Monthly Archives: July 2011
Rethinking the Future of Transportation
| July 27, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
If you’re interested in some good thinking in the area of transportation, check out The Victoria Transport Policy Institute.
As I wrote to my friend Tom Konrad of AltEnergyStocks who introduced me, this is a very solid approach to the future of transportation. In an ideal world, we’d totally rethink transportation from the ground up (and down) and do something along the lines of what these folks are suggesting.
But let’s face facts: they’ll be fighting some of the most powerful vested interests on Earth. General Motors and Goodyear Tires bought up and immediately dismantled the Los Angeles trolley system 75 years ago to force people into cars; this was an extremely successful stratagem that, to this day, has resulted in near total market domination — and huge levels of profit. Only a few years ago did the transportation system out here re-install light-rail electric trains and attempt to re-introduce the concept of public transportation. Are we to think that interests like these are any less ruthless and effective today?
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Electric Vehicle Summit in Los Angeles
| July 26, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
My presentation at the Electric Vehicle Summit in Los Angeles this morning went very well – though I’m always happy when gigs like this are over.
To the degree to which I have a strength as a presenter, it’s the distance I go to try to make the content engaging. I know I’m not Barack Obama behind the microphone, so I try to make up for that shortcoming with material that will hold the attention of the audience.
Here, I started with:
“One of the great thinkers of the 20th Century said, ‘Life is either a thrilling adventure, or it’s nothing at all.’ And GOSH I love that!”
I went on to talk about why I thought that EV adoption is, in fact, a thrilling adventure, which I summarized as follows:
“I’m not sure mankind is actually very much the better for its dealings with the most profitable industries in America. Fast food sells low-nutrition garbage that leaves our kids fat and unhealthy. The most profitable sectors of the entertainment industry promote violence, drug abuse, promiscuity and criminality. Defense contractors build bombs. The pharma companies have no fewer than 8 million school children on Ritalin, and sell cures to diseases that don’t really exist. Ask your doctor if you could have restless fingernail syndrome. By the way, we’re one of only two countries on Earth that allows the drug companies to promote directly to gullible and uninformed/misinformed consumers.
“And the oil companies? We’ll get to them in a second.
“So along comes the EV industry, with cars that go 500,000 miles before they need so much as a tune-up, and, more importantly, offer the opportunity for truly clean transportation. No borrowing $1 billion each day for foreign crude, no acidified oceans, no $250 billion in annual costs to treat the lung disease caused by the aromatics of burning fossil fuels, no wars over oil.
“I just have to think that maybe this once the good guys can win. And now I’m going to tell you exactly how I think it’s going to happen…”
Here’s my full presentation if you’re interested — 35 slides that I paced to present at roughly a minute apiece. I like to keep ‘em moving.
45 minutes later, after a fairly vigorous Q&A session, I sat down. The whole thing went over quite well, lots of positive comments at lunch, but again, I’m glad it’s behind me.
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Concentrated Solar Power, Aka Solar Thermal — Good Video
| July 26, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
I frequently extol the virtues of CSP (concentrated solar power), aka solar thermal. For those looking for a good introduction with images that illustrate the concept, the link above is a solid video on the subject.
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Speaking at the Electric Vehicle Summit in Los Angeles
| July 25, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
I know I’m not Winston Churchill, but I try my best whenever I’m asked to speak publicly.
Tomorrow should be interesting. I’m speaking at the Electric Vehicle Summit at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. If you happen to be in the area and want to check out my talk, please let me know, and I’ll get you a free ticket.
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Can Our Civilization Cope with Its Increasing Energy Demands?
| July 25, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
Here’s another in a series of free reports, based on the input of over 300 participants to our June 2011 survey. The subject matter: Will population growth and energy resource depletion have dire consequences over the coming years? Read More
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Does a Bubble in Cleantech Lie on the Horizon?
| July 25, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
Are we approaching a bubble in cleantech? Apparently, this is a question on a number of people’s minds; each of the VCs at the New York Venture Summit last week was asked to comment on it.
I don’t see it. GE and Siemens achieved combined top-line revenues of over $30 billion in 2010 in this space, and continue to invest huge resources so as to “own the world” as it goes green; you can be sure that no one there is too concerned about a bubble.
The way I look at it, clean tech is in its infancy, the way the Internet was 15 years ago. When will it explode? I can’t say, but I recall those early days of the Internet, as it bopped along for a few years, then went right through the roof. You’ll see something quite similar here.
And here’s the reason – as I was explaining to a client this morning: why do we need products and services that provide sustainability? Because what we’re doing now isn’t sustainable. It’s that simple. Many of our current practices can’t last – even if we want them to.
The boom will be as considerable as it is inevitable.
