By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues 

Bloom Energy‘s Director of Product Marketing, Asim Hussain, made a rare public appearance at SVForum’s Clean Tech Conference last week and shared some details about Bloom’s 2012 plans:

New manufacturing facility in Delaware.

“Here in California, we’ve created 1500 clean jobs and we’re going to do the same in Delaware when we build that (30MW) manufacturing facility.” Asim Hussain

Manufacturing  in California

The privately held company currently has three manufacturing facilities – including its testing facility – and they employ two Bloom Boxes to power one plant, using a biogas source. They plan to extend that capability to the recently built second plant. Unlike many Silicon Valley companies, manufacturing operations are here in the valley, although they have a global supply chain.

Bloom Electrons

Fresh Dialogues asked about the future of Bloom Electrons, the energy-only purchase model the company announced last year. Instead of paying the hefty $800,000 upfront cost for a Bloom energy server, customers sign a ten-year energy purchase agreement at a fixed price. Hussain confirmed that this model allows Bloom to access a new market segment: the nonprofit sector. The poster child for Bloom Electrons is California Institute of Technology Caltech – which began a 2 MW Bloom installation in 2010. The program has also allowed commercial clients like Walmart to expand their Bloom installations from two to twenty eight stores.

Post Solyndra

In the Post Solyndra era, Bloom Energy is not immune to scrutiny. The numbers have been crunched; the energy supply sources have been analyzed (on which planet is natural gas – the fossil fuel – a renewable resource?); the accusations of too much reliance on tax credits and subsidies have been leveled.  Can the company, which has been valued at close to $3 B, meet all its cofounder, KR Sridhar’s ambitious dreams and change the world? Watch this space.
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Hussain was part of a panel discussion on green building, moderated by Abby Johnson of Abacus Property. The experts included Alain Poivet of Sunplanter, Swapnil Shah of FirstFuel and PG&E’s Andrew Yip. The conference was hosted by SAP‘s green gurus Peter Graf, and Rami Branitzky

For more coverage of Bloom Energy, check out our exclusive interviews, transcripts and stories.

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By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

Bill Weihl, former Green Czar at Google will start work greening Facebook in late January next year. As Fresh Dialogues predicted on his departure from Google last November, Weihl will stay in the green arena and plans to “advance sustainability” at Facebook. No details yet on his job title or the extent of his responsibilities, but he confirmed, “the focus will be on sustainability, clean energy, energy efficiency, etc.” We anticipate Weihl will use his extensive experience and passion for green to drive Facebook’s sustainable practices, leveraging its game-changing apps and Facebook’s vast membership of over 800 million active users.

Under his leadership at Google from 2006 to 2011, the company took a unique role in green policy advocacy as well as over $700 M in cutting edge clean energy investment. In July, Fresh Dialogues covered Google’s Green Dream, an audacious report outlining how the right green investment and policy could positively impact the economy and the planet. Without Weihl at the helm, Green at Google may lose some impetus, although Google’s Parag Chokshi assured us green investment and programs will continue. A new Green Czar has not yet been announced.

Read transcripts, see photos and check out our ARCHIVES featuring exclusive interviews with Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman, Vinod Khosla and many more green experts and visionaries…

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By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

Innovation and Silicon Valley go together like bits and bites. Another month another innovation competition. But Intel’s Global Challenge caught our attention for the breadth and quality of its innovators from around the world, who competed for $100,000 in prize money and the chance to pitch some of the valley’s top venture capitalists at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Fresh Dialogues was delighted to see a good number of environmentally conscious innovators made the cut, including PolySol, a recyclable alternative to plastic, made from coconut husks; Nitrate Production System, a low-cost earth-friendly fertilizer and ValleyFeed, a wireless wildfire detection system. These innovative teams came from India, Jordan and Saudi Arabia/Lebanon respectively. Closer to home, NextDrop, a Berkeley based team demonstrated a ground breaking system that uses crowd-sourcing technology to monitor and facilitate efficient water use in India.  The venture capital judges agreed and gave NextDrop the Social Innovation Award.

