The Clean Tech Open is going into its fourth year of helping innovators launch their green ideas. Now, they are branching out from a California based organisation to the Midwest. Last year, there were six winners out of 125 entrants who took home $50,000 towards launching their projects.  
 
In the last three years, the Clean Tech Open has helped more than one hundred start-ups raise more than $125 million in funding. Today, these companies employ approximately 500 people and represent some of the leading players in various key clean tech sectors. 
 
Now, the major California public utilities are partnering with Clean Tech Open to explain how they are going to spend nearly $6 billion between now and 2011 educating entrepreneurs and the public about innovative options. The program is called TRIO (Technologies Resources Incubator Outreach) and the California Investor Owned Utilities want to find workable solutions to save their customers energy. 
 
That may seem like an odd idea at first. However, it is much less expensive to have customers cut down on peak loads, than it is to build a new power plant, or dig up the ground for a new natural gas pipeline. A lot of their ideas are aimed at making the so-called 'smart grid' a reality. 
 
A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology to save energy, reduce cost, and increase reliability. Such a modernised electricity network is being promoted by many governments as a way of addressing energy independence or global warming issues. 
 
Ms Joanne Medvitz explained that if smart grid technologies made the United States grid 5 per cent more efficient, it would equate to eliminating the fuel and greenhouse gas emissions from 53 million cars. PG&E and the other California electric utilities are installing electronic data gathering devices on their existing gas utilities. This allows the usage information to be read by wireless radio. In the future, that same concept is going to be applied to electric power consumption. 
 
Then, we will see electric power rates fluctuate based on the time of day and the availability of electricity on the grid. Instead of having to build the grid so it is capable of delivering power for the maximum demand - often between 3:00pm and 9:00pm on week days. In the near future, that electricity will cost more per kilowatt hour than if it was used between midnight and 4:30am. 
 
TRIO is looking for entrepreneurs who can assist the California Investor Owned Utilities in realizing an operational 'smart grid'. At home, a part of that smart grid would be plug-in hybrid vehicles, more efficient heating and cooling systems, weatherizing homes and offices, as well as new ideas on storing energy for reuse at a later time.
 
At Etech 2009, Tom Raftery, lead analyst for RedMonk, explained that Ireland has an abundant supply of wind generated power at night. Because household electricity is not stored for reuse at a later time - Tom calls it the TiVo effect - the grid is not efficiently used. There are small projects being tested by various R&D companies all over the world on how to store energy in ways other than batteries. 
 
This year, the 2009 Clean Tech Open season will extend its competition beyond California, inviting entrepreneurs and inventors from all parts of the country, with regional competitions in California and the Rocky Mountains. Entrants are invited to compete in six categories: Air/Water/Waste, Energy Efficiency, Green Building, Renewable Energy, Smart Power, and Transportation. 
 
The Clean Tech Open Launch Event will be on 19 March, at San Jose, California's City Hall. ITExaminer will bring you an onsite report.X

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