Richard Lowenthal: Tesla, Range Anxiety & the Role of Charging Stations

Richard Lowenthal: Tesla, Range Anxiety & the Role of Charging Stations

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

On the eve of Tesla’s IPO, Richard Lowenthal of Coulomb Technologies discusses the vital role of charging stations in creating a thriving ecosystem for electric vehicles. Lowenthal, a Silicon Valley based maker of charging stations, argues that a comprehensive network of charging stations is a vital prerequisite for the roll out of electric cars such as the Tesla, Smart Car, Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf in the next two years.

Lowenthal explains why a visit to Tesla Motors inspired him to launch his green company after a successful career in high tech at StrataCom and Stardent Computers. For its part, Coulomb Technologies is still in the early stages of installing charging stations and faces competition from the larger, better funded Better Place which offers battery swaps as well as charging. However, Coulomb recently won a $15 Million grant from the Department of Energy and its ChargePoint America program is scheduled to install 4600 charging stations in nine strategic regions of the United States by September 2011.

Reports indicate that despite Tesla’s questionable financials  – the company has failed to have a profitable quarter –  investors are “giddy” about today’s IPO. It seems that for some, the “cool factor” and zero to 60 in under 4 seconds trumps all….at least in the short term.

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This interview was recorded at the CreaTV Studios in Silicon Valley on April 20, 2010. For more interviews with Tesla experts click here

For more Fresh Dialogues archives

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Guy Kawasaki: The State of Venture Capital

Guy Kawasaki: The State of Venture Capital

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

This week, we feature an interview from the archives with Guy Kawasaki, Apple evangelist and venture capitalist at Garage Technology Ventures

He shares his candid thoughts on why he thinks the venture capital model is broken and delivers a bullish pitch for a $500 Million VC Fund.

On the VC Model and Startups

“I think the venture capital model is fundamentally broken, but for different reasons. It’s not the lack of exits. A series of forces: including open source, the recession – so there’s lots of people available for very low prices and cheaper commercial real estate…You can start a company for a lot less today than ever. Life is good in that sense. ..You really don’t need $2 million to build a prototype…I’m talking about a certain type of company…a web 2.0 content, social network something… I’m not talking about finding a cure for cancer.”
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Download or listen to this lively Fresh Dialogues interview

 

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The interview was recorded on April 8, 2009 when the DJIA stood at 7837

To hear or read more Fresh Dialogues interviews with Guy Kawasaki…

Click here for rules for Green Revolutionaries

Click here for Guy’s views on Prius and electric cars

Click here for Guy’s views on ebooks and the Kindle

To read transcripts click here

Jeffrey Toobin: Elena Kagan and Environment

Jeffrey Toobin: Elena Kagan and Environment

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

Today, President Obama announced his nominee for Supreme Court to replace Justice Stevens. No surprise to Fresh Dialogues readers: it’s Elena Kagan. So what might she mean for the environment and green tech?

On April 1st, just days before Justice Stevens announced his retirement, I sat down with Jeffrey Toobin to discuss the environmental record of the Supreme Court and the likely pick for Justice Stevens replacement. Toobin didn’t skip a beat: Elena Kagan. In this interview from the Fresh Dialogues archives, Toobin explains why Obama favored Kagan over the other well qualified candidates for the post and speculates about her green credentials.

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Click here for an interview TRANSCRIPT

Why will Obama pick Elena Kagan?

“She’s former Dean of Harvard Law School (Obama’s alma mater), very much an Obama type person – moderate Democrat, a consensus builder…”

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Is Elena Kagan an environmentalist?

“My sense is that it’s not an issue that has come across her plate a lot…she’s someone who has written on administration law which tends to mean she’s a believer in the power of the Federal Government to regulate.” Jeffrey Toobin

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Download or listen to this lively Fresh Dialogues interview

 

We welcome feedback at FreshDialogues.com, click on the Contact Tab | Open Player in New Window

The interview took place at Dick Henning’s Foothill College Celebrity Forum in Silicon Valley on April 1, 2010. For more Fresh Dialogues interviews with business leaders and experts check out Fresh Dialogues YouTube Channel

For more on Elena Kagan’s green credentials: check out this article at Grist.org

And here is an ARCHIVE of interviews with Paul Krugman, Tom Friedman, KR Sridhar and many others

Adam Jackson: Go Green with Twitter

Adam Jackson: Go Green with Twitter

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

I caught up with Twitter officianado, Adam Jackson at SDForum’s Teens Plugged in Conference last year. Since then, he’s founded TweetForMyBiz, a social media consultancy, based in San Francisco.

