Clean tech

I recently attended two conferences where the keynote speakers presented viewpoints on China and clean tech that were dramatically different in perspective. At the Sustainable Capital Forum in San Francisco the keynote was delivered by Steve Westly of the Westly Group venture capital firm (Westly is a former Controller of the State of California and eBay executive). More

Long term and consistent public policy is the most important catalyst to growing the domestic clean tech industry, argued leaders of government and industry at the RETECH 2010 plenary sessions in Washington, D.C. today. Kicking off this theme was Under Secretary of Energy, Dr. Kristina Johnson, who’s leading the DOE’s research funding efforts to spur investment in solar, wind, biofuels, and other renewable technologies.

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California will miss its 20% RPS target in 2010, and the very issues that caused the state to miss its 2010 goal will persist as we slog toward a 33% RPS goal by 2020. So say some folks that ought to know.

Last night, Climate One and the Commonweatlh Club of California hosted a roundtable with four highly successful professionals, each dedicated to achieving California’s aggressive RPS goals while also establishing a robust clean tech industry that creates and keeps jobs in the state of California. On stage was (L to R) a pro-renewable chairman of the California Public Utility Commission, Mike Peevey, an executive from a progressive utility, Nancy McFadden of PG&E, a CEO from the #1 solar capital equipment company, Mike Splinter of Applied Materials, a practical environmentalist, Bob Epstein of Environmental Entrepreneurs, and, no, that’s not an oxymoron, as well as moderator, Greg Dalton founder of Climate One.More

Applied Materials urges Americans to remember that promoting clean and sustainable energy is a long-term goal.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) visited Applied Materials to learn about the company’s solar technology business and solar policy initiatives.

Both senators believe an investment in green energy is needed to help create the jobs of the future and to tackle one of the biggest challenges of our time; global warming.More