California Cleantech Open fêtes 2007 winners

Technically, there was even a red carpet.

The California Cleantech Open (CCTO) tonight announced the winners of its second annual cleantech business plan competition at an event in San Francisco attended by hundreds of well wishers.

This year, six companies in six categories each won $50,000, as well as the equivalent of another $50,000 in donated business services such as legal, PR, accounting and office space.

Selecting six winners and six runners up out of fifty finalists "was very tough," Jeremy Walker, the marketing chair of the California Cleantech Open, told the Cleantech Group.

While the total number of applications was actually down over the previous year, quality was clearly up, he said.

"Last year we had some good business plans, but there were a number of—you know—perpetual motion sorts of companies. There were none of those this year."

Attendees echoed the quality sentiment.

CCTO mentor and judge Rich Hilt told the Cleantech Group he "wished someone would give me any one of these companies, the right people, a little money and a little time" to bring them to success.

Winners, by category, included:

• Air, Water & Waste: Microvi Biotech, a clean water company based in Kansas. The company is aiming at reducing the amount of energy, waste generation, and high operation costs of today's water systems. Runner up: EarthGuard, a maker of starch-based and recycled plastics.
• Energy Efficiency: NiLA, a developer of LED-based lights for the stage and entertainment industry. The company's lights use 50 percent to 70 percent less electricity and generate 75 percent less heat, it says. And, they're not toxic and don't contain mercury. Runner up: Ahwahnee Technology, a non LED-based area lighting company.
• Green Building: BuildFast, a company designing a house kit for low income and post-disaster housing. The company's approach is green, highly insulated and earthquake-resistant, it says. Runner up: Enverity, developer of environmental data management software
• Renewables: 1-Solar, maker of a new solar inverter aiming for longer life and lower cost. The company has built prototypes for a next generation of solar inverters with double to triple the life of current ones, yet cost less, it claims. Runner up: Tahoe Water Systems, a company developing self-contained solar or wind-based water pumps.
• Smart Power: Lucid Design Group, developing real time information feedback systems to help users know how much energy they're using and empower them to change their behavior, reducing energy use from 9 to 18 percent. Runner up: Federspiel Controls and its wireless sensors and more efficient software control for HVAC systems.
• Transportation: Syncromatics, developer of a system that uses GPS and cellular networks to transmit and analyze telematics information from city buses to reduce fleet fuel and vehicle turnover costs. Runner up: Hum Cycles, making high performance electric sport motorcycles.

A new prize was added this year.

An "Alumni Award" was bestowed upon GreenVolts, the 2006 CCTO finalist that made most progress on financing and/or customer wins since last October.

GreenVolts recently signed an agreement with PG&E for a two megawatt HCPV (high concentration photovoltaic) power plant that, when completed, will be the largest in the world. See GreenVolts lands agreement with PG&E.

The company also announced a $10M formal Series A this evening.

Aside from the obvious benefits of potentially winning, applicants' $250 entry fees also entitled them to workshops to learn how to effectively craft their companies' business plan executive summaries and how to make their own enterprise more sustainable.

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