The Chicago-based company has engineered a high-performance “switched reluctance motor” and says it has solved the noise and vibration problem that has crippled efforts in the past to commercialize it, according to Heidi Lubin, CEO of HEVT. The motor presents an alternative to conventional induction and magnet motors, which require rare earth elements that can be hard to secure.

The term “rare earth” is something of a misnomer because of many rare earth elements are actually abundant in the Earth’s crust. Seventeen elements are classified as rare earths, the USGS says. But these materials are less likely to become concentrated deposits like other common metals and are generally difficult to mine at a commercial scale, so they have largely come from only a handful of sources.

China provides an abundant and cheap supply of these rare earth materials partly because its production is a by-product of iron mining. In fact, China is the world’s largest producer of rare earth elements, and its past effort to impose restrictions on exports stirred an outcry from countries such as the U.S. and Japan. China eased the export restriction this past summer, but that move didn’t damper concerns about the country’s tight grip on the materials, which also are used for making wind turbines, LED lighting and other green tech products.

The U.S. Department of Energy has funded projects to develop materials and components that won’t need rare earth elements. HEVT is part of a team, led by the University of Texas at Dallas, to design a switch reluctance motor with nearly  $3 million from the DOE’s ARPA-E program. Rare earth mining and processing also can be environmentally unfriendly.

HEVT was founded in 2005 within the Illinois Institute of Technology to target electric hybrids and plug-in electric cars and trucks. But that market is hard to crack. The pace of electric car adoption hasn’t taken off as quickly as some proponents would’ve liked to see, and some battery makers in particular have had trouble meeting their sales projections. So HEVT wants to tackle the more established electric bicycle market first.

“One of the reasons we like the electric bike market is because it’s a high-volume, high-churn market, so that we can reach scale quickly,” Lubin said.

Lubin says the startup has signed purchase orders and letters of intent from customers for up to 7,000 units of its electric motors, though she declined to disclose the customers’ names. HEVT, which will hire manufacturers to make its motors, is counting on these early customers to help it scale up production. Production will be critical for cutting costs and compete effectively with makers of magnet motors. Once the company hits the 10,000-unit goal, said Lubin, then it will be able to reduce its production costs significantly.

To crank up production, the company will need money. HEVT wants to raise a $5 million series A and hopes its newly minted title as the winner of the Cleantech Open will help its fundraising effort. The startup won $250,000 in the competition.

Switched reluctance motor is made up of a rotating disc inside a stationary disc. Each disc has poles that come in contact with each other in a way that allows the stationary disc, which is partly outfitted with copper wire to create a magnetic field, to move the rotating disc and create mechanical energy.

The motor promises a high torque and a wider range of speed over conventional motors. But it also has been bedeviled by problems with noise and vibration, which led to a jerky motion, in the past. HEVT has since modified the physical design of the motor and developed software to help fix the problem.

Aside from the electric bike market, HEVT also wants to see its motors in appliances and industrial equipment, from heating and cooling systems to pumps for oil and gas operations.

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The company designs plants that are small — 25 KW to 100 KW in size — that can burn agricultural waste such  as rice husks and produce electricity. Husk had installed about 80 such power stations in India’s northeastern state of Bihar, when we caught up with the company in the summer of 2011.

The new funding will help the company carry out some big expansion plans. Founded in 2007, Husk Power’s co-founder Manoj Sinha told us previously he wanted to build over 2,000 mini power plants by 2014. That many power plants would light up 1 million homes and replace many kerosene lamps and avoid their carbon monoxide emissions. Scaling up the operation also will be important for the company to deliver returns to its investors.

Engineering power stations that are simple to operate and repair is key to Husk Power’s strategy. Those stations are run by local residents, who aren’t likely to have the engineering backgrounds to fix complex machines. The company also installs the distribution lines for delivering the electricity to homes.

Husk Power is choosing biomass as a fuel because of its availability in farming communities. But while biomass power plants are considered “green” because of their use of farm wastes instead of fossil fuels, they are still combusting the fuel much like how a standard power plant burns coal or gas. That means biomass power stations still emit emissions that aren’t so good for the environment and human health.

Environmental trade-offs are thorny issues to grapple with and not just for rural electrification projects. Even in developed countries, such as the U.S., the building of massive solar power plants and the need by some to use lots of water for power generation and to rely on new transmission lines to bring power to cities are pitting environmental groups against developers and regulators.

Raising private money for social entrepreneurial enterprises can’t be easy — they probably don’t generate the kind of returns that are expected by venture capitalists. Husk’s investors include Draper Fisher Jurvetson as well as the Shell Foundation and Acumen Fund (which was set up with seed money from the Rockefeller Foundation, Cicso Systems Foundation and three philanthropists).

But there will be no shortage of attempts to bring renewable energy to rural areas. Earlier this month, I caught a presentation by the San Francisco startup Rural Electrification with Renewable Energy (REwiRE) at the Cleantech Open’s western regional competition, and the company wants to raise money to build mini hydropower stations in rural Indonesia.

