Posts Tagged by Kleiner Perkins
Should Government Pick Winners and Losers in Energy Technology?
| October 12, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
For those of you who, like me, watch very little commercial news television, here’s a sample of reporting to consumers on the energy industry. This happens to concern Solyndra – a debacle that’s thrown a cold swimming pool of water on the already floundering US renewable energy industry.
Btw, I’d love to know how this happened in the first place. I talk to people in the private sector all the time who swear they saw this train-wreck coming far in advance. At a meeting I had with Kleiner Perkins managing partner Ray Lane earlier this year, he told me, “We knew that technology wouldn’t scale. We had been telling the DoE that for over a year, but no one would listen.”
So what are we to believe? That the public sector knew this too but made it happen for “political purposes?” Sorry, I think there’s more to the story than that. Yet God help me if I can add more clarity. I feel rather like those trying to figure out the JFK assassination; I know what didn’t happen, but not exactly what did. Read More
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Analysis of the US Fiscal Situation
| March 7, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
“Weekend reading. Depressing,” wrote my friend who forwarded it to me. That’s certainly an apt summary. As the author concludes: “By the standards of any public corporation, USA Inc.’s financials are discouraging.”
I don’t compare my grasp on the situation to that of Meeker. But I do point out that short-term spikes in federal spending as a function of GDP in times of financial upheaval (e.g., the 1930s) can be justified on the basis that without them, the economy simply has no chance whatsoever to recover. One could argue that the financial meltdown of 2008 was, in fact, such an emergency. It’s funny to me how seldom we ask what things would have been like in the absence of such stimulation.
However, the long-term entitlements represent a real problem, largely brought about by an aging population and skyrocketing healthcare costs. We need a solution there, for sure. But the current partisan bickering in Congress is equivalent to re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. The actual “reform” is just as good for the pharmaceutical and insurance companies whose lobbyists made it happen as the one it replaced.
If you want my suggestion, check this out.
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Externalities of the Oil Industry — Great Comments
| February 12, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Fossil Fuels |
There have been some fantastic comments to my piece on the externalities of fossil fuels the other day. I encourage folks to check out the response of frequent blogger Cameron Atwood in particular, to whom I reply:
Unfortunately, this corporatocracy has gotten so strong that it’s really tough to refocus people on what’s happening at the macro level which, you’ve nailed with 100% accuracy in your excellent remarks. There’s a great deal of mainstream coverage of the perils of Lindsay Lohan, but very little insight into the true cost of oil and gas. So when you write: Read More
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Interview with Kleiner Perkins' Ray Lane on Renewable Energy Investments
| February 8, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
I’m on my way up north for a few meetings in the Bay Area, the first of which is an interview with Ray Lane, Managing Partner of Kleiner Perkins, the legendary venture capital fund. Ray has generously consented to let me interview him for my next book on renewables, in which we’ll cover certain economic issues.
I was just putting the final touches on my interview script, which I hadn’t planned to publish, when it occurred to me that readers may find some of this interesting:
Ray: I first met you at the Detroit auto show in late 2009. You impressed me by taking the stage and essentially pointing out exactly what had noticed, i.e., that the other presenters had sugarcoated the work that we in the US had done in the industry of clean energy and transportation. Can you elaborate? What’s happened since, in your estimation? Read More
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Innovation Means Introducing New, Relevant Concepts to Your Customers
| January 18, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
I had a talk just now with an old friend — an extremely senior business visionary who helped me put a few things into perspective about the innovations that are reshaping our world. Coming out of decades of work for Deloitte Consulting and other top names in strategy, she explained:
There’s the BUY-side, the supply chain, which has been quite important through the last few decades. A change in tax law, for example, can mean huge savings by completely re-constructing this part of the business. However, it’s not where the energy is today.
There’s the IN-side, the core business. Here are all the changes you’re making within the enterprise. Again, not where the world’s attention is aimed now.
And there’s the SELL-side. This, of course, was always important – but now it’s where the world is truly focused. Read More
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China — Helping to Bring in Wind Power
| November 6, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
What’s not to like about a $1.5 billion wind project covering 36,000-acre and generating the power for 180,000 homes in western Texas? For one, it rubs our nose in the fact that China is one of many countries that out-invests the US when it comes to renewables. The project is a joint venture that includes China’s Shenyang Power Group, which points out how much China’s own wind industry has grown, and reminds us of what Energy Secretary Steven Chu told Congress earlier this week: The U.S. is falling behind China and others in alternative energy investment.
