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(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) February 28, 2008 15 Comments

Next Cleantech Hub: India?

As the industry faces a paucity of energy engineers, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla says India is well-positioned to be a greentech innovation leader.

Of course, challenges remain. For one thing, clean-energy sources are too expensive today.

Pankaj Sehgal, director and head of technology and cleantech investments at the Sun Group, said many users of dirty energy, such as kerosene, are poor, making taxes on carbon politically unacceptable.

The environment still isn't a major priority in India because it is facing "more mundane, pressing issues," he said.

But India is the fifth-largest polluter today and will soon be the third, meaning it will face strong political pressure to go greener, he said.

And with a population of 1.1 billion consumers, far larger than that of the United States, it's potentially a "huge" and "very fertile" market, he said.

As clean technologies get cheaper, Khosla said he expects India to adopt them.

"I subscribe to a fairly radical view that fossil fuels are going to be more expensive than clean technologies and then the question of adoption goes away," he said. "The question of what to do with India and China are both very relevant and very solvable. The critical thing is to empower entrepreneurs to do what they have to do."

Hycrete, a startup that makes concrete the company claims is recyclable, waterproof and less toxic than regular concrete, certainly expects to sell to India.

CEO David Rosenberg told Greentech Media the company will provide concrete for what will be the tallest building in Mumbai, slated to have more than 60 floors. The company already has begun shipping for the project and construction is expected to begin in two months, he said.

India is an "obvious" growth market for Hycrete, Rosenberg said, adding that the company also is targeting Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

"We're picking growth countries, not places with a lot of buildings already," he said.

It might be unintuitive, but customers in those developing markets are willing to use more of Hycrete's concrete, even though it costs more than regular concrete, because they already pay even more to waterproof their buildings now, he said.

Consider India's monsoon season. Buildings in India also tend to include a lot of tile work, resulting in leaks on the floors, Rosenberg said.

So while most U.S. projects only are using Hycrete's concrete for foundations, plaza areas and roofing systems, the Mumbai project is using the concrete for the whole building, he said.

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Comments [15]

  • Daniel Englander 02/28/08 8:04 AM

    Khosla is such a blowhard. “No self-respecting Ph.D. graduate in the last 10 years has studied energy” Really? If I were MIT, Stanford, or CalTech I would ban him from speaking at those campuses just for making such a ridiculous, off-base comment.

    Reply
  • Mike Louis 02/28/08 9:51 AM

    Why does Greentech Media keep interviewing a man like Khosla who has little to contribute to the conversation about cleantech besides his outsized ego and fact-free tirades? It really brings down the level of discourse, especially considering all of the intelligent -and informed - investors in the space. Khosla gives cleantech a bad name and is an embarrassment.

     Reply
  • Robert Faust 02/28/08 2:54 PM

    Isn’t suggesting that that top tech institutions should ban one of the most visible current VCs kind of a ridiculous, off-base comment?

     Reply
  • Robert Faust 02/28/08 2:55 PM

    Isn’t suggesting that that top tech institutions should ban one of the most visible current VCs a ridiculous, off-base comment?

     Reply
  • Robert Faust 02/28/08 2:55 PM

    Oops, double-posted there. It bears repeating, anyway.

     Reply
  • Mike Louis 02/28/08 8:22 PM

    You seem to confuse visibility with knowledge, and yes, it would be appropriate to encourage researchers to look to investors who a) know what they are talking about, and b) treat others with respect. Khosla is neither, and it makes sense for universities to shun him. His public comments (like these) consistently belittle and insult the efforts of energy researchers far more knowledgeable - and humble - than he.

    But perhaps when he loses his LP’s money and is relegated to cosmetic surgery techniques, it will be proof of justice in the world.

     Reply
  • Robert Faust 02/29/08 12:13 PM

    No, I just think that visibility is as valid a reason for a university to bring in a speaker as is knowledge. Education is a business and money follows notoriety, not some ideal of correctness. This understanding is probably why Khosla is a major VC and you are a guy arguing with another guy on a message board.

     Reply
  • Daniel Englander 02/29/08 2:12 PM

    yeah, but when you’re knowledge is fake or self-aggrandizing, any visibility that might come with you is negative. and faust54, i count you four times on this thread - including the double post - so who’s smart and who’s the guy arguing on message boards?

     Reply
  • Robert Faust 02/29/08 2:32 PM

    Hey I never claimed to be as smart as the exalted Khosla. That’s why I’m down here with you fools.

     Reply
  • Daniel Englander 02/29/08 2:44 PM

    exalted khosla? spare me. maybe in his mind. and yours. and as far as i’m concerned, neither of your opinions are worth a dime. but i guess that’s the only time you and khosla will have anything in common.

    Reply
  • maria lima 06/9/08 8:47 AM

    greengoblin:
    “yeah, but when you’re knowledge is fake or self-aggrandizing,”

    don’t claim to be the smart one until you master basic English grammar

     Reply
  • maria lima 06/9/08 9:01 AM

    you don’t need to agree with his opinions but to claim that they “aren’t worth a dime” is ridiculous
    everyone has a right to his/her opinion no matter how “stupid” they may seem to you
    your elementary arguments go against your self-claimed knowledge
    there is no need to insult others just because they disagree with you.  last time i checked this wasn’t the 2nd grade playground.  argue like an adult or don’t bother, because you are simply making a fool of yourself

     Reply
  • Steve Pluvia 06/9/08 5:02 PM

    Marialima, did you just criticized greengoblin for name calling—then call him… a name?

    In fairness, Khosla has invested more in ethanol tech that subsequently went bankrupt than any other VC;  His record for wrongly criticizing, then missing great solar investments is legend. A blowhard-loser by any other name is still…

    Reply
  • adam moritz 06/10/08 11:09 AM

    Building a massive facility to research fuel cells is like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic—not a sign that India is on some kind of green streak.  If researching fuel cells was “green” well then the United States would be an environmental superstar.

    Where are you going to get the energy to extract, compress and transport the hydrogen?  Even if you invented a fuel cell powerful enough to propel a semi truck and sold them for a buck a piece, you still wouldn’t have solved a damn thing with this net-energy-loss fraud.

     Reply
  • charlie d 06/11/08 6:30 AM

    i don’t see anywhere marialima calling anyone names…she seems only to be trying to inform posters that this isn’t myspace…let’s keep the post a bit less personal and more professional
    I think we’d all benefit from less arguing and more focus on the true issue at hand…like cleantech

     Reply

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