Apr 21 2008

Day One: Fortune Green Brainstorm

Pasadena - On the road today at the Fortune Green Brainstorm event.

I feel very fortunate to be attending this event as a wallflower - it's an unprecedented gathering of leaders in the green business space. 

One interesting speaker was Shai Agassi of Project Better Place.  Shai and his team are working hard to change the entire relationship between the transportation and utility sectors by providing the infrastructure to support the electrification of the auto industry.  It's this type of ingenuity that will help to solve our addiction to oil and improve the environment. 

The first day of the conference featured a full course of interesting panels, ranging from nuclear energy to innovative green start-ups to public policy.  One interesting panel featured California Attorney General Jerry Brown.  AG Brown highlighted a number of lawsuits that this office is pursuing to help California push environmental policy in the face of federal opposition. 

PG&E's Peter Darbee participated in numerous panels.  Of particular note was his discussion on a solar energy panel, "Is Solar the Answer?"  Moderated by Fortune's Todd Woody, the panel featured Ausra CEO Bob Fishman, Applied Materials CEO Michael Splinter, and Bill Gross of eSolar - who by the way just scored $130 million in funding from Google among others.

The final outcome:  solar might not be THE answer, but it will play a huge role in meeting our future energy needs and addressing climate change.  All participants agreed that with rising natural gas costs, technological improvements, and a clear price for carbon, solar is becoming increasingly more competitive. 

What's needed now is a clear market signal from federal lawmakers by way of federal tax credit extensions and greater R&D resources for renewable energy.

With so much going on, I could go on about the event. But I'd miss all of the evening's main attractions.  Stay tuned for more Green Brainstorm tomorrow...

Posted by: Keely Wachs | Comments (0) digg delicioussend to a friendprint entry

 

Categories

Environment , Events , Legislation , Solar , Sustainable

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  • This is being rather generous to Lutz. 1. The "Volt", in no small part, will be targeted as a product to people who care about energy and environmental issues. These people don't embrace Lutz' antideluvian concepts of rejecting science. How responsible is it for a GM executive to be rejecting the science? 2. As well, Lutz didn't exactly sound too enthusiastic about the Volt itself. 3. And, GM public communications has 'defended' Lutz in rather absurd ways. -A Siegel
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  • This article is right on - small businesses have a huge role to play in sustainability. Not only do they add up in aggregate, but many small businesses operate in industries that can have a significant environmental impact depending on the exact practices, like dry cleaners, auto repair shops, etc. Green is also starting to affect the bottom line more and more, customers are increasingly voting with their feet for more sustainable businesses as can be seen from the growth of sites like http://www.ecovian.com. This is also a huge opportunity for small businesses to leapfrog their bigger brothers by being more agile in adopting these measures. -Emily
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  • Great entry, Katie. Love the level of detail you managed to get in there! Probably won't be able to compete with coal and oil any time the next decade, but definitely a great technology to look into! Keep it up :) -Rune (Norway)
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