Is the Smart Grid a Good Investment? Vinod Khosla Has His Doubts
Speaking yesterday at VentureBeat’s GreenBeat conference, pioneer cleantech investor Vinod Khosla said he didn’t believe smart grid technologies were a good investment. He concedes that some of the technology will foster big returns but they will be limited to developers of energy savings devices. Otherwise, Khosla says, he sees a “lot of fluff, a lot of ambiguity, not a lot of reality… in today’s smart grid discussions.”
Khosla’s investment fund, Khosla Ventures has so far not invested in any smart grid projects, reports GreenTechMedia. The fund mostly focuses on backing cutting edge biofuel startups. It recently closed on two new funds with $1 billion in investment capital, which will support current portfolio companies and invest in new opportunities.
There have been a few successful smart grid companies, including Silver Spring Networks, backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, of which Khosla is a team member. Silver Spring is now involved in some of the leading — and government funded — smart grid test projects going on in Chicago and Miami.
On Silver Spring, Khosla says:
Just because one smart grid company is successful doesn’t create a wave. They’ve been working at it for a long time. Hiding behind that wave is the wrong thing to do. Trying to do what they’ve done slightly better is not the right way to build a company.
