Cleantech Investor

First published on the Cleantech Investor website, January 2012

Elisabeth Jeffries learns about enterprise, from the masters 

Soul-searching. Tormented by demons. Chippy.

Not the most promising qualities in a prospective PR manager perhaps, but ideal in an entrepreneur. And the Scots have them in bundles. That, at least, is the conviction of Bill Aulet, MD of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center in Cambridge, Massachussetts. Bill blasted into Edinburgh earlier this month from across the Atlantic alongside a couple of other big cheeses, to yank some fire out of the bellies of Scottish entrepreneurs (OK and a few Dutch, Spanish, Italian and, er, English).

2012-01-18

Jörg “George” Sperling, Munich-based partner at European cleantech fund WHEB Partners looks at which countries are producing globally-applicable environmental technologies and why

I spend a lot of my time on the road in Europe looking for companies developing clean industrial processes and energy-efficient solutions – some of which will ultimately enter the product lines or production lines of Europe’s leading industrial groups. Indeed, experience of the past 20 years has shown that government penalties on emissions and pollution are not simply a dead-weight cost to large industry. They can catalyse deep-rooted overhauls in efficiency and, therefore, productivity. The German chemicals sector is a case in point – environmental legislation, once feared, has helped turn it into the most efficient in the world, still able to compete globally.

Elisabeth Jeffries reviews technology innovation emerging from Imperial College London

Where the Russians lead, the Americans follow; where the Americans lead, the Russians follow. The new cold war for the 21st century has barely begun in the vicious climate of the Arctic circle. It is a scramble to extract the greatest share of hydrocarbons located under the seabed in the second most hostile place on the planet. This underground fuel accounts for 13% (90 billion barrels of oil and 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids) of undiscovered oil on the planet, according to US Geological survey estimates in 2008.

First published on the Cleantech Investor website, December 2011. Copyright Cleantech Investor Ltd. 2011

Elisabeth Jeffries comments on innovation in energy harvesting

Many of us would love to see the back of batteries, at least in consumer products. They can be a nuisance; once they go flat, you have to remember to buy a pack on your next shopping trip. Then there are those awkward moments your new partner can’t get through because you’ve forgotten to recharge your mobile.  Not to mention the waste! You have to remember to take them back to the supermarket or there’s a good chance they’ll end up in the bin.  Useful though batteries may once have been, maybe they’re out of date.  If we can get rid of wires, we really ought to be able to abolish batteries.

First published in Cleantech magazine 2011 Issue 5. Copyright Cleantech Investor Ltd

Elisabeth Jeffries discusses the roll-out of testing of large scale renewable energy generation devices at Edinburgh and Aberdeen - and observes that Scottish independence would jeopardise university research funding.

If it makes sense to teach toddlers to swim in a paddling pool before throwing them in the deep end, the same is true of most start-ups. Engineers at Edinburgh University, though, have to take that lesson literally.  Having relied for years on a small pool to experiment with marine power models, they are about to step up a grade.