Crunch fails to crush cleantech investment

Global cleantech investment appears to have been unaffected by the financial crisis as worldwide investment in the last quarter more than doubled compared with the first quarter of the year, according to figures released today by analyst StrategyEye.

Investment across biofuel, wind, energy and resource efficiency, geothermal, transport and pollution management sectors has risen from $1.4bn (£805m) in the first quarter of 2008 to $3.8bn in the third quarter.

Algae-based biofuels in particular have benefited, according to StrategyEye analyst Ranil Pilimatalawa. “This last quarter has seen a flurry of activity in the algae-based biofuels sector with a rise of more than 50 per cent investment to $150m, in comparison to the first quarter,” he said.

The biofuel business has seen some big individual deals.

San Francisco-based biofuel manufacturer Solazyme recently raised $45.4m through a number of private investors after it announced last month that its algae-based fuel has passed the jet fuel requirements set by the American Society for Testing and Materials. The company wants to bring the fuel to market within three years.

Banks will always have an eye for a good investment, however hard up they are, according to David Williams of renewable energy company Eco2.

“There is still plenty of money for safer investments,” Williams said. “We’re finding the banks are saying to us, don’t worry, there’s still plenty of money for what you’re doing.”

Meanwhile, figures for the US compiled by Thomson Reuters, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association found that although total venture capital to startups fell by nine per cent year on year to $7.1bn, cleantech venture investment rose 17 per cent in the same time period to $1.04bn.

The Stern Review suggested that the average cost of spending needed to prevent climate change should be in the region of one per cent of a country’s GDP – about $130bn for the US.