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As Dan Reicher, the executive director at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University, told the gathered audience, tens of trillions of dollars are going to be spent on energy infrastructure in the next few decades, and we need to have strong policy and finance to support a sustainable-energy future. He went on to say that startups need help bridging the technology valley of death, the gap between having a functional demo and being operational on a commercial scale, which sometimes takes decades to close.

Before announcing the grand prize, Jim Davis, the president of Chevron Energy Solutions, took a hopeful view and suggested that some of the event’s competitors were working on technologies that might have “the power to change the world.” And that although “developing these technologies to commercial scale remains a challenge, our collective challenge is to create solutions” that will meet the growing energy needs of the future — a future that in Davis’ projection includes 8.5 billion people who consume 40 percent more energy than we do today.

Here’s hoping that these entrepreneurs are on the right track.

Grand prize finalists (and category winners):

Air-water-waste: PK Clean, which converts landfill plastics into hydrocarbon fuels through a catalytic depolymerization process.

Energy efficiency: Indow Windows, which manufactures thermal window inserts that press into place on the inside of a window frame to deliver double-pane window performance at a fraction of the price. The startup also took home the sustainability award.

Green building: Whole Trees Structures, which manufactures structural building systems made from round timber, the waste product of sustainably managed forests.

Smart power: GridMobility, whose Color of the Electron™ signal technology enables business, industry and consumers to choose electricity sources based on their personal preferences.

Regional winners

Overall winners for each of the six competing regions — California, Northeast, North Central, Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountain and South Central—were also named.

California: b2u Solar, which makes solar heat systems.

Northeast: Arctic Sand, which manufactures power converter chips designed to reduce the amount of electricity used by data centers.

North Central: FortEco Lightweight Structures, which creates lightweight composite framing systems utilizing light gauge steel, insulation decking and concrete.

Pacific Northwest: Indow Windows, which makes window inserts that turn windows into efficient double-pane windows for cheap.

Rocky Mountain: Veritek Coal Processing, which uses a technology process to extract mercury, sulfur, heavy metals and other impurities from precombustion coal.

South Central: cycleWood Solutions, which makes biodegradable and compostable thermoplastic that can be used in a variety of commercial plastics, including cups, plates and bags.

Global ideas prize finalists

Biofiltro (winner), Chile, waste water treatment.

Biométhodes, France, “integrated biotechnology, renewable chemistry, and energy.”

Black Silicon Solar, Denmark, nanotechnology to increase the absorption of light in silicon solar cells.

Cambridge Nanotherm, UK thermal management for LED lighting systems.

ReformTech, Sweden, “strives to professionalize the catalytic heater and mobile/stationary hydrogen reformation market through best practice development and collaborative business system.”

Resolute Marine Energy, U.S., wave-driven power solutions.

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Here are five smart-grid startups to watch out of the Cleantech Open:

1. Smart Grid Billing. As the name suggests, this Folsom, Calif–based company sells services to utilities that enable more intelligent billing and smarter ways to start up demand-response events based on its algorithms. Consumers don’t want utilities to noticeably manage their end devices during a demand-response event, so this technology can help make that process more seamless and useful.

2. Qado Energy. Qado has developed software for modeling, analytics and monitoring for utilities for the distribution portion of their grids. Utilities can use the software to model how their grids will react when they add new clean-power generation that can be variable and cause power spikes and gaps.

3. GridMobility. GridMobility is working on a particularly fascinating project: using hot water heaters to store energy for utilities to help integrate wind power. The startup’s technology enables utilities to keep track of power assets in real time, and the company is working with Mason County PUD, Bonneville Power Administration and PJM.

4. Growing Energy Labs. Growing Energy Labs is developing networking technologies for energy storage. Researchers think there will be a breakthrough in energy storage in the U.S. in 2012, given that a variety of pilots will have been completed, and much more energy storage will be needed to integrate clean power onto the grid.

5. AC Research Labs. AC Research Labs sells an air-conditioning retrofit product called HelioMist that reduces air-conditioning power by 20 to 30 percent.

See any new smart grid startups I should check out? Leave me tips in the comment section.

Image courtesy of Vladeb

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US e-Chromic makes an electrochromic thin film that can be applied to the inside of existing windows, but can work in a similar way to the brand new dynamic windows that are being made by these players in their next-gen factories. US e-Chromic says when its film is applied to windows it can reduce cooling costs in buildings by 30 to 40 percent during warm air-conditioning heavy months.

The company, based in Boulder, Colorado, is commercializing tech that was developed at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in Golden Colorado. So far the startup, which is led by CEO Loren Burnett, has raised a small amount of funding from Amplifier Ventures.

