US cleantech investments almost double as overall capital investments decline.

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SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 04, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Venture capital investments in US cleantech companies grew by 41% to $961.7 million in Q2 2008, up from $683.5 million in Q1 2008, according to an Ernst & Young report based on data from Dow Jones VentureOne. This is the highest total cleantech investment on record, and comes amidst a quarter in which overall venture capital investment was down by nearly 8%. Year-on-year cleantech investment follows this upward trend, increasing 83% from Q2 2007.

Energy/Electricity Generation companies attracted the most investment of any sector this quarter with $494.9 million -- 52% of the total. The top three deals of the quarter were solar-related companies. The deals included, SunEdison, in Beltsville, MD, which raised $131 million, eSolar, in Pasadena, CA, which raised $130 million and BrightSource in Oakland, CA, which raised $115 million. It is also worth noting that corporate investors were involved in all of these deals.

Energy Efficiency companies made up 20% of total investment dollars and continues to be a top cleantech investment segment despite a slight 4% decline to $188.3 million in Q2. The third largest segment this quarter was Alternative Fuels, which comprised 13% of the overall US cleantech market. The segment, made up entirely of biofuels transactions, attracted $129 million of investment, down 44% from the previous quarter.
  • added August 04, 2008
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2 responses // US cleantech investments almost double as overall capital investments decline.

  •  

    In 1974, I made a speech predicting that alternative energy sources (I estimated the end of the oil supply at 2050 A.D. - (I think I was too optimistic there) and private security would be the growth investments of the future.

    I also predicted then the rise of what I called a "New Feudal Age," wherein people would have to wall themselves up in castle-like communities, that in order to fend off the criminal culture being fomented and created by the coup d'etat, military industrial complex government in now power in the U.S. I also said in that speech (one roundly pooh-poohed by my college professor and students audience) that the coup d'etat would ruin the nation's education system in order to provide for an electorate too ignorant to reach sensible consensus.

    I still hear from people who heard that speech (or read the chapbooks I wrote in 1987-88), many of them the same people who said I was an "crepe hanger" (an alarmist) Chicken Little.

    In those books, the foreword apologized to our children for what we were - are - doing to them and their future. I wish I had been wrong.

    Walks_in_Storms
  •  

    At least it looks like baby steps are being taken in the right direction finally.

    damnneargenius

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