today

– ”Local” solar energy solutions

• Mosaic

– Public investing in Cleantech

– Rooftop solar in California

• Indiegogo

– “Fund what matters to you” globally

– Facilitating idea generation

• Governments w/ green initiatives

20

Source: Indiegogo 2013

Source: SunFunder 2013


Cleantech in Manufacturing and Retail

• Dow

– Solar shingles for homes and storage batteries for EVs

• Polyethylene (the most produced organic compound in the world)

– Mostly derived from natural gas

– Ethanol to polyethylene doable, but price issues in North America

• Wal-Mart, P&G, Unilever, and Nestle

– Engaging supply chain

– Questioning about materials used and impact on climate change

• Wal-Mart Carbon Disclosure Project (Supply Chain)

– Listen to supplier viewpoints

– Gain transparency into efficiency

– Better operations frameworks directly aligned w/ business goals

21

Brazil: Braskem’s green polyethylene plant • 200,000 tons of biobased

material per year • Plant investment: $278M

Source: Braskem 2013


Big Data: The Digital Universe

22

Source: IDC iView "Big Data, Bigger Digital Shadows, and Biggest Growth in the Far East," December 2012, sponsored by EMC

Big data is about offering intelligence with unprecedented information to unlock better insights


Big Data for Smart Grid: (Smart Meters, Thermostats, Network nodes)

• NV Energy leveraging data on usage patterns

– Determine load

– Manage over/under-production

– Understand Microgrid operation

– Implement efficiencies

– Facilitates energy pricing models

• Enbala (VC: Chrysalix)

– Monitoring load side assets, not just generation

• Ecofactor (VC: Claremont Creek)

– Focused on residential heating and A/C use

• Blue Pillar (VC: Claremont Creek)

– Centralized oversight of campuses (hospitals, industrial parks)

– Monitoring various assets

• Green Power Labs

– Predictive analytics tools for utilities

– Integration of local solar generation into the grid

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Enabling better business models for the utilities


Big Data for Efficiency and Conservation: Innovative Startups

• Waze (a social GPS)

– monitors upstream traffic by looking at smartphones and GPS devices on the road

• Yerdle

– Leverages social media to enable sharing of unused products to achieve efficiency & cut waste

• Airbnb

– A global inventory of places (unused space) to stay as an alternative to hotels

• Mint.com

– An online personal finance management software, with access to banking data

• Cleanweb

– Facilitating innovators around the world in developing creative solutions for resource issues

• Nest

– Smart thermostats that learn based on consumer usage data & environmental information


Source: Nest 2013

Data Center Energy Efficiency: Issues

• Data centers energy consumption (DOE 2010)

– 1.5% of total

– Growing at 12% a year

• Data center efficiency

– 7-15% utilization (NY Times 9/22/12)

• Business Drivers (Priorities)

1. Capex

2. Opex - Availability

3. Sustainability

• Barriers to Go Green

– Technical Barrier: Lack of System Awareness

• Cooling when no load

– Cultural Barrier: Ignoring Available Technologies

– Institutional Barrier: Fixed cost energy contracts

25

The “Green Grid” organization metrics: PUE (Power), CUE (Carbon), and WUE (Water), and net Impact on economy


Source: http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1280948

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1280948

Green Data Centers: Best Practices

• Efficient Cloud Computing

– Software defined

– Cold climate location

• Compliance as Opportunity

• Reduce costs via efficiencies

• Energy star

• State-of-art solutions

Every one wants CSR, but the primary change will happen when required by: (a) direct business drivers and/or (b) government regulations

• EMC and Akamai

– Shared infrastructure/resources

– Dynamic configuration


Summary

• Increasing population, economic growth, and climate change

• Water deficit and degrading environment

• Clean energy is essential

• Sustainability megatrend

– Driver for innovation

• Expanding entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship


Contact Information

Shailendra Kumar, PhD Co-Chair, Energy and Climate Working Group, Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Federation Energy and Environment Consulting, Managing Director, The E2C Group LLC Round Rock, TX, US Mobile: +1 (512) 626-2339 [email protected] www.linkedin.com/in/shailendrakumar/ @shakumar10


Sustainability: A Cleantech Industry Perspective

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