The Alternative Energy Play

As you might or might not know, in regards to the United States economy, the shit has hit the fan. As an technical entrepreneur this is extremely depressing because the core of the crisis revolves around credit, and startups are heavily dependent on credit.

In light of the ongoing disaster there has been a lot of buzz about alternative energy. According to Venture Beat, there seems to be a consensus that cleantech companies will still receive buttloads of money.

As a bootstrap technical entrepreneur, and I'm sure most of us in the web-space are, alternative energy still doesn't appeal, here is why:

1. Alternative energy is too research intensive

The reason that everyone can do a web or mobile startup is because the skills and barriers to entry are basically in the capacity to digest a 500 page book. Trying to figure out how to change solar energy to be a commodity is going to take several PHDs. The reality is that alternative energy, at its current stage, does not have any real major innovations yet that might be worthwhile for the average entrepreneur to wet his beak.

2. There is still plenty of software to be written

I'm currently working on a mobile startup. The mobile space is EXPLODING. The iPhone has opened doors to cell phones that have traditionally been locked by carriers (T-Mobile with their new app store, as with RIM). That is just one example, others might be cloud computing, collaboration, etc.

3. The true alternative energy play is 5-6 years from now where there will be widespread use of new alternative energy products that need software startups to enhance the product.

I predict that in the upcoming decade there will be significant advances in cleantech. Like how Microsoft and Apple laid the foundations for software companies to leverage their platform, the same will happen with cleantech. I'm really interested in solar panels and how they can be adapted for residential use. If every house powered itself with the energy from its roof, that will take a huge drain out our power system. At some point, the energy from solar panels on a residential roof will gain money by selling power back to the grid. That represents a huge entrepreneurial venture to simply dump money into the system and help people go green by installing free solar panels around city.