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Why China Has Already Overtaken The U.S. In Cleantech

It's been fashionable to debate whether China will some day surpass the U.S. in clean technology. Yet, after reviewing some of the metrics that really matter, one could conclude that it already has.

At least this was my thesis in moderating a recent Haas School of Business event at U.C. Berkeley in California that explored whether China would become a green economy leader.

China has already surpassed the U.S., I argued (as reported elsewhere), and pointed to the following:

  1. IPOs: According to data we collected at the Cleantech Group, in 2009 (the last full year for which data was available as of this writing), China accounted for almost three quarters of all cleantech IPO proceeds worldwide, well ahead of the U.S., which had only 26%; and to date in 2010, the top three cleantech IPOs of the year have all been Chinese companies
  2. M&As: The top region for cleantech M&A activity in 2009 was Asia (35% of total), followed by Europe (31%) and North America (26%), according to our same research above
  3. Solar: 7 of the 10 largest solar manufacturers in the world by production volume are now Asian, #2 being China’s Suntech Power, which in 2009 surpassed even Japan’s Sharp, the longtime leader. This according to a roundup by respected photovoltaic trade pub Photon International (subscribers only; order the back issue here.)
  4. REEs: China holds a monopoly on rare earth elements (REEs), critical raw materials for wind turbines and electric motors such as those used in electric vehicles like the Tesla and hybrids like the Prius. It controls 97 percent of commercially available rare earth element supplies, and has recently begun to reduce the amount it exports (at Cleantech Group, we produced the authoritative report on the subject, précis here.)
  5. Stimulus: The amount of stimulus funding China has allocated to clean technologies, including water, waste and other non-energy cleantech infrastructure, is 4 times that of the U.S. (221 billion vs. ~60 billion)
  6. R&D: There’s been a doubling of private R&D in China in recent years; China could soon surpass the U.S. in R&D spending, according to Lund University in Sweden
  7. Speed: China is making decisions quickly, and isn’t encumbered by democratic process. This January, China announced intentions to build a 2 GW $5B concentrating solar thermal plant. In the words of Bill Gross of eSolar (by way of Tom Friedman), the company whose technology was selected, “in less time than it took the U.S. DOE to do stage 1 of an application review for a 92 MW project in New Mexico, China approved, signed and is ready to begin construction this year on a 20 times bigger project.”
  8. Nukes: If you don't already consider nuclear a clean energy technology, you should. China is expecting to build some 50 new nuclear reactors by 2020, and is already hard at work on half of them; the rest of the world combined might build 15
  9. Investment: A recent report by Breakthrough Institute called Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant claims China, South Korea and Japan have already collectively passed the United States in the production of virtually all clean energy technologies, and over the next few years, these countries will be expected to out-invest the United States.

If this trajectory holds, the majority of cleantech-related jobs, tax revenues and cleantech commercialization bragging rights will go to Asian, mostly Chinese, companies. The interesting question for us at Kachan & Co. is what commercial opportunities will this eventuality ultimately create for others elsewhere? How can the U.S. and other jurisdictions leverage the Chinese cleantech juggernaut?

Obviously, some companies will benefit from the establishment of joint ventures with Asian companies. And there WILL be local manufacturing jobs, especially when the rising cost of oil makes overseas shipping from Asia less cost-effective—one of the reasons China's Suntech is setting up local U.S. manufacturing in Arizona, for example. But where are the less obvious opportunities?

We have thoughts. Contact us to discuss.

A Monk's Tale

"When we let go of our habitual certainties and the labels and definitions we and others have given ourselves, what emerges is a pure innocent, joyful, humble, creative and free consciousness. It certainly is the experience of a more real, authentic self that lies beneath our social masks."  - Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra: A Monk's Tale
Oprah.com

 
 
 
 
Deepak Chopra and Jate Sopitpongstorn 
 
Would you step into a life much different from yours even for only two weeks? No running water, begging for food, sleeping on the floor and meditating for hours on end—could you handle it? That's exactly what Deepak Chopra did when he was ordained as a monk in Thailand. Find out what it means to really give away all of your possessions and discover life's greatest lessons.

