At the EmTech Conference hosted by Technology Review, Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla ventures spoke about the coming/ongoing revolution in renewable energy sources.
The scalibility of a technology and product cost will determine if the "China + India" price --affordability in the markets of the world's two large, fast-growing economies -- can be met. Will these markets embrace the $25,000 Prius or the $2500 Nano (assuming it gets built on a mass-scale)? Unless the Chindia price point is met, global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions from vehicular traffic will remain an intractable problem.
Khosla's firm is hedging its bets -- check out its portfolio.
As an inorganic chemist, I was intrigued by Firefly Technology which seeks to improve the efficiency of current lead-acid batteries. The electrochemical reaction takes place solely on the electrode surface -- replacing the lead grid with carbon-graphite foam coated with the heavy metal will acheive a couple of things. Acid will not corrode the electrodes, which will last longer, and the weight of the battery will be dramatically reduced.
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