John Doerr, Vinod Khosla headline GreenBeat 2010 conference | VentureBeat

John Doerr, Vinod Khosla headline GreenBeat 2010 conference | VentureBeat

The smart grid is turning into the Super Grid. What does that mean for cleantech investors? There’s only one place to find out: VentureBeat’s GreenBeat 2010 event, held at Stanford University on Nov. 3 and 4. Green superstars John Doerr and Vinod Khosla are just some of the speakers we’re announcing today.

More than ever, entrepreneurs and the smart investors who back them will have to take charge of building the Super Grid. Don’t expect help from the government in the short term: Politicians, oil interests and a skeptical public appear to have killed hoped-for green legislation this year.

But there’s no more important challenge that exists right now than green. And there’s plenty of action to debate. The Super Grid is what we’re creating by applying Silicon Valley-style innovation to the generation, transmission, and distribution of energy. Billion-dollar opportunities await those willing to tackle these challenges — and the experts we’re inviting will describe those opportunities, which range from a new generation of clean electric transport to renewable fuels and energy-storage technology.

They’ll also talk about why the green mission is so valuable: We badly need to transform our energy system so that it’s more efficient. And safer. Imagine if smart sensors had tracked pressure on the PG&E gas pipe that exploded last month; we could have saved lives. Safety applies on a national level, too: We need to be free ourselves from foreign oil, for which we’re spending billions of dollars and thereby propping up corrupt regimes. And we need to reduce emissions so that we’re supporting a sustainable economy.