The Green Frog from Silicon Valley

Wind powers Electric Odyssey at Shiloh II plant

The best way to charge an electric vehicle is to use renewable energy to emit no pollution. That is what two e-globetrotters did today with their Citroen C-Zero near San Francisco, at the 150MW Shiloh II wind plant operated by EnXco. When Xavier Degon and Antonin Guy took the road back in February from Strasbourg, France they wanted to bring awareness on electric mobility as a viable daily mode of transportation.

Not everybody can connect today to clean energy, even less take a year off to tour around the world. Nine companies including EDF, the parent company of EnXco, are sponsoring the project called Electric Odyssey. But the two adventurers argue that "If we can do a world tour in a standard electric car, you can use it for your daily rides!”. For Xavier and Antonin, it has been an interesting journey across the US in the last month. They will head to Japan next week and be back to France in September after driving through 17 countries, just in time for the 2012 Paris Motor Show.

Integrating renewable energy sources into the grid: eyes on La Reunion island

One of the hottest subjects in solar is how to integrate intermittent renewable energy sources with utility grids. Wind has recently reached 5% of energy production in California and a number of utility-scale solar farms will be in service in coming years to bring the total beyond 10%. It is a fundamental issue that has many utilities scratch their heads over, and that has spurred a series of new pilot projects.

Recently, Hitachi made an investment in the smart grid management company Silver Spring Networks. They are leading  the smart grid pilot project in Hawaii, which has a contribution from solar and wind farms in double digits on some islands like Maui. I have done a search worldwide, and I actually found out that the grid with the largest relative amount of energy production from solar and wind is not in the Pacific but in the Indian Ocean. The French island of La Reunion already observes peaks of 30% of instantaneous power load from solar panels. The local utility operator deals with the challenge of intermittent energy sources every day.

French cleantech cluster visiting Silicon Valley: if talent is there, market is elsewhere

A delegation of companies from the French cluster in Provence area is visiting Silicon Valley this week. They connected with other French entrepreneurs in Palo Alto yesterday. It was the opportunity to compare cleantech activities in US and Europe. The South East is the first region of France in photovoltaic power generation, and has an important nuclear industry.

Provence has been working on the Environment before cleantech came to age. "It was more of an associative movement back then. We have since reworked our strategic plan." stated Carine Schlewitz of the Technopolis Arbois Mediterranee. “Renewable energy is now a strong and clear vector of economic growth” explained Pascal Rioual who heads the clean technology cluster Cap’Energies (picture above). The French Government has borrowed more than $1Bn towards sustainable infrastructure, and first smart grid projects have been awarded.

If Southern California is often compared to the French Riviera for its mild climate and quality of life, many clusters would like to be associated with Silicon Valley. Provence is actually a fairly high-tech area with semiconductor factories. Gemplus is world-known for smart cards, commonly used in Europe for credit cards and other transactions. IBM once had a large campus in Sophia Antipolis near Nice, and many US companies still have offices. But the comparison with Silicon Valley stops there.