Dartmouth Energy Symposium features panel on energy and business
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE —
October 16, 2007
CONTACT:
Ed Winchester, 603-646-0597
HANOVER, N.H.—Throughout the early '90s, alternative energy pioneer Lee Lynd, a professor at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering, went hat-in-hand to venture capitalists in hopes of securing financing for his various biofuels ventures. The reaction among investors—notoriously cautious in evaluating new technologies—went something like this:
"'So let's see. What you're proposing depends on the weather. It depends on the price of oil. And it depends on governmental policy,'" recalls Lynd, who co-chaired a panel discussion on energy and business at the Dartmouth Energy Symposium, October 11-12, along with Tuck School Professor Robert Hansen. "'Do you realize how many other things I have to invest in that don't have such difficult-to-control factors?'"
Investors may have taken a pass then. But now the benefits of investing in green technologies far outweigh the risks. Blame the change of heart on skyrocketing oil prices, strong government incentives, and environmental concerns surrounding CO2 emissions.
Today Professor Lynd is co-founder of Cambridge, Mass.-based Mascoma Corporation, whose process for converting cellulosic biomass into ethanol has attracted top-flight venture capital support. Among its backers is Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a third of whose portfolio is made up of green technology businesses. Five years ago, says Lynd, that percentage was close to zero.
"A substantial portion of the investment community decided the world is going to want this," notes Lynd. "If we invest in a company that believes in a direction the world wants and they maintain that leadership position, that's going to be a good investment."
Sponsored by the Thayer School of Engineering in collaboration with the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center, and the environmental studies program, the two-day conference examined the roles business, science, and government policy play in addressing the world's current energy challenges.
"It was refreshing to see the panelists with investment expertise bring a strong dose of realism to the table," says Professor Hansen, senior associate dean at the Tuck School. "It may be great to think of the hydrogen economy and cars fueled with wood chips, but the economics of some technologies just are not there yet."
Indeed, potential investors devote a significant amount of time to surveying the landscape for new green tech opportunities. "The risk we run in today's environment is when you carry a really big hammer, everything looks like a nail," says panelist David Wells, of Kleiner Jacobs' Greentech investment team.
Part of the vetting process, says Wells, involves determining the limits of a given technology and then seeking out companies who strive for those outer reaches. Opportunities abound. Take the light bulb—"a very well-evolved version of a rotten technology"—says Wells, which comes nowhere near its light-generating potential, given the energy requirements. "There is huge opportunity when you have a piece of technology used worldwide with so much room between the status quo of the technology and the theoretical boundaries."
Additional symposium panelists included Senator Tom Daschle; Dan Reicher, director of climate change and energy initiatives at Google and former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy, and Jason Grumet, director of the National Commission on Energy Policy. For more information on panels and participants, visit the Dartmouth Energy Symposium website.
Founded in 1900, Tuck is the first graduate school of management in the country and consistently ranks among the top business schools worldwide.
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