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The silicon valley support for green/clean energy goes beyond rationality. They were investing based on faith (or hoping for bigger government intervention) and
by NoPiece 13y ago
The silicon valley support for green/clean energy goes beyond rationality. They were investing based on faith (or hoping for bigger government intervention) and got burned.
- sliverstorm 13y agoThe funny thing is, growing up in silicon valley, I always understood it to be a locus of green/clean movements. Yet when I moved out of the state, on my trip to the mountain region I saw more renewable energy harvesting over the course of twenty hours than I did in twenty years in the silicon valley. This left me with the impression, deserved or not, that the bay area is big on making headlines about green/clean energy, but not nearly as interested in actually producing significant amounts of green/clean energy.
- fossuser 13y agoI don't understand why they would invest in fisker over tesla.
- Hitchhiker 13y agoWatch Elon explain why http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIsYT1rqW5w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIsYT1rqW5w
- rdl 13y agoI assume the partner was Ray Lane?
- jjtheblunt 13y agoBecause they're frankly retarded and subject to neither serious competition nor consequences like going out of business by poor performance?
- natrius 13y agoI think clean energy enthusiasm is rational. The scientific consensus is that emissions are warming the planet, which will have large, undesirable effects. A rational response to that is to limit emissions. We haven't done so, which seems like the irrational link in the causality chain here.
- drumdance 13y agoIt may be a rational policy response, but not a rational market response. Tragedy of the commons, negative externalities, etc.
- kiba 13y agoNot necessarily, especially if you have emerging clean energy technology coming online.
- NoPiece 13y agoKleiner's investments were in solar panels and lithium ion battery powered cars that were at best small improvements on old technologie that weren't efficient enough. If someone has a fusion reactor coming online, invest in that instead.
- ryguytilidie 13y agoSo is this to imply that we should stop doing things that benefit the planet and the human species if we believe it will have a negative economic impact? Obviously I'm not arguing KP should be the ones doing this, but your point seems to imply that these actions are only rational if the market supports them and you make a profit.
- drumdance 13y agoI said it's a rational policy response. But it's not a rational market response in the current environment. KP is a market actor that was betting on the viability of that market. So far it's not working. There are other ways and means to effect change besides the marketplace. I never said anything about stopping "doing things that benefit the planet."
- brazzy 13y ago> The silicon valley support for green/clean energy goes beyond rationality You mean just like the support for "mobile social" startups without revenue or a business model?
- ThomPete 13y agoWell investing in energy is much more expensive. At least in mobile you have people who luck out, in energy not so much.