We are happy to have The Modern Energy Forum as an advertiser on AltEnergyStocks.com once again. The 2012 Modern Energy Conference will be held in Denver from September 5 to September 7, 2012. Details of the the conference will be posted on AltEnergyStocks.com soon – for now, we encourage you to visit their site and have a look.

The post 2012 Modern Energy Forum appeared first on Alternative Energy Stocks.

I’m pleased to announce some significant changes on AltEnergyStocks.com: we have a new stocks page up as well as stock category pages and company pages. Our new stocks page is a gateway to the new site changes. In addition to our list of stocks, we’ve added links to the major stock categories at the top of the stocks page to let you navigate to specific categories you’re interested in. Our new solar page is an example of our stock category pages. The solar page contains a list of solar stocks and an abbreviated stock quote for those companies. If you click on a company name in the solar stock list, you will be taken to a page specifically for that company. The solar page also contains solar news headlines pertaining to the solar industry and solar investing. The full list of stock categories can be found on our main stocks page – the more popular stock categories can be found in the top navigation of our site which appears on every page. The Ascent Solar is an example of a company page. Here you will find a more detailed stock quote for the company and news headlines for Ascent Solar. We’ve also given our Cleantech News page a new look and made the headlines easier to scan. On this page, you’ll find the news healines pertaining to cleantech as a whole. If you’ve not signed up by RSS or email to our Cleantech News, this is a great way for the headlines in the cleantech world to be brought to you – you’ll find a subscription link at the bottom of the headlines. Over time, we will be expanding the features of these pages and improving upon their usefulness. As alway, we welcome your feedback and suggestions.

The post Site Changes at AltEnergyStocks.com: New Stocks Page, Stock Category Pages and Company Pages appeared first on Alternative Energy Stocks.

