Could the iPad soon be as common a sight on construction jobs as the hard hat?

It will if the industry follows the example of the Silicon Valley Builders Group (SVBG). The 100-person construction firm’s technology approach is producing what its executives believe is a true competitive advantage in an age-old industry–an edge that has helped SVBG hit the $100 million annual revenue milestone in just five years.

Roughly two-third of the SVBG team works almost exclusively in the field, and they’re not toting laptops: They operate entirely with iPhones and iPads, primarily using the cloudcollaboration app Soonr.

The 35 or so folks in SVBG’s actual office work on thin clients; the company’s infrastructure is entirely virtualized, with no desktops or latops in sight. SVBG does offer project managers an allowance to purchase a PC for home use so they can remotely access their virtual machines, though it doesn’t provide any hardware support. Aside from a small server room on-site, their data is kept almost entirely in Amazon’s EC2 cloud.The mix of mobile devices, desktop virtualization, cloud applications, and cloud data allows CIO Shaun Coleman to operate as a one-man IT department, aside from outside vendors and a part-time staffer. Coleman’s no stranger to virtualization: He came from VMware, and SVBG’s founders previously worked at Sun Microsystems.

“We kind of accidentally fell into the construction business, but we run it very much like an enterprise,” Coleman said in an interview. “We’ve found it’s a huge advantage competitively for us in the market. That’s why we went down these technology paths–to really see if we could run a very lean ship without a lot of IT staff.”

Coleman points to three key business gains from his company’s tech approach–all of which offer potential takeaways for SMBs in a wide range of industries.

1. The Overachieving SMB: SVBG’s technology approach helps it appear larger in the public eye while retaining the edge of a trim SMB. That’s particularly important in a business like construction. “A big part of this business is the trust aspect,” Coleman said. “If you have two bids on the table that are both the same price, which one do you choose? The more stable of the organizations.”

By applying new technology to a longstanding business, they’re able to convey the same stability and prowess of larger competitors–and win the kinds of $50 million projects previously reserved for the big boys. Even in the company’s founding days, it was able to secure and service $10 million deals with just five employees and a 20-person labor crew.

2. SMB Nimble, SMB Quick: SVBG’s lightweight infrastructure and applications mix enables it to kick-start projects and processes. That’s particularly key for the site services division of its business, which manages and maintains properties for homeowners associations and the like. They can have a new customer’s Web portal and phone system up and running, for example, with the press of button (or a few of them).

3. Information Is King: The ability to access, update, and share files and information in real time via smartphone or tablet–rather than updating and sending information via email, fax, or other means–is a legitimate business boon for SVBG. That’s where the Soonr app comes in; everything is shared and stored in the cloud–no local files necessary–which helps keep device security risk in check, too. Project managers on site can show customers the same information SVBG is looking at in the office.

Coleman offers up change orders, a construction-business staple, as a prime example: What used to be a slow-moving engine of paperwork, faxes, signature collection, and photographs can now be handled in real time from a customer or job site, thanks to the iPhone, iPad, and Soonr formula.

“It’s much more of a collaborative environment, where in the past it was very back-and-forth and took a long time before that change order could be approved,” Coleman said. That combination of mobility and productivity justifies both the Soonr subscription and the hardware costs associated with iPhone and iPad–the Apple devices hold little glamour appeal for SVBG, and have to make money like everything else.

“It’s very easy for me to explain to [the CFO], who’s the guy who write the checks: Hey, you wouldn’t be able to do these projects if we didn’t have it,” Coleman said. “It’s a pretty easy case to make from that perspective.”

Coleman would like to entirely outsource his infrastructure–including hosting of SVBG’s virtual machines–but said there isn’t a reliable, all-in option for SMBs yet. In the meantime, he’s looking at outsourcing other tech functions, such as replacing the company’s internal private branch exchange (PBX) phone system with a hosted VoIP platform.

“We don’t want a full-time IT staff, yet we want to be high-tech,” Coleman said. “I’d love to put myself out of a job.”

