Streetline’s Smart Parking platform uses sensors embedded in the pavement to detect when open parking spaces are available.  Utilizing Streetline’s mobile app, Parker™, motorists will eventually be able to access parking availability information within the initial pilot area. Utilizing sensors to detect occupancy, Parker by Streetline provides the location and general availability of parking spaces through the use of web-enabled devices, such as a smartphone, PC, or tablet.  Once parked, motorists can use the app’s built in timer to help keep track of how much time is left on the meter, or pull up walking directions to help find their parking space when they need to return to their vehicle.

Abe Yokell, who helped open the firm’s Menlo Park office, has been with RockPort since 2004.  His board seats include EcoFactor, Qnovo and Solar Universe, and he is an observer on the Enphase Energy and Recurve boards.  Prior to joining RockPort he worked at an economic and management consultancy, and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where he studied Economics, Chemistry, and Biology.

Daniel Hullah, DPhil, joined RockPort in the Boston office in 2006.  He currently serves on the board of GaN Systems and is a board observer for Microseismic and Project Frog.  Prior to joining RockPort he worked in sales and marketing management consulting at ZS Associates.  He received a BA and DPhil in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, UK and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.

Dhiraj Malkani also joined RockPort’s Boston office in 2006.  He is a board member of Enovix and an observer on the Gazelle, Gridco and SustainX boards.  Prior to joining RockPort he worked in product development at Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies.  He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Mumbai, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Boston University, and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

“Each one of these three strong performers has earned his promotion to Partner,” said Wilber James, Managing General Partner.  “Abe, Daniel, and Dhiraj have gained the respect of the entrepreneurs they work with, their colleagues at RockPort, and their fellow venture capitalists.  We look forward to their continued success in an expanded role as Partner.”

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In the meantime, Achates Power has revisited a century-old concept of how to remake the internal combustion automobile engine so it’s cheaper, has fewer emissions and uses less fuel. It may not be the future you imagined, but sometimes the best new ideas are actually old ones.

Achates’s two-stroke diesel engine has two pistons per cylinder, one more than traditional engines, that pump in opposite directions. The engine structure was invented in the 1890s, but subsequent versions used too much oil and released too much smog to meet modern standards. Compared with engines currently on the road, Achates’ prototype lowers nitrogen oxide emissions 30 percent and boosts fuel efficiency 20 percent.

Achates Chief Executive Officer David Johnson recently spoke with Bloomberg News transportation reporter Mark Clothier

SEABROOK, N.H.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SustainX, Inc., developer of a transformative, utility-scale energy storage technology, today announced that Richard Brody will join the executive team as Vice President of Business Development.

Dr. Brody, who holds a Ph.D. and a master’s degree from the University of Michigan, has over 20 years of experience in technology-based international business development and government policy. He joins SustainX after leading the business development team at PowerGenix for two years. Prior to PowerGenix, he led international business development at UTC Power.

“This marks a key moment in the company’s development as we welcome such a talented executive to the SustainX team,” said Thomas Zarrella, CEO of SustainX. “We are beginning our international business development efforts and we believe that Richard’s extensive international experience will allow SustainX to secure a unique competitive advantage as we begin building a global company and forging strategic relationships with early customers.”

Dr. Brody developed a new business strategy at PowerGenix that repositioned the company into markets and battery products for hybrid-electric vehicles and stationary storage. He established relationships with vehicle manufacturers and suppliers in Europe, the U.S. and Asia and helped create a manufacturing joint venture in China for PowerGenix batteries.

by Leon Thomsen

Peter Duncan created and continues to sustain SEG’s Challenge Board through his coordination and visible presence at the regional competitions around the world. Peter also served in an exemplary manner as SEG President while simultaneously creating a new company, MicroSeismic Inc., which uses passive seismic to follow the success of frac jobs, an especially critical function in shale-gas horizontal drilling. Peter’s company received US$100 million this year in private equity investment. Peter shared this technology with fellow Society members as the SEG/AAPG Distinguished Lecturer. He previously received SEG Life Membership, for which his contribution in creating the Society’s Distinguished Instructor Short Course was highlighted.

Simply put, Peter Duncan is a Force of Nature. You understand that the best when he “asks” you to do something for SEG. Resistance is futile. Excuses are brushed aside. Charm is exuded. Guilt is applied if necessary. In the end you agree and, in the end, SEG is better for it.

I first met Peter at the SEG convention in 2000. I was so unfortunate as to have a hotel room next to his; he and some friends were jamming into the wee hours. So I knocked on his door to complain about teh noise. I was instead “asked” (see above) to join them, with my wife Pat, who had thought she was ready for bed. We also jammed into the wee hours, despite a personal preference for early retirement.

The SEG Distinguished Instructor Short Course had been invented by Peter in 1998, as the SEG’s Bagship program in continuing education, subsidized strongly by the SEG Foundation. He organized it by himself for the first few years, before passing it on to a committee. Before he “asked” me (see above) to participate in 2001, the program had become a partnership with EAGE, with worldwide scope. It has since been emulated by other societies, and remains one of the SEG programs best appreciated by members.

[...]

Each year, a handful of greentech companies become the talk of the town. Some engage in a competitive and oversubscribed fundraising round. Others announce a development partner that makes competitors take notice. Still others grow sales or flop in a make-or-break year.

What follows is a glance into a crystal ball, clouded by uncertainty and qualified by the sources of information — often interested parties — with visibility under the hood of 12 buzz-worthy greentech companies across the technology spectrum.  (I deliberately left firms that will generate buzz via an IPO — e.g., Silver Spring Networksand Mascoma — off the list).