The award winning team includes National Science Foundation Fellow, Emily Kumpel (pictured) who is a PhD candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. She brings her water management experience in Madagascar and Tanzania to NextDrop’s diverse team who include Ashish Jhina, Thejovardhana Kote, Anu Sridharan, Madhusadhan B, and Ari Almos.

We look forward to following their progress blog as they scale up NextDrop’s project in India.

Check out the Fresh Dialogues YouTube Channel 

Read transcripts, see photos and check out other exclusive interviews on Fresh Dialogues with Tech Award winners, Jeff Skoll and Rolf Papsdorf.

Also celebrities and experts in the green economy, including Charlie Rose, Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman, Vinod Khosla and many others.

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By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

He’s known as the “sexiest” astrophysicist alive, host of Nova ScienceNow on PBS, and Stephen Colbert’s favorite interviewee.  Neil deGrasse Tyson may be more comfortable talking black holes and cosmic quandaries, but on Friday evening in Silicon Valley, Fresh Dialogues asked him to weigh in about climate change and he didn’t disappoint. Beginning – like any good scientist – with the facts (evidence from chemistry, biology and geology); he made this challenge to climate deniers:

“You have to be mature enough to recognize something can be true even if you don’t like the consequences of it. That’s what it means to be a mature adult.”

Tyson shared plans for “an experiment” he will describe during his next appearance on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show (slated for next February). Here’s a preview:

“All climate scientists should announce they’re going to take their entire life savings and invest in industries that will thrive under the conditions of  global warming. All those in denial of global warming – which tends to be some of the wealthier people of the nation – won’t do that. As global warming unfolds, that will be the greatest inversion of wealth the world has ever seen. That’s all it takes,” said Tyson, adding with a smile and a shrug, “I could get rich off this.”

He then got serious, “I’m a public scientist and it’s not my goal in life to exploit your ignorance ’cause I’ll get your money, because you won’t believe what I’m telling you. I’d rather you recognize the value of scientific research and we all move into the future together.”

Fresh Dialogues wonders if Tyson has shared his plan with green economy investor Al Gore, who’s been criticized for “putting his money where his mouth is.” Some say Gore is poised to become the world’s first “carbon billionaire.”

Dr. Tyson was in Silicon Valley as part of the Foothill College Celebrity Forum Speaker Series, hosted by Dr. Dick Henning. This story was picked up by the Huffington Post on December 9th, where it sparked quite a heated debate (see comments section).

Next year, Tyson will be hosting a new sequel to Carl Sagan‘s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage TV series.

To watch an exclusive Fresh Dialogues interview with Robert Ballard, the acclaimed ocean scientist of Titanic fame, click here.

Read transcripts, see photos and check out other exclusive interviews on Fresh Dialogues with Charlie Rose, Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman, Vinod Khosla and many others

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By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues  

Days before the Global Climate Conference in Durban South Africa, NBC’s Special Correspondent Tom Brokaw delivered a  strong message in  Silicon Valley for those who deny climate change. ”It’s real, we see it in our weather systems,” he said and made a somber call to action, saying everyone needs to take a part. Brokaw, who has hosted two documentaries about global warming for the Discovery Channel, says he’s planning an expedition to Antarctica with a team of climate scientists to record the glacial melting next January.

Brokaw cited carbon based fuels and energy consumption as major issues, and stopped short of making specific policy recommendations, but said that the Obama administration missed a valuable opportunity to do something substantial about energy and jobs. “People could have got allied with that,” he added.

He acknowledged his part in contributing to the problem (long commutes in polluting LA traffic to visit his beloved mother), but is now doing what he can to be greener. He recently adopted solar in his Montana Ranch, recouping his capital investment in only three years. In this intimate video, he waxes lyrical about the piping hot water and heating system – even during long Montana winters.
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Brokaw ended on an upbeat note, saying that he thinks the younger generation will change things for the better.

