If you google "Resource Consumption", then you will quickly find out that together with World Peace and Poverty this is one of the hottest topics on the global agenda. Interestingly, two of the most essential resources (potable water and clean air) are available basically free of any charge. No surprise then that these resources are becoming scarce. The market, defined as all actors on a given playing field, will not solve this effectively under the current rules of the game. It may solve it when it is too late, i.e. through means that no one will like. Balancing consumption and solving the puzzle drive our policy makers, and their actions tilt the playing field. It is because of their actions in the early '90s that we are discussing hydrogen infrastructures at Hydrogen Conferences today. Players and policy makers alike observe the same events that constitute the resource consumption puzzle. If we understand the puzzle better, then we can predict what policies to expect, which ones will stand, and which will not. And also, where adding value to solving the puzzle will be most effective, most needed and easiest, where support will flow to, and where we can most efficiently de-risk our new technologies. From the perspective of a venture capitalist, I will describe some of today's issues which every hydrogen start-up (every business to a larger or smaller extent) should address either directly or indirectly in their business plan: How does the technology relate to the Resource Consumption Puzzle? How effective is the business plan on the chosen playing field(s)? How robust is the proposition under the shale gale? What about the social sciences? Finally, I will give some examples of high tech projects in developing economies being implemented to the benefit of all involved, robustly supported by public policy makers, and that are de-risking propositions effectively. (c) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association