This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds.
To watch the birth and death of beings
Is like looking at the movements of a dance.
A lifetime is a flash of lightning in the sky.
Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.
— Buddha

Over the last two decades, I have occasionally taken a week of silence to renew my spirit. A few years ago, I found out there was a tradition in Thailand where some CEOs of major businesses and politicians would take a week or two of silent retreat as ordained Buddhist monks. This was to remind them to be humble in spirit and anchor themselves in sobriety. When I recently met Joy Sopitpongstorn, who is a friend from Thailand, I asked her if it was possible for a "foreigner" to "ordain." Joy is a longtime friend of mine who has attended my courses in India. After making some inquiries, Joy informed me she had obtained permission for me to come on a "monk's journey" for two weeks.

So off I went to Thailand on June 26.

The first part of my journey was to accustom me to "hardship." For this, I went to the Forest Monastery, Wat Sunandavanaram, under the guidance of a famous, but austere, abbot of Japanese origin known as the Venerable Arjarn Mitsuo. In this monastery, I had to sleep on a wooden floor and wake up at 2 a.m. every morning to meditate with the other monks on the impermanence of life and my own physical death. We would do this until 4:30 a.m. and then practice mindfulness meditation until about 6:30 a.m.—after which we would go for "alms round." The monks walked barefoot over rough terrain through neighboring villages. Because I was not an ordained monk at this time, I was allowed to wear my sneakers and served as an assistant to the monks. The poor peasants from the villages would line up in the streets and make food offerings to the monks. If their bowls filled up, I would empty them into a large bag that I carried so they could be "refilled."

It was wonderful to see the look of reverence on the faces of the villagers as they offered their alms to the monks, who in turn silently blessed them.

We would return from the alms round at 8 a.m., after which we would have our one and only meal for the day. We all shared the food that was offered to us and ate in silence with full mindful awareness.

The rest of the day was spent in meditation. In the evening, we would meet with the Venerable Arjarn Mitsuo, who would guide us further into mindful awareness of breath, feelings, emotions and movement. We would go to sleep around 10 p.m., and then wake up again around 2 a.m. for meditation on impermanence and death.

Conditions of this monastery were very basic, with no running water and some mosquitoes to contend with.

Deepak describes being ordained as a monk

Deepak Chopra and Jate Sopitpongstorn
After a few days of this hardship, I moved to the Forest Monastery, Chiang Khong, where I was to be officially ordained.

Joy's brother Jate, a young man of 36 years, decided at the last moment that he would ordain with me. The second monastery under the guidance of the Venerable Abbott Arjarn Ekachai was more comfortable than the previous one in that we had running water.

The ordainment ceremony required us to memorize some of the teachings of Buddha and chant them in Pali. Pali is a Sanskrit derivative language and was indeed the language spoken at the time of the Buddha. Surprisingly, I did not find it difficult to memorize the verses I was asked to recite for the ordainment.

The ordainment ceremony began at 6 a.m. at the Forest Monastery, Chiang Kong. About 1,000 villagers from 13 neighboring villages showed up to witness it.

After a lot of chanting and instructions by Venerable Arjarn Ekachai and another senior monk on the responsibilities of an ordained monk, including following the five precepts, understanding the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold Path to Enlightenment, we also had to undergo a head-shaving ceremony. I did not realize that the shaving would include my eyebrows. But by this time, I had let go of all attachments for the time being and decided to surrender to the whole process. My son Gotham was there to witness and film the ceremony as Jate and I went through the process.

After the head-shaving ceremony, the villagers lined up one by one to tie threads around our wrists. This was symbolic and meant that the villagers and monks had embraced us as their family. This part of the ceremony took two hours, and Jate and I sat crossed-legged on the floor for it.

After the thread ceremony, all the villagers were fed food that had been cooked by volunteers. All this took us to about noon, after which Jate and I mounted two elephants as part of a parade to the Buddhist temple, where the ordainment and wearing of the monks robes was to take place. The parade was very festive with drumming and chanting, and the villagers were all dressed in colorful celebratory outfits.

We dismounted our elephants upon reaching the temple where the actual ordainment ceremony began. This lasted five hours, with Jate and I reciting our Buddhist chants to prove we'd done our "homework."

Finally, we were asked to give up our clothes and exchange them for the monks robes. As Jate and I walked out of the temple at about 5:30 p.m. with our begging bowls and in monk robes, all of the villagers prostrated themselves at our feet with reverence and made offerings and filled up our begging bowls. We were now ordained.

