The Clean Tech Revolution: The Next Big Growth and Investment Opportunity

Product Details

When industry giants such as GE, Toyota, and Sharp and investment firms such as Goldman Sachs are making multibillion-dollar investments in clean technology, the message is clear. Developing clean technologies is no longer a social issue championed by environmentalists; it's a moneymaking enterprise moving solidly into the business mainstream. In fact, as the economy faces unprecedented challenges from high energy prices, resource shortages, and global environmental and security threats, clean techtechnologies designed to provide superior performance at a lower cost while creating significantly less waste than conventional offeringspromises to be the next engine of economic growth.

In The Clean Tech Revolution, authors Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder identify the major forces that have pushed clean tech from back-to-the-earth utopian dream to its current revolution among the inner circles of corporate boardrooms, on Wall Street trading floors, and in government offices around the globe. By highlighting eight major clean-tech sectorssolar energy, wind power, biofuels and biomaterials, green buildings, personal transportation, the smart grid, mobile applications, and water filtrationthey uncover how investors, entrepreneurs, and individuals can profit from this next wave of technological innovation. Pernick and Wilder shine the spotlight on the winners among technologies, companies, and regions that are likely to reap the greatest benefits from clean techand they show you why the time to act is now.

Groundbreaking and authoritative, The Clean Tech Revolution is the must-read book to understand and profit from the clean technologies that are reshaping our fast-changing world.

Product Reviews

(3 stars) - Over hyped
Barely 2 years have passed since this book was published and the ideas are already tarnishing. I think the concept is good - introduce the ideas and also the players who might be invested in.

To take one example of this book's failings - biofuels. The corn ethanol issue is reasonably argued - that there is a limit on how much corn can replace gasoline, and it's impact on food prices. Yet already ethanol production has peaked and plants are being shut down as ethanol failed to compete on price with oil. The hope that cellulosic ethanol can fill the potential for this fuel is raised, although no pilot plants have been built as far as I am aware. At the same time, the field of synthetic biology isn't mentioned, nor the use of gene engineered algae to produce fuels.

Perhaps the failings of a book like this should be obvious. Technology changes very rapidly. Early ideas often do no pan out, especially commercially. VC's sink money into lots of companies, only a few of which will bear fruit. Large companies may be "green washing" themselves by promoting their efforts which were never designed or expected to be commercial successes.

Cive it another 5 years and I think this book will be mostly obsolete. Better to read about these technologies on the web.

(5 stars) - Clean Tech to the Rescue
I believe that a sustainable, domestic energy supply is critically important to the economic vitality and security of the United States, or any country for that matter. Another looming crisis in the southwestern United States, and many other parts of the world, is a shortage of fresh water. This well-researched book documents numerous new and emerging technologies to address these problems, and identifies the companies developing them.

"Clean tech refers to any product, service, or process that delivers value using limited or zero nonrenewable resources and/or creates significantly less waste than conventional offerings... Clean tech covers four main sectors: energy, transportation, water, and materials."

The authors make a couple of macro level points. Power generation will be more distributed in the future. Solar, wind, and biofuels will enable greater predictability of energy costs, compared to the price volatility of fossil fuels.

Here's a synopsis.


SOLAR ENERGY

"Within a decade, solar will reach price parity with other energy sources," according to Bill Gross, CEO of high-tech incubator Idealab.

An interesting factoid from this chapter: "Solar modules are actually less efficient at very high temperatures, so a rooftop system on a clear 70-degree day in Seattle produces more power than the same-size system broiling under 110 degrees n Phoenix." Of course, this begs the question, how many clear 70-degree days are there in Seattle?

Another interesting point is that solar is selling well in the urban area of Bangalore, India, simply because the electrical grid is so unreliable.

"Because of the nature of the solar business, it is likely the electronics giants in the solar industry, such as Sharp, Sanyo, and SunPower, that are likely to be the big winners, rather than the energy giants such as Shell and BP."


WIND POWER

"Of all widely available renewable sources of electricity, utility-scale wind power is the most cost-competitive with conventional coal, natural gas, or nuclear generation today. And that's a key reason why wind energy... is and will continue to be the domain of large, global players worldwide."

"Germany and Denmark get upward of 15% of their electricity from wind."

One interesting product is the Variblade, which extends in low wind, and retracts in high wind. "Conventional turbines actually have to be shut off when the wind is too strong, to prevent damage."


BIOFUELS AND BIOMATERIALS

The catchphrase of this chapter is "carbohydrate-based economy" as opposed to a hydrocarbon economy. In Brazil, "the price for 100% ethanol [is] less than half that of petrol gasoline." Biofuels can be made from such crops, given flexibility to produce whatever crop is most productive in a given region: in Brazil they use sugar cane; in Europe they use rapeseed; in the U.S., biodiesel is made from soybeans.

Ethanol in the U.S. comes mostly from corn, but the trend to watch is nonfood sources such as switchgrass, agricultural waste such as corn husks, and forestry waste. The industry jargon for this is "cellulosic ethanol."

Because biofuels can be produced from locally produced crops, there is less need to transport materials from far away, as we do with tankers of oil from the Middle East.

