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SPI 2017 events

9/5/2017

 
This is the running list of  events happening in and around SPI 2017 in Las Vegas.

Monday, September 11th
CivicSolar & Aerocompact SPI Happy Hour 3-5pm

Tue, September 12th
Research Findings from the Solar Workforce Diversity Study
Industry Trends Booth 4434, 11 am-12 pm

Orange Button Investor Panel: Using Standards for More Efficiency in Solar Finance
12:30 pm - 1:00 pm, Industry Trends theatre

Best Practices in Building a More Diverse Solar Industry
Industry Trends Booth 4434,  2-3pm

Orange Button Live Demonstration,  Hall H, 2:30 - 5:30 pm

 Celebrate with WRISE  at SPI  booth #1114, 9/12 4-6pm, toast at 4:30

Tweetup    5:00 PM – 6:30 PM PDT

Orange Button Networking Mixer
,  5:30pm-6:30pm,  Ballroom H


Sungrow SPI Cocktail Party (Live Music | Entertainment)  6:30 PM – 9:30 PM 

Why Women Aren’tC.E.O.s, According toWomen Who Almost Were

7/21/2017

 
It’s not a pipeline problem. It’s about loneliness,competition and deeply rooted barriers.
From the New York Times
Picture

A year ago, dressed in suffragette white and addressing a cheering, weeping convention, Hillary Clinton stood for possibility. Now she is a reminder of the limits women continue to confront — in politics and beyond.

More than 40 years after women began pouring into the workplace, only a handful have made it all the way to the top of corporate America. The percentage of chief executives of Fortune 500 companies who are women just passed 6 percent, creeping up (and occasionally dropping back) at a glacial pace.
​

Why don’t more women get that No. 1 job?

Read more

Two must read articles for anyone in tech

7/17/2017

 
HBR came out with two must-read studies recently. They reveal clear and measurable differences in how different genders are treated.  It's staggering.

Here they are:
  •  Male and Female Entrepreneurs Get Asked Different Questions by VCs — and It Massively Affects How Much Funding They Get 
  • We Recorded VCs’ Conversations and Analyzed How Differently They Talk About Female Entrepreneurs

Why do men need to read these articles, too? Female leadership (including founders) offers higher ROI - 63 percent higher ROI.

Also, it's been quite a year for white women, people of color and nonbinary people in tech.   In case you any of the developments or your head is spinning and you're in need of a recap, here is Megan Rose Dickey's  summary.

The top 4 ways to  make the most of Intersolar

7/11/2017

 
Is this your first time at Intersolar?  Have no  fear,  here are  three ways to make  the most of the  largest  solar conference in  California.

1. Show up 
Twitter and other social media channels will do no justice to the  event. You have to be there, meeting people in person.

2. Walk the expo floor
True, Intersolar is a conference with great  educational sessions, but most of the excitment is on the expo floor. The expo is  a multi-floor series of booths from solar companies.  Most of the  companies that have booths are  hardware companies. If you're not in the market for a racking system, it would still be useful to know about racking systems. 

Walk up to people at  booths where you have no idea what the product is and ask them  to tell you about the product. It's their job to tell you.  Also ask  them what they find interesting at  Intersolar and  if they recommend any other booths to go to.  

Make sure to check out the Powerhouse Pavilion and CALSEIA Pavilion.

​Do you need a free expo floor pass for Intersolar? Use  PVComplete's complimentary discount  code,  V9878BC06, when you  register here. 
​

3.  Go to networking events
The conference and expo floor are great, but the networking is even better and more worth your time.  Below is a list of networking events happening around Intersolar.  Not really a networker? Here 's how you take the awkward   moments out of networking.
​
  • Intersolar Happy Hour - GRID Alternatives and Women in Cleantech & Sustainability, JUL 10, 6pm
  • CivicSolar & GS Battery InterSolar Happy Hour - July 11th
  • WRISE and Shine! at Intersolar - by Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy (WRISE) JUL  12
  • Networking Breakfast with SEIA   -  July 12, 2017 | San Francisco,  8:30 - 10:00 am PST
  • Summer Solar Job Fair   July 12th  
  • Post Summer Solar Job Fair Networking Happy Hour  - by GRID Alternatives, July 12th
  • Intersolar North America 2017 Happy Hour Tweetup  - by Tor "@SolarFred" Valenza and Impress Labs, JUL 12, 4-5pm