Soladigm, on the other hand, has major manufacturing plans. The company is building a $130 million factory in Mississippi, and says it plans to start shipping its electrochromic windows in the first quarter of 2012; investors include Khosla Ventures, Sigma Partners, DBL Investors, and The Westly Group. Soladigm uses a thin-film deposition process to create conducting layers between two panes of glass that control the amount of light and heat that pass through the window.

Sage also has big production plans. The U.S. Department of Energy offered Sage a loan guarantee of $72 million, and Sage has a 300,000-square-foot factory, in Minnesota.

However, US e-Chromic is still in the R&D stage. The company was founded just in April 2011.

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According to CEO Henrik Gedde Moos, who made the case for Danfoss IXA in the Idea People’s Choice contest Tuesday at the Cleantech Open in San Francisco (algae biofuel developer Replenish Energy of Puerto Rico ended up snagging the award), no device currently on the market can “continuously monitor emissions inside the chimney with a sensor as small and robust as ours.” However, others are trying, like Picarro, which we profiled this week.

Danfoss IXA plans to outsource all manufacturing and distribution, and pursue applications for its technology in indoor air quality control, medical devices and greenhouses (Moos showed a video of a device that can be hooked up to a plant leaf on one end to measure its temperature, and communication networks on the other to keep climate control systems and plant needs in sync).

Danfoss IXA already has a pilot project in the works with shipping giant Maersk. The business case? Danfoss IXA will help companies like Maersk reduce their emissions (based on the principle that what gets measured can be managed) in a time when tighter air quality standards and climate regulations could force the shipping industry to come to terms with its massive footprint. The needle’s already starting to move in Danfoss’s home country, with the group that represents the Danish shipping industry saying last month it will enter a binding agreement to reduce CO2 emissions.

Moos mentioned a startling statistic: One container ship produces emissions equivalent to 50 million cars. It was unclear if he was referring to a study from the Danish government released earlier this year, which in fact compared the annual sulfur oxide (SOx) gas emissions (nasty stuff for respiratory health) of the world’s largest diesel-engine cargo ships with that type of pollution from an average diesel or gas car.

Regardless, when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it seems the shipping industry can use all the help it can get, possibly with devices like Danfoss IXA’s. According to Green Inc., some environmental advocates say the industry has made little progress on this front in the last decade, and that “if the maritime industry were a country, it would rank among the largest greenhouse gas-emitting countries in the world.”

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The 3-year-old startup, which beat out runners up MicroMidas (working on bioplastics) and Alphabet Energy (working on waste-heat recovery), has developed a service based on smart algorithms (read all about it here) that can continuously manage a home’s connected thermostat throughout the day, tweaking the settings ever so slightly to shave off energy consumption, but maintain a comfortable temperature.

Of course, the race to win this prize is over, but the rest of the climb toward a sustainable, profitable business lies ahead. When we spoke with EcoFactor earlier this month, the angel-funded company was in negotiations for its Series A round, and the company’s Senior VP of Products, Scott Hublou told us tonight that those talks are ongoing with several venture firms. He’s hopeful the grand prize will help smooth the way for that financing. “At the end of the day,” he said, the benefit of this type of competition is to “help you get to your next funding event.” As Marc Gottschalk, co-chair of the competition, said to venture capitalists and investors in the audience tonight: “These teams could always use more love.”

Finalists:
Pacific Northwest

• Green Lite Motors: Three-wheeled vehicles for commuters in large cities. “Easy to maneuver and drive, fun to drive as a race car.”
• Hydrovolts: A hydrokinetic turbine that floats in man-made water channels and can power 1-10 homes along a canal. Hydrovolts claims the system pays for itself in less than five years. Additional applications might include mines and wastewater treatment plants.
• LivinGreen Materials: High efficiency photo electrode for a next-gen solar cell. Fifty to 100 percent more efficient than traditional photo-electrodes.

Rocky Mountain

• New Sky Energy: Carbon negative manufacturing company. Scrub CO2 out of the air or flue gas and incorporates it into consumer products — they contain a lot more CO2 than they produce in their manufacturing. Just landed a big customer. Growth has been extraordinary in the last 6 months.
• Rivertop Renewables: Makes chemicals, including gluceric acid, from plant sugars.
• SunTrac Solar: Hot water solar panels.

California (split into six categories because it’s the largest regional contest — more details on the category finalists here)

• MicroMidas (Air, Water & Waste Category): Biodegradable plastic for use in various consumer products, including shopping bags, utensils.
• tru2earth (Green Building Category): Shingles made from recycled PET plastic bottles meant to compete directly against asphalt shingles.
• EcoFactor (Smart Power Category): Home energy management.
• FuelSaver Technologies (Transportation Category): Attachments that streamline trucks while they’re in motion to reduce wind resistance.
• Alphabet Energy (Energy Efficiency Category): Recover waste heat at well under $1 per watt in industries such as heavy manufacturing, automotive, aerospace and power generation.
• Armageddon Energy (Renewable Energy Category): Modular, easy to install “solar clovers.”

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