Michael Kanellos
November 20, 2008 at 1:04 PM
Tom Siebel, who made a big pile of money in the ’90s by founding Siebel Systems, is trying to squeeze into green.
Siebel is trying to put together a contest that will encourage companies to come up with HVAC systems and other technologies for relatively affordable, zero-energy homes. “They will be grid connected, but after 365 days the meter should read zero,” he said during the Global Technology Leadership Conference taking place at UC Berkeley today.
The contest, which is still under construction, will come with a few rules. For one thing, the homes have to be something the average American would want to live in. “You can’t solve the problem by sitting in the dark and freezing to death,” he said.
Second, they have to be cheap. Green homes now are generally bought by rich people in communities like Woodside, California. “They cost $1,000 a square foot” and are generally huge, he argued. Builders have also been reluctant to get into the market although that has been changing. (In a conference earlier this month, for instance, I learned that Webcor, the largest builder in California, earned more revenue from LEED buildings in its most recent quarter than traditional construction. Imagine that.)
Siebel figures the prize can be broken up in a couple of ways. In a first segment, $5 million could be given to companies and investors that come up with an interesting appliance or technology. A second $5 million prize could go to someone who designs the best green home. A third phase could award $10 million to any group that actually then builds some green homes with technology from the first two rounds.
Does the world need this kind of contest? Honestly, probably not. Venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are moving into green building. Here’s a greatest hits list of green building companies: Integrity Block, Navitas Capital, Serious Materials, Photosolar, Michelle Kaufmann Designs, Zeta Communities, Cal-Star Cement, Calera and SG Blocks.
The homes are also moving from the rarefied luxury level Siebel mentioned. Still, $20 mil is $20 mil. I can’t see anyone walking away from a good contest.
Siebel’s push into green makes him the latest member of the Internet era good ol’ boys club to do so. Others include Gary Winnick (the Global Crossing founder who has a green cement company called iCrete), Shai Agassi (SAP sales guy turned electric car advocate) and Andy Grove (a former Intel employee teaching about hybrids at Stanford).
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