Friday, September 26, 2008

Simmons spinout sees a charger in every garage

By Brendan Lynch

A Simmons College spinout is looking a few years down the line to give a jump-start to the car of the future.

Simmons School of Management graduate student and entrepreneur Jennifer Morris has launched LocalWatt LLC, which plans to market a “charging station” for hybrid and electric cars to parking garages and parking lots, for drivers to “gas” up while their cars are parked. The self-funded, one-woman startup has a business plan and is developing software that would network the devices and process the service’s RFID-triggered subscription model payments. Morris said she’s waiting on industry standards, such as plug style, to develop before she designs the charger device using off-the-shelf technology.

If the number of parked cars plugged into a charger and wirelessly networked  ever hit a critical mass, Morris said LocalWatt could use them to help stabilize and back up the power grid. LocalWatt could charge utilities for the service and share the revenue with its members, Morris said.

LocalWatt is betting on 2010 for the electric car market to develop. That’s when General Motors Corp. plans to debut the hybrid plug-in it unveiled last week, the Chevrolet Volt, and when Toyota Motor Corp. plans to debut a plug-in version of its Prius hybrid. Earlier this year, San Carlos, Calif.-based Tesla Motors Inc. began delivering its all-electric Tesla Roadster.

If 1 percent of the United States’ 250 million cars become plug-in hybrids over the next four years, that would translate to 2.5 million potential LocalWatt customers, Morris said. Running for 2,700 kilowatt hours a year at 12 cents per kilowatt hour could lead to $800 million to $900 million in revenue, she said.

The rollout may be two years off, but Morris said she plans to demonstrate the technology within six months. And though it’s early, there’s already competition. Campbell, Calif.-based Coulomb Technologies Inc. sells streetside charging stations that look like parking meters. In addition, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Better Place has raised $200 million in venture funding to develop solar- and wind-powered charging stations.

LocalWatt is a finalist in Simmons’ $10,000 Silverman Business Plan Competition, along with Proxy, a fair-trade clothing company, and Speak2BFree, a slam-poetry website. When she joined Simmons’ entrepreneurship program this year, Morris spent about eight weeks developing her business plan.

“My plan has gone through several total overhauls,” she said.   

Robin Chase, founder of hourly car-rental company Zipcar Inc. and CEO of Cambridge-based rideshare startup GoLoco Inc., said she’d happily sign up if the service came with a parking spot in Harvard Square (it doesn’t). Chase said it took courage to enter the market so early in advance of the plug-in market developing. Chase also said such a company would need to be subsidized either by government or industry (Morris said she plans on the latter).

Simmons may seem an unusual source for tech transfer, but Chase didn’t find it surprising.

“Why not (Simmons)?” she asked.