According to a new report Cleantech Redefined: Why the Next Wave of Cleantech Infrastructure, Technology and Services Will Thrive in the 21st Century, by research firm Kachan and non-profits As You Sow and the Responsible Endowments Coalition, the second most popular retail investment during 2013, after property, was in clean energy; a quarter of all venture capital in 2012 went into clean technologies; and in the third quarter of 2013 venture capital deals for clean tech were 64 percent higher than in the first quarter, clear sign of an upturn.
Though 2013 investment for the renewable energy sector in 2013 is likely to be down on the previous year the figures revealed in this report contain cause for optimism. Increasing numbers of the world‘s largest companies are buying into cleantech companies, says the 38 page report, “in an effort to build the portfolios of clean products and services required to remain competitive and modernise their current offerings.”
Macroeconomic drivers have reignited 'cleantech' investment and expanded its reach across sectors and industries, and the opportunities are lucrative and vast. These market forces have led to an inflection point for cleantech and are now pushing it into the economic mainstream. Cleantech has had growing pains and technology failures, but there have also been successes and lessons learned. Now, investments are growing in clean infrastructure, technology, and services across all categories of the definition, including storage, efficiency, water, clean industry, transportation and more.
The report is intended to be a framework to help investors understand the vast opportunities that currently exist to deploy capital into these growing markets that are responding to unprecedented economic drivers. The balance of the document is spent looking at each of these high level categories, defining them and exploring trends and investment opportunities.
“It’s an exciting time to be investing in cleantech.” said co-author Danielle Fugere, President of As You Sow. “Cleantech investment is ideal for endowments, pension funds,and other institutional investors seeking to achieve solid risk adjusted returns while maintaining energy sector exposure,and, most importantly,acting in their constituents’ best long term interests, both financially and environmentally.”