But how shocking is the idea that China should aspire to be a world player in wind? “This is a natural progression,” says Harvard-educated Lou Schwartz, president of Pittsburgh-based China Strategies. “We need to avoid looking at this narrowly and saying ‘China’s up and we’re down.’ We have to welcome each other.”
Thus the reality we all need to face: the source of the renewable energy may be local, but the equipment to harvest it most certainly is not. I’m reminded of what Ray Lane, partner in venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, told the audience in the “Business of Plugging In” conference a few weeks ago: The United States needs to cut the rhetoric and make real investments if it is to be a real player on the world renewables stage.
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The "Business of Plugging In" Conference – Continued
| October 22, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
![](http://i708.photobucket.com/albums/ww83/craigshields/119px-Detroit_seal.jpg "The "Business of Plugging In" Conference - Continued")
I marvel at how different the 2009 “Business of Plugging In” conference was in comparison to a number of the other shows I’ve attended recently on renewable energy and electric transportation. Perhaps most obvious was the attention on job creation and a return to prosperity, and how economic issues far outweighed discussion about the environment. There was virtually no mention of global warming, and remarkably little discussion of the consequences of US dependency on foreign oil. Of course, to be fair, the show was about (as its name suggests) the business side of the equation. And it’s hard to lose track of the idea that we were in Michigan, the state with the nation’s highest unemployment rate.
What we did hear a lot over the past few days are what I would call “disingenous self-serving platitudes,” which I refer to as DSPs. One that came up a great deal was the idea that the OEMs, policy makers, utilities, and small businesses are collaborating to make the world a better place for car consumers. Oh please. I find that truly nauseating — not because I wouldn’t dearly like to see it, but because the precise opposite is true. Most of these people are busily but quietly building proprietary standards to lock out competitors and lock in profits — at the expense of what might have otherwise been a smooth and robust adoption curve. A frank admission of this obvious fact would have been really refreshing.
There were dozens of other minor examples that I won’t bore you with; as I mentioned yesterday, almost every speaker had some sort of private business agenda that he/she aggressively pressed down upon the audience. But there were real real doozies as well, a short list of which includes:
DSP #1: Toyota said it will bring along plug-in hybrid technology “soon,” a move that is hailed immediately by the moderator as “bold and courageous.”
The Truth: That company could have, and most people would say should have introduced this technology years and years ago. But, already perceived as being green, the company was under no pressure to do so, and chose to milk the profits out of its current technology platform until it was forced to move along.
DSP #2: GM represented itself as strong, focused, and committed to the plug-in market.
The Truth: Every man, woman, and child in the US was forced to buy GM stock at dozens of times its actual fair market value, because of the company’s astonishing lack of focus and commitment to building cars people wanted. Here’s an article on AutoBlogGreen that goes into more detail.
DSP #3: The governor of the State of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, proudly announced that Michigan has received about 60% of the total DoE stimulus money aimed at advanced car batteries, explaining that Michigan had effectively made the case that it was committed to a green automotive future.
The Truth: Could she possibly have been serious in this totally outrageous statement? Isn’t this the home of the most vigorous opposition to CAFE standards? Aren’t two of the three Michigan-based OEMs bankrupt precisely because they refused to build environmentally friendly cars that Americans wanted? This was so offensive that I found myself chuckling — softly but audibly. (You should have seen the glares from a few of those within earshot.)
At a certain point, it looked as if it was going to be a solid three days of misleading self-congratulations, arrogance, and gleeful ignorance. But then Ray Lane of venture capital giant Kleiner Perkins took the stage with an approach that was honest, and diametrically opposed to most of those who had come before, or who would follow. I had the opportunity to thank him for his candor after his talk.
He told the audience that investment in innovation in the renewables space is an absolute imperative, and that, despite the rhetoric, he sees little sincere commitment. He pointed out that the US has made such investment in Internet technology, and has seen the results in terms of dominating that industry with Google, Mircosoft, Oracle, Cisco, etc. However, he showed us that we’ve done very little in renewable energy, and that almost all the top players in solar, wind, geothermal, hydrokinetics, etc., are outside the US.
He’s certainly right: the time for politics and glib language is over. We need to look the issue honestly in the face, knock off the deceit, and deliver technology that people honestly want. There is a ready and willing customer base who can’t wait to start buying, I can assure you.
