Renewable Energy Leader's Forum: Riggs Eckelberry, Origin Oil
This week the Forum features the Riggs Eckelberry, the head of OriginOil. OriginOil is a company immersed in the nascent but emerging algal biofuel industry.
Over the past year Algae has become the posterchild for the potential of alternative fuels. Let's find out Riggs Eckelberry and OriginOil's story.
PROFILE
Where are you headquartered?
Los Angeles.
Number of employees?
8.
How long has your company been around?
Three years.
Public or Private? If public, what is your stock symbol?
Public: Nasdaq: OOIL
Sales and operating revenues last fiscal year?
Not applicable. We are still in research and development.
Profits last fiscal year?
Not applicable; we are still in research and development.
Company Website: http://www.originoil.com/
Contact Info: partners@originoil.com or 323-939-OOIL
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/OriginOil
Twitter: http://twitter.com/OriginOil
INTELLIGENCE
Tell us about your company's main technology/service?
A suite of technology innovations for industrial algae growth and extraction (Helix Bioreactor™, Multireactor™, Quantum Fracturing™, Single-Step Extraction™) accommodating any environment and resource configuration.
What is unique about your technology?
We have optimized carbon dioxide (CO2), nutrient and light delivery, and cracked the industry-wide algae oil extraction barrier. This will enable OriginOil to deliver low cost, high yield oil extraction with efficient use of energy, continuous production and a minimal installation footprint.
How will your technology transform the energy sector?
OriginOil technology can realistically enable the replacement of petroleum.
How does your company compare to its main competitors?
Like the giants of crude oil, the first-wave of algae oil companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructural build-out, vertical production, and head-to-head competition. OriginOil is a technology-only company. Through our process innovations, we are in a position to help everyone grow algae, and extract oil, more efficiently.
VISION
What are the guiding principles of your company?
OriginOil believes that the algae industry will be far too great for any one company to dominate and those companies will succeed that do not compete with their customers and partners.
OriginOil, then, is positioned very firmly as a technology provider. The leading companies in algae today are therefore potential customers for OriginOil and a number have shown strong interest in its technology.
The OriginOil business model can be compared to Microsoft’s in the world of computers. While the history of Personal Computers has been one of copying and commoditization, all these machines have had Windows. It is OriginOil’s intention to become part of the operating system of the algae industry.
What do you think is the role of government when it comes to growing the renewable and clean energy sector?
To provide a proactive, friendly set of cleantech policies so the private sector can do its job of rebuilding the energy industry.
When it comes to your business/product, what inspires you?
A positive environmental legacy for my children and grandchildren.
What is your overall outlook of the renewable energy sector over the next 3 years? Is it: very positive -- positive -- neutral -- negative --- very negative? Please elaborate if you would like.
Very positive.
Riggs Eckelberry's Bio
One of the inventors of the OriginOil's breakthrough technology, Riggs Eckelberry brings his veteran technology management skills to the alternative energy sector.
As President and COO of CyberDefender Corporation from 2005 to 2006, he was instrumental in building the company and its innovative product line, helping to achieve initial funding and a public company filing (CYDE.OB).
From 2001 to mid-2005, he helped launch and turn around technology companies as founder and President of TechTransform, a technology consulting firm. In 2004, he was a key member of the team that commercialized YellowPages.com, resulting in its sale for $100 million to SBC/BellSouth. In 2003, he helped make Panda Software a key player in the US market as the General Manager of its US unit.
During the high-tech boom of the 1990s, he was responsible for the global brand success of the software product, CleanSweep; as Chief Operating Officer of MicroHouse Technologies, he drove record sales and a modernization of the company’s technology, helping to achieve a successful sale of the company to Earthweb; and as VP Marketing of venture-backed TriVida, he was a key member of the team that commercialized the company’s technology and achieved the sale of this technology company to BeFree, Inc. (now part of ValueClick: VCLK).
Nathanael Baker is the Managing Editor of EnergyBoom. He has researched and reported on the issues of renewable energy, sustainability, and climate change for over two years. He has provided research to the New York Times and The Economist, as well as being published on different media outlets including, The Energy Collective.
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