Feature Stories - July 2009

Industry Focus

Alternative Energy

Recently executives representing the alternative energy industry met at the law offices of Holland & Hart, LLP in Reno. Alternative energy is not a new topic; as early as the 1950’s Bell Labs had developed a solar cell capable of operating electrical appliances. However, the pace has picked up, and virtually everyday there are new methods, applications, incentives, and pertinent legislation. These knowledgeable representatives offered information and strong opinions covering a variety of topics that fall under the umbrella of “alternative energy”.

Due to the multi-faceted nature of Alternative Energy, the editorial staff feel a brief introduction for each expert is appropriate.

John Allen owns Apogee Renewable Energy Resources which serves as a system integrator assisting clients in integrating alternative energy resources with NV Energy.

Grace Caldwell is the president of the Independent Power Corporation which is a systems integrations company. The company designs, installs and maintains power systems, particularly solar and wind.

Li Han Chan is the director of operations for the Nevada Institute for Renewable Energy Commercialization whose mission is to accelerate the widespread deployment and adoption of renewable energy solutions.

Dr. Susan Clark owns The Renewable Energy Accelerator, known as REA250. The company creates strategic alliances between various groups to help advance renewable energy.

Terry Copeland is president and CEO of Altair Nano. The company is currently focused on a lithium ion chemistry for batteries.

Dick Kelsey is CEO of Snowpeak Energy. The company is preparing to provide affordable, accessible solar energy.

J.S. Parker owns Natural Resources which conducts energy audits. He also hosts a live radio program, the Green Energy Show, which broadcasts in Las Vegas and Reno.

John Sagebiel is the University of Nevada, Reno, Environmental Affairs manager and also serves on the Board of Directors of the U.S. green Building Council, Nevada Chapter.

_{Is Nevada poised to be the alternative energy capital of the world?}

Copeland: I would say there’s no reason we couldn’t.

Clark: I agree, absolutely!

Kelsey: You have a lot of other areas doing that [striving to be the alternative energy leader]. San Diego is really pushing to do it right now. We were down there a number of months ago and there was a half a dozen conferences going on.

Parker: There are lots of people in different areas that believe they’re on the cutting edge of moving this thing forward. There are a lot of other areas that want to be the capital. I don’t know that there has to be one capital. We can certainly be a leader and a generator. This is like the very early stages of the PC or the computer age, and you’re going to have a lot of consolidation over the next 10 to 20 years.

Kelsey: Absolutely.

Sagebiel: The other thing I always like to bring up, and I’m sure this group knows, Nevada has no, what you might consider conventional petroleum sources within its borders, unlike a lot of our neighboring states.  But we do have geothermal resources, we have solar resources, some wind resources.  If you look at NREL’s (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) map of solar radiation in the United States, the bull’s-eye is in Las Vegas. I mean, we’re sitting in the middle of it. So there is no reason we shouldn’t; why we can’t be, and there’s every reason we should be.  Because every time we buy energy, we’re exporting dollars and jobs outside of the state, and that’s what you guys are all about.

Clark: Well, also, renewable energy picks up a lot of new technologies. So, it’s not a bad choice.

Parker: You’re going to see a lot of new technologies. I think in the last six months there has been such an influx of interest, not only money but interest in coming up with new technologies, new ways of doing things, new ways of doing business, and I think Nevada is poised to take advantage of it.

    My big concern would be, I’m not sure the people at the State Legislature understand what the real opportunity is. They play the game because there’s stimulus money and they’re creating this energy commission and trying to do all their little play-around stuff, but it’s peanuts compared to what could really be done on the private sector without the government’s involvement, quite frankly, in a lot of ways.

_{What will set our state apart and move us to the head of the pack?}

Clark: We’ve been asking a lot of the young people, the young entrepreneurs in the community,

    “What matters to you?” How come they leave? And we’re getting some very interesting answers back.  Those of us who care about this have to start reaching out more, have to really engage and to have a community of folks talking about this stuff, celebrating this stuff, having a grand time doing it. That’s what we have to do together, because that’s going to draw everybody in and that’s the key thing that we’re finding for these young entrepreneurs.

Kelsey: One of the things we’ve said is we need to make Nevada the renewable energy capital of the world. People have said this state is the place, right here, to do that. But to make that happen, we all have to come together and say it’s going to happen here, and we need people who have the skill set that can work with us to do it.

    That means UNR has got to graduate the right type of people. It’s that whole technology problem that needs to occur, including the financing here. We need to have people who are in the venture business that understand what we’re doing.

