Posts Tagged by Renewable Energy World
Preaching to the Choir
| December 24, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
The only downside I see to spending a few minutes of my life every day writing a new blog post is the concern I have for “preaching to the choir.” With few exceptions, it seems to me that the people at 2GreenEnergy, RenewableEnergyWorld, etc. are those who already have a thoughtful regard for our fellow citizens of earth; the real trick is to reach out to those who for whatever reason have not come across that realization.
For instance, here’s a comment I received on the blog I wrote on modern physics at Renewable Energy World.
Do the newly discovered hydrocarbon lakes on Titan offer the solution to peak oil? A simple 250 million mile pipeline with solar powered pumping stations and nuclear powered tankers for the tricky orbital parts. KBR-Halliburton is ready for the no-bid contract and Blackwater has enough weapons to defend it from alien attack.
Now that’s a level of writing, of humor, of insight, of sensitivity to the issues that is not common – to say the very least. That’s a guy who doesn’t need to be convinced that our world faces large challenges on both technological and political levels.
But what about the people we’re not reaching? I’m deeply concerned that our world is spiralling in a direction where fewer people each year read, immerse themselves in the facts on both sides of important debates, and challenge themselves to get on the right side of the issues that confront us. I’m hoping to forge 2GreenEnergy into a tiny part of a modern day Renaissance of thinking – a renewed flourishing of ideas that can make meaningful change in where we’re all going on environmental concerns.
Renewable Energy Mergers/Acquisitions and Technology Licensing
| December 21, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
My blog at Renewable Energy World is, ironically, more visible that this one at my own site. Yet this is understandable; after all, they’ve been at it for 11 years, and boast the human bandwidth to cover the subject of clean energy at great depth. That is why, I think, my first post there created such a large influx of new readers back here – many of whom have existing or imminent businesses in the clean tech sector, and are looking for helping in establishing and expanding those businesses.
This has necessitated our expanding our range of thinking regarding the services that new clear energy business need. In particular, many of my recent conversations with entrepreneurs in this space concern breakthrough ideas that need to be developed. Typically, I’ve noticed that inventors have visions of owning billion-dollar manufacturing facilities on five continents – yet perhaps that’s not what’s best for them at all. Often, the best thing for a hot new idea is a buyer of that idea – or perhaps a licensee of that idea. Great inventors are not necessarily great manufacturers, marketers, or distributors.
To this end, we are in the process of building out our capability of helping entrpreneurs monetize their ideas – not by carrying them all the way to fruition, but my making solid, win-win deals with others who can do so for them. Soon, you’ll be seeing more 2GreenAssociates in business development, technology licensing, and mergers/acquisitions.
Renewable Energy World
| December 9, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
In my quest for a well-balanced presentation of clean energy in my upcoming book, I just spoke with someone whose work I’ve admired for quite a while — Stephen Lacey of Renewable Energy World. We discussed the subject of media, and the optimum approach to developing and distributing unique content in a space that’s changing every minute.
I think of Stephen the way I do PBS’s Charlie Rose: a guy who can conduct an intelligent conversation on hundreds of different subjects. And as I told him, the aspect of his publication that I find most striking is its bandwidth; there are so many things happening every day on this front, and these people never seem to miss a single one — nor do they simply regurgitate junk news from other sources.
Stephen has invited me to blog on his site, and I’ll certainly be taking him up on that offer. Right now, I plan to confine my remarks there mainly to business-related subjects – perhaps offering tips for his readers on the commercialization of renewable energy business ideas: raising capital, public relations, SEO, Web 2.0 marketing, positioning, branding, sales channels development, and so forth. These are topics that don’t seem to be treated with as much depth and frequency as some other aspects of the migration to clean energy, and I hope they’ll find some resonance with his readers.
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