4. Follow up
You'll meet some interesting people. All will be for naught if you don't follow up and connect with them. If you don't immediatly have a follow up action, like getting coffee with them to have a deeper discussion around career or business, email them  to say "It was nice to meet  you. I look forward to seeing you at another solar event soon."  and add them on LinkedIn.  By doing this, you'll go above and beyond 95% of the people that person met at the conference. 

Now get out there and  enjoy Intersolar!


_____
Can't get enough  of solar?  My friend Ravi and I host cleanweb events in the Bay Area and next week we're hosting a panel of solar software entrepreneurs to hear what they think about the current solar market and what it means for startups.  Hope  you can  join us.
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Female Founders Conference pre & post events

6/28/2017

 
Hello female founders,

With all the events and links out there I was having a hard time keeping track of everything, so I’ve put it all in one place. If I’ve missed anything, use the contact form to let me know.

Happy networking!
Elena

YC is hosing the Female Founders Conference on 6/29 in SF. If you can't make it in person, it will be live streamed here:  femalefoundersconference.org/ 
​

YC also put together a great set of female founder profiles. Check them out here.

Use  #ffc2017 for social media posts. 

Wednesday 6/28 pre-events
  1. 5pm  happy hour at Dirty Habit, hosted by SVB
  2. Spotlight on Latina Founders, 5:30pm
  3. Wine Down in SoMa, 6pm​
  4. The Mindset & Skillset for Funding your Business - Fearless Female Founders event at 500 Startups 6-8pm

Thursday 6/29 (Day-of)
  1. 11am meet up at The Grove in Hayes Valley
  2. Women in developer tools & infrastructure brunch at Heavybit
  3. 5pm:  Conversations and Cocktails at Sugar Lounge
  4. Female Founders Conference After Party Wine Down 8-11pm, AVA 55 Ninth

Guest blog: Three cleanweb startups to watch

5/31/2017

 
Picture
Picture





By Sloane Morgan
LinkedIn
​

Hey all you Clean Tech Enthusiasts out there! I've met some great clean energy companies over the past several weeks. They're doing great work to make the world a better place: 

Check out Swell Energy. They are selling a bundled product of solar + storage they call EnergyShield, premium black panel solar generation and a compact lithium-ion storage cell in SCE, a Southern CA utility. SCE is innovating and picking up where the fossil fuel-powered grid leaves off. Swell offers financing and is leading on good CX with their one click application for state and federal incentives. As of August 2017, SCE commissioned Swell to bring the largest fleet of home batteries (they are Tesla certified installer) the world has ever seen, effectively creating a “smart” grid that will help solve major supply issues facing Southern California. I want this in PGE territory! I don’t want my solar to go offline if the grid goes out (which is what would happen to me —and most other solar customers — under my current grid tied solar system). This Swell + SCE project is our future. 

I’m also impressed by  Drift, an online marketplace that allows consumers to buy energy  at the lowest available price whether directly from the local grid, the wind farm outside of town, or even their neighbor’s solar panels. Drift is focusing on customers in New York City, and it takes just minutes to make the switch to cleaner power. Founders were in a band together before they started their first company, and now showing their many talents by helping customers save money on energy costs by rethinking the supply chain paying.

Lastly, the folks at  Zero Mass Water  are magicians. Their product is a solar system that pulls water out of air. Millions of people on the planet need this product!  Water vapor is extracted as pure water & is mineralized for taste. Without pipes or plastic chemicals, the water is of the highest quality without the vulnerability of infrastructure. Easy to purchase systems are customizable to match your family/garden needs. These folks are working out of the University of Arizona and have created a cool product with endless opportunity for ‘democratizing’ the ownership of clean water.

​

How to get into clean energy

5/30/2017

 
I've had  more than a few people ask me about how to get into clean energy.  They're tired of woking at a company that  isn't meaningful.