The following is a Special Information Supplement by our Featured Company Green Light New Orleans. Fundamental Concerns of Some Local Residents Addressed by Non-Profit New Orleans, Louisiana – Green Light New Orleans, an energy efficiency program, is still helping to rebuild New Orleans. Equal parts environmental and social aid, the non-profit’s solution to mitigate carbon emissions while helping low-income residents has demonstrated once again that simple ideas can result in remarkable impact. Green Light New Orleans sends volunteers to area homes to install free compact fluorescent light bulbs, educate homeowners on the energy saving and environmental advantages of CFLs, and discuss the importance of recycling used bulbs and take other energy efficient measures in their homes. Executive Director and Founder, Andreas Hoffmann, started the program in response to the 2005 storm. A Swiss-born roots rock musician, Hoffmann’s idea began in his own home, expanded to his band’s tour, and has since become one of New Orleans’ most effective energy-efficiency programs. “After Katrina I had to do something to help the city of New Orleans and it had to be connected to the cause of the storm: global climate change. When I returned to New Orleans I changed the light bulbs in my home and after experiencing the reduction on my energy bill first hand, I decided to use CFLs as a means to offset the tour pollution of my band. After we installed a few thousand CFLs to meet the tour goal, I quickly realized that there was a need for this kind of energy efficiency program, and founded Green Light New Orleans in October 2006,” said Hoffmann. The simple premise has net unmistakable results. In two years, the organization has installed 120,000 CFL light bulbs in New Orleans, enough to offset nearly 60 million pounds of carbon. The estimated 5 to 8 year savings is approximately $5.5 million for the city’s residents; an average household will save about $1400 in energy costs during the period. What’s more, Green Light New Orleans’ growth has been monumental. Over 3,000 households are currently on the organization’s waiting list for installation. This means that the organization currently has as many households waiting for immediate installation as it has completed throughout its entire history. The installation is free of charge to every resident. Perhaps what makes Green Light New Orleans most effective is its unique organization. Led by Hoffmann, three staff members organize packs of volunteers that descend on the non-profit’s base every week. Operating out of a brightly painted, shotgun-style row house close to Tulane University, Green Light New Orleans plans and prepares seemingly impossible logistics as routine: small windows of time in which residents will be home to receive volunteers; the appropriate quantity, size, and wattage of light bulb for each household; directions; maps; confirmations; names; and safety assessments. The three staff train and pair teams of volunteers with households while teaching them about the environmental and economic impact of the program. To date, over 1,600 volunteers have worked with Green Light New Orleans. Many volunteers are attracted to the program because of its unique combination of environmental and social agendas. The intimacy of working directly with homeowners – most affected in one way or another by the hurricanes – coupled with the opportunity to discuss climate change and energy costs with the immediacy of offering a solution is powerful. “The people we met and helped out were amazing. They were so friendly and excited about what was going on that it made it very enjoyable and worthwhile to change their light bulbs. Today we got to make a difference for people economically and environmentally. That alone is spectacular,” said a volunteer from Succasunna, New Jersey. Green Light New Orleans receives thirty or more applications for the program each day. Residents not only save money on their energy bills, but they also realize that there are several simple steps that can be taken to reduce energy usage and mitigate global warming. In a follow up survey conducted in June 2008, 57% of Green Light New Orleans program participants reported that Green Light’s service encouraged them to take other energy efficiency measures and almost all of the participants claimed that they are prepared to purchase CFLs when their current ones burn out. “I am elderly and just got back into my home after hurricane Katrina. I am on a fixed income and I would really appreciate all the help that your organization can give with energy efficient light bulbs and in return it would lower my light bill,” described one resident in her application to Green Light New Orleans. About one-third of the funding for Green Light New Orleans is through a carbon trading agreement with EcoSecurities, the largest carbon trader in the United States. Green Light New Orleans sells the carbon reduction generated by installing CFLs to EcoSecurities in order to offset pollution in other areas of the world. The rest of the program is funded by corporate sponsors such as Entergy New Orleans and Coca-Cola, as well as private donations. “We support Green Light New Orleans in their efforts to mitigate climate change at a grassroots, community level,” said James Heath, Head of U.S. Origination for EcoSecurities. “Citizens of New Orleans have experienced firsthand the effects of climate change and it is important to incorporate forward-thinking, energy efficiency measures in the rebuilding efforts. We are excited to be part of this partnership, and hope it will serve as a model for future projects.” The model for Green Light New Orleans has proven such a success that it has begun to expand to other communities. Hoffmann estimates that Green Light New Orleans will install over 3 million CFL light bulbs over the next 5 years. Should that goal be met, Hoffmann’s simple idea of changing light bulbs will result in the reduction of a whopping one billion 422 million pounds (1,422,000,000) of carbon from the earth’s atmosphere. About Green Light New Orleans: By helping households make the switch from incandescent light bulbs to energy efficient CFLs, Green Light New Orleans helps residents reduce their household energy consumption, save money on their energy bills, and encourages individuals to rebuild in a more affordable and environmentally conscious way. Green Light New Orleans focuses on changing awareness as they change bulbs, planting a seed that teaches participants that small changes can make a difference in combating the effects of global warming and rebuilding in a more efficient and sustainable manner. For more information please contact executive director Andreas Hoffmann or Lauren Tucker at 504.324.2429 or andreashoffmann@greenlightneworleans.org WWW.GREENLIGHTNEWORLEANS.ORG

The post Three Years After Katrina and Rita, New Orleans’ Grassroots Effort Brightens Environment, Community appeared first on Alternative Energy Stocks.

In June, we launched CleanTech News which generates the top headlines in the cleantech world by automatically by scanning over 240 cleantech blogs and news sources. Today we are launching an RSS feed for CleanTech News. The aim of this feed is to allow you to track what is happening in the cleantech world through a single feed. Tom and Charles have been using the CleanTech News feed for some time and they have also been providing feedback which has been used to improve the application that generates CleanTech News. Both Tom and Charles, who are voraciaous consumers of cleantech information, have found CleanTech News to be very useful. We are confident that you will agree and encourage you to sign up for CleanTech News and give it a try. We are also now using the FeedBurner service to distribute and track the RSS feed for Alt Energy Stocks. If you are currently following our site through RSS, please take a moment to switch over to the new feed at Alt Energy Stocks. Feedburner will give us aggregate information about our subscribers and readership and this will help us better serve your needs. Your old feed may work for sometime, but we will likely discontinue those feeds at some point so we do encourage you to switch over now. As always, we welcome your comments and feedback.

The post RSS Feeds for CleanTech News and Alt Energy Stocks appeared first on Alternative Energy Stocks.

