Transformative Business Ideas in Clean Energy

In a typical week, I receive half a dozen or so business plans with requests for funding.  I find all of these intriguing in one way or another — even the ones that I can see instantly have no chance.

As I’ve mentioned before, I get the occasional perpetual motion machine.  I’m never rude or catty with anyone, and I’m always happy to provide advice. But I remind such inventors that the investment community has been taught since they were toddlers that anyone claiming to have built a machine that delivers more power than it consumes is either a liar or an idiot.   If you have a working model, great — I want to see it.  If you don’t, brace yourself for scorn.

Many of the other plans are simply bad ideas coming from nice, well-meaning people.  A very pleasant lady (apparently young — she writes with exclamation points) has an idea for wind farms in the mountains.  But why?  Why go to the expense of building an even higher tech turbine to capture the energy from wind that is not blowing parallel to the earth’s surface, and installing and grid-tying it in hard-to-access areas — when there are zillions of square miles of flat windy plains?  She seems like a charming and honest young person with a good heart, but I can’t see investors rushing to her with money to develop this technology.

Among these, however, are some real gems.  I’m working hard on behalf of quite a number of inventors and entrepreneurs to get them the funding they will need to get their companies launched.  Again, it’s fascinating stuff; I open each new email with great hope and anticipation.