Conference Bites

GridWeek '09 Industry Roundtable Panel, September 23

"I don’t think we have seen the right business model yet, because we are constrained by our thinking from the past."
~ Michael Valocchi, IBM Global Utilities GBS

"It's about learning what the consumers want."
~ Laura Ipsen, Cisco Systems

"The Consumer is the left out part of the story. In the end they are the ultimate person who is going to say is there value. They are the ultimate aggregator. We did a survey with 5000 global customers... "passive ratepayer" as a category went from 61% to 35 in two years."
~ Michael Valocchi, IBM Global Utilities GBS

"Security will never be arrived at. We have to keep raising the bar."
~ Mark Munday, Elster Electricity

"We are moving from smart grid to smart infrastructure in general."
~ Jessie Berst of GlobalSmartEnergy.com


For more info on the GridWeek '09:

GridWeek '09 Day Three introduction

"'Earth was really dying… Five years... That’s all we’ve got!"—David Bowie, playing as people entered the room on the second day of Grid Week, expressing an environmental urgency that wasn’t expressed much during the proceedings, but is a motivator behind many of the Smart Grid policies and programs...

"Smart Grid will be open, collaborative and global."
~ Dr. Christina Johnson, U.S. Department of Energy

"What did the robber-barons, er, Railroads, do…"
~ Dr. Christina Johnson, U.S. Department of Energy drawing parallels between then and now...

"60% of electrical workers are poised to retire in the next 5 years."
~ Dr. Christina Johnson, U.S. Department of Energy

For more info on the GridWeek '09:

GridWeek '09 Stakeholder Panel, September 21-24

"We can’t have smart meters with dumb rates."
~ Colette Honorable, Arkansas Public Service Commission

"There is no brownout that is not a pricing problem."
~ Toby Considine, New Daedalus

"We are the forgotten stepchild—buildings tend to not vote."
~ Michael Munson, Metropolitan Energy of Chicago

"Communicating to customers is step1, 2, 3 to 100. If you look at the internet in terms of what is does for telecom providers, you miss the value. Like a computer, the intelligence comes from how you use it. Smart grid is much more than providing AMI meters, it is using info in a way that is efficient.
~ Val Jensen, Commonwealth Edison

"We are not just trying to get approval for an investment, we are trying to change the nature of the business."
~ Val Jensen, Commonwealth Edison

"Why do we think we will be the best ones to communicate about this—especially when it comes to communicating about using less of our product>
~ Michael Munson, Metropolitan Energy of Chicago

"It is up to us to show we can maximize value, for all consumers."
~ Val Jensen, Commonwealth Edison

"(The Smart Grid will deploy) at the speed of regulation"
~ Mike Oldak, EEI

For more info on the GridWeek '09:

More from Next Agenda, September 17th

"Climate Change—this is going to define our lives."
~ Peter Leyden, Founder & CEO, Next Agenda

"We have got to move the needle—(to do that) is going to take a new media."
~ Peter Leyden, Founder & CEO, Next Agenda

"What we want to do is to think, and to evolve our thinking… to ask the questions that matter the most."
~ Kristen Cobble, Next Agenda

"I have been a sufferer of 'Climate Trauma'." (Describing the effects of really thinking through the apocalyptic effects of Climate Change)
~ Gillian Caldwell, Campaign Director, 1Sky

"We are a fight or flight species. This is a very different type of threat. We are not evolved for this."
~ Gillian Caldwell, Campaign Director, 1Sky

"I have seen the future, and it is Shanghai. You can’t see more than a few blocks due to the pollutions… but people and the government get it, and are making changes in the right direction. They are training the regions mayors on the one hand, and distributing ten million CFLs via schoolkids on the other."
~ Leslie Katz, Pacific Carbon Exchange

"The long pole in the tent is capital. To attract it, you have to offer return."
~ Bill Green, Vantage Point Partners

For more info on Next Agenda:

Next Agenda, September 17th

"Think higher plane, as an American, as a citizen of the world"
~ Peter Leyden, Next Agenda

"Act like we are facing World War II or what Lincoln and Jefferson faced as a need for major transformation."
~ Peter Leyden, Next Agenda

"We’ve all been in meetings where 1+1+1= minus 5. We look for the opposite—a flow space where the ideas emerge."
~ Kristen Cobble, Monitor Institute

"You guys could make a ton of money in green but not make a difference. VCs can do well (with programs with small environmental impact), but we need massive solutions." Talking about the need for a "Gigaton Throwdown"
~ Sunil Paul, Spring Ventures

