GreenBeat: Ultimate media roundup — pics, videos, slides and more
At this time last week, we were just about to kick off our inaugural GreenBeat conference focused on the Smart Grid. We’re thrilled to still be receiving valuable feedback and new ideas for the event next year. To provide our readers — including those who couldn’t make it out this time — with a taste of the GreenBeat experience, we’re providing some photos and videos here, as well as the presentations made by our lineup … Continue Reading
GreenBeat: Big thank you and media roundup
Thanks to everyone who made it out to GreenBeat 2009 yesterday and Wednesday!
We were thrilled with the turnout, and couldn’t be more grateful for all the support we received from attendees, speakers, sponsors and the press. It’s clear that the Smart Grid has gained the momentum it needs for serious work to be done, and we are excited to play a big role in this conversation going forward.
With Al Gore, and several of … Continue Reading
GreenBeat: Al Gore says Smart Grid part of 'the single largest solution' to climate change
Nobel Prize winner and former vice president Al Gore gave a wide-ranging, passionate talk at VentureBeat’s GreenBeat 2009 conference yesterday in San Mateo about combating global warming. We already liveblogged Gore’s talk, but for folks who don’t want to read the blow-by-blow description, here’s a summary.
Perhaps the most significant point: That energy efficiency is “the single largest solution to the climate crisis,” and the Smart Grid will “play a crucial role” in achieving that … Continue Reading
GreenBeat: Live-blogging Nobel Prize winner Al Gore
Straight from VentureBeat’s GreenBeat 2009 event, we bring you former vice president and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore. I’ll be live-blogging this session — so it won’t be perfect or word-for-word, but it will be fast! We’ll pull out the gems as soon as we can.
Laura Ipsen, Cisco Systems’ smart grid guru is introducing Al Gore right now, highlighting his many achievements and awards. He’s been a mentor for Cisco in linking climate change … Continue Reading
GreenBeat: Cisco has a blank check for Smart Grid, but what will it do with it?
Cisco Systems put no limit on its budget for Smart Grid development, the company’s grid guru Laura Ipsen told the audience at GreenBeat 2009 — albeit quoting her boss John Chambers.
The question now is what Cisco (a GreenBeat 2009 sponsor) will use that money for — currently, it looks like the company is racing to get in on every nook and cranny of the Smart Grid business, from hardware to IP networks to cybersecurity … Continue Reading
GreenBeat: Khosla warns against Smart Grid hype, pushes storage
“I’m not skeptical that the Smart Grid should exist,” famed Silicon Valley investor Vinod Khosla said, kicking off his conversation with VentureBeat editor Matt Marshall at VentureBeat’s GreenBeat 09 event today. “I wouldn’t be here if I was.” Khosla has been unofficially dubbed a Smart Grid skeptic because his venture firm, Khosla Ventures, has yet to make a significant investment in the space. He says he has been avidly scouting for a Smart Grid startup … Continue Reading
GreenBeat: Where will the VC money flow on the Smart Grid?
Venture capitalists and investment bankers are fascinated by the potential of making money from Smart Grid investments and initial public offerings in the coming year, judging from the latest panel at VentureBeat’s GreenBeat 09 event today.
In spite of a difficult IPO market and the recession’s drag on the industry, Smart Grid companies are starting to get attention from both VCs and acquisitive technology giants, according to the speakers on the Follow the Money panel, … Continue Reading
GreenBeat: At the international level, Smart Grid is about engagement (and standards)
During GreenBeat 2009′s International breakout panel, examining Smart Grid development on the global level, the prevalent theme was consumer engagement: in a regulated environment, like the U.K., how do you engage the consumer? How do you get them to change their behavior?
According to Ray Bell of WiMax for Smart Grid company Grid Net, it’s really about service. Cleaner energy, he claims, will become a marketable service because, even though it costs more, people will … Continue Reading
GreenBeat: New startup Locust could crush traditional data storage
Emerging from stealth mode today at GreenBeat 2009, Locust Storage, has developed 90 to 95 percent efficiency in data center energy consumption. CEO Seth Georgion, hailing from the oil and gas industry, says that, like so many game changing ideas, this one was drafted on a cocktail napkin. That was eight months ago.
As a data center manager for an oil and gas concern, Georgion was working in a field where a single survey could … Continue Reading
GreenBeat: Google's Ed Lu declares PowerMeter a humanitarian mission
Google’s Ed Lu said today that his company’s entry into the energy network market doesn’t mean that utilities have to worry about the search giant generating or distributing electrical power.
