The Green Frog from Silicon Valley

Top 5 countries active in cleantech innovation

Clean technology innovation is a global phenomenon. And it is not just because global warming is every country's problem. It has led to a fairly healthy M&A and IPO international market despite a severe financial recession in the last two years. So what countries fare better than others? The Cleantech Group in partnership with the WWF recently released a global innovation cleantech index.

There are a few surprises in the study that looked at 38 countries (picture above - courtesy of Cleantech Group) across multiple factors including energy policies,  entrepreneurial culture, access to capital, industry revenues, and the number of cleantech start-ups that went public or got acquired. US does not rank first, nor China, when countries are normalized by their Growth Domestic Product (GDP). The answer lies in Scandinavia, which takes three spots in the top-5 countries that had the most impact.  The global index compiled data from INSEAD, OCDE, the World Bank and other organizations. Here is the  list of the most active countries in cleantech. 

How to invest in cleantech and create sustainable value?

The Cleantech Group released the third quarter 2011 numbers last week. Their CEO, Sheeraz Haji, reassured the press that “Solyndra’s downfall seems to have little impact on VC’s appetite in cleantech”. More than $2.2Bn was invested across 189 deals, marking an improvement of 12% over last quarter and 23% over the same quarter last year.

The PR debacle over Solyndra is certainly intensified by the political climate ahead of the 2012 Presidential Election. Nonetheless, it raises some crucial questions on the role of the US Government. Recent reports show that a number of VCs shared concerns about the loan to Solyndra. A close adviser to President Obama, Larry Summers, shared the view that the “Government is a crappy VC” and suggested changes to the DOE loan program.

Solar PV and the view from eastern Europe

Eastern Europe's Cold-War era energy infrastructure is an exciting proposition for modernization, but a risky one for investors in a region where power generation and distribution are still so intimately linked to political control.

When we hear about feed in tariffs in the PV solar industry in Europe, we normally think about Germany’s massively successful scheme. But we don’t hear much from the new member states (NMS) in the EU.