Moderator at this year’s conference, Mike Cassidy wrote an excellent column in the San Jose Mercury News about how teens embrace fearlessness in Silicon Valley. He writes:

“Tech CEOs have done plenty of hand-wringing about our schools’ declining ability to turn out the thinkers we need to keep innovation robust…The young entrepreneurs at the SDForum conference don’t make those worries go away, but they are a reason to hold onto hope. They are a generation that embraces the optimism, fearlessness and drive that have built Silicon Valley.”

Adam Jackson, who uprooted from Florida to San Francisco to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams as a young teen, is a great example of this fearlessness.

In this interview from the Fresh Dialogues archives, Adam talks about how to become a green influencer.

Download or listen to this lively Fresh Dialogues interview

 

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“If you have an idea to be more green, help the earth, then go for it, and try it out. See what happens and talk about it. That’s how you become an influencer, that’s how you become an expert. It’s not by re-quoting other people’s things. Or by trying to figure it out, maybe dabbling in it. You just have to jump head first.”

To read more on Adam, click here or here

Check out the new Fresh Dialogues YouTube Channel

Solar: The Economic Argument

Solar: The Economic Argument

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

On the Eve of Earth Day, it’s telling to look at the green motivations of one of Silicon Valley’s leaders in solar technology: CEO of Akeena Solar, Barry Cinnamon. He’s been a solar advocate since the 1970’s when he studied the science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); however, he’s emphatic in his belief: economics trumps environmental arguments for going solar. So much so, that Cinnamon chose to avoid the color green in his company logo and vehicles.

What motivated Cinnamon to explore solar energy in the 1970’s?

“In the 1970’s we had the energy crisis and …(President) Jimmy Carter said ‘the energy crisis is the moral equivalent of war.’  …there was no environmental consciousness about fossil fuels being bad; nobody had ever heard of Green House Gases…We were all worried about nuclear winter.”

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On becoming a green entrepreneur

“It was a really FEEL GOOD THING….We knew we were doing the right thing for the environment…”

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On the economics of going solar

“Customers want to do it for the environment or for our country’s energy independence….but if the numbers don’t pencil out, they almost never do it…you’ve got to make a decent economic case.”

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Download or listen to this lively Fresh Dialogues interview

 

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How does “belief” in Global Warming alter the sales pitch?

“Some people don’t ‘believe’ it, and it’s a religious thing…’green’ works well in the Bay Area….but (elsewhere) customers would avoid a company who’s main pitch is green…but if you hit them with the economic argument or the energy independence argument – we don’t need to buy any energy from the Persian Gulf – it works just fine.”

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Could there be a repeat of the 1970’s boom then bust in alternative energy?

“In the 70’s/early 80’s, the crisis went away, tax credits went away…if energy prices suddenly plummeted again….it’ll happen again. We don’t have the political will to artificially support oil or gas prices….(but) because the world  demand for oil and gas is so high and the supply is generally limited…economics is going to reduce the chances that it will happen again…but it’s not impossible.”

Jeffrey Toobin: Kagan, Supreme Court & Environment

Jeffrey Toobin: Kagan, Supreme Court & Environment

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

I sat down with Supreme Court expert, Jeffrey Toobin, to discuss the court’s environmental record and Obama’s likely pick for the Supreme Court to replace Justice Stevens. Without skipping a beat, Toobin said his No. 1 pick is Solicitor General, Elena Kagan.

Just one week later, Justice Stevens announced his retirement and Toobin’s pick became the front runner. Time will tell if he’s right. Obama is expected to  announce his nominee very soon.

Click here for an interview TRANSCRIPT

Why will Obama pick Elena Kagan?

“She’s former Dean of Harvard Law School (Obama’s alma mater), very much an Obama type person – moderate Democrat, a consensus builder…”

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Is Elena Kagan an environmentalist?

“My sense is that it’s not an issue that has come across her plate a lot…she’s someone who has written on administration law which tends to mean she’s a believer in the power of the Federal Government to regulate.” Jeffrey Toobin

Download or listen to this lively Fresh Dialogues interview

 

We welcome feedback at FreshDialogues.com, click on the Contact Tab | Open Player in New Window

The interview took place at Dick Henning’s Foothill College Celebrity Forum in Silicon Valley on April 1, 2010. For more Fresh Dialogues interviews with business leaders and experts check out Fresh Dialogues YouTube Channel

And here is an ARCHIVE of interviews with Paul Krugman, Tom Friedman, KR Sridhar and many others