Cleantech Gets Green
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman - Continuing Education |
| Discipline(s): |
Design Engineering Management Environmental Engineering Green Design and Sustainable Engineering |
| Special Topic(s): |
Engineering Photo Competition |
| Learning Resource Type: | Reference - Article/Document |
| Media Type: | WWW |
| Author(s): |
Samir Patel
Organization: SEED Magazine |
| Description: | Article and podcast from SEED magazine. Excerpt: "Last spring, Lisa Bergson received an unexpected call from an investor interested in her company, Tiger Optics. Bergson hadn't considered her company to be "cleantech," but Rob Day, a venture capitalist who specializes in clean technology, made a persuasive case: Tiger Optics' products—sensitive, laser-based devices that measure traces of moisture and gases in the air—could be used for industrial applications, including environmental monitoring. Plus, the company uses non-polluting manufacturing methods. "I think that we epitomize, in many ways, 'cleantech,'" Bergson says now. Cleantech is a venture capital buzzword, making eyes sparkle the way "biotech" and "infotech" once did. Over the last several years—for reasons financial, technological, environmental and political—cleantech is showing commercial potential. Startups are sprouting like weeds, bolstering investors' hopes for big, fast returns. Surely venture capitalists, as well as state and local governments angling to be the "Silicon Valley" of cleantech, noticed that last year's three largest technology IPOs were all solar energy companies." |
| Rating: |
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| Use of Resource: | Conclusion: "There are likely several reasons that cleantech is now seen as a potential moneymaker? the most commonly cited is the rising price of oil. As the price of a barrel dances around $70, efficiency-boosting technologies start to look attractive and renewables become more cost-effective. The prospects of cleantech may follow each hiccup in oil prices, each protest in Ecuador, each incident in Nigeria, each pipeline rupture in the Middle East. "All these issues are colliding on a global basis and venture capitalists love to hear that stuff," says Weiss. " |
| Difficulty: | Easy |
| Interactivity Level: | Low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | 2008 |
| Platform/Format: | WWW |
| Cost: | Free |
| Download URL: | http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2006/05/cleantech.php |
| Metadata: | IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
NEEDS
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