Siemens fires up green investments with Indian waste heat deal

The venture capital arm of engineering giant Siemens has this week announced it has bolstered its portfolio of green investments with the acquisition of a stake in India-based waste heat recovery specialist Transparent Energy Systems.

Pune-based Transparent provides a range of industrial waste heat recovery and combined heat and power systems, as well as energy-efficient boilers and heaters, and biodiesel and biogas technologies.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, although Siemens Venture Capital (SVC) has reportedly taken a minority stake in the firm.

The deal represents SVC's 12th investment in the field of energy and environmental technologies, and the company said that clean tech companies now make up over 30 per cent of its investment portfolio.

Ralf Schnell, chief executive of SVC, hinted that further investments in green technologies were likely, and predicted the company would see strong returns from its clean tech investments.

"The field of energy and environmental technologies is highly attractive for venture capital investors," he said. "Despite the difficult overall business environment, we will continue to see attractive growth rates in the area of green technologies."

The deal is the latest in a series of high-profile green initiatives from Siemens, which last month reported that it expects to generate about €6bn in revenue globally from governments' green stimulus packages.

The company has invested heavily in developing its portfolio of clean tech products and has set itself a target of increasing annual sales of environmental technologies, from €19bn in fiscal 2008 to €25bn by 2011.