A Personal Story

I want to share briefly my story about moving to the U.S. and how GABA has helped me to make a good start in the SF Bay Area. It shows that GABA is truly a great networking platform providing opportunities for its members (and non-members). 

In 2009, I won a Green Card in the U.S. Visa Diversity Lottery and had the opportunity to immigrate to the U.S.. It’s a once in a lifetime chance and I couldn’t pass it up. At this time, I didn’t really have an idea what it would be like living in the U.S.. My previous trips to the U.S. were just short vacations, a semester abroad at San Diego State and an internship, but now I had the opportunity to go to the U.S. long term and build something from scratch.  In essence, live the American dream.

So in April 2010 I left Germany and I moved to the Bay Area by myself.  I didn’t have a job nor did I know anyone in the Bay Area.  But while researching the Bay Area I came across the GABA and was impressed by its members, events and sponsors. I thought this organization would be a great opportunity for me to get in touch with Bay Area professionals, particularly in the IT industry in which I have an affinity for and have always been interested in the latest technologies.  So I decided to join the GABA and became a member.

I remember the first GABA event vividly as it was just one day after I arrived. Though I was jet-lagged and tired, I am glad that I made it to Phone Wars 2. It was an interesting topic about the smart-phone market and I managed to meet kind people such as Mandy Herrmann from GABA. With the good impression of the first event, I started to attend GABA events regularly to chat with people and learn more about interesting subjects such as Cloud Computing, Social Networks or Innovation Models at Google.

Some people call it serendipity, but I think it was my regular attendance at the GABA events that lead me to meeting Dirk Lueth. He’s also German and moved with his family to the Silicon Valley in 2009 to start a new venture: ENTARENA. This software startup company operates in the Enterprise 2.0 space. It develops enterprise software to improve the performance of an organization through enhanced real-time communication capabilities. Dirk and I met each other at the Social Media for Business event and, as always, exchanged business cards. Afterwards, I sent him a follow up email and we met for coffee in Palo Alto to talk a little bit more about ENTARENA and ourselves.

To cut a long story short, Dirk offered me an opportunity to work for this promising startup company and I thank GABA for providing the environment to meet him!

Do you also have an encouraging GABA story? Write a comment.

See you at one of the upcoming events!
Jan Belke

http://www.linkedin.com/in/janbelke

GABA's Mini-Grids Panel on September 30th

Based on the positive feedback from previous GABA smart grids events, Dirk Michels from K&L Gates in San Francisco hosted another panel discussion about so-called mini-grids on September, 30th. Moderator Olaf Groth did not only challenge the speaker´s presentations and corresponding insights but also successfully involved the audience during the interactive Q&A session.

The panelists team consisted of Prof. Dr. Burkhard Koch (Managing Director, IQ International Consulting, Germany), Sameer Kalra (Strategic Director of SmartSynch) and Tony Seba (Author “Solar Trillions”) and provided multi-facetted perspectives to the question how the trends for mini-grids evolve on a global as well as on a local scale.

Based on Olaf´s introduction and guidance, due to the high complexity of the topic, the distinguished speakers elaborated facts, figures and thoughts along the following key dimensions:

1) How can the trends in mini-grids be analyzed across the spectrum of highly centralized markets such as China on the one hand versus decentralized market landscapes, e.g. the U.S.?

2) How do mini-grids play out in the various parts of the energy value chain, especially in power generation, distribution and consumption?

3) How do mini-grids play out differently in OECD-countries versus in emerging markets (BRIC)?

4) How can we check our assumptions about the future of mini-grids in times of increasing global uncertainties with respect to the confluence of the need for energy efficiency and electricity reliability, as well as both demand and supply of feasible innovation?

Overall energy trend: a new architecture is potentially emerging that shows parallels to technical “revolutions” in the 1980s (PCs) and 1990s (internet). Today´s energy sector shares similar characteristics as the 80s IT sector, i.e. few big players in markets, those will be more democratic and scalable in future.

Across the energy value chain of generation, transmission, usage and storage, various opportunities will evolve for new ventures to enter diverse market segments; households will likely participate actively in the upstream energy market.

Mini-grids comprise a combination of technologies: diesel, complemented by hydro and/or solar technology depending on geography. An increasing portion of renewable technologies in the grids positively correlates with a quest for independence of the volatility of oil prices.

Mini-grids solutions will to large degree depend on advances in electricity storage technologies: All speakers agree that different technologies are at different stages of maturity: disruptive technologies in energy storage are expected.

Lessons learned for successful implementation of mini-grids: the involvement of the community as well as the empowerment and education of local populations is a key success factor as those consumers and businesses depend on the grids’ security and reliability – these are the top concerns as well for utility players and transmission operators, who have to ensure stability, as electricity has physical properties that are different from bits and bites in the internet. Imbalances in grids can lead to large-scale physical damage.

Mini-grids have an especially attractive value proposition for developing countries where they offer a feasible and less expensive alternative to centralized grids that are already well established in OECD countries. This could lead to leapfrogging that might be comparable to what we’ve seen with mobile phones vs. fixed land lines internationally.

Investment opportunities: besides direct investments in mini-grids, there is a window of opportunity for microfinance projects associated with mini-grids, due to lack of alternatives. Many traditional investors shy away from the large CAPEX investments for renewables and/or smart and mini-grids solutions.

In summary, mini-grids may evolve as a viable and profitable solution in a number of important markets around the world. However, complex local legacy systems as well as differing infrastructure and geographic conditions require customized grid solutions and have to be carefully evaluated on a case-by-case base. Furthermore, the right timing and sequence of future investment opportunities is key to develop the mini-grids trend into a sustainable future alternative for energy generation and supply, depending on local and regional policies, demand conditions, user acceptances, etc.

Finally, I would like to thank again Olaf Groth for an excellent moderation and the panelists Prof. Dr. Burkhard Koch, Sameer Kalra and Tony Seba for their presentations and enriching discussion. The GABA Clean Tech community is looking forward to meeting again in near future!