Khosla Ventures Sponsors California Clean Tech Open; Inaugural Competition Will Award $500,000 in Cash and Service Prizes Devoted to Environmentally-Conscious Technology Development.SAN FRANCISCO -- Organizers of the California Clean Tech Open announced Khosla Ventures as a sponsor of the inaugural competition. The competition began accepting proposals this week, and will select winners at a Sept. 29 event in San Francisco. "Khosla Ventures has been active in clean tech, supporting the sector with investments in companies like Altra Biofuels," said Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures. "The California Clean Tech Open creates an opportunity for the firm to magnify these efforts and continue to accelerate innovation in this new category that represents both a significant financial opportunity and a contribution to a more sustainable future. We're honored to sponsor this inaugural competition." Venture capital firms Name Location Founding date Managing Partners/Directors Specialty Capital managed 5AM Ventures Menlo Park, CA; Waltham, MA 2002 John Diekman, PhD (managing partner), Scott Rocklage, PhD (managing partner), Andrew Schwab (managing partner) life sciences $200M [1] invested more than $1.5 billion in clean technology companies in 2005, underscoring the market opportunity for clean technology development. Initiated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Cambridge; coeducational; chartered 1861, opened 1865 in Boston, moved 1916. It has long been recognized as an outstanding technological institute and its Sloan School of Management has notable programs in business, Club of Northern California (MITCNC), and quickly joined by Stanford University and University of California at Berkeley (body, education) University of California at Berkeley - (UCB) See also Berzerkley, BSD. http://berkeley.edu/. Note to British and Commonwealth readers: that's /berk'lee/, not /bark'lee/ as in British Received Pronunciation. , as well as charter partners Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Horn Murdock Cole, A&R Partners, and Plug & Play Real Estate, the California Clean Tech Open will help turn ideas into real businesses, creating new jobs as part of the expanding clean tech economy in California. "Our objective is quite simply to act as an innovation catalyst to help the 21st century become the clean tech age, and to establish California as the leader that makes it happen," said Laurent Pacalin and Mike Santullo, market-based environmental entrepreneurs and co-chairmen of the competition. "We are very fortunate to have visionary leaders in the venture capital community as key contributors to a new wave of innovation in California that will make a more sustainable future possible." The competition encourages professionals and students throughout the state to submit proposals and compete for prizes in five categories: California Investor Owned Utilities Energy Efficiency Prize, AMD Smart Power Prize, Lexus Transportation Prize, Agora Foundation Water Management Prize, and the Renewable Energy Prize, which has yet to be named. Judges selected from an elite panel of experts -- including venture capitalists, researchers and faculty from the state's leading universities and research laboratories and leading industrialists from related sectors -- will select a winner in each category and an overall winner. California's economic sustainability is threatened by the increasing global competition for natural resources. Thus, making more efficient use of today's energy and water resources, and harnessing new resources that are more plentiful, less expensive to produce, and less harmful to society is absolutely critical. The California Clean Tech Open addresses these challenges by moving innovative technical solutions from concept to reality. About The California Clean Tech Open The mission of the California Clean Tech Open is to encourage the development of clean technology companies that foster a healthy natural environment -- companies that provide environmental benefits in the areas of renewable energy, energy efficiency, pollution reduction and resource protection, and conservation. The competition will also serve as a platform to educate the public, as well as the participants, about the environmental challenges we face and new technologies that can provide solutions to those challenges. The inaugural competition opens in April 2006, and winners will be announced in September at a finals event in the Bay Area. The best plan submitted from five categories -- Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Smart Power, Transportation, and Water Management -- will be awarded a bundle of prizes to create a sustainable business. Prize sponsors to date include: Energy Efficiency - Pacific Gas and Electric Company
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) , (NYSE: PCG), is the utility that provides natural gas and electricity to most of Northern California. , Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE: EIX), is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 11 million people with electricity. , Southern California Gas This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. Company, and San Diego Gas and Electric; Smart Power - AMD; Transportation - Lexus; Water Management - Agora Foundation, led by President Wynnette LaBrosse. The competition was initiated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Club of Northern California (MITCNC) with charter partners Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Horn Murdock Cole, A&R Partners, and Plug & Play Real Estate. A group of entrepreneurs and technologists from Silicon Valley -- Derry and Charlene Kabcenell, Mark Farley, Frank H. Levinson, Geoff Ralston, and Michael and Amy Santullo -- have generously provided the charter funding to launch the competition. The 2006 Host City is the City of San Francisco
(body) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - (LLNL) A research organaisatin operated by the University of California under a contract with the US Department of Energy. , Palo Alto Research Center Palo Alto Research Center - XEROX PARC , SRI International, and Technology Ventures Corporation. Competition partners include Clean Edge and Clean Tech Venture Network. University partners include: the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. Commonly referred to as UC Berkeley, Berkeley and Cal ; Berkeley Institute for the Environment; UC Davis Connect; the San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU), founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, is the largest and oldest higher education facility in the greater San Diego area (generally the City and County of San Diego), and is part of the California State University system. Center for Energy Studies; Business Association of Stanford Engineering Students BASES is one of the largest student entrepreneurship organizations in the United States. This non-profit, student-run organization was founded in 1996 by a group of five Stanford University engineering students. ; Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University; Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford Business School or Stanford GSB) is one of the professional schools of Stanford University, in Stanford, California. It is one of the leading business schools in the United States. Environmental Management Club; and Stanford Graduate School of Business Energy Club. Competition supporters include California Clean Energy Fund, Environmental Entrepreneurs, CalPERS, and Natural Resources Defense Council The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a New York City-based, non-profit non-partisan international environmental advocacy group, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Beijing. Founded in 1970, NRDC today has 1. . The competition co-chairs are Laurent Pacalin and Michael Santullo. Acterra: Action for a Sustainable Earth, a California 501(c)3 non-profit public benefit corporation (Tax ID 23-7064937) is the administrative and fiscal sponsor of the 2006 California Clean Tech Open legally responsible for the activities of the competition. Acterra is located at 3921 East Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303-4303. Additional details about the program are available at www.CaCleanTech.com. |
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