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Solar tower technology uses mirrors to reflect sunlight on to a thermal receiver atop a tower. The reflected sunlight boils water inside the receiver to create superheated steam at 440C (824F), which drives a turbine and generates electricity.

The plant is a demonstration facility built by eSolar, one company among dozens in California aiming to heed President Obama’s call for a new energy industry that is less reliant on fossil fuels. ESolar, which is based in Pasadena, started less than three years ago and has gathered $170 million (£107 million) of investment, including funding from Google, in its attempt to make solar power mainstream.

The Sierra SunTower facility features two 190ft (58m) towers surrounded by 20 acres (8ha) of mirrors in neat rows that stand at about chest height. The five-megawatt plant produces electricity for Southern California Edison (SCE) and can power more than 4,000 homes. Each one-metre-square mirror, or heliostat, sits on a mechanism that allows computer software to move it in precise increments, so that it is always at an optimal angle to reflect the Sun’s ray’s on to the thermal receiver.

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ESolar claims that its tracking software makes the plant far more efficient than previous technologies for concentrating solar power. The company says that its prefabricated modular designs have solved many of the problems that have held back large-scale solar generation, includ-ing cost, speed of deployment and proximity to existing transmission lines.

In particular, it says that the lightweight mirrors need much less steel and concrete to set them in place, which reduces construction costs. The company touts the Sierra SunTower model as one that can be replicated anywhere that the Sun shines, on industrial sites or on uneven ground, and is looking to franchise out its technology to other companies to build and run solar power plants.

Bill Gross, the chief executive of eSolar, said: “Sierra is just the beginning. Soon eSolar technology will be deployed worldwide to provide clean, affordable energy to hundreds of thousands of homes. We’re at an historic point when technology can finally enable clean, renewable energy at a price competitive with fossil fuels.”

In February eSolar announced an agreement with NRG Energy to develop three plants in California and New Mexico that will generate up to 465MW of electricity. The first plant is expected to come onstream in 2011.

ESolar is also looking overseas. India, in particular, has ambitious plans for solar power generation and, in March, the company licensed its technology to ACME Group, which is based there, for approximately one gigawatt of solar thermal capacity. Its first 2.5MW plant is under construction in Rajasthan and the installation of a 46MW plant is likely to begin in 2010 for completion in 2011. India boasts arguably the most ambitious solar energy development plan in the world, with a target of 20,000MW for 2022. The country has excellent solar resources, particularly in the northwest.

Raed Sherif, eSolar vice-president of international development, said that the business was in talks with companies in Jordan, Kuwait and Egypt and had opened an office in South Africa.

The US Energy Department has calculated that a 62-square-mile (160 sq km) parcel of the Mojave that straddles Nevada, Utah, California and Arizona receives enough sunlight to power the entire country. In Lancaster, the site of the eSolar facility, there are about 300 sunny days a year and the company says tests indicate that the plant works even on partially cloudy days.

Other Californian start-up companies are getting in on the act. BrightSource Energy, based in Oakland, has contracts with Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison for its Ivanpah plants, with a capacity of 440MW in the Mojave. Bechtel, the huge American project-management specialist, has signed on as the engineering contractor and equity partner for the project. BrightSource is also constructing a 29MW thermal plant for Chevron in Coalinga, California, and the company has operations in Israel and Australia. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, has become a keen supporter of solar power generation in the Mojave and has fostered legislation to cut carbon emissions and tackle climate change. Last month he mandated that, by 2020, at least 33 per cent of state energy comes from renewable sources.

In all categories of solar power generation, including photovoltaic, the United States ranks fourth, after Germany, Spain and Japan, producing about 8,800MW last year, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, or less than 1 per cent of America’s energy use.

President Obama has called for that figure to rise substantially. In all, $80 billion of stimulus grants has been spent to jump-start clean-tech industries such as solar thermal. The American Solar Energy Society has forecast that a shift to renewable sources could create as many as 37 million jobs by 2030.

