Ecotality Life

This piece can be read stand-alone; however, it’s best read after reading Dan Gurvich’s recent post on Al Gore being made a partner at Kleiner. Click here to read.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (aka “Kleiner”) is one of the largest and most successful venture capital (VC) firms. As one might expect from a VC firm based in California’s Silicon Valley, Kleiner’s main focus has been information technology (IT) — as well as, to a lesser extent, health-care.

Kleiner was an initial investor in Internet companies that later became household names and powerhouses: Netscape, Amazon, and Google. So, Kleiner’s eye for spotting big-time winners early in the game — and bringing them to market as IPOs (initial public offerings on US stock exchanges) — is undeniable.

Kleiner has dabbled in green investing for the past several years but only relatively recently has it decided to focus its green on green-tech in a big way.

Enter Al Gore, who was just made a partner at Kleiner.

With Kleiner’s eye for winners and Gore’s political and communication savvy and newly-elevated status as a Nobel Prize winner, green-tech firms being funded by Kleiner should be on the radar of investors. There are bound to be at least one or two mega-winner IPOs in Kleiner’s portfolio. Maybe there’s a winner or two in there now, but I’d venture (!) to say there will very likely be a couple major winners going forward as Kleiner digs deeper into the green-tech scene and as Gore’s skills and influence pay-off. This partnership should bare fruit. Green, of course.

Let’s venture (I’m weak!) a quick look at 10 of Kleiner’s 26 green-tech investments. Some are more “green” than others. Geography-wise, 5 are in CA, 2 in TX, and 1 each in MA, CO, and WA. For you color folks, that makes the Green Score here: Blue States — 7; Red States — 3.

This just in: As per Dan’s far-reaching influence and meteorological skills, Kleiner has wisely decided to make him a partner and heed his advice to not invest in Red FL since it soon will be Blue — not in Democratic, but in Under Water. As for me, I’m thinking investing in real estate along SC’s southern border, which soon should be prime ocean front, is the way to go. (Read Dan’s informative Gore-Kleiner piece which is sprinkled with humor.)

Here’s the 10, listed alphabetically:

Amyris Biotechnologies

• HQs: Emeryville, Calif.
• Invested: 2006
• Founded: 2004
• Biz: Uses synthetic biology to make microbes capable of producing everything from anti-malaria drugs to biofuels for cars and jets.

Ausra (click here to read my October piece on Ausra)

• HQs: Palo Alto, Calif.
• Invested: 2006
• Founded: 2002
• Biz: Builds large-scale solar-power farms that offer electricity at market rates. Sunlight, focused by mirrors onto water pipes, boils water, which powers turbines to generate electricity.

Bloom Energy

• HQs: Sunnyvale, Calif.
• Invested: 2007
• Founded: 2001
• Biz: Develops solid-oxide fuel cells to enable homes to generate their own electricity with half the carbon dioxide pollution of large-scale power plants. Came out of research done for NASA.

EEStor

• HQs: Cedar Park, Texas
• Invested: 2005
• Founded: 2001
• Biz: Building supercapacitors with high electric-storage density. Can be used in batteries for electric cars.

GloriOil

• HQs: Houston
• Invested: 2007
• Founded: 2005
• Biz: Designs microbes that, when injected into oil wells, increase oil production and decrease use of water. Based on technology developed at the Energy and Resources Institute in Delhi, India.

GreatPoint Energy

• HQs: Cambridge, Mass.
• Invested: 2006
• Founded: 2005
• Biz: Catalytic process converts coal, petroleum coke, and biomass into natural gas you can burn in your kitchen. Process also captures the carbon dioxide and sulfur byproducts of coal gasification.

Luca Technologies

• HQs: Golden, Colo.
• Invested: 2007
• Founded: 2003
• Biz: Discovered naturally occurring microbes that “eat” coal and turn it into natural gas. Luca is trying to cultivate bugs that can be used in mature coal fields where they don’t occur naturally.

Miasole

• HQs: San Jose
• Invested: 2005
• Founded: 2001
• Biz: Has developed a thin-film solar cell that promises to be cheaper and offers a broader range of installation options than traditional crystalline silicon-based photovoltaic cells.

Terralliance

• HQs: Newport, Calif.
• Invested: 2004
• Founded: 2002
• Biz: Uses proprietary software and supercomputing brawn to more efficiently find and then extract oil and gas deposits.

Verdiem

• HQs: Seattle
• Invested: 2007
• Founded: 2002
• Biz: Sells software that provides power management for PC networks. With more efficient use of the network, Verdiem claims it can save from $25 to $65 in energy costs per PC per year.

Source: this week’s Fortune

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