Way to create more U.S. clean energy companies....

Today's post: Wednesday, 3-24-2010

We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.

At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both.

And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to. Way to create more U.S. clean energy companies

Further, it’s extremely clear that the most supported and economically beneficial solution to add energy that does not use oil nor burn fossil fuels to release more CO2 into air that already has too much is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy production, particularly those that generate electricity & to dramatically increase energy efficiency and reduce the amount of energy that is now wasted.

And, of those, the more important long range solution is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy generation.

Today’s post:

John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins; has been quoted and I think even testified that the United States is falling behind the rest of the world in developing all kinds of clean energy companies and in growing the better companies to large size.

I agree with John that we in the United States must do far better to grow and foster clean energy companies.

However, here in the Silicon Valley with its many kinds of clean energy companies and their clear potential future contributions it seems a bit hard to believe.

Bloom Energy's recent announcement is a good example. They've announced a reasonably cost effective and high efficiency fuel cell to make electricity using natural gas and which produces virtually no pollution and which companies can install at their own sites overcoming transmission losses when the grid is up and disruption of supply when the grid goes down from wind or earthquake problems.

John says that the rest of the world is beating us in clean energy and apparently himself has a list of the companies in the rest of the world that are doing so.

But the rest of the world has long copied our good ideas and tried to build them even better.

I’ve asked John’s assistant to me by email and to the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Jose Mercury News, and the New York times, and the Wall Street journal some information on these companies outside the United States.

I asked:

“What technology innovations do they use? If they are big companies now, what did they do to get big?”

Here's why I'd like this done.

If our entrepreneurs and innovative companies never find out about these companies and their technology, they cannot try to build it better or build a business that a makes use of the capacities of these companies outside the United States.

But if the media began reporting on them regularly, that could easily change for the better.

Understandably, most of the coverage here is of companies located here. But if the rest of the world is beating us that badly, I think it would help us to know a good bit more about their clean energy companies for the reasons I’ve just stated.

If I get some of this info from his assistant, I’ll do posts on the more promising things I find myself here.

But, what I’m really hoping to do is to get the major media sources to cover this area well and often.