The following is a special information supplement on behalf of our Featured Company Energy Cures. The Energy Kills, Energy Cures Campaign has launched supporting the interconnected solution to fighing poverty environmental degradation. The Energy Cures Campaign, a grassroots social and environmental call-to-action, launched across the world motivating people to stop the inherent cycle between poverty, dirty energy and its drastic affect on the environment. Providing a simple platform to support the renewable energy efforts of developing countries, Energy Cures creates an opportunity to get involved with a solution that benefits both people and the planet. By advancing the accessibility of modern energy solutions for the world’s impoverished, Energy Cures breaks the cycle of poverty and diminishes dirty energy’s contamination of both the environment and global economies. Public support and awareness is vital in reducing dirty energy’s devastating impact on the planet and resulting social implications. The Energy Cures Campaign serves as the clearinghouse to become educated on the issues, connected to the real stories and involved in the global action. By visiting EnergyCures.org, people make tax-deductible contributions directly financing entrepreneurial efforts of poverty-stricken nations and their quest to establish clean, renewable energy sources. By financing entrepreneurs around the globe working to make their communities safer and more sustainable places to live, the progression of invested projects has astounding benefits for the local health and economy, as well as the global environment. Worldwide, 1.6 billion people are without any access to electricity, with an additional 2.4 billion people subjected to rely on dirty fuels for every day use. Typically, dirty energy sources are all that is accessible to impoverished nations. Releasing dangerous particles into the atmosphere, not only does the consumption of this energy have a negative environmental and health impact, there is a significant social-economic one as well. “Statistics show that if a child stays home to collect firewood for cooking, instead of going to school, it is most likely their child will also be forced into a similar reality,” says Gina Rodolico of Energy Cures and Director of Communication for E+Co, the non-profit organization and catalyst behind the Campaign. “And if this child’s mother spends four hours of every day hauling water for her family’s daily use, the chances for escaping poverty practically vanish. But by investing in local, clean energy entrepreneurs and their businesses, we can develop a sustainable solution to multiple challenges.” The Energy Cures Campaign is a special initiative spearheaded by E+Co, a non-profit financial services organization. Over the past 13 years, E+Co has proven that it is possible to invest in local businesses that develop and deliver modern, clean energy in villages and cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America that allows for economic development, protects the planet and helps people escape the cycle of poverty. Since its inception, E+Co has mobilized over $157 million, provided modern energy to over 3.6 million people, supported almost 3,000 jobs and offset 2.2 million tons of CO2. Through Energy Cures, a goal to generate an additional $50,000 has been established to strengthen the efforts of further developing the supply chain for modern energy sources. As a grassroots movement to support clean energy advancement across the globe, the public’s direct involvement is crucial to the overall impact of this initiative. By visiting EnergyCures.org, real life stories and projects of the entrepreneurs illustrate how individual support has a tremendous impact on community. For instance, a tax-deductible donation of $8.33/month (a total year contribution of $100) equals the cost of five clean, efficient cookstoves in Tanzania. An E+Co-supported enterprise, Toyola, distributes these $20 cookstoves to local families. Not only is the local entrepreneur establishing a revenue stream, with use of a cookstove each of the five families save $35 annually in fuel costs. A savings of $35 per family is a significant impact for a country with a per capita GDP of $610. The Energy Cures Campaign seeks to end world poverty while protecting the planet. Believing that market-driven businesses are a solution to meeting the energy needs of over 2 billion people in an environmentally-conscious way, Energy Cures establishes sustainable communities, stimulates impoverished economies, and preserves environmental resources. For more information and to become involved, visit Energy Cures.

The post Energy Kills, Energy Cures Campaign Launches appeared first on Alternative Energy Stocks.

So goes the old adage. We thought the following, recently published in The Economist of gas consumption in 2003, fully embodied the true essence of that phrase. Have a good day!

The post Gas Consumption – An Image Is Worth A Thousand Words appeared first on Alternative Energy Stocks.

An interview with our analyst, Tom Konrad, with Nick Bruse of The Cleantech Show is now available. In it, they discuss various strategies and the outlook for the Cleantech investment space, as well as some of Tom’s ideas on industry regulation. You can download or listen to a podcast of the interview here.

The post Interview with Tom Konrad on the CleanTech Show appeared first on Alternative Energy Stocks.

 That Polyanna of energy price prediction, the International Energy Agency (IEA), issued a new report today which, while it still does not acknowledge peak oil, predicts a supply crunch in the 2010-12 time range.