"It is absolutely possible to get to these massive numbers... it takes political will, but there are no fundamental barriers to making it happen."
~ Sunil Paul, Spring Ventures

"Raise your hand if you feel scared. Raise your hand if you feel hopeful"
~ Katherine Fulton, Monitor Group, at the conference wrap-up, to a sea of hands for both

For more info on the Next Agenda:

AlwaysOn GoingGreen West - Afternoon 9/16

"If autos improved efficiency as rapidly as computers have since the first computer, they would be up to 400,000 mpg."
~ John Skinner, Eco Technology, Intel

"It's incumbent on the branded companies that use 3rd parties to be transparent, and then to hold them accountable."
~ Tony Prophet, SVP, HP

"Utilities will have 1000 times the information to deal with by switching to smart grids."
~ Rich Lechner, VP Energy & Environment, IBM

"The need is real and large, and therefore so is the opportunity."
~ Ian Copeland, President of Renewables and New Tech, Bechtel

"Take all the nuclear waste in the world and put it on a football field and it doesn't cover the goal posts."
~ Ian Copeland, President of Renewables and New Tech, Bechtel

"If we don’t move faster from the policy standpoint, we don’t stand a chance."
~ Ian Copeland, President of Renewables and New Tech, Bechtel

For more info on the AlwaysOn GongGreen West:

AlwaysOn GoingGreen West - Morning 9/16

"Polar Bears are charismatic mega-vertebrates, but the real issue is the number of species lost, driven by climate/carbon change."
~ John Woolard, CEO, BrightSource starting his keynote by refocusing us on 'Why Carbon Matters'

"BrightSource's Ivanpah Project in Mojave desert is larger (440MW) than all of the solar in the US last year!"
~ John Woolard, CEO, Brightsource

"As we move from millions of venture funding to billions in project funding, the challenges are different."
~ John Woolard, CEO, Brightsource

"We need a nuclear power plant worth (1gw) per day of green energy solutions to meet our challenge."
~ John Woolard, CEO, Brightsource

"Green isn’t green—me giving an ROI to my customers is green."
~ Kevin Surace, CEO Serious Materials

"It’s not right to make it in China and ship it here... that’s not green! If its for this market, make it here!" followed by loud applause
~ Kevin Surace, CEO Serious Materials

For more info on the AlwaysOn GongGreen West:

AlwaysOn GoingGreen West - SmartGrid Panel

"At best you are going to get a 'set and forget' response from consumers—the thermostat has shown that."
~ Adrian Tuck, CEO, Tendril

"It is at the consumer level that the benefits of the smart grid are going to be delivered."
~ Cree Edwards, CEO, eMeter

"The future of smart energy in the home is non-disruptive—your ice machine working at 3am instead of 3pm."
~ Adrian Tuck, CEO, Tendril

For more info on the AlwaysOn GongGreen West:

AlwaysOn GongGreen West Conference, September 14-16, Day Two

"We know from VC world that scale matters-key point is to be pragmatic-we should be pragmentalists, not environmentalists."
~ Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures

"Europe 'succeeded' with their standards for plugs—with 3 plugs! Its like they just wanted to get out of the meeting!"
~ JB Straubel, Tesla Motors

"Energy storage is a huge lever for transportation and all renewables...we are doing a lot of work in it."
~ Trae Vassallo, Kleiner Perkins

"If we get cars to tie back to the smart grid we can save energy in the batteries that right now we throw away each night."
~ Paul Wilbur, CEO Aptera

"Renewables is the hottest business we have, the fastest growing."
~ Lee McIntire, CEO CH2MHill

"You can’t see carbon as it is warming up the world (but) you can see your wallet, so that is place to focus".
~ Max Seybold, CEO Carbonflow

For more info on the AlwaysOn GongGreen West:

AlwaysOn GongGreen West Conference, September 14-16, Day One

"Germany has more solar on 1 building-(2GW) than the entire state of Texas or Florida."
~ R. James Woolsey of Vantage Point

"8 of the 9 top oil producing companies in the world are run by dictators or autocrats."
~ R. James Woolsey of Vantage Point

"Look in the mirror. You are funding suicide bombers when you fill up the tank."
~ R. James Woolsley of Vantage Point and ex-director of CIA

"Bubble is a convenient term.....We are nowhere near a bubble in clean Tech."
~ Venture Voices in Always On Going Green video

For more info on the AlwaysOn GongGreen West: