CEIC Director Sanjiv Malhotra speaking at Duke University's EDGE Seminar (credit CEIC/OTT).
Blog post from the Clean Energy Investment Center, September 26, 2016.
On September 14, the Clean Energy Investment Center (CEIC) Director, Dr. Sanjiv Malhotra took us back to school when he led the EDGE Seminar at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in Durham, North Carolina. And for one warm day in the middle of September, these Blue Devils were seeing green. The EDGE Seminar on Energy & Environment gives Duke MBA students a unique opportunity to learn about today’s most important energy and environment industry issues directly from senior business executives and government leaders. Seminars cover topics ranging from global energy market economics and finance to value chain sustainability, carbon markets, and energy technology commercialization and entrepreneurship.
Sanjiv quickly engaged a group of nearly 50 MBA and MBA/MS (Environmental Management) students and faculty members on a multitude of issues. The Seminar opened with a discussion of why and how investments in early-stage clean energy technologies failed over the last decade. As Sanjiv explained, the investment model of leading venture capitalists was not built for the needs of earl-stage Cleantech, such as patient capital and a reliable chain of investors to pick up the ball at each stage of maturity. The EDGE Seminar also touched upon the difference between innovation and invention. Sanjiv informed the participants that innovation occurs when one takes an existing product and makes improvements, whereas invention occurs when a new product is created from scratch. Currently, clean energy innovation occurs all around us. From structural improvements of wind turbines to technological improvements of solar panels, we are innovating everyday. However, to achieve the de-carbonization needed to attain a sustainable world past 2030, new technology products must be invented.
Finally, Sanjiv discussed how the Department of Energy (DOE) and CEIC are developing new mechanisms of clean energy financing that would enable greater private sector investments. These include Public-Private Partnerships and a streamlined equity financing mechanism. By offering private investors a one-stop-shop to connect with DOE technological assets, CEIC is well-positioned to spur public-private partnerships in clean energy investments. And who knows, in a few years, one of the students that participated in Dr. Malhotra’s EDGE Seminar may be the investor who brings a DOE asset to market at scale, changing the world as we know it.
That’s all for now CEIC friends and followers, but it is not nearly the end. Stay tuned for several special announcements from the CEIC team in a few weeks. Until then, remember, “invest in clean energy, invest in a clean world.”
The Clean Energy Investment Center is part of the Office of Technology Transitions, whose mission is to expand the commercial impact of DOE’s portfolio of Research, Development, Demonstration and Deployment (RDD&D) activities over the short, medium and long term.
