This month’s issue of Wired magazine includes a long feature, written by Washington Post national environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin, headlined “Why the Clean Tech Boom Went Bust.” (Disclosure: I’m a contributing editor at Wired, and Eilperin is an acquaintance.) The story, which joins a lengthening list of obits for the cleantech industries, has a certain (more…)

Go ahead — call me a hypocrite. I claim to be a cleantech venture capitalist yet I tell you here and now that I am not convinced of anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change (aka global warming). And I will audaciously tell you that my convictions on climate change in no way run contrary to my strong belief in the need for a cleantech revolution. (more…)

The capital of Germany, Berlin, is commonly referred to as one of the global leaders within the renewable energy economy, as, for example, it is the top cleantech exporting country, with more than a 16 percent share within the international cleantech trade. With multiple avenues to promote clean technologies, including an (more…)

The Global Cleantech Cluster Association is pleased to announce its winners for the 2011 Later Stage Award. They were judged by 28 cleantech venture capitalists, investors and serial entrepreneurs who collectively manage $3.5 billion in clean technology investment, lead by Head Judge Dr. Peter Adriaens. (more…)

Building on the success of an energetic premier conference held last year in Austin, this year’s Cleanovation again promised an interesting dynamic, where Israeli cleantech startups travel to Texas to pitch for investment from a community of experienced energy-sector investors. (more…)

Clean tech investors seem to agree that the criteria for a sound investment are still focused on the “Team, Technology, and Markets.”  But according to John Denniston, Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, “We’re either at the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning” (March 15 Keynote at the 2011 San Francisco Cleantech Forum). This shift in the clean (more…)

Newcomers to the power industry are often staggered by the sums of money involved.

For example, US$500,000,000 – half a billion dollars – buys a medium-sized combined-cycle gas plant. Not big, just medium. And it gets worse: that same half billion would buy a relatively small solid fuel plant, especially if you use the latest higher temperature, lower pollution (more…)