The case for "radical solutions" in green investment

Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and a venture capitalist, is making major bets on clean technologies. But he's not going for the usual subsidized technologies. Too many government subsidies of outdated or inefficient technologies mean that lots of green products won't achieve economy of scale and thus won't have the desired impact on climate change. In an interview published in Scientific American, he says there are hundreds of cases where eco-efficient innovations could replace archaic technologies if innovators bothered to try. Radical technology shifts are more likely to lead to real benefit (and real profit). See "In Search of a Radical Solution", Scientific American, January 2011.