Q: You have been involved in cleantech venture capital and in the creation of wind-farm and bio fuel companies. How did you get involved in this sector?
A: I started my career advising large oil companies, but in the early 2000s I started to take an interest in clean tech and saw there were good, developing technologies that lacked structuring and financing.
There was also a need to integrate the financing piece and the policy piece. The clean-tech markets have gone up and down with major policy shifts in Washington. Now we are seeing renewable energy as a leading sector in the economy.
Q: What are the clean-tech technologies that are ripest for development?
A: The Smart Grid is No. 1. It is going to transform the energy sector in the next 15 years. There is a large waste of electricity in the system, and we are going to capture it.This isn’t about startups anymore; you’ve got IBM, Cisco, Google and other big companies looking to invest.
The auto sector is the second big area with the electric-vehicle market, which is set to take off in the next five to 10 years. We are going to see much more energy efficiency in the auto sector, with gasoline demand peaking in the next five years.
Q: What’s the next big area for investment?
A: Finding ways to use our fossil fuels in a clean way. The company I’m involved in now — GreatPoint Energy — is using a catalytic process to turn coal into a cleaner gas while capturing the carbon dioxide. I was intrigued by the technology, and it looked to me that it could be a mini-Exxon.
But many of the technologies in this area are already out there, and investment dollars can flow to them. Using the old energy as the bridge to the new energy is going to be key.
Edited for length and clarity by Mark Jaffe.
