Cleantech Investments Grow 12% in Q3, US Leads the World

This is a really interesting report, with lots of insightful data, from Sustainable Business.com.  Not only does it give a very good overview of cleantech investments but, at same time, digs down into the individual sectors that make up cleantech investments.

It fits with our believe, articulated here and on the show, that there is a very strong green economy growing across the globe.  Despite our worldwide turndown, money is flowing into building a clean infrastructure of future sustainability.  Look at this quote taken from the article which bodes well for our eventual transformation to EV's:  " While financing remains constrained, it's still growing," says Sheeraz Haji, CEO of Cleantech Group. "Energy Storage emerged as our top sector, indicating continued strong interest in advanced technologies for grid-storage as well as for electric vehicles."
 
Here's an overview of the various sectors and the Q3 investments:


Energy Storage Leads
For the first time, energy storage was the leading sector by amount invested ($514 million), followed by solar ($350 million) and energy efficiency ($223 million).

Energy efficiency had the most deals, however, with 34 funding rounds, ahead of solar (33 deals) and energy storage (19 deals).

Here are the largest transactions in each of the top sectors:
Energy Storage: $514 million in 19 deals

• Bloom Energy (California): $150 million for solid-oxide fuel cell technology;
• Boston-Power (Massachusetts): $125 million for lithium-ion battery production;
• ClearEdge Power (Oregon): $73.5 million for silicon-based stationary fuel cells.

Solar: $350 million in 33 deals

• HelioVolt (Texas): $85 million for CIGS thin-film solar cells;
• OneRoof Solar (California): $50 million for residential solar/roofing systems; 
• CaliSolar (California): $26 million for solar cells that can use non-pure silicon.

Energy Efficiency: $223 million in 34 deals

• Fusion-io (Utah): $61.5 million for efficient servers and workstations; 
• SynapSense (California): $16 million for data center efficiency solutions; 
• Elstat (UK): $15 million for energy management devices for commercial beverage coolers.

Transportation: $177 million in 15 deals

• Coda Automotive (California): $66 million for electric vehicles manufacture; 
• INRIX (Washington): $37 million for predictive traffic services and solutions; 
• SmartDrive Systems (California): $10 million for fleet management solutions.  

The link to more reading:  http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/22992.

All good news, we think, and the question comes back to how well you, and your company, are positioned to benefit, from the sustainable and financial sides, from a new, growing green economy?  I know my company, Arpin Group, is right in the middle of the fray, and already seeing a very good ROI on our investments in green.  

Clearly, reading this article, we are not alone.  Jump in with us--the water is fine.