The Obama administration ought to have sent an envoy to the FountainBlueState of Clean Green Conference on January 29, 2010. A panel of Silicon Valley clean tech experts had much to share in response to Moderator Greentech Media’sEric Wesoff’s question…if you had Department of Energy Secretary, Steve Chu’s job, what would you do? In other words, how can Obama better jumpstart the clean tech economy?
Tim Woodward, Managing Director, Nth Power said the government needs to create market demand, and recommends that every government building should have solar power and be retrofitted for energy efficiency; but warned,
“There’s a little too much of a ‘large check mandate’ in the Federal Government that picks technologies and stifles innovation at lower levels: figure out how to get smaller dollars into the innovation engine of smaller companies.”
“I look at the pricing and incentivizing through market pricing. We’re still subsidizing imported oil without putting the investment into alternative energies…I think we should put a tax on imported oil and use it to help pay off some of the defense spending we’re using to protect the transmission of that oil. We need to forge ahead with cap and trade legislation… until we have a price on carbon it’s hard for the markets to plan and have any certainty.”
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.”
This week, we feature an interview with Apple evangelist and venture capitalist at Garage Technology Ventures, Guy Kawasaki. He shares his candid thoughts on the venture capital industry; the fragile economy and why he sees light at the end of the tunnel.
On the stock market and VC investing
“If you are investing in two people in a garage today, it doesn’t matter what the Dow Jones Industrial Averageis at all…if you say ‘the market is down so I’m not going to invest in a startup today,’ there’s something ass backward about that. It matters what it (the stockmarket) is in five years.”
I caught up with David Chen, an executive director at Morgan Stanley, while attending the AlwaysOnGoing Green Conference 2009 in Sausalito. Chen, a specialist in the green tech investment sector, discussed the morale of investors; and why he’s expecting a bumpy ride ahead. He also explains the key differences between high tech and green tech business plans; and how the government plays a vital role as catalyst in the development and commercialization of the green economy.
Vinod Khosla, the green investment guru, was asked to name the company with the greatest chance of becoming the next Green Microsoft while onstage at the GoingGreen Conferencein Sausalito. He declined to name his “favorite child” but did praise Calera, the green cement maker he’s backing; and spoke about the huge potential growth in this sector. Since cement production creates 2.5 billion tons of CO2 annually, representing 5% of manmade sources, it offers great potential in both climate change impact and market opportunity.
I caught up with Stuart Evans, Chairman of Novacem, who shares Vinod’s bullishness about the market for green cement. This British entrepreneur has assembled a team from Imperial College, London (he dubs it the MIT of the UK) and claims to have invented a carbon negative cement.
Earlier this year, I met with Linda Holroyd, CEO of FountainBlue, a Silicon Valley based forum that brings together top experts and entrepreneurs in green tech. We discussed why her company is thriving because of the down economy; and why she has faith in the resiliency of green tech. Given that oil and gas prices have tumbled, is there still a pressing case for clean energy and green tech investment?
