Jan 08 2010

The Green Seen

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy and the environment caught our attention this week:

Worldwide venture capital funding in green technology companies fell 33 percent in 2009 to $5.6 billion amid the global recession, according to a survey by consulting firms Deloitte and Cleantech Group. Investments in solar power plunged 64 percent but the industry remained the top green tech sector and accounted for 21 percent, or $1.2 billion, of total investment. Energy efficiency companies drew $1 billion in venture financing and transportation ventures took in $1.1 billion. The top three green investors were Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, SAIL Venture Partners and RockPort Capital Partners.

Specialized California license plates with environmental themes are failing to attract very many takers. A plate featuring a bear and a mountain would fund projects of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy but only 256 copies have sold. A Golden Gate Bridge plate sponsored by the California Coastal Conservancy has only 455 takers. Commemorative plates costing $50 a year help pay for new parks, hiking trails, beach restoration and other projects but the bad economy and gas prices are hurting sales. "For a lot of people these days, specialized plates are a luxury," says a spokeswoman for the Department of Motor Vehicles.

A controversial wind farm project proposed off Cape Cod may see further delays after the National Park Service ruled that Nantucket Sound was eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Two Massachusetts Indian tribes said 130 wind turbines would thwart their spiritual ritual of greeting the sunrise and disturb ancestral burial grounds, the New York Times reports. The wind project, in the works since 2001, is strongly supported by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and opposed by Cape Cod homeowners and boaters. The late Senator Edward Kennedy, whose Hyannis Port compound looks out on the proposed site, was the project's most powerful opponent.

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