Vinod Khosla: The most hated man in cleantech

Vinod Khosla is considered the leading cleantech investor in the world today but many of his peers still wish he would shut up. A founder of computer company Sun Microsystems (JAVA) and former general partner at venture capital powerhouse Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Vinod Khosla piled into the green investment space more than five years ago and was an early believer.

He has since become a vocal cheerleader for the sector. On September 1, he announced that he had raised a whopping $1 billion for investments in a new venture capital fund, Khosla Ventures, to be focused on green technologies. Prominent backers including CalPers, the powerful and enormous public workers pension fund for California. But along the way Khosla has quietly alienated many in the venture capital green investment community with his brash public statements at big conferences. "What is he bashing this week?" quipped one green technology consultant when Khosla's name came up in conversation at the recently concluded AlwaysOn Going Green Conference in Sausalito, California.