Despite four years of high oil prices, this report sees increasing market tightness beyond 2010, with OPEC spare capacity declining to minimal levels by 2012,” the IEA said in its Medium-Term Oil Market Report, which is published every six months. “Low OPEC spare capacity and slow non-OPEC production growth are of significant concern

I was blown away… as were most energy stocks today. Big movers among stocks I’ve mentioned recently:

Beacon Power (BCON) up 24%

Lighting Science (LSGP) up 28%

M~Wave (Blue Sun Biodiesel) (MWAV) up 13%

Satcon (SATC) up 18%

As usual, moves in Renewable Energy companies are driven by changes in oil price sentiment, even if they are involved in electricity, which is not (yet) a substitute for oil.  If investors were truly rational (they’re far from it), only M~Wave would have seen a big move today.  Although true rationality would have seen none of these moves, because most of us know that the IEA won’t see peak oil coming until it’s about five years in the rear view mirror.

Links:

Article from Bloomberg

Reuters Article

DISCLOSURE: Tom Konrad and/or his clients have positions in these companies mentioned here: BCON, LSGP, MWAV, SATC.

DISCLAIMER: The information and trades provided here are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to buy or sell any of these securities. Investing involves substantial risk and you should evaluate your own risk levels before you make any investment. Past results are not an indication of future performance. Please take the time to read the full disclaimer here.

The post IEA wakes up and smells the Peak Oil appeared first on Alternative Energy Stocks.

I am very pleased to announce the launch of cleantech news which is the first phase of an ambitious plan to create a cleantech information community. The cleantech news page consists of news items that are generated automatically by scanning over 200 cleantech blogs and news sources. The algorithm that is used to establish relevance and determine ranking currently takes three main criteria into account: 1) what other bloggers are saying about a news item, 2) how users across the Internet prefer a news item (which we call ‘social popularity’), 3) the ‘freshness’ or age of the article. Over time, the algorithm will evolve and become smarter as it incorporates new criteria, some of which is discussed below in “What’s Next?”. When we set out to build the application, we were not sure what we would get. I am very pleased to say that the quality of the cleantech news is better than I had expected. Of course, you are the real judge of that and we welcome your comments and feedback. Please note that the Alt Energy Stocks blog will continue to be focused on investing in cleantech. At this time, the clean tech news page will have a broader, more general focus on cleantech. How To Get on CleanTech News If you have a blog or news source that you would like to appear on the cleantech news page, the first step is to make sure your RSS¹ feed is added to our list of clean tech feeds. We have done a good job seeding the list with many clean tech feeds but we are sure that we are missing other quality sources of information. To add a feed, you will need to register – of course, registration is free. We accept all feeds that relate to some aspect of clean technology. We often get requests for links and this is a good way of getting a link from our site. All feeds accepted will appear in our list of feeds. The listing of a feed does not ensure that stories will make it to the cleantech news page – that is determined by the algorithm. Writing good content that is engaging to the cleantech blogosphere is the best way of being featured on the cleantech news page. Providing insight and coverage of other important news items in the clean tech blogosphere will also help. What’s Next? Cleantech news is the first step in creating a cleantech information community. When I use the term cleantech information community, I use it to describe an online community built around cleantech news and information that allows for participation, sharing, discussion and networking. Here are some of the features that will be added to the current cleantech news that we hope will help us to grow into a vibrant cleantech community: Additional Categories – At this time, we have a general category for ‘cleantech news’. We will be adding categories for the many areas of cleantech, categories such as: climate change, ethanol, solar power, biofuels, wind, geothermal etc. These categories will contain news that only pertains to that topic; this will make it easier for you to focus on the particular aspects of cleantech that you are interested in. A bit farther down the road, we also plan on tracking specific companies and ticker symbols in this way. RSS Feeds – Each category will offer an RSS feed of its news items to make information tracking easier. User Submission – Users will be able to submit stories directly. We will also continue to automatically scan the blogosphere for important cleantech news. User Voting – Users will be given the opportunity to vote on news items. Voting gives users a direct method of influencing what we read – this makes the news smarter as we harness the collective wisdom of our users. User Comments – Users will be able to comment on the news; sometimes the comments are better than the news itself. Users will be able to comment on a specific new item or they will be able to comment on all the news for the day in a category. Commenting on the news for the day provides an opportunity for the news to be summarized. Focus on Users – A community is built of people and any good community should highlight the people in that community. Our pages will designed to spotlight the participation and contribution of each category’s top users. A category is made richer and more valuable if we can quickly identify the experts in that category. User profiles allow users to let the community know who they are and what affiliations they have in the cleantech community. We hope this will encourage networking and interaction directly between users. Focus on Information – In addition to every category page identifying the top users, category pages will also identify the top news items over the last year and the top websites for that category. Feedback – We are committed to making the community better by listening to your feedback and suggestions. The community pages will provide unobtrusive ways for you to tell us what you think. We will use that information to improve the community. We are excited about these changes and the road ahead. We welcome and appreciate your feedback on clean tech news. ¹RSS (Really Simple Syndication/Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS feed to make it easier for their users to follow changing content. More on RSS and web feeds.

