Clean Tech Investments Soaring in 2010
April 3rd, 2010 by Zachary Shahan
Worldwide, investors put $1.9 billion into clean tech startups in the first three months of 2010. That is an 83% increase from the same quarter last year and a 29% increase from the fourth quarter of 2009. Additionally, the number of deals hit a record high.
This is what a new report from Cleantech Group and Deloitte shows.
Sheeraz Haji, president of Cleantech Group, says: “The bounce back in venture investment from lows in early 2009 has continued, with the first three months of 2010 representing the strongest start to a year we have ever recorded.”
The results come from a survey of investments made in 180 companies from North America, Europe, Israel, India, and China.
Electric car-related startups and solar technology startups received the most investment.
$704 million went to electric car-related startups, half of which went to one company — Better Place. Better Place is a Silicon Valley company that has signed contracts to build electric car charging stations and other infrastructure in Australia, California, Canada, Denmark, Hawaii and Israel.
Another $170 million is going to two electric car production companies in California — Fisker Automotive ($140 million) and Coda Automotive ($30 million).
$322 million was invested in solar startups. SpectraWatt, an Intel spinoff that makes solar cells, received $41.4 million and Enphase Energy, a company that makes microinverters for solar panel systems, received $40 million.
Energy efficiency startups, especially efficient lighting companies, received the third most in investments — $217 million in total.
The US accounted for 81% of 2010 first quarter investments (an increase of 133% from the first quarter of last year), followed by Europe (14%), China (4%) and India (1%).
via The New York Times, Green Inc
Image Credit: Fisker Automotive via flickr under a CC license
Keep up to date with all the hottest cleantech news by subscribing to our (free) cleantech newsletter, or keep an eye on sector-specific news by getting our (also free) solar energy newsletter, electric vehicle newsletter, or wind energy newsletter.
Google+
About the Author
Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.
Related Posts
India’s Azure Power To Set Up 1 GW Solar Power In Rajasthan →
Indian Railways Plans 1 GW Solar Power Capacity →
Anti-Dumping Duties Will Hurt The US Solar Industry →
Tariffs-Smariffs, We Can Already Make the World’s Lowest Cost Solar Modules — Here In The US →
-
http://GlobalPatriot.com Global Patriot
