Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
Gaze into clean technology’s crystal ball for 2010
Clean technology investors who have suffered through 2009 can find cheer in a new report by the Cleantech Group that gives its top ten predictions for 2010.
The number one prediction: Private capital growth will recover, the research group said.
The group believes that the amount of money from global venture capital and private equity in clean technology in 2010 will surpass that in 2009 “by a healthy margin” and could be a record year. The group also is watching for major investments like Khosla Ventures’ raising $1 billion for renewable energy and clean technology funds, more capital in Asia and innovative fund strategies.
Here are the group’s other predictions for 2010:
2. Clean economies become the new space race. There will be changes in which countries and cities are driving global momentum, but greater protectionism surrounding the industry will be a drawback.
3. Electric cars take the back seat to smart mobility. The trend will influence city designs, shipping ports and governments’ tax incentives and budgets.
4. Resource constraints beyond carbon rise to the fore. As the global economy picks up, there could be price spikes that impact clean technology sectors, pushing companies to use resources more efficiently in order to maintain or boost their profitability.
T. Boone Pickens working on solar
T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire oil investor who is building the largest wind farm in the United States, is also setting his sights on solar power.
Pickens last month launched a campaign aimed at weaning the United States off its dependence on foreign oil and is in the midst of a nation-wide tour to promote it. Following a speech in Los Angeles, Pickens told me he is looking beyond his wind investments to solar energy and is eager to share his “Pickens Plan” with both of the U.S. presidential candidates. Here’s what he had to say:
Q: Do you think your plan to meet with Obama and McCain will happen any time soon?
A: Don’t know. It could. We’ll see.
Q: Are you investing in technologies other than wind?
A: I’m interested in solar, but I’m not near as far along. But I have a bunch of engineers that are with me working on solar.
Q: Are there any emerging technologies other than wind and solar that interest you?
T Boone Pickens is evidently unaware that there are TRILLIONS of barrels of oil in the USA proper.
Gull Island
Prudhoe Bay
Oil Shale in Colorado, Wyoming, & Montana
Oil in the mountains West of Denver
The Bakken doposit in South Dakota, North Dakota, montana & Canada
oil in the South That is being witheld from production by Government
Enough to last the USA 2000 years or more.
Nuclear is very clean???!!Are you shore man?Right now there’s no storehouses for nuclear waste products!Obama closed the last big project, where we will keep the garbage? In deep layers of the earth,just like scientist decided to keep CO2???Government don’t think abut the future.