Looking back at 2012, we had a great year with four Renewable Energy Venture Development Academy sessions conducted in California, Mississippi, Washington DC and Florida.  Participants came from Africa, Asia, Europe and North & South America.  We are pleased with the outcome of these workshops and one attendee described as a "biomass MBA in a day."  Our goal is to bring the latest information about the business developments in the energy sector and help companies formulate better business strategies for entering this market.  We also help economic developers and investors effectively screen for viable companies and renewable energy projects.

I recently saw biomass, solar and wind energy referred to as "non-traditional" energy sources in article and it got me thinking about what "traditional" really means, especially as we move through the current holiday season, which is chock-full of traditions such as having turkey for Thanksgiving, an "indoor" Christmas tree, and the ball drop in New York City. While the turkey is generally associated with the Pilgrims' celebrations in the early 1600's and decorating a Christmas tree goes back even further to the 1500's, the first ball drop in Times Square took place on December 31, 1907. Interestingly, the "tradition" of using gasoline for transportation purposes is only as recent as that first ball drop. Around that time period Henry Ford was still talking about powering his Model T's with ethanol and Rudolf Diesel (inventor of the diesel engine) demonstrated his engine at the World's Fair in Paris, France in 1900 that ran on peanut oil. The use of wind energy dates back to many centuries for transportation, pumping water and "milling" grains and biomass has been used since the Early Stone Age when man tamed fire!

The rapid improvements in technology the late 1800's and early 1900's quickly paved the way for inexpensive petroleum based products and electricity that could be transmitted over great distances. We have gotten so used to our current means of transportation and become somewhat oblivious of how electricity gets to our sockets in our homes and businesses that it is easy to overlook the age-old traditions of energy generation that employed the nature's elements. Our SUN of course is the ultimate source of energy for the planet and the reason why we have wind patterns, plant growth, rainfall and tidal activity, not to mention the direct light and heat itself.

As we celebrate our cherished traditions during this season, I hope the readers of this newsletter will take some time to reflect upon the historical significance of renewable energy in the survival and development of mankind, and energy sources like fossil fuel-based oil that we now think of as "traditional energy" may only be around another 200 - 300 years at best. Looking at the big picture the human race will go through a precious and a finite resource in less than 500 years and it is time that we start thinking about what our new "traditional energy" should look like. I have always maintained that investing in new renewable energy technologies is just like investing for your retirement and we should follow the advice that most reasonable investment advisors would give their clients: 1) diversify the portfolio and 2) don't wait till you are about to retire to start investing in it. Similarly we have to diversify the global energy portfolio by balancing energy supplies from multiple resources and we have to start making serious investments in research and development to come up with highly scalable and reliable renewable energy supplies.

While we are talking about developing new energy technologies, it is with great pleasure that I would like to announce our new partnership with the MegaWatt Ventures competition based at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. MegaWatt Ventures is funded through a competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Energy with the aim to develop an innovation ecosystem in the southeastern United States. Companies from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, South Carolina and Tennessee can apply for this competition, and the top 10 companies will each receive $10,000 seed funding and go through a highly focused six-month program in which they will be coached or can work on a prototype. At the end of this period, they will compete in front of a panel of judges for a chance to win the grand prize of $100,000 to launch a new company.   Please read our exclusive interview with Andrea Wesser in this newsletter to get more details about the MegaWatt Ventures program.

As 2012 draws to a close, the "fiscal cliff" is just hours away. Unfortunately, regardless of what last minute deals are struck by midnight tonight, we will be entering 2013 with great uncertainty. The energy sector in general is highly dependent on policy and the future of many renewable energy programs is just dangling over this cliff. We will be paying close attention to these developments and report back to our readers via this newsletter as well as provide frequent updates via Twitter. I urge you to follow us on our Twitter account by clicking on the link shown to the left. In the meantime, wish everyone all the best for the New Year and hope you will have a chance to count down the last moments of 2012 with the traditional ball drop in Times Square.

Sumesh Arora, Ph.D.

 sarora@innovate.ms