Investment in Solar Continued Strong in April (Dominated Cleantech Investments)

May 19th, 2011 by Zachary Shahan

I’m not sure how much of a surprise this will be for people, but news is 45% of cleantech investments in April ($330 million) were investments in solar power startups. The other cleantech categories receiving large investments included:

LED Lighting — $61.5 million
Wind Power — $44.8 million
Fuel cells & energy storage — $38.4 million
Smart Grid — $25.3 million
Biofuels — $15 million
Power conversion & efficiency — $12.2 million
Tidal power — $6 million
Clean fossil fuel burning — $2 million
Transportation — $700,000

Now, while I think it’s great news that investment in solar energy (as well as these other cleantech sectors) is continuing strong, I don’t want to detract from the fact that we don’t, technically, need any scientific breakthroughs anymore to address climate change (and haven’t for awhile). While I generally take this as a given, it has hit me recently that many people not so involved in this arena might think that we do. A few recent posts on Climate Progress recently brought this potential public and political confusion to the forefront for me. So, more than usual, I’m going to try to emphasize that while R&D and significant technological breakthroughs are great(!) and could go a long way in helping us address critical environmental issues (most notably, global climate change), we are not waiting on any breakthroughs to make truly clean, renewable energy a legitimate solution that can be implemented NOW.

OK, enough with the tangent?

In total, venture capital investments in cleantech companies came to $2.6 billion in the first quarter of 2011. The $330 million invested through 26 deals in April was a bit lower than the average this year, but projections are that investments will pick up again and 2011 will be a big year for cleantech. And solar is expected to remain a big investment sector.

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.