eetimes: Tech Comes Clean

"Unless you live under a rock, you can't avoid all the bad news about the environment. Global warming, carbon footprints, extreme weather, rising sea levels, the possible extinction of polar bears--it's everywhere. Oh, and at our current rate of growth, there will be another 3 billion people on the planet within the next 40 years, up from 6 billion today.


As a market , "cleantech" is large and growing. According to a report by CleanEdge Inc., company revenue in the biofuel, wind, solar-photovoltaic and fuel cell markets is expected to top $250 billion within the decade, up from $77 billion last year. And global investment in energy technologies reached close to $150 billion in 2007, according to research firm New Energy Finance, as reported by CleanEdge in its 2008 report.


"The market size for cleantech will be measured in the trillions of dollars -- it's immeasurably deep," said Erik Straser, partner and leader of the cleantech team at venture capital firm Mohr, Davidow Ventures (Palo Alto, Calif.) Mohr, Davidow has investments in 11 cleantech companies to date, including those exploring solar, biofuel and hydrogen fuel cell technologies."