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Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure — Lots Happening in the Pacific Northwest
| July 25, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
I’m delighted to report that EV4Oregon has taken me up on my “Craig Shields…At Your Service” offer. I’ll be shooting up to the Pacific Northwest in a few weeks to be a part of the most exciting launch of EV charging infrastructure in the US to date. Check this out.
I love projects like this: providing strategic business advice in clean energy and electric transportation, the consequences of which are huge for all concerned.
More soon.
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[The Vector] Poll Says Voters Want 60 MPG Economy Standards
| July 24, 2011 | Posted by Kathy-Heshelow under Fossil Fuels |
The Mellman Group for Ceres conducted a poll of likely Michigan and Ohio voters, and found that the voters overwhelmingly supported an increase to average fuel economy standards to 60 miles per gallon by 2025.
The poll was conducted between April 9th and April 12th, 2011. The data comes as government agencies are seeking to develop new economy standards for the years 2017 to 2025.
“The American voter – the American consumer – is speaking loudly in these key states,” said Ceres President Mindy Lubber. “It isn’t just $4 per gallon fatigue. The voters recognize that our economic, environmental and national security Read More
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Cleantech Ideas — Good and Bad — at the New York Venture Summit
| July 23, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
As I said, I wasn’t thrilled with the treatment that the entrepreneurs/presenters received at the hands of the venture capitalists who served as the panelist/judges at this year’s New York Venture Summit. Having said that, there really were some surprisingly lame ideas that made it through the vetting process that the conference organizers claim they imposed on the entrants.
I’m reminded of what Kleiner Perkins managing partner Ray Lane told me in a meeting a few months ago:
There are a lot of ideas. Ideas are pretty cheap actually. So you can say: what if we did this? You get very creative and very innovative about an idea that is not well thought through, but here are somethings to consider. Is it going to be a big enough market? Is the risk removable? Can you scale it up? What are the economics? Is it disruptive enough?
There were people targeting extremely small markets, or projecting really unappealing revenues and earnings. And, of course, there were people who want money to build a prototype of something that I can see is going to be difficult if not impossible to make happen – even in the laboratory, not to mention the real world.
This, of course, is why I’m left recommending only a dozen of the 600+ cleantech business plans I’ve reviewed over the last two years.
Also, some of the presenters failed to make important points. For example, a speaker presented his company that offers a simple, inexpensive breakthrough for delivering chemical pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides in a more effective way – thus agribusinesses can use less. In this whole presentation he didn’t mention that reducing the use of toxic chemicals has a positive benefit on world health! Doesn’t that matter? Eventually, we’re going to realize that ingesting poison isn’t good for us. That ought to be worth a bullet point on some slide somewhere.
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Cleantech Entrepreneurs Not Feelin’ the Love at the NY Venture Summit
| July 22, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
Anyone coming to New York City who expects to see selfless acts of warmth and empathy for one’s fellow man clearly has no understanding of the spirit of the place. Having said that, my experience at the 2011 New York Venture Summit went beyond the pale in terms of sheer mean-spiritedness.
Let me set the stage: 75 entrepreneurs in life sciences, technology, and cleantech each had seven pressure-packed minutes to present their business plans in PowerPoint to a panel of 8 – 10 venture capitalists. Most presenters were visibly nervous – and who wouldn’t be? A room packed to the rafters with judges and fellow contestants, each waiting anxiously for his name to be called. At the appointed time, the speaker would come to the stage and make a pitch that could either culminate in the few million dollars of funding necessary to get his “baby” off the ground, or, 100 times more likely, rejection.
And when I say “rejection,” you had to see it to believe it. The VC were (for some reason) asked to comment on each plan as it was presented. And these comments were uniformly critical – some in constructive ways, I’ll grant, but, for the most part, they were unkind, and occasionally quite vicious.
A smirking wunderkind from Khosla Ventures (whom I wanted to slap) and the guy sitting next to him from Kleiner Perkins often turned to one another and snickered audibly at presenters’ statements they considered inappropriate. A panelist from another firm grilled a presenter (a PhD in materials science) on a business point after his talk. “I understand,” said the presenter humbly in response to the criticism. “Yeah right,” his tormentor mocked with obvious sarcasm.
Maybe I lack the thick skin required to deal effectively in today’s world. Or maybe I’m taking too much pity on the victim in this master-slave relationship. After all, the VCs have the money, and the entrepreneurs desperately need it; beggars cannot demand to be treated with respect and kindness. But have we come to this? Some of the smartest, most driven people on Earth, many with fantastic breakthrough ideas — developed over years, in some cases decades of work — being publicly ridiculed by a team of snotty young MBAs?
Had I not been paid to be there, I would have left before lunch. As I told the conference organizers, “Good conference overall, but this idea of rude, arrogant pigs heckling the presenters – often in the middle of their talks – is really deplorable. It’s shameful. Don’t expect to see me next year.”