The video was recorded on November 21st, 2011 at the Commonwealth Club  in Silicon Valley, moderated by KGO TV’s Dan Ashley. Brokaw is promoting his new oeuvre The Time of Our Lives, a conversation about America; Who we are, where we’ve been, and where we need to go now, to recapture the American Dream.

Read transcripts, see photos and check out exclusive interviews on Fresh Dialogues with Charlie Rose, Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman, Vinod Khosla and many others

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By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues 

On the day after Steven Chu defends his department’s handling of the DoE loan guarantee to Solyndra, we look at the impact of Solyndra on the venture capital industry.  In this exclusive interview, Andrew Chung, the newest member of the Khosla Ventures investment team, shares his views on the Post Solyndra era. Will the failure of Solyndra have a significant impact on cleantech investment? How does Chung respond to critics who say that cleantech investment is a disaster?

The downside

“Downstream, there are other investors who are a bit more skittish about investing in following rounds…”

The upside

“In the past twelve months, we have three companies that have gone public and generated over $1.1B in profits for the firm. ..It’s possible to make money in cleantech and drive a lot of change and drive significant returns.”

The future
“It’s still relatively early…we are in the second inning of an extra inning game, in the development of this industry.”

“(At Khosla Ventures) we continue to be incredibly excited about the cleantech opportunity…we just raised a $1.1B fund, half of it is going to be in cleantech.”
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Check back soon for more highlights from our interview with Chung:

On America’s comparative advantage vis a vis China

On what we can learn from China’s cleantech policies

On Chung’s motivations for investing in cleantech

The interview was recorded at the Cleantech Open in Silicon Valley, November 15, 2011

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues 

Google is on a green spending spree. By July 2011 it had invested over $700 M in clean energy. Today the figure is over $850 M and set to grow. Fresh Dialogues asked Google: How does it choose green startups and projects?

Google’s Parag Chokshi sheds some light on the company’s decision making.  “We invest in projects other investors might not invest in…we look for innovative technologies or the capacity for transformation in the sector.”

He’s talking about large solar power tower projects, like BrightSource’s Ivanpah project in California’s Mojave Desert to which Google contributed $168 M; and one of the world’s largest wind farms, Alta Wind Energy Center, also in the Mojave Desert where Google invested $55 M.
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In June this year, Google demonstrated its game-changing strategy by  investing in SolarCity. This time it was a $280 M investment, to create a fund enabling the solar company to make residential rooftop installations more affordable (often eliminating the upfront cost for homeowners).

“Google is setting an example that other leading American companies can follow,” said Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity. “The largest 200 corporations in the U.S. have more than $1 trillion in cash on their balance sheets. Investments in solar energy generate returns for corporate investors, offer cost savings for homeowners, create new, and protect the environment.”

Despite the departure of Google’s Green Czar – Bill Weihl – this week, Parag Chokshi confirms that “we have a strong team and our work will continue. ..we actually have several executives that work on our green initiatives … other executives include Rick Needham, who has led and oversees our $850M in clean energy investments; and Urs Hoelzle, who oversees our entire infrastructure and has spearheaded our energy efficiency work.”

This video was recorded at the Google Headquarters in Mountain View CA on July 8, 2011.

Read transcripts, see photos and check out exclusive interviews with Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman, Vinod Khosla and many others

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By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues 

Climate One‘s Greg Dalton brought together a pair of climate experts yesterday at the Commonwealth Club to discuss the “Great Disruption” – Is it the end of the world as we know it? What will happen to the global economy when the world stops denying the realities of climate change?

