Should Cleantech be Socialized?
Attending 2 cleantech conferences in a week will provide many opportunities to learn,
There was a lot to take in, a lot of people to meet, and a lot of issues to face… and work through.
Not a specialist in clean technologies, my interest in attending these events was to see the latest and greatest in solutions. Like many, I have been following the markets and announcement surrounding solar, wind, and electronic cars… but my interests in urban planning , transportation, and water have been my driving force lately.
In the land of clean tech, the primary concern by the vast majority of people involved in cleantech was still the profitability of a solution… that for a firm to bring a produt to market, it must raise 100s of millions of USD… and that no one is seemingly using the right cost basis by which to develop the apples to apples comparison.
Why I say this, is that while I listened to venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and policy makers make their pitches, they never once mentioned the word “citizen”. That in assessing the role of a technlogy, or describing the reason for going green, the catalyst was either from consumer pressure, regulatory pressure, or profit motive.
- Ira Ehrenpreis ( Partner at Technology Partners), offered his 6 drivers for advancement of clean technology awareness and investment as government/ politics, consumers, diversity of cleantech sector, corporate seachange, human capital, and globalization
- .. and when Duke energy was proudly announcing that as the 6th largest carbon emitter in the world, they were beginning to change their ways to meet the needs of their customers using energy (Wal-Mart)… they were not saying anything about the needs of the citizens who lived downwind from their coal-fired plants.
- and when the CEO of Vista Solar and the head of China’s Renewable Energy Society were arguing over whether or not the cost of solar energy would be 1RMB/ KwH or 2RMB/ KwH… no one was asking what the health cost per KwH … surely more than the 1RMB/ KwH that they were squabling over.
- and it was all confirment when I asked Mayor Newsom whether or not he was measuring his decisions to green SF and his expeinditures for health…. no he wasn’t. He said that it was a good question, that it was needed, but he wasn’t doing it as it was still too early..
In essence, there was a gap in the system. That while “Cleantech” and green technologies are about developing products, polices, and technologies to reduce the impact of industry, of consumers, of our buildings on the earth (and those that live on it), no one was actually driven by the impacts on the earth or humanity when developing their products, technologies, and policies.
That the primary driver was, and still is, a profit motive.
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