Toward the end of the interview there's a lightning round:
We have done a lot of writing at Cleantech Blog on topics including ethanol, solar – so I’d like to get your 1 sentence rapid fire take on a couple of always topical cleantech investment debates:
Thin film vs. Conventional PV
Thin film if you have deep pockets and patience
Solar concentrators vs. Flat Panel
No comment, yet.
Cellulosic vs. Corn Ethanol
Science project vs. commodity. I’m a VC…science project always wins.
Cleantech vs. Greentech
Make great products, build great businesses and provide great returns to investors (and hopefully help out our world along the way) and no one will care what you call it.
Mr. MacDonald's comments on fuel cells also caught my attention:
You’ve had a couple of recent exits in fuel cells – what fund were they from, and has that changed your appetite for similar technology areas in the future?
We have had recent exits in this area: Pemeas which we sold to BASF and Cellex which we sold to Plug. We still have an number of other FC investments in our portfolio that we are bullish on – Angstrom Power and PolyFuel. I would say we have learned a lot about the general FC market and understand many of the technology challenges and market adoption risks much better. We are still interested in the FC space – I would just say we are a more sophisticated FC investor now.
