SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA -- Over 300 distinguished executive interests in an industrial energy revolution have gathered here to advance a new enterprise: smart grid technology.  Digitally-savvy energy highways, smart grids give people unprecedented control over their use of electricity.  How could this technology be capitalized upon?

The consensus here is that climate change creates urgent opportunities to profit.   Major firms, investors, and politicians are dynamically posturing to win big in the $6 trillion dollar U.S. energy industry, which faces great changes from emissions legislation.  This includes IBM, Google, Cisco, Oracle, former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, major investment gurus Vinod Khosla and John Doerr, and a wealth of other innovative Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

Opening Keynote: John Doerr, Partner of KPCB and advisor to President Obama

Articulating business rewards and obstacles, GreenBeat 2009 commenced with impassioned rhetoric from John Doerr, a visionary multi-billion dollar investor.  He focused on the role of private investment for driving innovation in the energy industry. "You can't count on additional government incentives when you invest; you have to create the environment," he advised the ambitious audience of entrepreneurs.

Mr. Doerr stressed that Washington was only one arena for advocating sustainable interests.  By emphasizing job increases and competitive advantages to be derived from pricing carbon, he helped push Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California legislature to mandate a 20% cut of carbon emissions in California by 2020.  He said that putting a price on carbon will move more investors into low-carbon industrial applications "faster and at a lower cost than any models predict".  Mr. Doerr added with a smile, "Congress can't model innovation."

Follow up:

Following John Doerr, a panel considered the energy-management tools that define a smart grid.  They focused on real-time pricing of energy, whereby consumers could access their electric bills by the minute (not by the month).  With user-friendly software, consumers could demand their electrical appliances to turn on or off according to custom patterns.  The panel agreed this information would be a game-changer, empowering end-consumers to seriously impact the energy market through automated conservation.  But until smart grid demand reaches critical mass in any given region, one panelist said, unimpressed end-consumers will remain subject to the "utility play" of that region.

Consumers and Efficiency Panel: Katie Fehrenbacher, Editor at Earth2Tech, moderates a panel of energy industry experts: Scott Hublou, SVP of Products at EcoFactor; Frank Magnotti, President of Energy Solutions at Comverge; Adrian Tuck, CEO at Tendril; and Gary Fromer, CEO at CPower.

Next came a presentation of statistics on the opportunities and challenges brought by climate change.  Based on interviews with 133 utility, energy and chemical/natural resource companies in 29 countries, this presentation provided insights into the global thoughts and plans of company executives on climate change.  Key findings:

Numbers Game: Sharon Allan, head of the North American Smart Grid Practice at Accenture, runs numbers on why utilities need to revamp the country's aging electrical grid, and how they should go about it.

The first day of this two day conference ended with a "fireside chat" between the conference host and a major corporate executive. Inspired and inspiring, James Rogers described a very clear vision for a U.S. economy that is the most energy-efficient in the world. He described the role of science and technology in allowing this to happen: "I believe the true energy-efficiency gains will come from the deployment of technology," rather than through changes in consumer behavior.  But he added, "The end is not technology; technology is only the enabler."

Progressive Tenor: James Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy -- the third-largest CO2 emitter in the U.S. -- pinpointed a new strategy: deploying smart metering technologies to four million customers in five years, and decarbonizing by 2050.

Analysis and videos on Al Gore and Ed Lu of Google.org -- coming soon.

[Collaborating Photographer: David Lin]