Lu spoke at VentureBeat’s GreenBeat 09 event today. Discussing Google’s Powermeter with Matt Marshall, Venture Beat Editor In Chief and CEO, he seemed to be playing his cards close to his vest on some topics but was smilingly helpful on others.
Marshall comments that PG&E … Continue Reading
GreenBeat: Utilities eye their own 'iTunes App Stores' for Smart Grid apps
“Every utility will have its own version of the iTunes App Store,” said Austin Energy, CIO of Austin Energy, during this morning’s utility panel at GreenBeat 2009 in San Mateo, Calif. — essentially, every major utility, in order to be at the cutting edge of the Smart Grid, will need to have a full portfolio of applications that can help their customers trim their energy use and their monthly bills. This has become vitally important, … Continue Reading
GreenBeat: Brace yourselves, electricity prices will rise over next 10-30 years, Duke CEO Jim Rogers says
“In the last 50 years, electricity prices have been flat — in the next 10 to 30, the price of electricity is going to rise,” said Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers in conversation with Matter Network’s John Gartner at GreenBeat 2009 this evening. “This is going to lead to a lot of frustration from consumers and political reactions,” he continues. The key, he says, is how utilities, their customers and governments respond to this increase.… Continue Reading
GreenBeat: Save energy (and money!) — leave consumers out of it, energy management companies say
The most obvious answer to how to get consumers to embrace the Smart Grid is “money,” said the startup and demand response company leaders on GreenBeat 2009′s Consumers and Efficiency panel. The invisible hand of economics hath built the empire of Wal-Mart, could it not also raise up smarter utilities?
According to Gary Fromer, CEO of demand response firm CPower, the key is to give incentives. Claiming that big box stores like Wal-Mart, Home Depot … Continue Reading
GreenBeat: Accenture's Sharon Allan says U.S. needs to play catch-up in cleantech
Sharon Allan, leader of Accenture’s North America Smart Grid practice, took the stage at GreenBeat2009 to present results to the firm’s survey on attitudes toward and responses to climate change and initiatives to battle global warming. Unsurprisingly, her major points also pointed to the U.S. falling behind other developed countries in battling the emission of greenhouse gases, and supporting the innovations and policies needed to slash carbon output — something John Doerr also decried in … Continue Reading
GreenBeat: Doerr wants to see more U.S. leadership in smart grid, cleantech
“Ten years out we want lamps that use 2 of percent the energy [they're usually using now] and put out the same amount of light,” Doerr said at the beginning of his talk at GreenBeat 2009 today — indicative of his interest and that of his firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in the newest, boldest investments when it comes to cleantech and the grid.
He began the conversation with VentureBeat editor Matt Marshall by … Continue Reading
GreenBeat speaker EcoFactor takes top honors Cleantech Open
Making the rounds of Smart Grid events (and there are quite a few of them this season), smart thermostat company EcoFactor nabbed the $250,000 grand prize in yesterday’s Cleantech Open business plan competition. EcoFactor’s Scott Hublou will be speaking today at GreenBeat 2009.
Based in San Francisco, the company provides software allowing two-way thermostats to automate HVAC systems according to consumer preferences. After EcoFactor is installed — which it soon will be for a pilot-sized … Continue Reading
GreenBeat dives into the Smart Grid in T-3 hours!
The seminal conference on the Smart Grid has arrived.
Our two-day inaugural GreenBeat conference kicks off this afternoon at the San Mateo Marriott, bringing together 400 utility, finance, political and entrepreneurial leaders working to make our electrical grid cleaner, reliable and more efficient.
This is the first time we’ve seen the entire Silicon Valley community converge around a cleantech issue. And we’re not just talking about the usual suspects. Everyone from big corporate hitters like … Continue Reading
Newest experts recruited for GreenBeat: Allan, Hublou, Mezey, Pacyna, Von Dollen
The seminal conference on the Smart Grid has arrived.
Our two-day inaugural GreenBeat conference kicks off this afternoon at the San Mateo Marriott, bringing together 400 utility, finance, political and entrepreneurial leaders working to make our electrical grid cleaner, reliable and more efficient.
This is the first time we’ve seen the entire Silicon Valley community converge around a cleantech issue. And we’re not just talking about the usual suspects. Everyone from big corporate hitters like … Continue Reading