Life as a monk

Deepak Chopra and Jate Sopitpongstorn
Back in the monastery, the Venerable Arjarn Ekachai instructed us on our routine, which was to be similar to the one at the previous monastery. Over the next week, we maintained silence and kept the routine as instructed.

My only challenge was walking barefoot through the villages. The country paths were at times rocky and at times full of bristles and thorns, but we marched through it despite the pain.

The Venerable Arjarn Ekachai would meet with us in the afternoon and late evening, when he would go over our practice of mindfulness.

Because there were no mirrors, we did not know what we looked like to each other. The others treated us with great respect and reverence and the villagers were very generous in the giving of alms, which mostly included rice, vegetables, fruit, boiled eggs and sometimes even a bar of chocolate.

It was amazing to see the generosity and love and reverence in the eyes of the peasants as they offered food to us. We ate once a day as in the previous monastery.

By and by, I started to feel I was losing my sense of my previous identity. Physically, I was without hair on my scalp or my eyebrows. I walked barefoot. I wore the robe of monks. I practiced mindful awareness day and night, in addition to meditating on impermanence and on my own physical death.

The Venerable Arjarn Ekachai explained that being in this mindful state and shedding our previous identity allowed divine qualities to emerge—loving kindness, compassion to all beings, happiness at the happiness of others and equanimity. Indeed, I felt the truth of all this in my experience.

I realized that holding onto anything is really like holding onto your breath. You begin to feel suffocation. It was freeing to let go.

Before we went to the closing ceremony, we took our hair and packed it in palm leaves and went to the Mekong River, which runs between Thailand and Laos. We boarded a boat and went toward a shrine along the river banks where we offered our hair to the river and it floated away. This was symbolic of letting go of our habitual certainties and attachments and creating the space for new and better and more spiritual things in our lives. The hair, which is part of our body and came from the elements, was returned to the elements.

After a full week, Jate and I returned to Bangkok, once again wearing our regular clothes. But when I looked into a mirror, I could not recognize myself and burst out laughing.

What he learned from this life-changing experience

What did I learn?

  • When we let go of our habitual certainties and the labels and definitions we and others have given ourselves, what emerges is a pure innocent, joyful, humble, creative and free consciousness. It certainly is the experience of a more real, authentic self that lies beneath our social masks.

  • The monks themselves were the perfect embodiment of the elegance of simplicity, equanimity, compassion, kindness and joy.
  • The peasants and villagers were generous and giving and, in my view, had more happiness then some of the wealthiest people in the world.

  • The awareness of impermanence makes every moment precious, and an opportunity for giving and receiving.

  • Compassion helps us go beyond the illusion of the separate self.

  • Life is a continuum of experiences that occur in an eternal now. When we are grounded in present-moment awareness, there is an awakening of innocence, joy and knowingness that is our essential nature.

  • Understanding and embracing impermanence and being aware of our own death makes every moment precious, and reminds us of what is really important in our life, so we can be happy and make others happy.

  • We create our own environment. The quiet dignity and serenity of the monks and the villagers who embraced us created an atmosphere of peace and joy and a feeling of abundance that money cannot buy.

I am back now in New York City and settling to my routine of writing, public speaking and consulting. What I bring back with me is a fresh and renewed awareness of how we can all be and how this transformation in us can help create a better world.

Deepak Chopra is the author of more than 50 books on health, success, relationships and spirituality, including his current best-seller, Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul, and The Ultimate Happiness Prescription, which are available now. You can listen to his show on Saturdays every week on SiriusXM Channels 102 and 155.

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Me & My Shoes

Photo

 

Viv sells seashells in her pythons.  Worn in and frayed, these remain one of my favorites.  I can walk a mile in these.  


THE ME & MY SHOES MANIFESTO (by Lance)

THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
The rules for this little social media extravaganza is that when you post your photo you...

  1. Title it "Me & My Shoes"
  2. Post a link to this page in the comments of the photo
  3. Leave a comment below this note with a link back to your photo
  4. Share this note with one or more friends who are wildly excited about shoes 

 

YOUR TURN!

Here's a Photo of My Two Geek Dads

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A few years ago, I came across this photo of my dad and godfather. They're among the two hardest working people I know. I asked my mom when this picture was taken, and she believed it was in 1961.  It occurred to me that they were about half my age back then.  This got me thinking about how wonderful it is to have friendships that go as far back as a lifetime. So here's some background on where and why the picture was taken. In may way.

