While the country remains in a fury over absurd corporate bonuses and looking for economy scapegoats, it was a refreshing change to be at the Green:Net conference yesterday, surrounded by distinguished entrepreneurs, technologists and investors committed to solving the world’s biggest issue: climate change. In the spirit of "we’re running out of time," San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom kicked off the one-day event after a long-delay, setting in motion the urgent pace and tone among the 200 participants. Newsom did a great job of rallying the troops, inspiring action and sharing some recent successes both in his City and within California. Gavin Starks, CEO of AMEE (which is developing a platform to measure all the world’s energy data) had the unfortunate role of following the first Gavin, but kept-up the audience’s enthusiasm with a fairly technical and highly informative presentation about the need to employ open data standards for the new Smart Grid. The big take-away was the need to have access to standardized and reliable data so we can benchmark our collective progress. This theme of standards continued throughout the day, with hours of talk about open source, open data and open networked systems. In fact, the drive towards open standards and transparency was threaded throughout almost all the presentations which was shockingly refreshing. However, the highlight of the Green:Net conference was the arc between two of the keynote presenters, Saul Griffith and Bob Metcalfe. Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet (the standard for connecting computers in homes and offices) gave a rousing and somewhat controversial talk about how we can apply Internet history to solving the energy crisis. He proposed a new concept called the "Enernet," a next-generation energy network - using a layered approach similar to the distributed network of the Internet. Causing audible gasps in the audience, Metcalfe suggested we rethink conservation and rather create a “squanderable abundance of cheap and clean energy” so we have the resources for future uses such as space travel, clean water, CO2 sequestering and other “YouTubes of the Enernet”. Metcalfe also set off a wave of audience Twittering with the anti-conservation quote, “It is not our goal to darken the Earth; it is our goal to lighten it.” After lunch, in our carbohydrate lull, Saul Griffith, founder of Makani Power offered an “engineer's approach” with hard truth on how we must keep carbon under 450 PPM to avoid certain disaster. Most notably Griffith alarmed the audience with the notion we’d need more than 100 meters squared of solar cells produced every second for the next 25 years, a full-scale nuclear power plant every week for the next 25 years, AND a 13 -megawatt wind turbine installed every 25 minutes for next 25 years just to keep up with our current energy demand. And just like that, the lofty idea of “squanderable abundance” of energy was again overshadowed by a dark cloud of reality. After a few more great presentations on Green Data Centers, Open Standards for the Smart Grid, The Green Web Effect, and a panel featuring VC’s and the state of Green Tech funding, I personally was left with a renewed sense purpose and fired-up that CivicActions has a serious role to play at the intersection of high tech and sustainable solutions.

Green:Net Slideshow Presentations

Bob Metcalfe: Internet History Applied To Solving Energy Gavin Starks: Everyone/Everything Will Have A Carbon ID Jonathan Koomey: The Environmental Cost Of Cloud Computing Rob Bernard: IT Solutions For A Low Carbon Economy Saul Griffith: An Engineer’s Approach To Climate. Working Backwards From Where We Want To Be