Clark: I think it’s how small we are and how far behind we are. I think because of how small we are we can go sit down with our legislators and talk to them any old day. Every one of us can call Harry Reid’s office, John Ensign’s office, or whomever. We all can sit down and know each other and we can talk, at least within our northern/southern sections; we can cross the state pretty easily.

    The other thing, because I’ve heard one of the problems in Nevada is it’s so far behind, but one of the incredible advantages is, we haven’t already divvied it all up into old-style kind of fiefdoms.  In terms of the different technologies, we do have a playing field that could be rapidly assimilated. I’m impressed by how many of the people sitting at this table consider themselves to be system integrators in their thinking. We are surrounded by folks who see how to start moving things together. That’s our future. Not the fiefdoms, but it’s how we integrate things together, and we have an incredible opportunity now in Nevada to integrate and then rapidly move forward.

_{How “free” are government monies?}

Copeland: It’s a very good question, and I don’t know how to answer it yet because they haven’t written the book on what all the strings are.

Parker: Yeah, exactly.

Clark: They don’t even agree to what the strings are.

Kelsey: We’ve been approached by the Department of Energy. They said, “Here is a grant. Get this grant and go do it.” We are worried about the strings. We have developed a product that, as far as we’re concerned, doesn’t need government subsidies.

    So here we are on the other side saying, “H’mmm, here is some government money.” But the bottom line is, we’re looking at it from a business perspective and we’re saying, “Gee, there’s a lot of research and development that we can do, we could move it faster, quicker and better.”

    We have a President who is saying, “I don’t really care what the output of that power is from your solar energy; just get it out there. Get it out, get it out, get it out.”

    I also believe that there are a lot of local issues that are going to make it more difficult for companies like us to actually put our technologies within the Nevada borders.

_{“Going Green” - Is it hype or reality?}

Clark: It’s called green-washing.

Parker: There’s not a lot that you have to do to be a good steward. And I think inherently everyone wants to be a good steward, if you think about it.

    I mean, if you can make a change in your daily life, whether it’s changing out your light bulbs, or whether you ride your bike every day to work, you’re saving on gas and you’re not putting emissions out there and you’re actually exercising. All those things, the little things you can do, turning off the light switches at home and changing out so you don’t have phantom power burning in the evenings, I think all those little things, you should feel good about that you’re doing. Those are differences that you’re making day in and day out in your life that makes a difference. If everyone just does a little thing, whatever it is that they can do, and make behavioral changes, the world is going to be a better place. Let the bigger companies concentrate on the bigger problems, but environmentally, we can all make a little bit of a difference. I don’t have to be a wacko tree hugger to make a difference and enjoy being environmental.

Chan: I completely agree, but it’s not a party. This stuff is hard. There are a lot of challenges that come around and it’s not just about switching out your compact fluorescents, you’ve got to make the sacrifice.  You’ve got to go out there and talk to your legislators to make those regulations fall in place. You’ve got to be willing to sit in there for the long maturation periods that are necessary to make that happen.

Parker: But does everyone want to be known as green? I think everybody does, I mean, at least from our show. Everybody is calling us wanting to be on the show and tell people how they’re different than other companies.

    I don’t care whether it’s a hair salon that wants to be known as green, or a new solar manufacturer; it doesn’t matter. They all want to be this and that’s a good thing to me. Whether you believe in global warming or not, the fact that there’s a big, huge discussion worldwide about emissions controls and caps in trades and global warming has at least brought a consciousness that says that I may not believe the extremes, but I certainly can do something better, right?

Sagebiel: Well, you said it’s hard to do, and I’m an advocate for this kind of lifestyle and I practice it as much as I possibly can. I use solar thermal for heat and domestic hot water. We use solar portable kegs for all our electricity use.

    The rest of the house is all designed around the Green Building Council’s sustainability principles for low water impact, low material use, and air quality, siding.  All of that was very carefully done.

    The question I get is, “Well, what did that cost you on your house to do all that?”

    And my usual answer, my flip answer is, “Nothing; it makes me money.”

    I’m already about six months from my break-even point and I’ve only been in that house since ‘03. We’ve got to get that first-cost mentality, which is what it truly is from an economic standpoint, and start looking at these things broader.

    How many people are willing to look at a broad-enough view.  The answer is, unfortunately, not many.

Caldwell: In Europe they’ve been driving these funny little cars for years, because they’ve been paying $6 a gallon for gas, because they look at the cost of health care and the cost of treating kids with asthma because of pollution and all those things.

    And when you look at all that, then people do the natural thing, which we saw last year, gas was $4 a gallon, everyone is riding their bikes, everyone is trying to take mass transit. You know, it drops back down again, SUV sales go up, everybody forgets.

Copeland: Green will only be successful --if it’s green.