Today in Green IT: Cleantech did not implode

greenitlogo

Despite all the challenges, cleantech survived in 2011, says Adam Lesser, GigaOM Pro’s Green IT analyst (subscription required). Or as Sheeraz Haji, the CEO of industry tracking research firm The Cleantech Group, informally titled his fourth-quarter-2011 presentation, “Cleantech Did Not Implode.”

The almost $9 billion in venture capital that cleantech pulled in during 2011 was 13 percent more than during 2010. And the news isn’t so much that venture capitalists don’t continue to see opportunity in cleantech, it’s that they continue to pour money into the opportunities they have already seen, points out Adam.

When Adam checked in with Ernst & Young’s cleantech director, Jay Spencer, back in October he noted, “We’re in the early stages and what we’re seeing now is technologies that have been in development hitting the marketplace, whether they’re renewables or smartgrid. It’s this natural evolution.”

To read his entire column check out GigaOM Pro. Here’s what else Adam is reading and thinking about this week:

  • On Landis+Gyr buying Ecologic Analytics: He says, “it’ll be interesting to see if the smartgrid market echoes what’s happening in the PC market, where many companies, like HP, are deciding that margins on hardware just aren’t worth the trouble, especially when there’s all that data to analyze.”
  • Wanted or not: Alternative-fuel cars flood auto show: As the Detroit Auto Show kicks off this week, there are a lot of hybrid and all electric concept cars and new car intros. But there is still some concern about how long the EV market will take to materialize.
  • SunPower and Total: CEO says Total will “turn around” SunPower: Total’s CEO, Christophe de Margerie, didn’t mince words when he said that SunPower would be bankrupt without the French oil company’s backing. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, de Margerie is sure he can help turn SunPower around.
  • Renewable energy passes nuclear as U.S. power source: Renewables passed nuclear in the nine months ended September, according to the Energy Information Administration.
  • Active Power gets $10 million flywheel order: Active Power, which has a flywheel system that acts as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) instead of a battery, has just scored a $10 million order from a major enterprise customer for a data center build in Switzerland. Rumor is that the customer is Yahoo.

Comments have been disabled for this post