Done, however, is for tomorrow. Despite his ambitious plans and hundreds of millions of invested dollars, Khosla's companies are still in the early stages. Calera is typical; it is only now preparing to open its first cement plant, on a 200-acre site next door to a gas-fired electric-power utility. Carbon-dioxide-laden exhaust from the power plant will be captured and used to make and dry the cement. Calera plans to be in pilot production by the end of the year, in commercial operation by 2010, and running 100 sites in North America five years later.
As our meeting comes to an end, Khosla closes his laptop and heads back to work on the biomass paper. An academic is helping him with this one, which he hopes will be accepted by Science or Nature, the prestigious scientific weeklies. "Think of it," he says as he turns away. "Publication in a peer-reviewed journal. What other venture capitalist would even try to do that?"
Richard Shaffer writes about technology and economics from New York.
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Recent Comments | 19 Total
November 2, 2008 at 3:17am by Yeves Perez
I happen to deeply agree with the wisdom of Tom Friedman (that we cannot consume of way out of this mess and “Have you ever been to a revolution where nobody gets hurt?”). The fact is that the current economic conditions will cause a lot of companies to close their doors (websites too), and will die off altogether due to lack of understanding the competitive landscape. Those that will fight to stay alive will need to figure out — What’s Next?
I believe that the New Green Economy will include the Rise of Green Real Estate Markets paired with the continued success of Cleantech, Clean Energy Markets, and large scale shifts toward Clean Transportation, and the Greening of the IT Industries (plus a fourth quarter of record investment!!), which will lead to a boom in “American Made” Green Collar Jobs and the creation of new wealth. The trick is: “who will get it right??” Execution makes all the difference for most of these opportunities and green investors need to pay more attention to the items that management claim they can achieve.
I'd like to ask Mr. Khosla if had ever heard of the Eco Investment Club before? And if he would like to join us! The Club has hosted several high impact, educational meetings that cover these “newly hot topics” such as: “The Economic State of Green Building” with Guest Speaker Harvey Bernstein, Vice President of Industry Analytics, Alliances and Strategic Initiatives for McGraw-Hill Construction and Hosted by Citi Smith Barney’s Bruce Kahn, and the First Annual “Green Leaders Week”, which was a week-long buffet of events for investors, who were interested in getting face-to-face time with the Green Business Leaders of Southern California. The events of this highly successful week were designed to give Accredited and Institutional Investors, who were interested in getting a first-hand look inside the minds of Cleantech leaders, the opportunity to witness operations of some of the fastest growing companies by attending a series of “open houses”, starting with Envirepel Energy, Inc., a clean energy (BioMass) company in Vista, CA.
And as a special surprise: Ask Oren Jaffe, Co-Founder of EcoTuesday.com, your toughest questions on Nov 5th, 2008, as the Eco Investment Club attempts to provide direction and positive outlook for green investors and business leaders seeking answers before creating more Green Collar Jobs! The event is called, “What’s Next For The Green Economy??” Submit your questions at ecoinvestors@gmail.com and join the webinar at:https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/124526391 (Click here to register or learn more)
November 16, 2008 at 8:50pm by Jose Johny Thaikkattil
Hai,
I read your article, see the problem of carbon , mostly the vehicles are producing carbon of 50 to 60% yes we can eliminate the carbon from vehicles, burners, gen sets, I have a soultion if interested contact me JOSE JOHNY THAIKKATTIL
E-MAIL jfengineering@hotmail.com , I am also interested to join to your team
November 16, 2008 at 8:56pm by Jose Johny Thaikkattil
Hai,
I read your article, see the problem of carbon , mostly the vehicles are producing carbon of 50 to 60% yes we can eliminate the carbon from vehicles, burners, gen sets, I have a soultion if interested contact me JOSE JOHNY THAIKKATTIL
E-MAIL jfengineering@hotmail.com , I am also interested to join to your team
February 10, 2009 at 3:35am by Susan Ho
Khosla's great. One of his best investments is GreatPoint Energy, which has just been contracted by a Chinese State-owned power company to build a $300 million coal gasification plant in China. Why don't we see America taking advantage of these technologies? It is intensely frustrating.
Also, for anybody who's interested, Vinod Khosla has a series of lectures that he gives at Stanford, offering his advice and opinions entrepreneurship, the future, and technology at http://www.academicearth.org/lectures/search/vinod%20khosla/