Shell Oil plans to farm algae off the coast of Kona, Hawaii to create biodiesel in a test project.
Yes, the OilCos live in both worlds. But even ExxonMobil is now making serious moves into renewables. Good. Moving to clean, renewable energy will, among other things, require massive investments of money by companies who know how to build and transport energy on a massive scale. That would be the OilCos. Here’s hoping they go full-tilt into renewables, and I’m guessing they now finally get it.
In another sign of the green times, big dog venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins of Silicon Valley is now focusing on greentech. It says so on their home page (Al Gore recently became a partner.)
You bet they and ExxonMobil see the possibility for immense fortunes to be made in clean tech. They also have the money to fund R&D and startups, and that’s what’s needed now, a huge push into developing clean energy – and it looks like that push is now happening.
It’s interesting to read that Kleiner Perkins is allegedly “going green”.
Here is an article I recently put together about the 50th Anniversary of Fairchild Semiconductor, also co-founded by Eugene Kleiner, along with fellow eggheads Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and others:
http://masterpeace.wordpress.com/2007/12/10/50th-anniversary-of-seminal-silicon-valley-firm/
It’s funny. A woman I work with, whose father was also a co-founder of Fairchild, told me recently that her dad used to say, “If Al Gore can say he invented the Internet, then I can say I invented the computer.”
Try making biodiesel from palm oil – they do this in malaysia