Global solar industry leaders went to Copenhagen this month to highlight the impact that solar energy technologies can have on combating climate change. Solar arrays leave no carbon footprint after manufacture of components and construction.

However, the ultimate aim of achieving “parity” with fossil fuel power production — when it is as cheap to make electricity from solar sources as from coal — is still some way off, according to experts.

Obama admitted that the “idea may not be very glamorous” but declared Tuesday that he found insulation “sexy.” Lawmakers also are getting excited by the concept, which they said could help create badly needed jobs for the beleaguered building trades.

Some supporters have dubbed the program “cash for caulkers” because it would use direct government incentives to consumers to spur economic activity, similar in some respects to the popular “cash for clunkers” rebates that sparked a surge in auto sales last summer.

Under one proposal being considered by House Democratic leaders, $20 billion from February’s economic stimulus package would be used to offer incentives of $1,000 to more than $3,000 for people to apply to projects that improve the energy efficiency of their homes. About 5 million homes could be retrofitted under the program, saving homeowners a total of $3.3 billion annually on energy bills, supporters said.

“Here’s what’s sexy about it: saving money,” Obama said at a Home Depot store in Alexandria, Va., as he stood in front of rolls of pink fiberglass insulation.

“If you saw $20 bills just sort of floating through the window up into the atmosphere, you’d try to figure out how you were going to keep that,” he said. “But that’s exactly what’s happening because of the lack of efficiency in our buildings.”

The idea is simple, he said: The incentives would increase consumer spending, helping create jobs at retailers such as Home Depot and for contractors who would do the weatherization work. The program also would help consumers save on their heating and electricity bills as well, saving on the nation’s energy use.

Australia launched a similar program aimed at retrofitting 2.9 million homes that it projects will create 4,000 jobs.

“It makes sense because it’s a win-win-win,” said Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who proposed such a program last winter. “Our U.S. manufacturers are the ones that produce about 85% of the product. It’s our local contractors that do 100% of the work.”

Welch’s proposal was included in climate change legislation passed by the House this year that would take effect in 2012. The Senate has not acted on that legislation. But Welch and other lawmakers recently have begun pushing to offer weatherization incentives immediately as a way to create 600,000 to 850,000 new jobs.

Former President Clinton and Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr also have been promoting versions of such a program. Environmental groups, labor unions and construction industry groups support the concept, along with building supply dealers and manufacturers.

“This is the kind of thinking that is going to get America back to work — and make a big difference in many homeowners’ monthly utility bills,” said Joe Robson, chairman of the National Assn. of Home Builders.

Lane Wesley Burt, manager of building energy policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the program could be set up as a government rebate administered by certified contractors that would shave the money from a homeowner’s bill when the work was completed. The contractor then would apply to the government for reimbursement of the incentive, similar to how auto dealers administered cash-for-clunkers rebates.

But auto dealers complained about balky government computer systems and slow reimbursements with that program. And some Republicans are critical of a cash-for-caulkers program. They said the cash-for-clunkers program paid money mostly to people who intended to buy cars anyway and argued that $5 billion in weatherization funds in the $787-billion economic stimulus package passed in February hasn’t helped reduce unemployment.

Obama said the new weatherization program is among several “strategic surgical steps” he is pushing to help create jobs as the unemployment rate remains at 10% despite a return to economic growth after the deep recession. He sketched those ideas in a speech last week and added more detail to the cash-for-caulkers concept Tuesday.

Obama was joined at the event by Frank Blake, chief executive of Home Depot, and Michael Thaman, chief executive of insulation-maker Owens Corning, as well as workers from the Laborers’ International Union of North America. Obama said Owens Corning had seen an increase in exports of insulation to Australia because of that country’s weatherization incentive program.

Thaman said afterward that he could not quantify the increase but said he would expect to see growth in the U.S. as well for its domestically produced insulation.

“We believe if there were a direct incentive to homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, that would result in a nice uptick in demand for insulation. And obviously we think that’s both good policy and good for Owens Corning,” Thaman said.

