At HP this morning, flanked by Anna Eshoo and Steve Westly.
Meta-observation: he mentioned China 11 times, and no other foreign country. China is investing $9B per month into cleantech.
“The U.S. can lead in technology or we can follow. Will be an exporter or importer? Even developing countries want to be a leader, having missed the industrial and bio revolutions.”
“I am very hopeful that we will get a climate bill this year. In this business you have to remain optimistic. Scientists can be the most optimistic of people. It’s a selection effect. Early in grad school, I wondered how I could leave a mark, and by the end I realized that there were a lot of things to be discovered. Progress takes a lot of — what’s the Chinese expression? — chutzpah.” [knowing laughter]
“Power electronics is a long-ignored big hole. The talented EE’s have not gone into this field. So if you take technology at the edge like this, and give it a little nudge, it will explode.”
I asked him about his views on the new nukes – given his atomic physics background and Stewart Brand’s observation that those who know the most are the least scared.
“The waste issue is solvable, and they are now much, much safer. Nuclear is baseload and we will need that. Once wind gets to 20-25% of the energy mix, you have to be careful given intermittent outages; you need two-way flow in the grid and hot spinning resources that can kick in. It will take 50-80 years to realize a renewable transition. In the meantime, we need to fund the smart grid. It’s infrastructure like the highways. It’s a national security issue.”
From other Q&A topics, he was bullish on next gen biofuels and PACE bonds for weatherization (“70-80M U.S. homes could benefit from this”)
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