California Clean Tech Open 2007 Kick-off Event Wrap up

[San Francisco, California USA]

Closing Speakers headline the Event

Even though I took BART, I arrived late to the California Clean Tech Open 2007 launch event and missed the Welcome Introductions and opening speakers.

But first, there are six clean tech categories in the competition: Air, Water & Waste, Energy Efficiency, Green Building, Renewables, Smart Power, and Transportation. The California Clean Tech Open (CCTO) winner in each category will receive a "Start-Up In A Box" Prize Package worth $100,000: $50,000 in cash from the category prize sponsor and an additional $50,000 worth of sponsor donated office space and professional services.

The timeline for the CCTO business plan competition is as follows:

June 4, 2007	Technology and Entrepreneur Matching Event
June 14, 2007	Executive Summary Workshop for Applicants
June 30, 2007	Application Submissions Deadline
June – August 2007	Innovators' Symposia and other Sponsor Events
July 26, 2007	First Round Judging - Finalist Teams Announced
August – September 2007	Clean Tech Entrepreneur Summer Workshop Series and Mentoring Services
September 19, 2007	Submit Business Plan and Presentation Deadline
October 1-8, 2007	Live Presentation to Judging Panel
October 30, 2007?	2007 Competition Awards Ceremony (tentative date)

If you are interested in entering the Competition, please visit How To Enter The Competition to register and understand the competition process. In 2006, 47 finalist teams were selected from 156 business plan entrants for an intensive mentoring boot camp preparing them to present their business plans to the CCTO Judging Panel. The CCTO 2006 Competition Report has all the details about last year. My wild guess is the number of entrants in the CCTO competition will almost double to 300 this year. About 30 to 60 finalist teams will be selected from the Executive Summary submissions.

I found the panel discussion moderated by Kerry Dolan, Senior Editor, Forbes, to be a category prize sponsor showcase without any major revelations. By contrast, the Closing Speakers had practical advice and profound thoughts about the competition, business, clean tech, and energy policy.

The first was profiled in the post, GreenVolts CEO Bob Cart addresses California Clean Tech Open 2007 Kick-off Event.

Raj Atluru, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, shared Clean Tech words of wisdom from the venture capitalist viewpoint:

John Garamendi, Lieutenant Governor of California, focused on fundamental changes to our national Energy Policy as a critical driver for Clean Tech to prevent climate change. This is a decent political speech that avoids mentioning the The Governator (Governor Schwarzenegger) or the California Solar Initiative too much.

Garrett Hering, Associate Editor, PHOTON International, asked the Lieutenant Governor a question about the recent LA Times article, Rebate rule chills sales of solar (registration may be required), by Marc Lifsher, reporting:

Public Utilities Commission reports show a decline of 78% in rebate requests in the first three months of this year, compared with last year, and the solar installation industry says it is threatened with collapse across much of California.

It looks like California, New Jersey (NJCEP Spring 2007 CORE Program and Queues), and Ontario, Canada, (Mixed Reviews for Ontario's Feed-in Tariff) all have problematic solar incentive programs though for different reasons.