Video Player

Energy Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Today's Challenges, Tomorrow's Opportunities

Moderator: William Aulet SM '94
Christina Lampe-Onnerud Jacques Beaudry-Losique SM '92 Matthew Nordan Robert Metcalfe '68: May 7, 2009; Running Time: 1:28:17

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

There are ample opportunities for new energy entrepreneurs, these panelists agree, but motivation and certain kinds of know-how play key roles in bringing new ventures to fruition.

Idealism led Christina Lampe-Onnerud to “go into the energy space” at 23, but “inertia” surrounding the energy business may intimidate today’s entrepreneurs. Her Boston-Power company, which makes “green” lithium-ion batteries, has forged good relations with policymakers, and now hopes that these politicians will be “brave enough” to “put frameworks out 20 years.” In addition to long-term policy changes, Lampe-Onnerud is counting on a continuous influx of good scientists and engineers to drive her company forward. She encourages everyone with new ideas or the capacity to provide leadership to respond “to the biggest opportunity and threat we have.”

Jacques Beaudry-Losique warns would-be energy entrepreneurs they’re up against a highly regulated environment. An offshore wind turbine might require 39 different permits, and it can take as long as 14 years to get approval for a transmission line. Beaudry-Losique promises that government is now working “to better align interests so we can move faster bringing these solutions to the table.” Energy entrepreneurs should arm themselves with experienced staff who can navigate regulatory channels. They should also build consortia and partnerships with foundations, government and university labs, other manufacturers and buyers. The administration “is making a huge commitment to energy efficiency and smart buildings” and views wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels, as “all hot.”

Compared to entrepreneurial ventures in IT and life sciences, clean energy startups demand “more money, more time and more late stage risk,” says Matthew Nordan. Biomass or coal gasification technologies might require a billion dollars for a pilot plant, which “is a level of risk so high that …investors won’t sign that check.” Many technologies intended to solve one problem end up creating another, or encounter bottlenecks as they scale up, such as the limited supply of precious metals required for the magnets of wind turbines. Some entrepreneurs find success in unique niches, though, such as those seeking to recover waste metal byproducts of tar sand operations. But Nordan warns of a big shake up, as the recent discovery of a massive pocket of natural gas in the U.S. will make competition even steeper for new energy contenders like solar and wind.

Robert Metcalfe finds a lack of “human capital” in current energy ventures. The talented CEOs “who have started five companies” are in short supply in energy, which also haven’t widely adopted partnering as a useful model. To Metcalfe, the energy problem “looks more and more like a networking problem,” which demands a smart grid with lots of storage. This should present entrepreneurs with novel areas to explore. Large utilities may prove obstructive: “We must find ways to get around them, …either recruit them or destroy them.” He’s optimistic there will be breakthroughs in such technologies as fuel cells, and that “when we solve energy, it will be cheap and abundant, and we will use much more of it.”

Lecture Details

Location: Sheraton Boston

“This is a fun time to be a technologist. This is a data-driven opportunity. You can’t lie. Energy efficiency is all about statistics.”

Christina Lampe-Onnerud

About the Speakers

Moderator: William Aulet SM '94

Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management

William Auletis also Entrepreneur in Residence at the MIT Entrepreneur-ship Center. He has 25 years of experience in technology business operations and financing. He started his career at IBM and then ran two private companies, Cambridge Decision Dynamics and SensAble Technologies. Aulet now works with students and start-up companies to build strategies and operating plans that will create sustainable value.

He currently has a specific interest in energy where he conceived, developed and teaches a new graduate class at MIT called “Energy Ventures,” writes on the topic for Xconomy.com, and consults for large and small companies in the field. Aulet also conceived, created and serves as the Chairman of the MIT Clean Energy Prize. He has given workshops to many corporate and government entities on innovation, entrepreneurship and corporate venture capital including the US Department of Energy where he has served on their Review Board for Entrepreneurship Grants. In Janaury 2008, Aulet was a featured speaker at the seminal first World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. He has an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a graduate degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he was a Sloan Fellow.

Christina Lampe-Onnerud

Founder and CEO, Boston-Power

Christina Lampe-Onnerud has pioneered the use of lithium-ion and other materials to deliver more powerful, longer lasting, safer and cost-effective batteries for laptops, PDAs, cell phones and other electronic devices. Prior to founding Boston-Power, Lampe-Onnerud was one of the youngest partners ever appointed at Arthur D. Little/TIAX, where she ran the company's globally-renowned battery labs, defined strategies for the world's top chemical and battery organizations, and directed high-profile market evaluations. Earlier in her career, she served as a director and senior scientist at Bell Communications Research.

Awarded 15 patents in portable power solutions, with six patents pending, Lampe-Onnerud has been recognized among the 100 Top Young Innovators by MIT Technology Review. She has also served as keynote speaker on power issues at industry and government initiatives for more than 15 years. Lampe-Onnerud earned a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry and a BS in Chemistry and Calculus from Uppsala University in Sweden.

Jacques Beaudry-Losique SM '92

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy

Jacques Beaudry-Losique was appointed in December 2008 as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Renewable Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). In this role, he oversees a portfolio of more than $750 million of Renewable and Clean Energy programs, including wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydrogen.

Previously, Beaudry-Losique served as the Program Manager of DOE's $200 million Office of Biomass Program. Over two years, Beaudry-Losique has built what is now recognized as the largest and most advanced biofuels deployment program in the world. His office has also played a leadership role in helping industry address environmental sustainability issues and supply chain bottlenecks such as the "ethanol blend wall."

Beaudry-Losique initially joined the Department as Manager of the Industrial Technologies Program in June 2005, serving in that capacity until reappointed to the Office of Biomass Program in December 2006. Prior to joining DOE, he worked as the business development leader of General Electric Power Systems investment activities, and devised growth strategies for Aspen Technologies, a leading engineering and supply chain software company with strong ties to MIT. Beaudry-Losique also has many years of experience as a management consultant with McKinsey and Company.

Beaudry-Losique holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Montreal and an M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management from Stanford University. As a recipient of a Canadian Science Foundation Fellowship, he attended the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Matthew Nordan

President and Co-Founder, Lux Research Inc.

Under Matthew Nordan, the Lux Research analyst team has become a globally recognized authority on the business and economic impact of emerging technologies, focusing on energy, the environment, and advanced materials. Lux Research advises corporations, start-ups, financial institutions, and governments seeking to harness science-driven innovation for competitive advantage.

Nordan has counseled decision-makers on technology change for a decade. Prior to Lux Research, he held a variety of senior management positions at emerging technology advisor Forrester Research, where he headed the firm’s North American consulting line of business. Earlier, Matthew lived for four years in the Netherlands growing Forrester’s operations in Europe, where he launched and led research practices in a variety of industries.

Matthew is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale University, where he conducted cognitive neuroscience research on the neural pathways mediating emotion and memory.

Robert Metcalfe '68

General Partner, Polaris Venture Partners Founder, 3Com Corporation

Robert Metcalfe developed Ethernet as a standard for connecting computers for high-speed data transfer. He joined Polaris Venture Partners in January 2001. Before that, Metcalfe was Publisher/CEO for IDG/InfoWorld. His weekly Internet columns for this publication have been collected in his latest book, Internet Collapses and Other InfoWorld Punditry. Metcalfe founded 3Com Corporation in 1979 and stayed with the billion-dollar company through 1990. Metcalfe received bachelor degrees in electrical engineering and management from MIT (1969), and an M.S. in applied mathematics and Ph.D. in computer science from Harvard University.