Gavin Isaacs is a legend in the global gaming technology world, and he has inspired me to write this article.
As Vegas has led the global gaming industry, can we usher the world into another sector?
Las Vegas has 2+ million residents, and we spend $100 billion a year. We are the gaming capital of the world. Sounds pretty amazing. I moved here from silicon valley in search of a better quality of life for our team. A place where they and their kids can grow and thrive. A place not too far from the valley to bring our customers to experience our innovation capabilities. It has been a huge learning experience when we found that less than 16,000 software developers are running the whole city. We live in the knowledge economy; our world has transformed in the last three decades. Everything is working for Las Vegas except the availability of tech talent.
Can we become the next silicon valley by completely revamping UNLV’s computer science department? Well, the answer seems too easy, So we decided to dig more. Before we go deeper into it, for las vegas and UNLV to remain relevant, its computer science department needs to attract 10,000 or more students instead of 600 today. How to attract global talent. UNLV needs to recruite more Ph.Ds., and for that, they need a lot and many funds. Well, I am an entrepreneur and investor, so I started thinking about ROI.
Why don’t we do something other than gaming?
Our global population is increasing. We are expecting it to cross 10 billion people by 2050. What do we need to serve 10 Billion people? We need better food, energy, and healthcare infrastructure. There is no silicone valley for either. We don’t have enough water, so growing food may not be ideal; healthcare is too complex similar to tech or even more.
Gavin and I spoke about it briefly. We believe there is a tremendous opportunity in the energy space. Las Vegas can lead the world and become the ‘Energy Valley’ of the world.
Let’s talk about the global energy market and the current state!
Today the Federal Government annually spends less than $9 billion on energy innovation, less than a quarter of what it invests in health care innovation and less than half a tenth of what the government invests in defense innovation, according to CGEP. The necessary resources and government partnerships for innovation will give the private sector access to the capital it needs to develop, deploy and commercialize clean energy technologies. Breakthrough Energy’s mission is complemented by a separate private-sector initiative devoted to investing in clean energy an extraordinary amount of private capital focusing on early-stage innovation.
The Nordic countries have a high level of expertise in renewable energy technologies. This report summarizes seven different research projects related to strategies and energy technologies financed by the Nordic Energy Research Fund for the 2007-2008 period. It provides an analysis of the Nordic innovation systems in the energy sector. Nordic technology companies have an essential role in the international market, with a total installed capacity containing a large part of renewable energy. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) supports research and development that leads to the efficient use of clean nuclear and renewable energy sources.
USA Energy department research and development spending is focused on the energy sector, where most U.S. emissions come from fossil-fuel combustion in transportation, buildings, and industry. Moreover, much of this spending goes to nuclear power and fossil fuels, even though the IPCC assumes renewables are the backbone of a decarbonized energy system. Due to the U.S’s enormous upfront costs and lack of current market demand, existing companies and private capital markets are not investing sufficiently in clean-energy research and development.
The energy sector must do more to open its doors to innovators and entrepreneurs. Clean energy innovations require high capital investment in facilities and projects that require years of research and scalable demonstration projects. However, the rewards are astronomical.
The Federal Government provided $31 billion in subsidies between 2011 and 2015 to the oil and gas industry and $19.2 billion to the coal industry. While it supports mature fossil-fuel technologies to some extent, allowing federal subsidies to encourage clean energy innovation could help establish a new generation of energy companies. Other countries, including France and Italy, grant tax credits and other benefits to young, technology-intensive companies, many of which are academic spin-offs.
Investments in energy technology startups, including corporate V.C. funds and growth investments, hit a new high of $5 billion in 2019. The EIT and InnoEnergy Europe, an accelerator of sustainable energy innovation, are working to introduce inventors, graduates, researchers, and entrepreneurs into the energy market and help promote the green energy roadmap with various financial products and funds to increase energy efficiency and renewable energy. Innovation invests in climate solutions and provides capital to leading companies in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other sustainable infrastructure markets.
A few years ago, President Obama, French President Hollande, and other world leaders announced the Mission Innovation Initiative to accelerate public and private clean energy innovation to address global climate change. It will provide affordable clean energy for consumers, including developing countries, and create additional commercial opportunities for clean energy. Energy Impact Partners (EIP) brings you beautiful energy, shares it, and invests in a sustainable energy future by establishing nine global technologies innovation centers in Germany, the USA, Denmark, Singapore, and other countries. Enterprises in Energy Innovation Energy Innovation Capital (Email) invest in intelligent systems and energy technologies listed on Oil & Gas.
