What's hot, apart from the coffee?

Of the many thousands, nay millions, of bloggers out there, only a handful warrant regular reading, especially for observers of the innovation scene. One that does is alarm:clock euro, from "old hacks who worked at Red Herring and The Industry Standard". Perhaps it is that description that endears them to this even older hack.

 

The latest piece that caught our eye is on "Risks And Opportunities In Renewable Energy - VC Buzz," a report of the the annual European Energy Venture Fair at the Swiss Re Global Dialogue Center in Rüschlikon. Apart from praising the "real coffee and espresso between sessions, not the usual battery acid that passes for coffee at the new Hyatt, the Marriott, Novotel, and Dolder where other private equity and VCs events are held here," they also report on some of the energy technologies that garner increasing interest among investors.

 

We have seen similar reports of feeding frenzy among investors in the USA, especially on the West Coast, where governor Arnie wants the state to stop battering the climate into a pulp with all that energy consumption and carbon dioxide. For example, there was a recent Reuters story on the "Clean Tech Open" competition.

 

Back in Switzerland, we read that there's a lot of interest in all manner of renewable energy technologies, including ocean energy, biofuels, wind energy and photovoltaics. A really old hack, one who wrote their way through the oil crisis of the 1970s, would sense a feeling of deja vue.

 

One idea looked particular interesting, mostly because it is the sort of thing that is all too often overlooked. They also refer to distributed energy production which they describe as "computing and software solution required to manage and optimize energy production in increasingly distributed power generation networks".

 

We like this one because it isn't the sort of stuff that gets written about, and yet there are some interesting academic research projects going on. it is a fair bet that they don't have investors falling all over them to fund the research.