Beacon Power and Other Gov't VC Bets: The Green Skeptic on FOX Business

I sat down yesterday with Stuart Varney, Elizabeth MacDonald and company to talk about Beacon Power's bankruptcy and what the government should and should not be doing in clean energy.  Hint: It's not playing venture capitalist.

Here's the video:



And here is a link if the player doesn't work in your browser: Green Skeptic on FOX Business

Clusterstuck: Are Industry Clusters Really the Holy Grail?

Image from Stinque.com

Last week's report by the Brookings Institution and Battelle Technologies on the clean economy was greeted with much fanfare.  I even wrote about how it ranked the Greater Philadelphia region (where I live) number 5 in the nation.

One of the key success factors the Brookings-Battelle study points to is the creation of industry hubs or clusters, such as the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings. 

I was pleased to see the reference having been a fan and supporter of the GPIC effort.  (As founder of the business network, Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, I wrote a letter of support to the DOE for Philadelphia's initial application.)

But then I came across a Washington Post opinion piece by Vivek Wadhwa titled "Industry Clusters: The Modern-Day Snake Oil."   My skeptic bone, which is located just to the right of the funny bone, in case you are wondering, started to tingle.

Wadhwa points to a recent study conducted by Rune Dahl Fitjar, of Norway’s Centre for Innovation Research at the International Research Institute of Stavanger, and Andres Rodriguez-Pose of the London School of Economics and Political Science, which found that regional and national clusters are, in fact, "irrelevant for innovation."

Rather, Wadhwa relates, "the key drivers of innovation in Norway are the communication channels that local entrepreneurs maintain to the outside world and their open-mindedness toward foreign cultures, change and new ideas.  Companies that are 'regionally minded' -- that maintain ties only with players within the same cluster -- are four times less likely to innovate than the globally connected."
 
What do the researchers say is the determining factor for success?  People.

Not just any people: "knowledgeable people who have the motivation and ability to start ventures," writes Wadhwa.  Knowledgeable, risk-taking people who are connected by extensive information-sharing networks.

"The same dynamics at play in Norway give Silicon Valley its advantage," according to Wadhwa.  "It is a giant, globally connected network in which sharing information and risk-taking are the norm."

Rather than patting ourselves on our backs for developing clusters of innovation, we need to focus on people.  And we need to continuously ask the following questions:

• Do we have the right people and are we connecting them in ways that will help them start companies?  
• Are we connecting them with the right mentors and networks and access to financing?   
• Are we getting government out of the way of their success?  
• Are we making the pathways to commercialization clear and efficient enough to encourage repaid growth?

If not, we may be creating nothing more than a government-sponsored enduring clusterf*ck that will lead to nothing more than an academic exercise and more fodder for reports.

Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 04/01/11

No, the infographic above is not an April Fool's joke.  It comes from Seth Godin and compares deaths per terawatt hour of energy produced by nuclear, oil, and coal. The data comes from the World Health Organization. 

We found several interesting pieces on nuclear energy over the past week:

Author and environmental activist Mark Lynas explains to China Dialogue Why greens should support nuclear energy. 

Nuclear engineer Margaret Harding ponders Nuclear: The Optimist’s Conundrum.

While George Monbiot shares How the Fukushima disaster taught him to stop worrying and embrace nuclear power: Going Critical.

In the Navy

Timothy Reuter of IdeasOnEnergy reports on Secretary of the US Navy Ray Mabus's Council on Foreign Relations talk about the Navy’s efforts to transform how they use energy and their intention to become a catalyst for changes in overall energy consumption: Can the U.S. Navy reform how America produces and consumes energy?

On China

Derek Scissors, a research fellow on Asian economic policy at the Heritage Foundation, writing on Steve LeVine's Foreign Policy blog, explains why he expects China won't move off coal any time soon: Coal From Here to Eternity.

The BBC reported on a new Royal Society study that indicates China will overtake the US in science by 2013: China Syndrome.

A new Nature Conservancy study postulates that a Billion-plus people to lack water in 2050.  

Josie Garthwaite of Earth2Tech offers several reasons Why A Company Would Ditch A DOE Loan Guarantee.

A bill in South Carolina suggests federal light bulb restrictions are violation of states' rights: Bill would keep bulbs burning in Palmetto State.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 03/04/11

Hugo Peabody (aka Bobby Rydell)

Some important client work and my son's appearance as Hugo Peabody in his high school's production of "Bye Bye Birdie" kept me in Philadelphia this week (ya gotta have priorities), so you didn't see me at TED or ARPA-E or the MIT Energy Conference. Here are some links to stuff I've been tracking this week:

First up, this blog made bschool.com's list of 50 Best Blogs for Green Business Students. 

Next, few DOE and ARPA-E related items:

Elizabeth McGowan at SolveClimate asks Can Obama's Bold Stroke on Cleantech Innovation Survive Budget Cuts?

Katie Fehrenbacher at GigaOm's Earth2Tech lists 10 Companies to Watch For Out of ARPA-E

CNET's Martin LaMonica suggests ARPA-E a litmus test for energy R&D agenda and then asks Then what?

The best quote I've read from TED 2011: "I"m just going to show you a kidney we printed earlier." (Yes, a human kidney. Printed.) Explore this TED recap from The Guardian: TED 2011 roundup: bionic body parts, self-driving cars and Jamie Oliver

Now on to China:

Energy China Forum suggests China, U.S. should form strategic alliance in clean energy development. 

and Ann Goodman, co-founder and executive director of the Women's Network for a Sustainable Future, writes about How business women are helping push a green agenda in China.  

Closer to home:

The US Fish & Wildlife Service announced the Eastern Cougar Is Declared Extinct, With an Asterisk

A new study tries to explain why Conservatives are much more likely to deny "global warming" than "climate change". 

The Wall Street Journal announced its second annual ranking of The Top 10 Clean-Tech Companies.

And, finally, GoodCompany Ventures announced it is now accepting applications for 2011 Class of Good Companies: Be a GoodCompany.


Have a great weekend, everybody!


(Disclosure: I am on the advisory board of GoodCompany Ventures, a social enterprise accelerator in Philadelphia.)