Venture Capitalists Optimistic About Renewable Energy
Venture capitalists expect investments in 2010 to rebound after two sluggish years hampered by the global financial crisis. A majority says a lot of the early stage VC investments will support renewable energy startups.
In A recent survey of 200 venture capitalists conducted by tax and advisory firm KPMG, 77 percent of the surveyed venture capitalists expected investments supporting renewable energy companies to grow. About 15 percent of the respondents say investments will grow by at least 20 percent, the Boston Globe reports.
GER will actually be able to assess first hand the mood of the venture capital community at the MIT Energy Conference, which we’re attending today and tomorrow.
Across all industries, 67 percent of respondents expect venture investments across all industries to increase in 2010 from 2009 levels. Last year, only 23 percent of respondents predicted an increase in investments.
Where in cleantech will that money go? KPMG says there is a slight shift away from solar and wind companies, in favor of energy storage solutions.
The Globe reports:
Of the respondents, 38 percent said that the energy storage and efficiency sector would see the most investment – up from 33 percent in the 2009 survey. Meanwhile, 30 percent expect renewable energy to get the most investment money in the next two years – a drop of six percentage points compared with last year’s survey.
Investors have reason to wait.
The company I work for, K.I. Energy, presented its new technology at the COEX in Seoul last October, “KOREA GREEN ENERGY SHOW 2009″.
Also this year will present updates on the systems for the production of energy from wave power.
K.I. Energy has been contacted by those who came to the fair, and within a very short time by companies that need to produce energy, either by governments or large companies for both energy production and to CO2 credits.
Investors, however, have also the defect of being to the window.
They should be interested in technology, whether these affect their.
The risk we run is to invest in technology driven for years, but that might be old in a few months.
Why, for example, our technology is not comparable to others in the development phase, or because people who have been contacted pretends not to care?
Because there are interests that are already in place, who failed to invest not want to admit it, the companies in the sector pushing their old products.
Once presented and understood, our technology for wave energy, will be the most used and needed.
Many do not speak for themselves because for them to sell books or technology is the same thing.
Investors must therefore learn, unfortunately, to go into the yield and type of construction of any single technology, because this is the difference.
Piccinini G. Raoul. r.piccinini@kienergy.co.kr