It is encouraging to see the number of companies marketing around Earth Day this year. Companies such as Macy’s and ICR client hhgregg are offering freebies or discounts. “Green” consumer products are making headway on store shelves and in homes. While retailers and other companies are offering more and more energy-efficient and other “green” products, it is without a doubt that for the U.S. to signficiantly reduce emissions, we must focus on the development of the the clean energy sector. This will not happen without government policies that foster investment and growth. To that end, the Op-Ed that appeared in newspapers around the country today from administation officials promising to create a “clean energy policy that works for all Americans” is equally as encouraging as retailers marketing green products.

Gwendolyn Bounds of The Wall Street Journal had a great story today on the lack of regulation around

Back to reality. That seemed to be the overwhelming sentiment at the recent Merrill Lynch Cleantech Leaders Conference in New York. The heady boom time days of the last few years that were still present only five months ago at the Solar Power International Show were over, replaced by a new pragmatism. It was interesting to see how clean tech industry giants like Suntech, Raser, First Solar, General Electric and ICR client Clean Energy Fuels were changing their business strategy in an unprecedented market environment that is changing so rapidly. The emphasis was all about how close each company’s technology was to grid parity. Deep down companies know that they can’t count on government subsidies and tax cuts forever, renewables need to get to a point where the cost of energy generated by solar, wind, geothermal and biofuels is the same as electricity from the traditional utilities and it seems that time is coming sooner rather than later.

The highlight or the “Wow, that’s kinda cool” moment for me from the conference was Akeena Solar CEO Barry Cinnamon’s presentation where he talked about how the company is taking residential solar rooftops retail in the next six months by offering do-it-yourself home solar kits that can be sold and installed by homeowners and will be available in retail chain outlets such as Home Depot. This is made possible by Akeena putting a mini power inverter on each solar panel which allows the panels to plug together like Legos and then feed directly into your home power supply. Until now a main power inverter box needs to be installed on all homes with rooftop solar and that creates the need for an electrician and boosts the cost. When I asked Cinnamon if he planned to offer a BIPV (Building Integrated Photovoltaic) version at some point he told me that he essentially thinks BIPV is a pipe dream, “It looks pretty but the cost and efficiency just aren’t there.”

There is an article from personal finance columnist Sandra Block that nicely sums up the energy efficiency tax breaks included in the stimulus bill. One great way to take advantage of the credit is to purchase an energy-efficient air conditioner. The Dallas Morning News has some additional great tips on energy-efficient cooling. Utilities like PG&E in California also sometimes provide rebates on purchases, depending on the unit purchased, sweetening the pot even more. Adding up any rebates, tax credit and the lower electricity bill from a more efficient system should provide a very strong incentive for taxpayers to update or upgrade their cooling systems.

One of the biggest hurdles and criticisms of renewable energy is that it is not as cheap as energy generated by fossil fueled plants. However, many variables factor into making renewable energy affordable and too often people oversimplify the equation by using the basic comparison of oil vs. renewable energy - if oil is high, renewables become more attractive because the two are then cost competitive. While this is true, it

Okay, so the blog post title is a little tongue-in-cheek, but the ICR Clean Technology Team is happy to see that the New York Times is also bullish about the potential for geothermal energy to supply the U.S. with clean and reliable baseload power. An editorial piece on the topic yesterday concluded with “Mindful of the dangers, the next administration should commit to developing this extraordinary resource.”

The CleanTech Group announced this week its preliminary 2008 findings for clean technology venture investments in North America, Europe, China and India. According to the report, VC investments totaled a record $8.4 billion in 2008, up 38% from $6.1 billion in 2007. Solar investments dwarfed other sectors, accounting for 40% of the total at $3.3 billion, with biofuels coming in second at $904 million, or 11%. Some reporting on this data focused on the fact that Q4 saw a 34% decrease from Q3, but that is only down 4% compared to Q4 2007, so I’m focusing on the $2.3 billion increase for the year.

So as we start the year amid this economic turmoil while at the same time ushering in a green-friendly Obama administration, it will be interesting to see if clean tech VC will have a similar jump in 2009…and it will be nice if our 401(k)’s did as well!

Happy New Year!

2009 is getting off to a clean start in NY State

Bad puns aside, it is nice to see the momentum behind the geothermal energy industry in the US continuing, in spite of the financing challenges. The Associated Press reports on a recent big find by Raser that could eventually power up to 200,000 homes. Additionally, the North American arm of Italy

When I started to represent Clean Energy Fuels (Nasdaq:CLNE), it was pretty easy to get excited about a cleaner, cheaper and domestic alternative to imported oil. And then T. Boone Pickens launched his