When it was installed in 2006, Napa Valley College's photovoltaic array was the fifth largest in the U.S. Now it sits motionless among grass and weeds, a casualty of false promises, bankruptcies and a capricious industry.

Researchers in Taiwan are working to expand five key energy technologies to help the island nation reach net-zero emissions by 2050, said James C. Liao, president of Taiwan's national academy Academia Sinica.

Entrepreneurial timing – among other ingredients – in cleantech can make or break a venture, says William Chueh, director of Stanford's Precourt Institute for Energy, in the debut episode of the new Stanford Ecopreneurship Podcast (and vodcast).