Venture Capital Flowing into Green Technology
July 30, 2008
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A report released by the Cleantech Group shows that investment in the second quarter of 2008 totalled an impressive $2 billion, spread across 96 companies. The total represents a new record for investment in green technology as companies see a great opportunity in profiting from people and companies wanting to cut their carbon footprint and stop global warming.
The $2 billion is a 58% increase from the same quarter in 2007, and a jump of 48% from the first quarter of this year.
The technologies that received the most attention from investors are solar-thermal and biofuels that use non-food sources.
As well, the investments were spread around the world, including North America, Europe, and increasingly in China and India. America accounted for the largest portion of investment, accounting for 75% of the total. California alone represented about 40% of all investment. China, whose market for green technology is growing rapidly, made up 12% of total investment dollars.
Solar-thermal technology is gaining a lot of attention and shows the potential to be cost competitive with traditional power plants. However, the cost and risk of building the facilities remains high, though as the recent investment shows, companies are increasingly willing to take this risk to cut their carbon footprint.
In light of the current world food crisis, investment in biofuels is shifting rapidly to technologies that use non-food crops as their biomass. A fair bit of this is being concentrated on algae, which is being touted as a possible source of jet fuel.
Algae’s oily properties make it an ideal source of biofuels. However, there remain significant challenges of growing the crop in large enough quantities for commercial use. Much of the investment in algae will be used to solve this problem and bring algae to the masses that see it as a great way to reduce their carbon footprint. Brian Fan, senior director of the Cleantech Group said, “For the first time, algae companies are attracting large, follow-on investment rounds.”
Four of the top five deals in the quarter were for solar technology, while the fifth was in cellulosic ethanol.
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