Green Options

Thinking about installing a wind energy system, but not sure if the payback period on your investment meets your financial needs? I began thinking about this question last week when our old friend (and my real old friend) bobbyb sent me an article about a couple who’d installed a wind turbine at their home in Great Britain. He noted that the numbers provided in the article (a £20,000 initial outlay for £500/year energy savings) didn’t make financial sense: “That’s a forty-year payback period!”

He’s right… that kind of cost-benefit analysis doesn’t really work. If you’re going to put up tens of thousands of dollars for a wind system (or a solar energy system), you probably want to see a return on that investment in years, rather than in decades. I got so interested in the topic that I wrote a post about things you should consider before putting your money down on a renewable energy system at SUNfiltered. Wind energy systems have their own requirements, so here are a few of the things you’ll want to take into consideration.

Will wind energy work on my property?

As with any renewable resource, some areas are better than others for home wind energy. Some of the questions you’ll need answers for include

Having spent considerable time discussing how ecopreneurs can get a piece of the stimulus money, I was eager to read the new Green Stimulus Guide published by The Green Research Council.  A 83-page document, it summarizes all the various opportunities presented by the stimulus package.

The Guide is filled with lots of information and hundreds of links to sites where more info and funding applications can be found.

The Guide starts by explaining the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and how it breaks down. Contained within the Guide is info about Green Energy Initiatives (DOE), Tax Credits, Green Environmental Projects (EPA)  Green Transportation Initiatives (DOT), Green Building Initiatives and Green Jobs/Job Training. It provides a modest number of “tips” and information as to how to actually land stimulus money which will be helpful to many people outside the Beltway. One that stuck out to me was contained within the “How To Apply” section:

Yesterday I received another email from small businesses asking for advice on where to get financing so I put together this list.  Three out of the four the resources are recycled Ecopreneurist.com posts.  I simply gathered them in one place:

How To Finance A Green Business by Leah Edwards is an excellent post that covers four potential sources of cash for green businesses: SBA loans, social-venture venture capital funds, Friends-and-Family financing and partnering with a nonprofit organization.

Recently, Leah also posted about Financing for Energy Efficiency Improvements. In that discussion she talked about how some private banks are starting to offer “green loans” for the financing of clean energy systems or energy efficiency improvements. These same banks may offer small business loans for green businesses. Community banks often favor green loans so after you read the post, if it seems like an option check with your community bank.

It may be a bad time to seek funding, but some cleantech investors see it as a good time to get a deal. At the Clean-Tech Investor Summit in Indian Wells, Calif., last week, Kevin Walsh, managing director of renewable energy for GE Energy Financial Services, said GE is taking advantage of the economic environment to snag good deals and is also looking at smart-grid and energy-efficiency opportunities. “We’re being opportunistic,” he said. “You’ll see more deals on the venture side in the next few months.”

I’m a fan of The Funded, an online community of entrepreneurs to research, rate, and review funding sources worldwide. It’s a great example of a venture that promotes transparency and allows entrepreneurs to help each write business plans, share ideas and ultimately obtain funding.

A recent post discussed what the entrepreneur seeking funding should bring to an investor meeting. Answer: a deck that will take no more than 20-30 minutes to get through and cover the following points:

The ten slides that you need, in my experience, are:

1. Vision: What are you trying to do, and why are you doing it?

2. Market: What is the market you are addressing and the estimated value of this market over the next 5 to 10 years?

3. Team: Who are the key three to five executives (Vision, Operations, Tech, Sales, Marketing), and what are their specific qualifications in the target market?

4. Offering: What is your exact offering? If possible, present a three to five minute pre-recorded video demonstration.

5. Roadmap: Where are you in your offering release cycle and with respect to gaining traction?

I really enjoy How To Change The World,a practical blog for impractical people. Now tell me, doesn’t that ring a bell with all green entrepreneurs? Here’s an excerpt from a  recent post, actually a series of videos Guy has on The Art of Raising Venture Capital.

Good tips for ecopreneurs!

Related Posts:

How to Approach a Venture Capital Firm with Your Eco Business

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