Art and Tech

I read this yesterday, “How Tech Titans Became Energy Entrepreneurs.” Quite an interesting article. The timing is so acurate. It is interesting to see that the there is a trend to start energy company in Silicon Valley.

Here, in Indonesia, there is a heating debate about whether we should have a Nuclear Power Plant or not. We are in the brink of energy crissis. Our current power plants cannot deliver enough electrical energy to the people. It should be noted that average electrical house hold consumption in Indonesia is very low compared to Americans, for example. And yet, our electric company cannot deliver. Thus, Nuclear Power Plant idea seems viable.

Now, the question is … Is there an opportunity to create a new energy company, just like in Silicon Valley? I am not too sure. Things that are related to public needs - I think electricity is one of them - used to be owned by state only. There is no room for private companies. However, there was some attempts to privatise many state-owned companies. This should (have?) change.

This energy problem is not limitted to Indonesia. I would assume that this is a bigger problem in India and China, where tech companies are booming.

A few years ago, I was invited as part of IBM Deep Dive session in New Delhi. One of the topics we discussed was exactly this, energy! (I think it was reported in their GIO book. I lost my copy.) I am going to keep my eyes open (and perhaps starting-up again?) watching this energy bandwagon.