My dad and godfather were both born in Mainland China during the the Second Sino-Japanese War, and raised in Taiwan during the time of Martial Law after the Nationalist Chinese were defeated by the Communists. They were the best of friends since middle school, and even served time together in the military. It was mandatory, and like most young men after college, they just went ahead and did it. They both came to the US in the early sixties to pursue advanced studies in engineering and physics. Both went to Cal, then one to Stanford, and the other to CalTech. They bussed tables wherever they could find jobs including Ricky's in Palo Alto and Harvey's Casino in Lake Tahoe, took road trips to national parks way out West... America was there frontier.

They both got married around the same time, had children almost the same exact ages, raised families while pursuing parallel life paths.  My dad built a career in microwave engineering Hewlett Packard while my godfather worked in aerospace, climbing through the research ranks at TRW, McDonnell Douglas and Boeing. They each founded companies after age 40 while putting their kids through school then college, while spending time building companies in California and Taiwan. Together, they co-founded one company of which my dad remains as Chairman of the Board.  Friends helping friends out... so to speak.

My godfather, Denny lost his life to Pancreatic Cancer 8 yrs ago.  His departure was entirely unexpected at age 63.  He was about to close on a new technology fund focused on expanding US and China opportunities. We were all pretty devastated.  I remember walking thru the brightly lit halls of the hospital to pay him a visit, only to meet a room packed with friends just flying in to see him for just a few minutes. He smiled and even reminded everyone that he had never been ill. Three days later, he was gone. 

My dad continues to run around restlessly well into his seventies... building telecommunications back haul systems, radio satellite transmission networks, and ways to widen the Internet. He's big on water, food safety, alternative energy, and 4G, spending most of his time now in China.  Manages to live off of 4 hours of sleep a day, and spend a good part of his time trying to inspire younger folks to carry on in his field. 

Both men are dreamers, thinkers and tinkerers... always curious about life's infinite possibilities.  Here's to childhood friendships that continue to last a lifetime.  Cherish them when you can.

For Gramps - A Belated Father's Day

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In loving memory of my paternal grandfather, Lt. Gen Wang-Chieh. I recently paid him a visit by his gravesite two months ago in Yamingshan, Taipei. 

I was the first grandchild to have entered his life. Folks say that I still pronounce certain verbs the way he did in his strong Hubei Mandarin. Oh well... I owe nearly all my early Mandarin from him. Grandpa joined the Nationalist Army at age 12 with his younger brother hand-in-hand by a temple in Wuhan; trained in Siberia and walked more distances than he would ever want us to remember.  He spent a good part of his youth in combat all over China defending invasion from Japan, then Mao's Communist regime in his own country. He was a tall and slender 6'2", selfless, the kind of civil servant one couldn't help but look up to, and master storyteller of the front lines. His account of what was going on in the battlefields were so accurate at the time, that I was told by my mom that he helped launch the career of screen icon Lin Ching-Hsia who played a Nationalist Chinese Girl Scout in a film. She swam across Suzhou River (Shanghai) in battle during the 8 year war against Imperial Japan. 

Summers learning Mandarin in Taiwan were memorable, something I looked forward to. It was something fully expected part of my upbringing. I admit having no idea what it was really about until about age 9 or 10. Like medicine, I was told it was good for me.  Aside from language classes on our numerous visits which were absolutely mandatory, my sisters and cousins were also given plenty of exposure to the daily triumphs of culture and city life. Whether it was about calligraphy, painting, a bit of history, museum visits or to other parts of the island, Grandpa made sure we had a healthy dose of it. He'd even split his mahjong winnings in exchange for fruit of our calligraphy practices,or recite Tang Dynasty poems before visitors after dinner. People of all ages came over to the house to spend time sharing a meal, some tea, or in need of sage advice. I'd often see parents and their grown-up children stop by on their way in or out from overseas, generally thanking him in some capacity. Growing up in California, I was a lucky girl to have had him be a big part of my life. To this day I can still recite a few lines of Tang Poetry in the shower, while driving, or half-asleep. Grandpa never back to China, although I think he would had it not for his stroke. A beloved inspiration me and to all of those he somehow touched along the way.

I miss you Gramps!  Have a Happy Belated Father's Day.