DOE Hires a VC for The Green FDR

November 15th, 2009 by Susan Kraemer

Under the new Green FDR administration of President Obama, there has been such an increase in renewable technologies funding, that keeping up with qualifying and selecting the best of the best in innovative new renewable energy tech is overwhelming the Department of Energy.

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So Nobel-prizewinning scientist Steven Chu of the DOE has hired a professional Venture Capitalist to help run the DOE renewable energy loan guarantee program. VC Jonathan Silver of Core-Capital Partners will help the DOE eliminate the so-called “Valley of Death” between the university lab and commercialization of groundbreaking renewable technologies.

President Obama had hired the the Nobel-prizewinning Steven Chu to bridge the gap between between unknown geniuses in university labs and the hungry VC’s searching for the next big thing. But the process of filtering through the pent-up supply of potential is overwhelming.

Our newly ramped up Department of Energy is having a hard time whisking out loan guarantees fast enough to keep up with both the demand for and the supply of these highly competitive DOE and ARPA-E awards.

To help speed up the processing, the Department of Energy has hired a former managing general partner at Core-Capital Partners who began his career at energy efficiency consultancy McKinsey&Co and through the 1990’s served as policy advisor to the Secretaries of Commerce, Interior and Treasury.

As Executive Director, Jonathan Silver will report directly to Secretary Steven Chu. As he describes himself at Washington Biz Journals: “There aren’t an enormous number of people who understand both private equity investment and government — how the sausage of public policy is made, where the opportunities are and how to access them”.

Silver’s responsibilities will cover staffing the programs and leading origination, analysis, and negotiation, and managing the full range of the Department’s alternative energy investments.

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Image: VC Steve Jurvetson

Source: Bnet

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Tags: commercialization, Core-Capital Partners, McKinsey&Co, Nobel-prizewinning scientist Steven Chu, university lab, Valley of Death, VC Jonathan Silver of Core-Capital Partners, venture capitalist

About the Author

Susan Kraemer writes at CleanTechnica, CSP-Today, PV-Insider , SmartGridUpdate, and GreenProphet. She has also been published at Ecoseed, NRDC OnEarth, MatterNetwork, Celsius, EnergyNow, and Scientific American. As a former serial entrepreneur in product design, Susan brings an innovator's perspective on inventing a carbon-constrained civilization: If necessity is the mother of invention, solving climate change is the mother of all necessities! As a lover of history and sci-fi, she enjoys chronicling the strange future we are creating in these interesting times. Follow Susan on Twitter @dotcommodity.

Susan Kraemer

David, great points. Disinformation is difficult to overcome.

And also; true that 200 years ago, when we decided the careful checks and balances of our political setup — there was no way anyone could have forseen this civilization-ending level of danger that climate change poses.
Susan Kraemer

David, great points. Disinformation is difficult to overcome.

And also; true that 200 years ago, when we decided the careful checks and balances of our political setup — there was no way anyone could have forseen this civilization-ending level of danger that climate change poses.
http://www.PlanetThoughts.org David – green thoughts

@Les – It is hard to judge from far outside the so-called Beltway i.e. Federal government insider status, what Obama could accomplish if he gave a full-court press.

My opinion and intuition says he is doing what he can up to a point, but needs to pick his battles carefully. I too would like to see more done, but my understanding is that a lot is going on at the executive order and Deparmental (such as DOE) level.

@Sandy – you are 100% correct about the state-focused nature of the Senate, although I would try hard to avoid insulting anyone (you did make a concession that it is not so much their fault, it is just brainunwashing by Fox “News”). In any case, the Senate was designed for just that reason — to make sure all states are equal. Some states would not join the union originally without that guarantee. The House/Senate division was designed to have one body where basically majority rules, and the other body where states are dominant as entities. When they can both agree, there is a good chance that something makes sense. On the other hand, the downside is that powerful legislation and rapid change that is needed, can be blocked by the state-based nature of the Senate along with filibustering. What can we do? Let’s hope truth breaks through the disinformation out there.
http://www.PlanetThoughts.org David – green thoughts

@Les – It is hard to judge from far outside the so-called Beltway i.e. Federal government insider status, what Obama could accomplish if he gave a full-court press.

My opinion and intuition says he is doing what he can up to a point, but needs to pick his battles carefully. I too would like to see more done, but my understanding is that a lot is going on at the executive order and Deparmental (such as DOE) level.

@Sandy – you are 100% correct about the state-focused nature of the Senate, although I would try hard to avoid insulting anyone (you did make a concession that it is not so much their fault, it is just brainunwashing by Fox “News”). In any case, the Senate was designed for just that reason — to make sure all states are equal. Some states would not join the union originally without that guarantee. The House/Senate division was designed to have one body where basically majority rules, and the other body where states are dominant as entities. When they can both agree, there is a good chance that something makes sense. On the other hand, the downside is that powerful legislation and rapid change that is needed, can be blocked by the state-based nature of the Senate along with filibustering. What can we do? Let’s hope truth breaks through the disinformation out there.
Susan Kraemer

David, great points. Disinformation is difficult to overcome.

And also; true that 200 years ago, when we decided the careful checks and balances of our political setup — there was no way anyone could have forseen this civilization-ending level of danger that climate change poses.
Susan Kraemer

He clearly is using what powers he has through the DOE.
Sandy

What really holds up sensible climate legislation is that we don’t have a one person, one vote system.

Senators are dished out by state not by population.

So 30 million urban people in California exposed to a wide variety of information have an equal say with 3,000 rural homeschoolers in a state with no money for internet access and education so they are exposed only to Fox news which tells them to stay away from science.

The result is they pick knuckle-dragger Senators. About 7% of the US population is holding up a climate deal that 6 billion people need.
Sandy

What really holds up sensible climate legislation is that we don’t have a one person, one vote system.

Senators are dished out by state not by population.

So 30 million urban people in California exposed to a wide variety of information have an equal say with 3,000 rural homeschoolers in a state with no money for internet access and education so they are exposed only to Fox news which tells them to stay away from science.

The result is they pick knuckle-dragger Senators. About 7% of the US population is holding up a climate deal that 6 billion people need.
http://aaecorp.com Les Blevins

It seems amazing to me that President Obama would in any way agree to postpone putting in place a climate deal for another time, once again causing the United States to lose $500 billion over time and thus delay the creation of 4.5 million jobs indefinitely.

LBlevins@sunflower.com

http://aaecorp.com/ceo.html
http://aaecorp.com Les Blevins

It seems amazing to me that President Obama would in any way agree to postpone putting in place a climate deal for another time, once again causing the United States to lose $500 billion over time and thus delay the creation of 4.5 million jobs indefinitely.

LBlevins@sunflower.com

http://aaecorp.com/ceo.html
Susan Kraemer

He clearly is using what powers he has through the DOE.