Today's consumer thinks with their "pocket book", and so I find it odd that this posting didn't garner more responses. But then this article states the problem is apathy, and so I shouldn't be surprised. For me "cleantech" isn't about cool gadgets that take more energy to produce than they save, but about alternatives to the current energy consortium. As long as we (the consumer) "green light" the oil companies (and their ilk) by paying what ever they ask for their products why should they change?
But then apathy seems to be addictive (like drugs, alcohol, or video games), people can't get out of it alone. Maybe because it produces a feeling of comfort and removes the fear of the unknown.
So here is my million dollar (maybe billion dollar) idea to break the apathy habit concerning "cleantech" to the curb. In two words: Reality TV. It works for Arabs in America, moonshiners, cross-dressing, and the Amish, and so why not clean energy technology?
You might think this won't work because you believe Big Oil and The Media are in an alliance to filter the material, to which I say get a better pitchman (if a show about a red-neck family can get ratings there is hope for anything). It should also be noted that shows like "Hawaii 50" have proven that the show can be the selling vehicle for the product.
Bottom line: Change the popular opinion and the Media will follow.
VantagePoint Capital Partners is one of the largest venture capital backers of cleantech. But now, even this believer in cleantech has been forced to back off.
VantagePoint has been an aggressive player in the cleantech world, backing nearly three dozen startups, including thin-film solar maker MiaSole, biotechnology firm Solazyme and Tesla Motors. As of January 2012, the company led by CEO Alan Salzman (pictured) had committed more than $1 billion to cleantech.
The VC firm has stopped raising a new cleantech fund due a lack of interest from limited partners, reported the WSJ’s VentureWire blog. The company launched the fund in 2010 planning to raise $1.25 billion. The fund was going to make growth-stage investments in batteries, solar manufacturing, electric vehicles, efficient lighting, electric grid efficiency and other technologies, reported VentureWire.
Limited partners, the major investors and big-time pensions that invest in VC funds, are a fund’s bread and butter. Without them, it’s difficult to raise the required capital necessary for a multi-billion fund.
VantagePoint’s failure to garner enough interest is one of many signs of waning interest among investors in cleantech.
Investment in clean energy in much of the Western world fell in 2012, thanks largely to regulatory uncertainty and steep curbs in subsidies, according to a year-end report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Overall global clean energy investment fell 11 percent in 2012 to $268.7 billion from a record reached the previous year.
