Green Wombat

The most promising green tech startups

If you want to know what enviro startups Silicon Valley movers and shakers think could be the next big green thing, the California Clean Tech Open is a good leading indicator. Last night in San Francisco the Open named six winners in its second annual startup competition. Each winner receives a $100,000 "startup in a box" package that includes $50,000 in cash from such sponsors as Google (GOOG), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Lexus (TM) and California's Big Three utilities - PG&E (PCG), Southern California Edison (EIX) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SRE). The winners also get $50k worth of legal, marketing, accounting and public relations services from such heavyweights as Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The opportunity to mingle with the entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and potential clients who judge the contest probably represents the biggest win of all for these startups.  Now the winners:

AMD Smart Power Award
The Lucid Design Group of Oakland, Calif., takes a Web 2.0 approach to environmental monitoring, providing real-time feedback on a building or home's energy and water usage through an online dashboard. The idea: people will be motivated to cut their electricity and water consumption when they see how much and when power is being used by various appliances.

ENVIRON Foundation and Grundfos Air, Water and Waste Award
Overland Park, Kan., startup Microvi Biotech is using biotechnology to treat waste water, sewage and control pollution.

Google Green Building Award
BuildFast of San Carlos, Calif., makes environmentally sensitive prefab housing kits to erect buildings in disaster zones or in low-income areas.

Lexus Transportation Award
Los Angeles' Syncromatics is developing technology that uses GPS and mobile phone networks for real-time online tracking of buses to improve efficiency and cut fuel costs.

PG&E, SCE and SDG&E Renewables Award
Rohnert Park, Calif.-based 1-Solar is designing lower-cost and longer-life power inverters for solar arrays and other renewable energy systems. Inverters convert the direct current produced by such systems into the alternating current used in households and businesses.

PG&E, SCE and SDG&E Energy Efficiency Award
Nila of Sherman Oaks, Calif., makes LED lighting systems for Hollywood that it says consume 50 to 75 percent less electricity than traditional lighting used in the entertainment industry.

California Clean Tech Open Finalists Push the Green Envelope

The California Clean Tech Open startup competition has named 50 finalists, and this year companies vying for $600,000 in cash and services need to be as green as their products. Entrepreneurs will be judged, in part, on the sustainability of their business model and business practices. In other words, it's not enough to come up with the killer enviro app, you have to be as carbon neutral as possible. To that end, the competition is providing finalists with "sustainability starter kits" to to put contestants on the green path from the get-go.  The competition is backed by such Silicon Valley heavyweights as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Google (GOOG) and SunPower (SPWR) as well as more than a dozen  venture capital firm. Other sponsors include the big three California utilities - PG&E (PCG), Southern California Edison (EIX) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SRE).

The California Clean Tech Open offers a look at where entrepreneurs - and the judges - think the green wave will be breaking next. This year, the contest named finalists in six categories:  Air, Water & Waste;  Energy Efficiency; Green Building; Renewables; Smart Power; and Transportation. Some of the finalists that caught Green Wombat's eye include Friendly Cow Biogas, which is developing a methane digesters to turn cow poop into biogas; Civil Twilight, which is making streetlights that dim when the moon is full; Vertical Landscape's system of transforming load-bearing walls of buildings to support vegetation; SolarAire, which has created a solar-powered air conditioning system; Grid Saver, whose home appliance remote control system allows utilities to manage power usage; and High Merit Thermoelectrics, which  converts waste heat from heavy truck exhaust systems to electricity to run the vehicle's alternator, power steering pump, and air conditioner pump.

Clean Tech Entrepreneurs Win $500,000

Five startups took home prizes worth half a million dollars Tuesday at the California Clean Tech Open awards ceremony at San Francisco City Hall.

The business plan competition, sponsored by Silicon Valley venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, academics and environmental groups, is designed to jump-start clean technology innovation. A day before California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law the state's landmark global warming legislation, several hundred people gathered in city hall to hear San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, VC and clean tech money man Vinod Khosla and other speakers hail California's green revolution. "We don't need to wait for permission from the president of the United States" to fight global warming, Newsom told the crowd.

Each winner scored a "startup in a box" package worth $50,000 in cash and $50,000 worth of legal, accounting, public relation and executive search services. Check out the winners after the jump.