By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

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Laurie Yoler, a managing director of Growth Point Technology Partners, was a founding board member of Tesla Motors and currently serves on its advisory board. I met with her at the FountainBlue Clean Green Annual Conference on Friday January 29th, the day Tesla announced its planned IPO. Needless to say, Yoler was bullish about Tesla’s prospects this year. We also discussed President Obama’s State of the Union Speech on January 27th and the government’s role in stimulating green technology.

Good news for Green Tech Venture Capitalists in State of Union Speech?

“Rather than what our president said that night, I look at what’s actually taking place, the changes I’m seeing. President Obama as a president has embraced sustainability throughout his tenure.”

Obama’s role: could he do more?

Continue reading ‘Laurie Yoler: On Tesla, Venture Capital and Obama’ »

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

Download or listen to this lively Fresh Dialogues interview

We welcome feedback at FreshDialogues.com, click on the Contact Tab

Robert Ballard, the ocean explorer of Titanic fame sat down with me in Silicon Valley to discuss his expeditions, global warming, and alternative energy. This respected scientist spoke candidly about global warming -”I’ll be honest, it’s too late, all the ice is going to melt.” READ the TRANSCRIPT

On the global warming controversy: Natural cycle or Human impact?

“Hey folks: it’s both.  Whenever you have a tremendous controversy both sides tend to be right and wrong. You do have the natural interglacial warming that we’re experiencing, but you are increasing the severity of it with the human footprint.  The concern most people have is that we can’t do much about the natural cycle, but we can do a lot about the human cycle. ..if you steepen it too much, evolution can’t keep up and you get extinction.”

On being Politically Correct

“Sometimes I see this tombstone that says, “the human race came and went but it was politically correct.” As a scientist I am not politically correct. My job is not to be politically correct. My job is to call it as I see it. And I see that the biggest problem the human race has is that there are too many of us.”

On the need to reduce our carbon footprint
Continue reading ‘Robert Ballard: Titanic Explorer Talks Climate Change’ »

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

Check out this audio-only version which captures Emmett Carson’s off-camera exuberance and humor.

Download or listen to this lively Fresh Dialogues interview

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Last week, I sat down with Emmett Carson, President and CEO of the  Silicon Valley Community Foundation. In a wide ranging conversation on green jobs, the Obama White House, education and financial literacy, we focused in on the role of the $1.7 Billion Foundation in addressing the immediate job crisis in Silicon Valley. How should coalitions of green minded people come together to create a green jobs mecca in the Bay Area? How do you jump start a green jobs explosion? According to Emmett, it’s all about forging informed dialogues between powerful coalitions.

On Creating a Green Jobs Mecca

“There has to be a group of people who are going to make some strategic investments…There are coalitions of green folk who are already meeting… where government officials can help, where foundations folk can help and be attuned and listen to what they say they need and where there opportunities will be. So that you start to say to the community colleges, ‘here are the kinds of jobs to train people for.’ What are the jobs that are going to stay around for a ten year cycle? This is the more thoughtful, longer term thinking that we need all of our public leaders to engage in…if we’re really going to have that green jobs explosion.”

On Mayor Chuck Reed’s Green Vision
Continue reading ‘Emmett Carson: How To Create a Green Jobs Mecca’ »

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

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Elise Zoli, a partner with Goodwin Procter, is a specialist in energy  and clean tech law; and teaches at MIT. I caught up with her at a Fountain Blue Green Transport Event where we discussed two hot areas in clean tech: energy storage and nuclear power. Elise explains the important role of energy storage in making solar and wind energy more reliable; and why she’d like to redefine energy storage to make it sexy. She’s coining a new phrase: “dispatchable renewable power.”

On making energy storage sexy

“Energy storage sounds like something that you don’t want to talk about, something that belongs in the closet. But the idea is to enable renewables (solar and wind) to have a greater chunk of the American demand…integrated storage flattens out the intermittency issues.”

On nuclear power

“The N word is difficult in the context of renewable …but most experts who look at climate change and energy security believe there is a significant role for nuclear. “

On nuclear waste and other impacts

“Nuclear has a favorable balance of environmental impacts. Every technology, even solar and wind, have their externalities. On balance, does it advance our climate change goals? The technology deserves to be considered.”

On the traveling wave reactor or TWR

“For the traveling wave reactor they actually consume waste as fuel. The promise of the technology is to reduce waste…The material will be managed in place as opposed to having a long term waste repository.”

This is Part Two of the interview.

To check out Part One, where Elise explores the government’s role in clean tech and the stimulus package, click here.

The interview was recorded at the FountainBlue Clean Green Transport Conference in Santa Clara on July 6, 2009.

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

Download or listen to this lively Fresh Dialogues interview

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Rolf Papsdorf is bringing green power to the people of Africa. Thanks to the Silicon Valley based Tech Awards 2009, the rest of the world is hearing about it. His company Alternative Energy Development Corporation manufactures zinc-air fuel cells to generate off the grid electricity for rural communities. His zinc-air fuel cell project, described as the largest in the world,  brings light and energy to the village of Guyuni in South Africa, as well as job creation and online education to the community’s youth.

This project echoes – in a small way – the aims of Bloom Energy’s KR Sridhar, who aims to bring Power to the People with its fuel cell design.

