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Comment by indexerror | Hacker News Reader

They have Mukesh Ambani on board. He has a special interest in not letting renewable resources flourish as he is the chairman of Reliance Petroleum. A little good PR doesn't hurt though, so why not.

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Mukesh / Reliance have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in algae-based biofuels and other clean-energy technologies in the past decade. I happened to work for one of said companies.. We had regular visits from some of Reliance's most senior engineers, two of whom were on our Board of Directors. For a "PR Move", they sure spent a shitload of time, money, and energy trying to make our technology work.

What % of the overall business is it? You'd be surprised how little a shitload of money can be for a rich company.

I think it makes complete sense to have someone from the oil industry to be involved here, they'll offer useful perspective. This isn't your typical international governmental smoke and mirrors show, this is extremely successful men setting out to solve one of the world's biggest problems using their own money.

I'm pretty sure he is well aware that oil is running out ( much faster than coal at least), and is planning for the long term.

if you were a petroleum producer, wouldn't you want to get in on the ground floor of the thing that makes you obsolete?

If I were a petroleum producer, I want to get in the ground floor. If it does make me obsolete, I can adapt and become the big shark in the new ocean.

Did you know BP solar is one of the largest producers of solar?

Most petroleum producers rebranded themselves as energy suppliers quite some time ago, hell, even Saudi Aramco is doing solar (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/07/saudis-s...).

It makes sense, age of sail ship owners weren't extinguished by the age of steam, they just went on to buy steamships...

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