Green Options

Come 2011, Tesla Motors plans to stop selling its famed roadster. Why? Because no one will build it.

Deep within the Securities and Exchange Commission paperwork Tesla filed ahead of its IPO was the announcement. The two-seater–and its souped up Roadster Sport sibling–will end production next year. If there is a replacement, it won’t be available until 2013…at the earliest.

In one of the renewable energy sector’s largest IPO’s ever, China’s Longyuan Power Group Corp, Asia’s largest wind power generator is raising money in a share offering this month that is expected to raise $2.2 billion,  with trading scheduled to begin on Dec. 10.

Who’s buying? Billionaire Wilbur L. Ross for one; is getting $100 million in shares for W.L. Ross & Co. This $2.2 billion Chinese wind power IPO may be the beginning of regular investment activity in renewable energy, regardless of climate considerations.

Uber heavy hitter John Macdonald, Chairman and CEO of the Vancouver-based solar energy company Day4 Energy, recipient of eight honourary degrees and former MIT professor, knows a thing or two about renewable energy.

He also readily admits, with a signature askew smile and hearty laugh, that “being an academic is possibly the worst possible preparation for the business world,” and endorses a strong marketing presence in any renewable energy start up because the engineers “can’t seem to understand why somebody wouldn’t want this marvelous invention!”

It’s 7:52pm Wednesday night at the venture capital-esque forum put on by the VEF on CEO War Stories.