“The reality is that unless a company has opened the kimono and they are actively fundraising and you’ve had time to look at the numbers […], it is hard to really understand what is going on under the hood,” said Evan Lovell of Virgin Green Fund, mixing his metaphors.

Caveats aside, the prevailing view is that the LED market is set to take off in 2012.

“LEDs is one sector that I expect to grow dramatically in 2012 with or without any incentive-type programs by U.S. or foreign governments,” said Bilal Zuberi of General Catalyst Partners. “Technology is advancing rapidly, costs [are] coming down without companies going bankrupt, and the general public doesn’t seem to view it as some treehugger, fantasy-world tech.”

The first two firms to watch are therefore LED companies.  The rest are from across the greentech spectrum, but include two rapidly growing companies from, to quote Zuberi, “the perennial favorite in end-of-year lists: water.”

The increase in business is due largely to operators realizing the value of microseismic monitoring. MicroSeismic clients are extending their current monitoring contracts and adding more wells to their monitoring programs for 2012. They are using the knowledge gained through microseismic monitoring to optimize well spacing, fracture staging and pumping parameters, and are reporting increases in both production and recovery.

“MicroSeismic’s fracture monitoring process is one of the key technologies Whiting is using to optimize hydraulic fracturing,” said James J. Volker, Chairman and CEO of Whiting Petroleum. “Our buried microseismic monitoring array at Sanish Field is a key component to our development program. MicroSeismic, Inc. has been an exceptionally strong supporting partner in the design and implementation of this technology.”

“Our clients are reaping the benefits of monitoring using our BuriedArray^™ and PSET^® technology,” said Bill Coates, President and CEO of MicroSeismic, Inc. “Not only are they achieving enhanced production and recovery levels, they are gaining a better understanding of how the reservoir responds to production activity over time. We’re providing information in real-time enabling them to adjust their completion parameters and maintain strong production over the life of their field.”

MicroSeismic, Inc. is a completions technology company providing real-time monitoring and mapping of hydraulic fracture operations in unconventional oil and gas plays. Founded in 2003, MicroSeismic is the pioneer in monitoring microseismic activity utilizing surface and near-surface arrays. It is the only company capable of showing operators how the rock is breaking as a result of fracturing. This enables them to optimize well parameters for increased production and recovery as well as identify and avoid potentially sensitive geological areas.

For more information visit: www.microseismic.com

Media Contact:
Kelly Weber
kweber@microseismic.com
713-443-9164

Smart buildings can help people translate the mass amounts of data that our buildings generate, which in turn helps us more accurately understand (and mend) our energy use.

Today, the smart buildings market is estimated to be around $30 billion globally, but it still has a lot of growing up to do– technology is still evolving and the need for more energy efficient buildings is still slowly making its way into planning and development agendas.

Dave Bartlett, the Vice President of IBM’s Smarter Buildings Initiative, recently made predictions for the top five building trends that are going to make a big impact in 2012, as smarter buildings become more of a priority.

In a conversation with SmartPlanet, Bartlett explained his predictions and let us in on some projects that are already taking place to help these predictions come to fruition.

Redwood City, CA, December 2, 2011 – EcoFactor™, the leading residential energy management company, today announced that Roy Johnson, a veteran executive in the energy and telecommunication industries, is joining EcoFactor as CEO. With nearly three decades of experience in the technology and energy sectors, Johnson has held numerous leadership roles at Calisolar Inc., Redline Networks, 2Wire, and 3Com Corporation. Leveraging his previous work with service providers and energy industry expertise, he will assist EcoFactor and its partners in bringing residential energy management to the mass market.

“The home energy management space has reached a tipping point,” said Roy Johnson, CEO, EcoFactor. “Sustainable success in this market will require more than a nice thermostat, and we’ve seen that we can’t rely on consumers to modify their behavior. I believe that EcoFactor has technology that is capable of empowering our partners to bring residential energy management to their customers – we deliver effortless energy savings to consumers, help utilities manage their loads and offer a full end-to-end solution for service providers.”

Johnson comes to EcoFactor after four years as CEO at Calisolar, Inc., a vertically integrated manufacturer of solar silicon, wafers and high-performance cells. Prior to his time at Calisolar, Johnson was President and CEO of Redline Networks, where he guided the team to an industry leadership position in the Application Front End market, from pre-revenue to a successful acquisition by Juniper Networks for $132 million in May 2005.  Previously Johnson also held the post of vice president of marketing and business development at 2Wire and spent 13 years at 3Com Corporation. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an AB in Economics from Dartmouth College.

“Drawing from his time at both Calisolar and Redline, Roy brings an impressive understanding of the energy sector and working with service providers,” said Abe Yokell, EcoFactor board member and Principal at RockPort Capital Partners. “His energy expertise and leadership capabilities will ensure that EcoFactor continues to move forward at its current rapid pace in order to ultimately reach a broad, national audience.”

John Steinberg will remain with the company as Founder and Executive Vice President of Business Development. In this position, Steinberg will guide EcoFactor’s general business development and strategy, as well as manage the company’s regulatory affairs. Steinberg already holds 17 U.S. patents and will continue in his efforts to protect and advance EcoFactor’s Intellectual Property portfolio.

About EcoFactor
EcoFactor is the leading residential energy management company that enables home service providers to offer an energy management service to their customers that does not require them to compromise comfort or change behavior. The EcoFactor platform uses data from communicating thermostats to determine the unique thermal characteristics of each home and automatically optimize energy use to eliminate waste and save money. Based in Redwood City, Calif., EcoFactor was founded in 2006 to provide an automated alternative to behavior-based residential energy management solutions. EcoFactor is privately held and funded by Claremont Creek Ventures and RockPort Capital Partners.

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