Vinod Khosla kicked off the Management of Technology Lecture Series this afternoon at the Haas School of Business in Berkeley with more details about how he's built his investment portfolio targeting the renewables marketplace.

When considering new investments, he said he follows what he calls Khosla's Rules:

1) Attack Manageable but Material Pieces
2) Unsubsidized Market Competitiveness < 5 years
3) Technologies that Scale
4) Declining Cost with Scale
5) If It Ain't Cheaper, It Doesn't Scale

I came away from the slide presentation and question and answer period with the view that Khosla is targeting money-making opportunities that are trying to make a difference.

While the area of investment isn't the typical venture capital one, Khosla's approach to it is. He said the people running the companies in his portfolio believe they can all solve major resouce-related problems, "All of these companies believe they have the answer. It's highly unlikely they're all wrong."

Tags: venture+capital, vc, vinod+khosla, khosla+ventures.