One downside of E85 ethanol is that it "gets about 80% of the mileage performance of gasoline in today's vehicles. This lower energy content must be calculated into the cost of ethanol at the pump."

The authors point out that "diesel cars are more efficient, going about 30% farther than a gasoline engine on a gallon of fuel, and they can run on biodiesel."

Green Technologies of Cambridge, MA is taking a different approach by harvesting algae from sewage and other waste.

The chapter also covers bioplastics. Walmart is switching to bioplastics in its packaging to achieve better price stability compared with the price volatility of petroleum-based plastics.


GREEN BUILDINGS

"Today's green buildings use some 30% less energy... and they are generally brighter, healthier, and more aesthetically pleasing. Often built with little of no additional up-front cost, green offices, for instance, pay back not only in energy savings but also in greater employee retention, attendance, and productivity."

The U.S. Dept. of Energy estimates that buildings are responsible for 48% of all U.S. energy usage and 76% of electricity demand.

"In Austria, efficient housing advocates predict that one quarter of new homes by 2010 will be so-called passive houses, which use up to 75% less energy."

Lighting burns about 22% of electricity produced worldwide. "LED lights are up to 10 times more efficient than standard incandescent lights (which waste up to 90% of their energy as heat) and use 10% to 30% less electricity than compact fluorescent bulbs." LED lights also last 10 to 15 years. The authors point out that the cleanest power source of all is efficiency, also known as a "negawatt" - a unit of conserved energy.


PERSONAL TRANSPORTATION

On the topic of hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) the authors note, "not all hybrids are created equal. Many, notably the Lexus models, use the electric motor more for its power boost to the gasoline engine than to run as often as possible in emission-free electric mode."

I liked this quote from Martin Eberhard, the CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors: "As an entrepreneur I've learned that the right time to enter a market is when your product is just barely possible. .. If it's really easy, then you're too late."

Honda's Home Energy Station is a device that refuels a compressed natural gas (CNG) powered Honda Civic, by hooking up to the residential natural gas line.

This chapter also includes a section on electric scooters, also called Light Electric Vehicles (LEVs).


SMART GRID

"The North American grid wastes, or loses, up to 20% of the energy transmitted and distributed through its arteries." It's inefficient and antiquated.

"A smart grid will look very different from today's system--enabling utilities to more efficiently deploy both centralized and distributed energy, and for consumers to more efficiently and economically monitor ad manage their energy usage, adjust consumption and behavior, and more easily feed electrons from solar PV, fuel cells, and other distributed clean-energy sources into the grid."

"EPRI's IntelliGrid Consortium... is working to establish an open standard for smart-grid interoperability."


MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES

This chapter is primarily about battery chargers and portable fuel cells (hydrogen and butane) for electronic devices. The U.S. military is investing in this sector. One particularly interesting emerging technology is the ultracapacitor (also called a supercapacitor) -- "basically turning a capacitor into a battery."


WATER FILTRATION

While most of the book focuses on energy topics, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it includes water technologies. I think water scarcity is an impending crisis, so I was interested to learn more about this sector.

Purification technologies include desalination, reserve osmosis, nano-based membranes, and ultraviolet light. A recurring theme in this book, this chapter discussed distributed generation as opposed to centralized plants.

Reducing waste is also a huge opportunity. "Some 30% of the water supply leaks out on its journey to the household tap or factory pipe, no unlike the loss of electricity in grid transmission and distribution. Many Americans get their water from pipes that were laid when Lincoln was president." Leak detectors help the Las Vegas Water District save "more than 575 million gallons of water, enough to supply 3200 homes, in 2 years."

Submetering is a technology for apartment buildings with a single water meter, so landlords can hold tenants accountable for water consumption.


CLEAN TECH MARKETING

There are five key points in this chapter:
1. "Clean tech cannot go mainstream if it's viewed as a premium item."
2. "Being clean is not enough--these have to be better products."
3. "Language is critical to the success of marketing clean tech." The words green, renewable, alternative, and clean all evoke different perceptions among consumers.
4. "It has to be easy, accessible, and convenient."
5. "Remember the cool factor."

(5 stars) - Clean Tech Hubs
The chapter on "Create your won Silicon Valley" is exceptional and a must read for any city seeking to create a local clean tech center. The authors bring extensive experience and provide examples of cities that have been successful in germinating clean tech firms.

(3 stars) - Decent book surveying current major players
This is a decent book with a useful catalog of the major activities and the major players in the clean-tech space. However, I was less than satsified with the quality of the research and the writing. I am willing to believe that the author's premise (when they introduce the potential of various technologies that they talk about) is true. But, because the premise is backed by little or no "solid" research that clearly draws out a defendable cause-and-effect relationship, I am not willing to believe that the authors' premise is true.

(3 stars) - Turns Green into Greed
I hope we do not attempt to abandon altruistic appeals and implement sin taxes as this book recommends. Sin taxes will cause backlash. Cap and trade - yes, carbon taxes - maybe, but sin taxes - no way.

On the other hand Pernick and Wilder have compiled a nice reference for green investors.

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