N.V. Energy announced its plans for GreenLink Nevada today. GreenLink Nevada is a transmission and renewable energy initiative that will transform Nevada’s clean energy landscape, create thousands of jobs, promote economic development, and enable the state to meet its environmental and carbon reduction goals. GreenLink will provide the necessary infrastructure to support new and expanding businesses in Nevada, from West Henderson and Apex in North Las Vegas to the Innovation Park in Reno. The project will consist of two distinct segments of transmission lines that, when completed, will provide access to the future development of renewable energy resources in Nevada, increase the electrical reliability of Nevadans, and position Nevada as a leader in the Western United States for decades to come.
Accurate data, including solar power, production, construction, energy consumption, and costs, has been collected from over 40 facilities, allowing the city to prioritize high-efficiency projects to start with the solar plant and wastewater treatment plant. The team is supported by an advisory board comprising world leaders in new energy technology policy and the executive for the transition to a low-carbon energy economy. Conor is an investment strategist at Future Energy Ventures. He has more than ten years of experience in the energy sector, in Venture Capital, Innovation, and Strategy in the leading energy systems in the UK, Sweden, and Silicon Valley. Maybe we should hire people like him to work with us!
What is missing?
You need three things to create a fertile environment for any significant initiative of this magnitude;
- Access to capital and resources
- Access to market
- Access to talent
Unlike Silicon Valley, Chicago, or Boston, Las Vegas does not have a first-class university that needs to produce top-class talent in areas other than gaming and hospitality. In the absence of a technology-centered education program, the lack of talent has led large companies and local startups to move to Silicon Valley to recruit engineers.
Las Vegas may have access to capital and market, but talent is our biggest challenge. For us to build the Energy Valley will require much talent. UNLV will need a completely new college for energy and energy innovation.
Las Vegas has been identified as one of the talent hubs. Each community designated as a talent hub receives $275,000 in grants over 31 months. The funds will support local efforts to train more people and enable community education leaders to meet the specific needs of the residents. The Talent Hub consists of partners; the College of Southern Nevada (CSN), the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSH ), Workforce Development, the Governor’s Office of Workforce Innovation, New Nevada, OWINN, and the United Way of Southern Nevada. – They are working together to improving the education level in Las Vegas. They are focusing on the growing disparity in enrollment and graduation rates in the Las Vegas area. It is not enough, and we need 1000s of such programs.
Energy Innovation Capital (GP LLC) focuses on ARC, defined as disruptive innovation – introducing products and services that change how the world works. G.P. invests in companies developing next-generation technologies to provide plentiful, clean, and accessible energy. Houston has a robust infrastructure from energy to healthcare, aerospace to information technology to support growing industries, thriving innovation landscapes, and the creation of next-generation businesses. What can we learn from them and do better?
The St. Baker Energy Innovation Fund invests in disruptive energy, e-mobility, and mobility solutions for early-stage growth companies. Energy Innovation Capital invests in venture capital and growth companies targeting significant oil, gas, and energy markets. Separate private efforts have committed to supporting an extraordinary amount of private capital in clean energy that focuses on early-stage innovation, including a coalition of 28 major private investors from 10 countries, the Breakthrough Energy Coalition. There are several such initiatives.
We need collaborative efforts to invite all major researchers and investors and put together a strategy in place. Once we have a strategy, we need a phenomenal execution team. Yes, it is possible to re-create history. However, I will let our leaders and NV citizens decide if we should take up this opportunity and become the global leader in the alternative energy space or stay the world’s entertainment capital.
Please do you share your comments and thought with me?
[0]: https://www.iea.org/reports/clean-energy-innovation/global-status-of-clean-energy-innovation-in-2020
[2]: https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/Energy-and-innovation/Research-and-development-highlights
[3]: https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1354729
[4]: https://www.transformgov.org/articles/data-driven-decision-making-las-vegas-gets-results
[5]: https://www.thirdway.org/report/creating-a-clean-energy-century
[6]: https://www.energy.gov/articles/announcing-mission-innovation
[7]: http://monroesnursery.com/nmjttcy/energy-innovation-capital-email
[12]: https://www.brighthorizons.com/careers
[13]: https://www.uwsn.org/lumina-foundation-designates-las-vegas-talent-hub
[14]: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/05/03/the-future-of-jobs-and-jobs-training/
[16]: https://www.educationpioneers.org/blog/betting-future-leaders-las-vegas
[17]: https://jobs.gce.com/
[18]: https://lasvegassun.com/news/2015/jan/26/next-silicon-valley/
[20]: https://medium.com/solardao/the-future-of-solar-energy-dream-or-reality-46c8abdf9e13
