Venture capitalist says U.S. to flood market with too much electricity

Take the world’s current situation which right now places most of its energy needs squarely on the shoulders of fossil fuels, and mesh that with the renewable energy efforts taking place and what do you get?. Looking forward a couple of decades, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla predicts that the U.S. will be producing too much energy and that demand won’t keep up. He thinks that boost in output will arrive from renewable sources and wants to see more focus on technology innovation which in his words has “infinite” potential.

If nothing else, Khosla is a smart (or lucky) marketer because his idea has just enough appeal and strangeness to create buzz. If the U.S. is successful in its continuing efforts to generate lots of renewable energy, and population growth remains similar to what it is today, then feasibly energy generation would catch up to demand at some point.

His firm, Khosla Ventures, invests in cleantech startups regularly so his optimism in the space is to be expected. For example right now his firm is “. . . backing companies that hope to cut energy use in lighting and data center server racks by 80 percent,” according to GreenTechSolar.

Khosla posed his ideas at a panel meeting intended to discuss the effects of Proposition 23 in California which would temporarily suspend the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 until unemployment rises below 5.5% and stays there for 4 consecutive quarters. The Global Warming Solutions Act aims to return California emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. But, those efforts will stall if Proposition 23, is signed into law, and it mainly has the backing of oil companies and businesses.

This will be a vote to watch because it will give a clear signal as to how much Californians are willing to stay the course and go green, despite economic hardships. Suspending the Global Warming Solutions Act may provide temporary budget relief, but the long term negative effects may be even greater.