It’s Presidential Election year. Ergo, time to discuss our 40 year whacked out excuse for an energy policy. Royally botched up by every President since, umm? Objectives: Make US energy supply cheap for the US consumer and industry, fast growing and profitable for the American energy sector, clean, widely available and reliable, and secure, diversified, [...]
For several years, the U.S. military has been one of the most active proponents and early-adopters of renewable energy and alternative fuels, with their Operational Energy Strategy. Why? Several reasons: 1. Fuel delivered to the remote front-lines such as in Afghanistan for use in power generation and transportation has an “all-in” cost of $400/gallon. Any energy source [...]
The historic drought this summer across most of the United States has severely damaged this year’s corn crop. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, corn production is expected to be down more than 10% from last year. Not surprisingly, corn prices have surged. What may be surprising is how much they’ve surged: up to record levels exceeding $8.00/bushel, [...]
We all know energy is global, and as much policy driven as technology driven. We have a quote, in energy, there are no disruptive technologies, just disruptive policies and economic shocks that make some technologies look disruptive after the fact. In reality, there is disruptive technology in energy, it just takes a long long time. [...]
On January 18, BP (NYSE: BP) released Energy Outlook 2030, its official corporate view of the future of energy. Every year, BP releases its Statistical Review of World Energy that serves as an excellent compendium of historical and current data on a host of energy-related issues, but rarely does BP present its projections of trends [...]
Last night while watching Office reruns, I realized I’d been remiss, and a lot’s had been happening in the public equities end of the cleantech sector. Not to mention yesterday’s billion dollar BK broiler announcement by the one-time Next Greatest Thing, Solyndra. So, with my usual aplomb, I thought I’d simply peanut gallery what’s “Hot or [...]
It had been on my nightstand for awhile, but I finally got around to finishing Power Hungry: The Myths of ‘Green’ Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future by Robert Bryce. According to his own bio on the book jacket, “Bryce has been producing industrial-strength journalism for two decades” –whatever “industrial-strength” is supposed to [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi In early November, I participated in a week-long delegation concerning energy in Israel, at the invitation of Project Interchange, an educational program of the American Jewish Committee. In addition to learning a tremendous amount about Israel’s history, culture and political situation, my fellow travelers and I were fortunate to talk with many leaders active in various aspects [...]
Will the 21st century be the fossil fuel century? Whether it’s peak oilers, climate scientists, renewable and sustainable gurus, or cleantech venture capitalists, we all talk like that’s not an option. We’ve preordained that the 21st century is a green energy, renewable power, cleantech century. And I’d like to believe that. But it’s not a [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi One of my favorite PowerPoint slides about the peak oil phenomenon comes from the dearly-departed Matt Simmons. The slide depicted a mountain peak in an automobile rearview mirror, the implication being that we would only know for sure when peak oil production has been achieved after it has been achieved and [...]
It’s been a long year and a half or so since we published our last Cleantech Blog Power 5 on the top investors in cleantech. Time for round two. As usual the criteria for inclusion. Investor made a significant contribution to the cleantech investment sector More smart looking investments than stupid looking investments On balance, I’d [...]
According to pick your favorite cleantech and carbon media outlet, California is at war. AB 32 is California’s carbon cap and trade law. The law is most the way ready to implement, with the rulemaking in process now. It’s aimed squarely at two goals, one, reduce California’s greenhouse gas emissions, and two, since such a [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi Being a senior advisor to the firm, I attended last week’s annual meeting of Craton Equity Partners, a cleantech private equity fund manager based in Los Angeles. While cleantech in its focus, Craton doesn’t take on much technology risk. Rather, Craton generally invests in companies that have largely proven their technologies [...]
By John Addison (8/25/10) original post at Clean Fleet Report Shell (NYSE: RDSA) and Cosan (NYSE: CZZ), one of the world’s largest sugarcane ethanol companies based in Brazil, signed binding agreements to form a $12 billion joint venture for the production and commercialization of ethanol and power from sugar cane. The resulting joint venture, if [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi I was recently forwarded an article by Amol Desphande, partner of the renowned venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, entitled “Investing in the Biomass Industry”, which appeared in the September 2009 issue of BioCycle magazine. No doubt seeking to contrast Kleiner Perkins from its peers, Deshpande questions the prudence of investing in [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi While it is increasingly recognized that subsidies for corn-based ethanol are bad policy, a nod must be given to C. Ford Runge, a professor at the University of Minnesota, for his pithy and merciless analysis in his note “Biofuel Backlash” published in the May/June issue of Technology Review. In the space [...]
Barrons had an interesting take on biofuels from garbage: http://online.barrons.com/article/SB127327100968888619.html I have been following this movement for some time and there does seem to be an extraordinary amount of capital and brainpower going into this space. People talk a lot about ethanol and I am a big of ethanol, mostly because I like the constiuency [...]
by Richard T. StuebiThanks to my friend and fellow blogger Ed Beardsworth for making me aware of this gem: As discussed in overview in this article, researchers at the University of Cincinnati have found that frogs of a certain species, the Tungara frog to be exact, secrete a foam that seems to turbocharge the photosynthetic [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi A few weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal ran an article entitled “U.S. Biofuel Boom Running on Empty”, which presented a blistering across-the-board slam on biofuels. Perhaps more interesting than the WSJ article itself was an email reaction I received from a prominent energy tech venture capitalist with keen visibility into [...]
by Gypsy Achong Joule Biotechnologiesʼ recent press release has stimulated a bit of excitement and speculation on their technology, including by our own blogger Paul O’Callaghan. A quick look at Joule Biotechnologiesʼ patent filing suggests that they are engineering a fast growing bacterium – Escherichia coli – capable of converting light and carbon dioxide into [...]