On the fuel cells technology

“We’re the only company in the world which produces a low cost zinc-air fuel cells manually rechargeable…we’re proud to say that we have no carbon footprint and are totally renewable. We recycle the zinc oxide to make new zinc using solar energy.”

On how he’s empowering South Africa

“Our passion really is empowerment. We supply them with basic electricity, we have skills development programs so that they can earn an income…only 3% of (the community) income goes towards energy, the rest is disposable income.” Rolf Papsdorf

Check back soon for the VIDEO of this exclusive Fresh Dialogues interview

By Alison van Diggelen, host Fresh Dialogues

This month Bloom Energy CEO, KR Sridhar was picked as one of Time Magazine’s   Tech Pioneers Who Will Change Your Life

The Time article references a recent Fresh Dialogues feature, Power to the People

Read the transcript and listen to this exclusive Fresh Dialogues interview - KR explains how the Bloom Energy fuel cell will change the world and give power to the people.

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To listen to an exclusive Fresh Dialogues interview with Kevin Surace, another Time Magazine Tech Pioneer Who Will Change Your Life click here

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

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Silicon Valley’s Kevin Surace has just achieved Rock Star status – of the Green Biz variety. The CEO of Serious Materials was picked as Entrepreneur of the Year by Inc. Magazine and joined Time Magazine’s list of Tech Pioneers Who Will Change Your Life, along with another Silicon Valley Green Rock Star: Bloom Energy’s KR Sridhar. It’s an incongruous status for someone from the mundane world of building products, but Kevin is being described as ’savior of the world’, ‘the Larry Ellison of green’ and has even turned down an invitation to the White House. He knows he’ll be invited back.

In an exclusive Fresh Dialogues interview recorded before the accolades descended, Kevin revealed his motivations for waging war on climate change and the lessons learned in building a green company. He discussed the influence of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in helping create a market for green products; how Serious Materials changed its focus; and whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for green. Kevin outlined how his company uses new media to get its message out and what the future holds for this rapidly expanding company.

On Kevin’s motivations for wanting to help save the planet

“When you have children, you start to think what world are you leaving them? I think that affects everybody.”

When did he focus on energy saving products at Serious Materials?

“If I sat here and said in 2002 I had the great vision to design energy saving building materials – there was no market in 2002 – people would think I was nuts.  By 2005, the climate issue had come to the front of minds:  on scientists’ minds, at the United Nations, in the world. By ‘06, we began coming out with energy efficient windows… ”

Continue reading ‘Kevin Surace: Green Rock Star, Entrepreneur of Year’ »

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

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The catchy title “Cows to Kilowatts” certainly won the attention of the crowds at the 2009 Tech Awards Gala in Silicon Valley, but the project won accolades for more than mere words. Dr. Joseph Adelegan, an Ashoka Fellow is a charismatic engineer who has found an effective way to harness the energy from slaughterhouse waste and won the $50,000 Intel Environment Award . He and his team at the Nigeria based Global Network for Environment and Economic Development Research, are creating cooking gas and electricity from effluent that might otherwise lead to harmful pollution.

What does the Tech Award mean to Dr. Adelegan?

“We’ve received several awards… so it’s not really receiving the award… but the opportunity to network, to  meet great minds in Silicon Valley… see people who’ve gone through the same as you’ve gone through…We’ve seen scientists and inventors, visited Microsoft and Intel..we’ve seen people doing some encouraging things…Sometimes you think you are crazy doing this type of stuff, but you see that people are as crazy as you. You have to be crazy to be creative….” (We agreed there were LOTS of crazy creative people in Silicon Valley)

Why does Al Gore inspire him?
Continue reading ‘Joseph Adelegan: Cows to Kilowatts Tech Award Winner’ »

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

Download or listen to this lively Fresh Dialogues interview

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As delegates gather in Copenhagen this week to thrash out a global treaty on climate change, the shrill from skeptics intensifies. It’s useful to listen to wisdom from Nobel Prize winning economist, Paul Krugman. In a recent interview, I asked Paul the question on many lips: Will climate legislation kill the economy?

“If history is any guide… it’s just not a big deal,” says Krugman, citing the example of acid rain legislation which many people also said would kill the economy.  “Dealing with it was cheaper than most estimates had suggested,” he says. “Given the incentives; the private sector found ways to generate a whole lot less acid rain.”

Krugman thinks the same will be true of carbon limits and has already explained his preference for cap and trade in a previous Fresh Dialogues segment.

We also discuss the power of his New York Times column and his influence on the Obama Administration. “We’re speaking across the transom…when I argue with them in my column this is a serious discussion…people in the administration do call me…it’s no longer this sort of Cold War as it was during the Bush years.”

And how does he view his role? “I’m trying to make this progressive moment in American history a success,” says Krugman.

But why not take a position within the administration to be more effective?

“I’m never going to be an insider type. You have to do bureaucratic maneuvering, be pretty good at being polite… reasonably organized…,” says the Pulitzer prize- winning columnist. “I’m none of those things. I can move into a pristine office and within three days it will look like a grenade went off.”

To read this segment transcript, click here.
Continue reading ‘Paul Krugman: Will Climate Legislation Kill the Economy?’ »