scientific incompetence (by both VC’s and inventors), deliberately misleading metrics (by both VC’s and inventors), and VC greed and laziness are far more likely culprits than “their passion to do good.” And the nice thing is through lobbying and influence they have managed to screw up the DOE as well.

It would be nice if the disaster that is cleantech were just a simple… oops I was very passionate. the real problem is the same reason we should have had TV/PC convergence in 2000 and in 2013 we still have a largely page to page internet.

VC’s have evolved into entities that are about apparent value, not real value (remember Doerr and “IT”. did the Segeway change the world? “cities will be built around it” Really? Doerr is the perfect modern day Barnum doppelganger).

VC drivers are not dissimilar to the “celebrity culture” where a d-level celebrity gets enough headlines on TMZ or releases a sextape and suddenly they are a 30 million dollar revenue stream. VC’s same thing. If you can ramp a company and get enough buzz and get to the IPO then everything for you, the VC, is golden. Broader issue is there is a compound effect of this incompetence which is driving right into the wall, but the VC has his bonus so who cares. And you think these people are investing righteously? you cannot be that naive.

And now they are moving on to second tier stuff that Gigaom can really dig into like ev’s and the smart grid and grid network management and software. of course none of this is worth anything without solving the core energy generation problem (ex. what good are EV’s like Tesla if they are supplied from a dirty generation system?), but they already screwed that pooch so they better move to stuff they can smoke and mirror for the next 5 years.

this is as much about doing good as Stalin was. you really should pay attention to the man behind the curtain.

The problem is that that the climate change hypothesis is shaky. Agreement is good that a doubling of CO2 would produce a 1C rise in temperature; all estimates above than assume that feedback effects are positive. ALL the models assume this (if your model does not show a problem, you aren’t going to get any of that gvt science money). In fact, empirical work indicates, increasingly, that the feedbacks are negative, dampening any effect of CO2.

As Richard Lindzen, one of the best of the skeptics puts it:

“Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age.”

The answer is: follow the money.

Let’s take an example of a hypothetical company that has found a new technology to increase efficiency of solar cells. What is the ‘product’, i.e., the outcome of this company? It is that same boring electricity. And what is the USP? It is slightly cheaper — the end result of greater efficiency. Note that the company cannot charge a premium on its technology (or its solar cells) because if it did that, its costs won’t be lower. Its own income must come from that thin slice of cost arbitrage it has created.

And then within six months to a year, somebody else comes up with another technology that reduces the costs still further, wiping out the business case in a flash. Even if that doesn’t happen, someone somewhere (in China?) agrees to work at a fraction of western wages and the cost of the conventional solar power itself crashes.

The same paradigm will apply to wind power and electric cars (what is the product/outcome? A car!)

I hope this isn’t the case. Perhaps traditional investors such as KPCB haven’t achieved success with social impact investments, but this isn’t reflective of the entire sector. Next-generation organizations such as Endeavor, Omidyar Network and Vox Capital have made many successful investments with positive social impact (Carrot.mx, Cinepop, Enova, Imagen Dental, for example).

http://www.barkfordaddy.com/2010/02/impact-on-target-signal-lost.html