The post The Launch of CleanTech News appeared first on Alternative Energy Stocks.

As part of our ongoing series on stories on investment in the cleantech sector, we had a chance to discuss the sector with one of the venture capitalists at Emerald Technology Ventures. Scott MacDonald is an Investment Director with Emerald Technology Ventures, a global leader in cleantech venture capital. Founded in 2000 under the name SAM Private Equity, Emerald is a pioneer in this rapidly emerging sector and is focused on innovative technologies in energy, materials and water. With offices in Zurich, Switzerland and Montreal, Canada, Emerald manages three venture capital funds and two venture capital portfolio mandates totaling over US$380 million. Scott currently serves as Chairman of RuggedCom and as a Director of Solicore and SoftSwitching Technologies. Prior to joining SAM, Scott held the position of Managing Director at OPG Ventures Inc., the venture capital subsidiary of Ontario Power Generation. Previous to OPG Ventures, Scott worked for ACF Equity, an early-stage venture capital company focused on investing in information technology companies. Scott graduated with a Bachelors degree from McMaster University and an MBA from Dalhousie University. He is a member of the North American Advisory Committee of the CleanTech Venture Network. I know a bit about the history of SAM and Emerald Technology Ventures, and as one of the oldest cross-border investment groups in the cleantech area, I am very curious to get the Emerald Technology take on a number of issues. So we put to Scott a few thoughts and questions to get their take: Emerald sponsored the San Francisco GreenVest 2007 conference I am chairing in June, and you are speaking there – can you share a few of your insights on the future of the cleantech area as an investment asset class? I think we are in the early days but there is certainly an element of notoriety that the sector has attracted over the past 12 months with scientists, politicians and venerable VCs claiming action is required now to save the planet from global warming. A reputable and experienced LP in the venture asset class told me just last week that every generalist fund they speak with mentions an initiative in cleantech. I think the great generalist funds will invest in the sector (as you know a few already are) and they will likely be successful. The specialist funds like Emerald will continue to map out and invest in innovating technologies because of our technical expertise and experience. Based on a number of successes exits to date in our first funds (Evergreen, Schmack Biogas, Pemeas), the specialization strategy seems to be working well. A really exciting development is that we are starting to see repeat entrepreneurs. Cleantech entrepreneurs that have successfully exited and are looking to try it again – and we couldn’t be happier. This was a key factor in the growth of the IT sector in the late 80s and 90s. And can you fill me in a bit on the ins and outs of the recent fund history – the mandates with CDP and Ontario Power, your fund raise last year, and the subsequent MBO to form Emerald? In 2000, SAM Group (Sustainable Asset Management), a leading asset management company specializing in sustainability investments and headquartered in Zurich, launched SAM Private Equity as its venture capital arm. That same year SAM Private Equity closed the SAM Sustainability Private Equity Fund and the SAM Private Equity Energy Fund with a combined EUR 90 million in commitments from leading institutions and strategic corporations. Both of these first funds are fully invested. In 2004, SAM Private Equity was awarded the portfolio management mandate from la Caisse de Dépot et Placement du Québec (CDP), a large Canadian-based pension fund, to manage its direct energy technology venture capital portfolio. Following the awarding of this mandate, SAM Private Equity increased its North American presence with two former members of the CDP team and established a North American office in Montreal, Quebec. In 2005, SAM Private Equity was awarded its second portfolio management mandate from Ontario Power Generation, a large Canadian electric utility, to manage its direct energy technology venture capital portfolio. To further strengthen its North American investment focus, two members of the former venture capital arm of Ontario Power also joined the team. In March we announced the final close of our latest cleantech focused venture fund with commitments of EUR 135 million (US$180 million). We are going through a name change but the fund will be renamed Emerald Technology Ventures Fund II. Strong investor demand helped us exceed our original target for the new fund of EUR 100 million. Investors in the new fund are leading investment companies, financial institutions and multinational corporations from around the globe including: GIMV – Belgium, Rabobank – Netherlands, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec – Canada, Axpo Holding – Switzerland, Springbridge Limited (Advised by Consensus Business Group – UK), Credit Suisse – Switzerland, Deere & Company – USA, DSM Venturing – Netherlands, The Dow Chemical Company – USA, KPC Energy Ventures, Inc. – Kuwait, Piper Jaffray Private Capital – USA, Suncor Energy Inc. – Canada, Unilever Corporate Ventures and Volvo Technology Transfer AB – Sweden. I have to ask, the name change – Sustainable Asset Management was an old brand in the cleantech investment sector, why the name change to Emerald? Following the buy-out we are a private independent VC manager now and as such can no longer use the SAM brand. The SAM brand is powerful but it also was the source of some market confusion for our venture capital division. It’s clear now that Emerald is an agile and independent global VC manger with in-house expertise in the cleantech sector focused on investing exclusively in the cleantech sector and we have a new fund to do deals. How many deals have you done from the new fund, how much capital have you employed, and what are you expecting to do over the next 12- 24 months? We have made three investments out of the new fund and are closing on two more which should be announced within the month. We have only announced two of the investments to date – Vaperma and Identec (details of each is on our web site) www.emerald-ventures.com I would expect we will invest in about 6 portfolio companies in total this year. We like to invest between US$2 -5 million in the first round depending on the opportunity and the stage. Technology, market and management are what’s important to us – we will consider all stages. Well…if it’s just a conceptual idea on a bar napkin we need to know the entrepreneur has made himself and others very wealthy in the past (preferably us – back to the serial entrepreneur comment). What’s your passion these days? What technologies are you focused on? I think there is an incredible opportunity for new technologies to help upgrade the antiquated electricity grids in Europe and North America and to leap frog into the incredible build-out that is going on in countries like India and China. China last year built an average of five 300 megawatt electricity plants a week and energy consumption is expected to continue rising fast as China aims to quadruple the size of its economy by 2020. This means a lot of new grid infrastructure technology will be deployed. We have a number of portfolio companies in the “smart Grid��? space and will continue to seek out investments in this space. You’ve had a couple of recent exits in fuel cells – what fund were they from, and has that changed your appetite for similar technology areas in the future? We have had recent exits in this area: Pemeas which we sold to BASF and Cellex which we sold to Plug. We still have an number of other FC investments in our portfolio that we are bullish on – Angstrom Power an
d PolyFuel. I would say we have learned a lot about the general FC market and understand many of the technology challenges and market adoption risks much better. We are still interested in the FC space – I would just say we are a more sophisticated FC investor now. What does Emerald see as the main differences between investing in cleantech in Europe versus the US? The topic of an article in itself but quickly: Deal structure, Corporate governance model, Company history (many family business in Europe), labour laws, language, proximity and access to stock exchanges which are more accommodating to VC backed companies (Frankfurt Prime Standard, AIM), valuations (typically more favourable than the US – comparable to Canada where we are also very active). The short answer is lots but both regions provide great opportunity to generate investor returns. Again or investment thesis is based on the fact that unlike IT, cleantech is a global business and as such, investment opportunities are not limited to Silicon Valley or any other specific geography. At Emerald Technology Ventures we have taken a distinctive approach to addressing the challenges associated with technology specialization and geographic diversity. Our approach includes having technically competent people in-house and locating our Partners and Technology Specialists in two of the most important Cleantech markets in the world: North America and Europe. We have done a lot of writing at Cleantech Blog on topics including ethanol, solar – so I’d like to get your 1 sentence rapid fire take on a couple of always topical cleantech investment debates: Thin film vs. Conventional PV Thin film if you have deep pockets and patience Solar concentrators vs. Flat Panel No comment, yet. Cellulosic vs. Corn Ethanol Science project vs. commodity. I’m a VC…science project always wins. Cleantech vs. Greentech Make great products, build great businesses and provide great returns to investors (and hopefully help out our world along the way) and no one will care what you call it. Thanks Scott. Especially with those last comments, you’ve provided some good food for thought. The venture capital sector is built around high risk, high reward, and you guys are certainly in the mix. We continue to keep our fingers crossed that cleantech sector can deliver on the rewards side. You can find more on Emerald at www.emerald-ventures.com. And don’t forget to visit GreenVest on June 25 in San Francisco. Neal Dikeman is a founding partner at Jane Capital Partners LLC, a boutique merchant bank advising strategic investors and startups in cleantech. He is founding contributor of Cleantech Blog, a Contributing Author for Inside Greentech, and a Contributing Editor to Alt Energy Stocks.

The post Cleantech Venture Capital – Still Rising appeared first on Alternative Energy Stocks.