"Everything we built at Sun sucks power"
Posted by Big Gav
Sun Microsystems' John Gage has joined the migration to KPCB in search of clean technology opportunities, joining Al Gore and Bill Joy.
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of Silicon Valley's largest and most prominent venture capital firms, said Monday that it has made former Sun Microsystems executive John Gage a partner. There he will help expand Kleiner Perkins' investments in green technology. "Everything we built at Sun sucks power," said Gage, Sun's former chief researcher, in an interview. "We've got to make a difference in where power comes from and how it's used."
Gage retired from Sun on June 1. He was Sun's fifth employee, and he joins his old boss, Bill Joy, a Sun co-founder who is also a Kleiner Perkins partner. Joy has said Gage was the first person to show him a Web browser and one of the first people to understand what it meant.
Gage's last job was chief researcher and vice president of Sun's Science Office. He was also the host of Sun's JavaOne conference in San Francisco. But his job at Kleiner Perkins will be very different. He said he plans to learn everything he can "about the physics and chemistry and biology of our most critical crisis, the global climate crisis. It's everything now."
The IEA estimates that $45 Trillion Is Needed for Clean Tech Investment, which means that John and co should be kept busy for quite some time.
At first glance, $45 trillion looks like a lot of money. That’s the total cost of investment in clean technologies that the International Energy Agency (IEA) reckons is needed to bring carbon dioxide levels under control by 2050. If the world doesn’t embrace CO2 reductions, the IEA figures carbon emissions will rise by 130% and oil demand will increase by 70% by mid-century.
To put that into context, the $45 trillion estimate equates to 1.1% of average annual global GDP between now and 2050, or just over $1 trillion a year. That might still sound like a lot of cash, but with mid-range renewables projects, such as onshore wind-farms, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, the ‘$45 trillion by 2050’ figure now seems like an attainable goal.
The clean tech lobby also got a shot in the arm after last week's record oil prices. If senior executives needed a reason to embrace renewables, the prospect of $150 oil and even higher gas prices this summer certainly provides a large incentive.
Soaring fuel costs offer two benefits for investing in clean technology. Not only do eco-friendly products, everything from solar panels to electric cars, help reduce companies' CO2 emissions, but they also offer lucrative business opportunities that are increasingly cost effective. Record oil prices, for example, make the multi-million investment needed for a wind farm look like a wise move because dirtier energy sources, such as coal and natural gas, are becoming more and more expensive.
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