The Week in Cleantech

On Sunday, Aline van Duyn argued that businesses face clean water scarcity risks. Arguments about business risk and water scarcity, or about investing in water as the next hot commodity, come and go, but nothing ever seems to stick. This is probably because very few companies have yet managed to make big bucks from water problems. However, on the risk side, things could materialize sooner than some think. Question: what's put Canada on the map globally, attracted vast amounts of capital, has all oil majors in a stampede, and is (tacitly) key to America's plans for a safe and...

On Sunday, Maria Manka at the Green Options Blog asked if branding will be blowing in the wind farms. On Monday, Utility analyst Daniel Scotto warned of increasing power outages in an interview with EnergyTechStocks. On Tuesday, Will Dunham at Reuters broke the news of another large chuck of the Antarctic ice shelf disintegrating. On Wednesday, Marianne Lavelle of Beyond the Barrel rolled out the news of truckers backing a national 65 mph speed limit to save gas (and money.)  On Thursday, Katie Fehrenbacher at Earth2Tech listed...

On Tuesday, Michael Hoexter at RenewableEnergyWorld covered the increasing number of companies constructing Concentrating Solar Power plants around the world. Dave Room at EcoLocalizer reported on a new model for residential solar purchasing: 24 neighbors banded together to put out their own Request For Proposals (RFP.) On Wednesday, Big Gav at Peak Energy rounded up stories on a less talked about biofuel, biogas, which I prefer to ethanol and biodiesel because of the superior crop yields in terms of miles per acre.  Miles per acre was big on the blogs this week, with both me and...

jcwinnie at After Gutenberg detailed the Mcgyan process which promises to convert a much array of oil feedstocks into biodiesel with a reusable catalyst and less waste. AutoblogGreen plugged us in to Zap's new Prius PHEV conversion kit, but Green Car Congress brought us a study that warned we might need to do some serious water planning before such too many people start using them. On Monday, Craig Rubens at Earth-to-Tech painted a picture of a new photovoltaic coating from Corus Colors. On Wednesday, David Erlich at Cleantech.com rolled out the story of GE's...

On Wednesday, David Strahan at The Guardian calculated some lump sums for us. A couple of years ago, when it became clear that we were running into serious supply problems with oil, one pundit after another told us that we would never have to worry about coal. After all, in the US alone, there was 250 years' worth of supply at current consumption rates. Well, that was then, and this is now. And if skyrocketing feedstock costs aren't enough to deter you from building a coal plant, maybe rising capital costs will. Is King Coal's reign looking shaky? It...

On Sunday, TraderMark at Fund My Mutual Fund opined that the solar sector was headed for a shakeout. Well, he didn't quite opine that...he reported the major points from Greentech Media's Solar Market Outlook event. The main conclusion is that it's not only 2008 that's going to be a tough year for solar, but rather the next 3 to 4 years as the industry matures and consolidates. TraderMark argues that the solar sector will follow a boom-bust-echo path; we're currently just exiting boom times (read: incredibly rich valuations times) and the whole think is about to go bust, but...

On Monday, Richard T. Stuebi at the Cleantech Blog gave us the heads up on a McKinsey Global Institute study on energy 'productivity' (read efficiency). MGI makes an good case for policy-makers to pay more attention to energy efficiency, and the authors outline what investment commitments would have to made in different sectors for their ideal scenario to be realized. One interesting insight - the residential sector would be near the top at 25% of investment flows. Are retail energy efficiency solutions one piece of regulation away from taking off? On Tuesday, Nick Hodge at Seeking Alpha told...

On Monday, Lisa Lee at Reuters informed us that banks were to weigh CO2 emissions in power lending. This is, without a doubt, the story of the week. However, anybody who has been following this space knew that the writing was on the wall. Cai Steger at The Invisible Green Hand put together a comprehensive list of coal power projects that have either been canceled or put on hold due to environmental concerns in the recent past. Somewhat paradoxically, the same week, a major US coal export terminal announced that it was boosting capacity. Don't be fooled, although coal...

A few weeks ago, I argued that signs were pointing toward an imminent return of diesel powertrain technology in North America. On Monday, however, Mike Millikin at Green Car Congress informed us that US new-car shoppers did not see diesels as a likely mainstream powertrain. Instead, hybrids really seem to have captured the imagination of US car shoppers. The respondents' perception of diesel seems rooted in stereotypes dating back to the 1980s, which I suppose is normal given that that is when US drivers last experienced diesel engines to any significant degree. It will be interesting to see whether...

On Tuesday, Todd Woody at Green Wombat told us the the clock was ticking on the crucial solar investment tax credit. When the solar ITC was dropped, the potential impacts were unclear although many folks had a good idea of what might happen. It now seems as though this is indeed throwing a spoke in the wheel of more solar development in the US, although industry leaders apparently remain sanguine. Given the amount of debt financing solar developments typically get, throw on top of ITC concerns high levels of uncertainty in capital markets over the direction of the...

On Sunday, Cory Jenkins at Seeking Alpha told us about the next green energy phenomenon. The carbon offset space where credit origination is coupled with commoditization of what would otherwise be 'waste' (i.e. methane from livestock can be used to produce power instead of vented into the atmosphere) is a space I am very excited about. Some of you may have read the article in the December edition of Bloomberg Magazine on privately-owned Blue Source, and, if you haven't, I'd definitely recommend it. I think the business model makes an increasing amount of sense the more whatever you initially...

Technology Review, my favorite science publication, gave us last week a wrap-up of the year in energy. It's a recap of the main energy-related stories the magazine published in 2007, and is well-worth a read if you want to start 2008 up-to-date on where the science is on most issues of relevance to alt energy investors. On Monday, Jerome Ball at Alternative Energy Trading argued that the solar PV industry would veer into oversupply in 2008. This is one of the most cogent analysis of the solar PV market I have read in a while, and it takes...

What were Cleantech bloggers blogging about in 2007?  We don't have to wonder... instead, I asked Brian, AltEnergyStocks.com's web guru, to do a special run of our Cleantech News Algorithm. The Cleantech News Algorithm automatically by scans nearly 300 cleantech blogs and news sources, selected for their cleantech content. It takes three main criteria into account: 1) what other bloggers are saying about a news item, 2) how users across the Internet prefer a news item (which we call 'social popularity'), and when the item was written.  Normally it gives high priority to fresh news items, but this...

Over the Weekend, Craig Mackintosh at Celsias struck a note of cautious optimism about the outcome of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali. Jim Fraser at the Energy Blog transmitted the findings of a study of interconnected wind as baseload power. On Monday, The Biopact team reported on as study the potential for bio-based bulk chemicals to cut the consumption of non-renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions. On Tuesday,  Rachel Barron at Greentech Media splashed the news of PG&E's agreement to purchase wave power from Finavera Renewables...

On Tuesday, Dan Lewis warned us not to hold our breath for offshore wind (I really like the boat pic). As prime on-shore wind areas are exhausted over the next decade, especially in Europe, many people have their sight set on the ocean as the next wind frontier. However, technical and cost hurdles may not make this a viable proposition for a few more years yet. One factor that could help: the cost and availability of wind turbines. But that's showing little sign of improvement.  On Wednesday, Mike Millikin at Green Car Congress told us that a...

Many of our readers may know about this already, but earlier this week I came across The Energy Challenge, a series of articles by New York Times writers on energy and environment issues. This is a great resource for alt energy investors and aficionados. On Monday, David Biello at Scientific American discussed the state of the science for us. This is likely nothing new for many of our readers but serves as a good reminder of why I believe the cleantech space will be so strong in the next few decades. On Wednesday, Rebecca Smith and Kevin...