Good news, it's easy to get into clean energy!

Clean energy companies are just like other companies, they need  business and technical people.  If you  know operations, marketing, finance, engineering (software and others), HR, clean energy companies will want to hire you.  Clean energy companies need professional s that bring their expertise from other industries into clean energy.  

You can apply for open job descriptions, but it's best to meet a few people in the energy industry  so they can help connect you to the right hiring manager.  The best way to meet people in the industry you want to work in is by going to events.  To overcome 

Events:
  • CleanwebSF
  • Young Professionals in Energy (Bay Area)
  • Software for Renewable Energy - Bay Area

How to come up to speed on the industry:
  • Energy Gang
  • SolarWakeUp

Taking the awkward moments out of networking

3/1/2016

 
A few easy questions to start and end a conversation

Networking is daunting when you don’t know where to start. The most important think is to be curious about the people you meet. Perhaps they aren’t the perfect connection, but maybe they know a restaurant you should try in a new part of town or they know someone else that could be of help to you. There are some basic questions you can use to get over the first conversation at an event.

Everyone else is there to network as well, but it’s hard to make the first move. I usually scope the whole room, then make it to the bar or food area – you can always use a drink or appetizer menu as an icebreaker, then dive into more professional topics.

My favorite way to start is:
What brings you here tonight?

Ask them if they’ve been to an event like this before: Example Women 2.0
Have you been at a Women 2.0 event before? 

To keep it going…
How are you involved in tech? 
Do you have a startup?
Are you new to the area? (This way you get their history)

The conversation will take off and you'll want to hang out, or if you need an exit or if the conversation has a lull.
Have you met any other interesting people here tonight? 

They’ll point you in the direction of someone interesting or you’ll have a way out of the conversation.
“….Great, I'd love to check in with them. Thank you for pointing them out to me. It was very nice to meet you.” And you walk away.

-or-

"Ok, I'm going to see who else I can connect with here. It was very nice to meet you.” And you walk away.

There you have it. Go try it out! 

A New Year's  resolution: Find a  fulfilling job

1/4/2016

 
There is a lot of noise on the web when it comes to finding a fulfilling job. On top of that, most jobs aren't static. My "job" at UtilityAPI has drastically changed a few times now. I use LinkedIn to find articles about moving up in jobs and more of the mechanics of the job search. I also like  Levo  League. 

Career and job are fluid - no one expects to have one job their whole life. Figuring out where you are and where you want to go is necessary on an ongoing basis. That's where events come in. 

Go to an event that's outside of your comfort zone so you're exposed to new ideas. Attend an industry event to find out what's coming around the corner. Does this sound awkward to you? No problem.  Here is how I took awkward out of networking.   How do you find events? I curate /aggregate a list of tech, clean energy, and career development events in the Bay Area and send it out in a  newsletter on Mondays. Subscribe  here. 

See you at some events in the New Year! ​


Can Tech Solve Climate Change?

12/13/2015

 

Yes, it’s possible to make money and save the world from climate disaster.

All eyes are on Paris for the at the 2015 U.N. Climate Change Conference. But what if solving the global climate crisis is less about political willpower and of technical knowhow?

Peter Thiel declared the cleantech sector  -- solar panels, wind turbines, and more -- a “disaster” in 2011. But today, the solar industry employs 174,000 people, more than Google, Apple, Facebook and Twitter combined, and job growth is 20 times higher than the rest of the U.S. economy.

That includes the company I co-founded, UtilityAPI, which gets data out of utilities and into the hands of companies that can use it, such as solar, energy storage, and energy management companies.

Two major hurdles remain to be jumped — market size and the role of federal incentives.  Let’s look at each in turn.

Is the market big enough?
Yes.  The energy sector, worth trillions of dollars, is the second-largest economic sector in the world, behind the military. The solar industry alone is expected to be at $3.7 trillion by 2025.