Australian environmental business expert Paul Gilding, and Senior Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, Richard Heinberg shared their wisdom in a lively dialogue with Dalton. Gilding’s latest book is The Great Disruption and describes how to fight-and win-what he calls The One Degree War to prevent catastrophic warming of the earth. It has even received a favorable review by Tom Friedman in his New York Times column. Heinberg’s tenth book is The End of Growth and describes exactly why this decade will be worse  than the Great Depression; he predicts future global growth will be a zero sum game thanks to resource, climate and financial limits. Despite the rather apocalyptic theme of both authors, the near capacity audience was treated to some upbeat comments from Gilding coupled with some more cautionary responses from Heinberg. Here are some of the highlights:

On Change

“People’s ability to change is quite impressive – witness World War 2- we can end the denial and decide on a different future…the debate is how to act not whether to act.” Paul Gilding.

“During WW2, the enemy was visible. The U.S. has a larger capacity for denial. We will have to hit a wall before seeing change…it”s like a slow motion crash.” Richard Heinberg.

On Carbon Tax

“In Australia, a carbon tax is going through Parliament. The price is low…but every balance sheet will soon show the cost of carbon. (In OZ) The debate is over.” Paul Gilding.

On the Trigger

“The price of energy, food and transport will be the trigger point. Government must put in place the framework for change.” Paul Gilding.

On Clean Tech

“Exciting things are happening in renewables. Solar will be cheaper than coal within a decade. Then the game changes dramatically.” Paul Gilding

What a stimulating way to spend your lunch hour. Thanks to Greg Dalton for orchestrating a memorable – if sobering – event.

Read transcripts, see photos and check out our ARCHIVES featuring exclusive interviews with Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman, Vinod Khosla and many more green experts and visionaries…

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By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues (see November 8 update below)

Today Bill Weihl, Google’s Green Czar confirmed that he’s leaving the company as of November 8th. What does this mean for the future of Green at Google? And the future of green innovation in Silicon Valley and beyond? Weihl has been the leader of Google’s Clean Energy Team, spearheaded many innovative initiatives; and over $800 Million in green investment since 2006.

Google has taken a unique role in green policy advocacy as well as cutting edge clean energy investment. In July, Fresh Dialogues covered Google’s Green Dream, an audacious report outlining how the right green investment and policy could positively impact the economy and the planet. Without Weihl at the helm, Green at Google may lose some impetus. A new Green Czar has not yet been announced.

So what’s next on this Hero of the Environment’s agenda?  Has he been tipped as President Obama’s Green Czar? Certainly Tom Friedman has turned down that job (saying he gets enough aggravation playing golf). Is Weihl heading to Europe where the debate about climate change is (thankfully) over. Or perhaps China has promised him a fortune to lead the ambitious green agenda for its new five year plan?

For now, he’s being tight lipped.

He simply told me, “It’s time to move on and find something new.”

Plus he’s standing by his statement made in September at the GoingGreen Conference that, despite the naysayers, “The Solyndra debacle will not impact smart venture capital investment.” Emphasis on the “smart.”

Stay tuned.

Fresh Dialogues will update you as soon as Mr. Weihl shares plans for his replacement and his next exciting chapter. Bets are on that he will stay in the green arena.

UPDATE  November 8, 2011 1pm PST

Will a new Green Czar be appointed soon? Google’s Parag Chokshi confirmed today in an email response, “Bill (Weihl) played a unique and important role bridging several different internal teams. But we have a strong team in place. Urs Hoelzle will continue to lead our data center efficiency and renewable power purchase efforts, and Rick Needham leads on sustainability and renewable energy investments.”

We assume that means “no.”

Parag Chokshi, Clean Energy Public Affairs Manager, also confirmed that it was Rick Needham and his team who spearheaded the $800M in green investments (another $45 M was made by Google.org).

Chokshi said that Weihl would be having a good send-off today. Just what that means in terms of low carbon celebrations and green-themed surprises is yet to be revealed. Watch this space.

Read transcripts, see photos and check out our ARCHIVES featuring exclusive interviews with Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman, Vinod Khosla and many more green experts and visionaries…

and join the conversation at our Facebook Page

Check out exclusive VIDEOS AT THE Fresh Dialogues YouTube Channel