Doing very well while doing good

Today's New York Times Magazine portrays venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins and the new green Silicon Valley. They are betting hundreds of millions of dollars that now is the time for clean energy:

[T]he firm’s green-tech investments didn’t seem terribly risky to [Kleiner partner Randy Komisar] because the energy market was so large and outdated. “I’m so dead certain that we’re solving the next huge problem for the planet,” he said. “I’m not very good at hitting the bull’s-eye. I need a big target. And this is the biggest target I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Still, there are risks:

“If you look out far enough, I have no doubt that many of the bets will pay off,” says Paul Kedrosky, a former investment banker, blogger and longtime observer of the venture-capital industry. “But in the venture business, being early is indistinguishable from being wrong. That’s why everyone is terrified of being too early.” In other words, imagine if electric cars become dinner-table conversation 10 years from now, rather than 5.

Then again, with Google and Sun as their previous ventures and Al Gore and Colin Powell on the team, I wouldn't bet too much money against them.

Of course, Kleiner Perkins is also betting on getting a price for carbon. Al Gore certainly thinks it is as important as it is imminent:

[W]hen the governments of the world assign a price to carbon, [Gore] added — as he believes they will within a year or two — demand for carbon-free electricity will explode.

Comments

[joshua corning]

[W]hen the governments of the world assign a price to carbon, [Gore] added — as he believes they will within a year or two — demand for carbon-free electricity will explode.

Hmm government tampering in markets to place value on things that the market has already priced very very low....

I see no possible problem that could come from this.