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Star Investor Vinod Khosla Responds : Greentech Media. I wrote a mildly antagonistic profile of star investor Vinod Khosla last week as part of our "Green Kingpins" series. Mr. Khosla responded with a well-thought-out and reasonable rebuttal, which we print here in its entirety. To review the issues you raised: Mr. Khosla is somewhat of a contrarian and can always be counted on to say something that doesn't agree with the conventional wisdom. Actually sometimes he says things that don't agree with things he's said.

Absolutely -- especially the latter line. Last year Khosla said, "I do not believe carbon sequestration can work economically. " I've repeatedly stated that traditional CCS is not a viable option (as currently imagined) due to problems with scaling and geology and I stand by that statement. For example, last week at the Wall St. While making investments in wind, he has said that there's little upside for innovation in wind, the Betz limit is being approached, and the available good sites are declining. T. Founder, Khosla Ventures. Q-Cells Declares 2009 Loss of $1.8 Billion; CEO Resigns Amidst : Leading German cell producer Q-Cells has gone from weakness after weakness over the last 12 months, and someone had to pay. As things turned out, it happened to be the man at the top. CEO Anton Milner quit his job last Thursday, citing a "huge loss of confidence" on account of the company's terrible 2009 results.

The company declared a loss of 1.36 billion Euros ($1.84 billion) for 2009, compared to a net profit of 190 Euros (about $257 million) in 2008. It would be difficult to feign surprise at the outcome: the company had cut working hours for about 80 percent of its staff in April, later laid off 500 employees in August, and slashed its 2009 sales outlook no less than three times in six months. Cost Structure: Just Not Up to Scratch I was on a panel with Anton Milner at Intersolar Munich last May where we were asked to speak on the topic of "Targeting Grid Parity". Complacency: Behind the Eight Ball Half-Baked Investments Not Out of the Woods Yet.

Facebook. CleanTech Perils When Relying on Government Subsidies - Planet Y. Startup Hopes to Help Car Owners Rent Vehicles to Others - Digit. Enable Personal Vehicle Sharing - AB1871. Why the Senate climate bill is on life support | Greenspace | Lo. Monday was to be a launch party for supporters of a congressional push to limit greenhouse gas emissions and boost domestic energy production.

Sens. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) were to roll out their long-negotiated version of the climate bill the House passed last year, along with endorsements from environmental groups, utility executives and even oil companies. You know what they say about best-laid plans. On Saturday, Graham scuttled the liftoff (OK, enough with the rocket metaphors) by threatening to walk away from the bill in a dispute with Democratic leaders over the timing of the climate bill vis a vis an immigration bill that Graham also happens to be working on. He's since resumed talks with Kerry and Lieberman about the effort, including a meeting this evening.

It's a lot of drama for a bill that may never -- OK, one more rocket analogy -- break through into orbit. *If the negotiations collapse, there's no clear backup plan.