The green revolution is touching the lives of many local residents. It’s rare to travel Santa Cruz Avenue without seeing at least one Toyota Prius; more solar panels are being installed on local roofs; and many people eagerly await the arrival of a Tesla Motors showroom in Menlo Park, where they can check out the new Tesla Roadster electric car.
But as residents figure out how they can be greener, businesses are sprouting up in Menlo Park with the goal of redefining the way we think about fuel and energy.
These startups — also known as green-tech or clean-tech companies — are renting lab and office space in eastern Menlo Park with the goal of figuring out how to produce more energy for a growing population while decreasing the wear and tear on the planet.
“These people are scientists (who) have left Stanford, or left other companies with ideas — big ideas — they want to try out,” said John Tarlton, head of Tarlton Properties, which leases office and lab space in Menlo Business Park east of U.S. 101. “Some of these companies are funded by venture capital money; others are funded by credit cards and second mortgages.”
‘Location, location, location’
It’s not a coincidence that green startups are setting up shop in Menlo Park. The promise of venture capital cash and a talent-rich pool of Silicon Valley innovators and researchers are luring companies to the Bay Area.“Look at what Menlo Park has to offer: proximity to Stanford, proximity to venture capital, and proximity to a lot of [high quality] housing,” Mr. Tarlton said. “The most important thing is location, location, location, and Menlo Park’s got it.”
“A lot of companies are taking on different aspects of alternative energy, and this certainly seems like the place to do it,” said Dan Verser, president and CEO of ZeaChem, a company that moved to Menlo Park six months ago from Colorado. “Folks in the areas of biotech, energy, agriculture, and chemical engineering are interested in this, and a lot of them are based in Silicon Valley.”
ZeaChem has set out to mass-produce fuel from “organic waste,” such as tree bark left unused by paper companies in their production process.
Through chemistry and fermentation, ZeaChem hopes to turn different types of tree bark into ethanol, which can be used for fuel.
If successful, Mr. Verser said, ZeaChem’s operation would take the demand off corn — the source of most of today’s ethanol production.
“Right now, when the demand for corn goes up, it affects the price of bacon and eggs,” Mr. Verser said. “Ethanol producers are competing with the demands of the food industry, including the demand for corn-based animal feed. We’re looking to get ethanol from a neutral source.”
Two blocks down the road from the ZeaChem lab and offices, another startup, Unidym, is researching a different branch of the alternative energy industry, focusing on the efficiency of solar cells.
Unidym moved to Menlo Park six months ago, and is looking to mass-produce a film that, depending on how it’s used, can absorb light and turn it into energy, or bank electricity and turn that energy into light.
The company hopes to work with solar cell companies to make solar power a cheaper and more efficient source of energy, said George Gruner, Unidym’s chief science officer and a cofounder of the company.
“Silicon electronics changed the world,” Mr. Gruner said. “Now, we’re trying to introduce a product that will make another major change, and very slowly it’s coming to fruition.”
An inconvenient truth?
Although businesses like Unidym and ZeaChem boost Menlo Park’s image as a green, environmentally conscious city, the tax revenue from green-tech businesses garnered by the city is minimal.For now, the companies are based in small labs and offices, and if they grow, they’ll likely move out of Menlo Park, Mr. Tarlton said.
“When it comes to green-tech, pretty much of all of these tenants are short term,” he said. “It’s well-nigh impossible to acquire and afford significant quantities of land … and people won’t want an ethanol plant in Menlo Park, so these companies have to move their operations once they get to the point of manufacturing anything.”
Mr. Verser said ZeaChem is likely to keep research and development space in Menlo Park, but acknowledged that when the company reaches the point of mass-producing ethanol from wood chips, it will move the bulk of its operations closer to the source — likely the forests of the Pacific Northwest.
Existing businesses
David Johnson, the city’s business development manager, said green-tech companies are bound to come and go, and the city should focus on making existing businesses more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.“There’s all kinds of sustainable building techniques and recycling methods I’d like to see our existing businesses take on,” he said. “You have companies that are green in what they manufacture, but there’s room for any business in Menlo Park to be green. Restaurants, stores, auto repair shops, you name it — these businesses can draw customers by making changes and being green.”
Mr. Johnson noted that Monterey County has a program in which businesses are eligible to become “certified green businesses,” and said he’d like to see San Mateo County establish a similar program.