He said homeowners usually prefer to invest in home improvements that are more visible to friends and neighbors, such as new windows. But with government incentives, many could be lured into adding insulation, which is a simple way to improve energy efficiency.

“That emotional attachment to insulation just isn’t here, yet it’s critically important to the country,” Thaman said.

Obama said that homes built in the first half of the 20th century can use about 50% more energy than those built today. Much of the energy is lost through leaky roofs and windows.

Making homes more energy efficient not only helps the environment but also helps homeowners save money and boosts the economy, he said.

” “We’re going to create . . . so many business opportunities for contractors here that over the course of the next several years, people are going to see this, I think, as an extraordinary opportunity,” he said. “And it’s going to help America turn the corner when it comes to energy use.”

Single-family projects dropped 3 percent, the first decrease since January, while work began on 25 percent more multifamily units such as apartments, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. Totalhousing starts rose 1.5 percent to an annual rate of 598,000, the highest level in nine months and matching economists’ expectations.

Builders may be reluctant to further increase the supply of homes amid uncertainty over whether the Obama administration’s $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers will be extended beyond November, economists said. The incentive, plus foreclosure-driven declines in prices, has helped stabilize the housing market in recent months following the biggest slump since the Great Depression.

“We may be in for a period of consolidation, given the apparent end of the tax credit” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Securities Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut. “We’re certainly going to see, over time, housing starts rise.”

A separate report today from the Labor Department showed the number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits fell unexpectedly last week, a sign the labor market is deteriorating at a slower pace as the economy pulls out of the recession.

Continuing Claims

Applications dropped by 12,000 to 545,000 in the week ended Sept. 12, from a revised 557,000 the week before. The total number of people collecting unemployment insurance rose the prior week.

Stocks fluctuated, a day after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed to an 11-month high, as disappointing sales at Oracle Corp. and FedEx Corp. offset the decrease in jobless claims. The S&P 500 was up 0.5 percent to 1,073.83 as of 10 a.m. in New York.

Starts were projected to rise to a 598,000 annual pace from a 581,000 rate initially reported for July, according to the median forecast of 74 economistssurveyed by Bloomberg News. Estimates ranged from 570,000 to 640,000.

Permits, a sign of future construction, climbed 2.7 percent to a 579,000 annual rate in August, also led by an increase in multifamily. They were projected to rise to 583,000, economists forecast.

Construction of single-family houses, which account for about 85 percent of the industry, fell to a 479,000 rate, the first decline since January. Work on multi-family units, which makes up the rest of the market and is often volatile, jumped to a 119,000 rate.

Gains in Northeast

The increase in starts was led by a 24 percent increase in the Northeast. They rose 0.9 percent in the Midwest, and fell 2.4 percent in the South. The West was little changed.

Volatility in multifamily projects has obscured the underlying improvement in residential building. Construction of apartments and condominiums surged 56 percent in May only to slump by 21 percent and 15 percent the next two months.

Americans are taking advantage of the Obama administration’s $8,000 tax credits for first-time buyers that expires at the end of November. Those with jobs, cash to make down payments and good credit scores are picking up bargains as record foreclosures have driven down home prices by about 32 percent from their peaks in mid-2006, according to the S&P/Case- Shiller index.

Home Sales Rise

Combined sales of new and existing homes rose in the four months though July.

A report yesterday showed gains in sales and buyer traffic pushed builder confidence this month to its highest level since May 2008.

Luxury builder Toll Brothers Inc. is among companies that see demand improving, even as losses mount.

“In the last six months, we see a pretty significant change in some markets,” Chief Executive Officer Robert Toll said in an interview Aug. 27 with Bloomberg Television. “People are now concerned with missing the market.”

The expiration of the tax credit for first time buyers may result in a downdraft for sales and construction, Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina, said before the report. The housing market is unlikely to recover fully until the unemployment rate stops rising and the economy begins creating jobs, he said before the report.