Private firms hesitate over clean tech investments

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Source: Wash. Post

As federal stimulus dollars for investment in renewable energy begin to dry up, will the private sector rush in to fill the void?

Maybe not.

Venture capital investments in what the industry calls “clean tech” companies fell to $1.1 billion in the second quarter this year, a 44 percent decline from the second quarter of 2010, according to an analysis by the firm Ernst & Young. The number of deals involving clean-tech firms dropped 12 percent during the same period, according to a new analysis by the center-left think tank Third Way.

“The decline in funding for clean tech firms means there are fewer opportunities to create new technologies that are born in the United States,” said Joshua Freed, who directs the clean energy program at Third Way. Freed said “we risk losing out on” a global “clean energy market” that he thinks will eventually total $2.3 trillion.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/private-firms-hesitate-over-clean-tech-investments/2011/10/18/gIQAPokNKM_singlePage.html