Vancouver BC, March 7
There is a dynamic and diverse renewable energy industry cropping up in this northwest Canadian city, and last week I had the opportunity to get a good look at it. Two facility tours were in my schedule, first to Day4Energy, a maker of cutting-edge photovoltaic modules, and then to VRB Power, a flow-battery developer. In between there was a meeting with Mantra Energy, a clean tech venture capital and energy services firm setting up base in the downtown core.
Day4 has only been in business since 2002, but their innovative PV modules are gaining a good foothold in the market. The facility currently can produce 12 megawatts worth of hardware, but rapid expansion is underway, and the company plans to be capable of producing 90 megawatts by the end of this year. The Day4 panels achieve a reduction in resistance to electrical current by a proprietory method of interconnecting cells. Visit their site for more information (or apply for work), at www.Day4Energy.com
VRB Power (www.VRBPower.com) has been actively developing its vanadium-based flow cell storage systems since the late 90’s. This storage application is being targetted at remote power neeeds in the communications sector, and remote communities. It can also be used in conjunction with intermittent clean energy sources such as solar and wind, smoothing the power output and providing juice when the source energy is absent. A number of installations are performing in different countries. VRB is an investor’s opportunity, as the technology has been tested and perfected, but leadership from investment firms has yet to materialize. As a result there are substantial quantities of low-priced shares available in an very promising technology.
This information was part of my interaction with Mantra Ventures Group, one of my client firms. This company is composed of several entities, each playing a role in bringing sustainable technologies to market and encouraging market adoption of these technologies and a wise-use ethic in general. A couple of questions they ask when looking at different ideas are ”Does it reduce waste while creating a resource?” “Is it a closed-loop system?” And, importantly, “Does it help reduce costs?”
All three of these companies have this economic ethic at the heart of their planning, as this is the essential purpose for the development of sustainable energy economies in the first place. Not only the high cost of fossil-fuel dependency, but the overall cost on our ecosystems. The link between Ecology and Economy is no accident, and these folks are working hard to ensure results that are both environmentally sound and affordable.