Here’s why: We need to reduce carbon emission to avoid climate disaster (keep the global temperature from increasing over 2 degrees Celsius). If we don’t, the seas will rise to swallow the coasts and our food systems will break down. We can either consume the same amount of energy and generate energy with lower emissions, or we can use less energy to do the things we do. Cleantech software is doing in two ways: 1) increasing zero-carbon energy sources and 2) optimizing energy usage.

Software allows solar installers to put panels on roofs more quickly and cheaply. For example, Energy Toolbase, Sighten, and Google’s Project Sunroof use solar irradiance maps to qualify a home for solar, then they can put together a proposal using satellite images and energy usage data from the home or building. Financing platforms, like Mosaic, makes solar more affordable for more people.

Optimizing energy usage is like Fitbit for energy usage. App stores don’t have energy apps because the data is locked away in hundreds of different formats. There is even a startup accelerator, Powerhouse, devoted to solar software tools.

So how do these macro trends play out in Silicon Valley? Some progress has been made, but it’s not enough.

Sometimes it helps to talk about the grid like this: The grid is being disrupted like telecom was 40 years ago. Telecom used to be copper wire and corded phones. Now we all have cell phones in our pockets and Twilio is the great connector for communications. The same thing is happening in electricity. We’re going from a centralized coal plant in the middle of nowhere, with power lines running to the city, to every building generating electricity with solar panels or Tesla batteries and consumers having control over the electricity they use.

Nest and Tesla are only the beginning. These are some companies taking on electricity:
  • Ohmconnect: Receive weekly payments for reducing your electricity one hour per week.
  • Geli: Making dumb batteries smart with software so companies can cut their electricity bill in half.
  • Energy Toolbase: How do I optimize the arrangement of solar panels on my roof? How many panels do I need? They have the software for that.
  • PickMySolar: A marketplace for solar that is expanding into other energy technologies
  • Chai Energy: Fitbit for your electricity consumption with hardware and software.
  • Clean Energy Collective: Rent or have a shaded roof? You can still go solar!
  • GridCure: We’re still going to need utility poles and wires. GridCure uses algorithms to optimize operations and services for utilities.
  • Swell Energy - Batteries that protect your home from blackouts and store the solar electricity you produce. This could have helped during Hurricane Sandy.

Isn’t solar subsidized and uneconomical?
No. It’s cheaper to get electricity from solar panels on your roof than to buy electricity from the grid. In all but four of the 50 states, solar is a better investment than the stock market. Adoption of renewable energy technologies has increased despite the powers of entrenched fossil fuel interests.

The International Energy Agency found that fossil fuels reap $550 billion a year in subsidies.. Oil, coal, and gas received more than four times the $120 billion paid out in incentives for renewables, including wind, solar, and biofuels. G20 members are spending $452 billion a year subsidizing fossil fuel production, despite pledging to phase out fossil fuel support to tackle climate change.

“The huge subsidies fossil fuels enjoy worldwide gives incentives to their consumption, which means that I’m paying you to pollute the world and use energy inefficiently,” says Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA.

DBL Investors, a venture firm based in San Francisco, found that that historical subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear far outpace those given to cleantech. Given that early years are essential to long-term industry success, we have under-funded renewable energy.

How to get involved
Interested and want free money? Solve problems for the electricity sector, and the U.S. Department of Energy will give you funding. They had $45M last year to invest and deployed only $30M of funding. UtilityAPI received $763k of it. There is another $30M of funding for this round.

How can you get involved?

  • Software for Renewable Energy Meetup
  • Data Science for Sustainability Meetup
  • Energy - Environment - Tech - Career development events

This article also appeared on  TechCrunch.
_____
Elena Lucas is co-founder and CEO of UtilityAPI, a universal API for energy data enabling new energy technologies. Elena began her career at PG&E, where she managed a $200M budget for low-income energy efficiency programs and distributed generation. She is on the board of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability. She holds a Master’s of International Economics with a focus on econometrics and energy policy from UC San Diego. She curates a website and newsletter of all the energy, tech, and career development events in the San Francisco Bay Area, ElenaLucas.co. She is originally from metro-Detroit, paints abstract landscapes, and is a Girl Scout Gold Awardee.



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