Seeing Around Corners- The Coming Age of the Energy and Environmental Technology Entrepreneur

February 23, 2009

"The significance of crisis is the indication they provide that an occasion for retooling has arrived."  

Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions"

The biggest "corner" in human energy history was the commercialization of the Boulton & Watts steam engine.  It transformed the primary source of fuel in Europe from wood to coal and cheated the Malthusian prediction of environmental ruin and the extinction of mankind.  Today we are at another corner.  The pain of fuel volatility, infrastructure collapse and environmental crisis are combining to outweigh the discomfort of adoption of new energy productivity and environmental technology. The stage is set for consumers and government policy makers to embrace energy and environmental technology faster than ever before.  Consumers and businesses are embracing energy technology as a hedge against future uncertainty in the economy and the environment.  The best is yet to come.

There is a lot of value in trying to see around the corner to anticipate, expedite and profit from the new age of the energy and environmental technology entrepreneur.  Much of what we "know" about energy is wrong.  This is the challenge to seeing around the corner.  How much oil or coal is left is the wrong conversation, because ultimately --- as a practical matter -- energy is as limitless as the human imagination.  Energy supplies are not limited; however, "energetic order" is scarce and valuable.  The demand for energy is similarly counterintuitive.  The number one demand for energy is the extraction, refining and distribution of energy.  Inefficiencies in the energy sector offer huge opportunities for productivity gains. 

The real source of infinite energy has always been human intellect and entrepreneurship.  The richest source of productivity gains for the energy industry will come from new solutions by entrepreneurs.  We are living in the new Age of the Energy and Environmental Technology Entrepreneur.  This is why I am compelled to write this blog, Bet the Jockey.  In the past, energy entrepreneurs had a limited impact because the energy industries materials of construction were steel and massive capital.  Economies of scale ruled the day.  Today entrepreneurs are hard at work to layer intelligence onto our aging steel energy infrastructure.  The new web of intelligence is made of massively scaleable and cheap software and silicon.

We need to invest now to make our energy infrastructure "smarter".  This will both ensure our prosperity for decades to come and reduce our risk of environmental catastrophe. 

Read John's Blog: Bet the Jockey

Acorn Energy CEO John Moore shares the lessons he is learning as a value investor in emerging growth companies.