That number is expected to rise as final deals from the last weeks of the fourth quarter are included.
Though venture investment was down 33 percent from
invested in 2008, investment in clean tech declined less than other
sectors like software and biotech. And 2009 is on track to be a record
year for the number of clean-tech VC deals — 557 so far.
“Though much of the economy struggled in 2009, clean tech had a pretty good year,” said
“Clean tech went from being a niche category for investors to a
dominant category, and 2009 will go down in the record books as a
pretty good year.”
The top clean-tech sector for venture investment in
2009 was solar, which accounted for 21 percent of total
clean-technology investments.
But transportation and energy efficiency — defined
as lighting, green building materials, glass and smart-grid components
like advanced metering — were close behind, at 20 percent and 18
percent.
VC investment in solar is widely seen as dropping
off: Solar investment in 2009 was down 64 percent from the previous
year. Transportation and energy efficiency had record years in 2009,
and are on track to eclipse solar in 2010.
“In 2009 there was a pullback and realization by
investors that because of the capital intensity of solar, there may be
safer places to put their money,” said
Four of the top five largest clean-technology funding rounds in 2009 were in U.S.-based companies. The top was Solyndra, a
—
(c) 2010, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.).
Visit MercuryNews.com, the World Wide Web site of the
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
