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Venture capital investment in cleantech in the second quarter totaled $2.02 billion across 140 companies in North America, Europe, China and India. A little down from the $2.04 billion invested in the first quarter, the total still reflects a 65 percent increase from the halfway mark last year, according to a report released today by the Cleantech Group and Deloitte. Click here for full story
John Doerr, one of Silicon Valley’s most respected investors, believes that the emerging sector he calls “green technology” could become as lucrative as information technology and biotechnology. In 2006, he remarked, “The field of greentech could be the largest economic opportunity of the twenty-first century. There’s never been a better time than now to start or accelerate a greentech venture.” Click here for full story
Fidelity Investments, the Boston mutual funds giant, said it is restructuring its 20-year-old Select Environmental Portfolio to increase exposure to fast growing industries focused on alternative energy and energy efficiency. Click here for full story
Dan Reicher, director of climate change and energy initiatives at Google Inc., spoke at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum Wall Street on Wednesday in support of a new government agency that would help clean technology companies bridge the “valley of death,” a gap in financing for the first full-scale demonstration. Click here for full story
Via Andrew Bolt in email, some surprising revelations about New Zealand’s Prime minister and his previous opinion of the ETS. It appears he has done a complete about face from his very strong opinions of 2005. Click here for full story
AUSTRALIA'S chief scientist, Penny Sackett, says polarising debate on which policy is best to address climate change is often unhelpfully confused with the scientific argument for global warming. Click here for full story
Newcastle, іn thе state οf Nеw South Wales, wіƖƖ bе thе first Australian city tο ɡο onto a smart grid іn whаt thе government ѕауѕ mау possibly bе a nationwide change. Click here for full story
Australia's New South Wales state government on Thursday opened the data room for potential bidders in the estimated A$6 billion ($5.05 billion) privatisation of its power assets, following repeated delays due to a complicated sale structure. Click here for full story
The Australian government may have been unable to get its carbon trading plan through the Senate, but New Zealand started its scheme yesterday - and consumers were greeted with the promise of an instant price rise by electricity and fuel companies. Click here for full story
Griffith University in Queensland will soon have an emission-free, completely sustainable highrise building featuring cutting edge Australian and world technology. Click here for full story
With the troublesome mining tax settled, the Gillard government is working overtime on one of the greatest electoral challenges of its time: climate change. A new climate policy will be released in the coming weeks and it could be very new indeed. Forget the ETS: soon the talk will be about an "energy efficiency" scheme, and there's likely to be new plans for solar and geothermal energy. Click here for full story
The IEA has just launched a new edition of Energy Technology Perspectives (ETP). The study presents updated scenarios from the present to 2050 that show which new technologies will be most important in key sectors and in different regions of the world for achieving the goal of halving global CO2 emissions by 2050. Click here for full story
WELLINGTON — New Zealand launched an emissions trading scheme Thursday in a bid to curb the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change but the scheme has angered both businesses and environmentalists. Energy, transport and manufacturing industries will from Thursday have to start paying for their emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which have risen 23 percent in New Zealand since 1990. Prices for fuel and electricity will rise, with the government estimating households will pay an extra five dollars (3.50 US) a week, although some critics say this estimate is far too low. Click here for full story
A brand new, cutting-edge hybrid solar collector, which incorporates both photovoltaic (PV) power generation with solar water heating, is taking the renewable energy industry by storm. Click here for full story
A scheme which would see WA households and businesses paid for any renewable energy they generate - plus a small profit - has been introduced into Parliament. Click here for full story
The Tennessee Valley Authority announced that it is resuming new enrollments in its Generation Partners pilot project to encourage renewable energy use across the TVA service territory. Click here for full story
Australian climate change legislative policy is once again in an active state of play. At her initial press conference on 24 June 2010 Prime Minister Gillard announced that, if her government is returned at the next election, she would vigorously pursue an ‘argument for change’. Click here for full story
Australian companies are becoming concerned about the impact of potential alternatives to the Federal Government’s CPR Scheme, according to a new survey. Click here for full story
Former Australian of the Year, Professor Tim Flannery, has told delegates at the Climate Adaptation Futures conference on Queensland's Gold Coast that it is vital a carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS) is introduced. Click here for full story
In Australia, the government will begin implementing energy content-based taxation of all fuels, effective July 1 2011, to address the tax disadvantage of domestic Australian ethanol compared to imported ethanol. The Australian Biofuels Association announced June 24 that all Biofuels will be placed into two of the three “energy content bands”. Click here for full story
UK-based fuel cell developer AFC Energy has deployed an alkaline fuel cell system, which is now in operation at Linc Energy’s underground coal gasification (UCG) demonstration facility in Chinchilla, Australia. Click here for full story
One of India's leading power company, in the private sector area, Tata Power said that it is going to acquire substantial assets in the wind power sector.
The power company said that it is going to acquire 20.95 MW of operating assets in the wind power sector. These are situated in Maharashtra and the company from which it is going to takeover is Niskalp Energy.Click here for full story
Canada’s Enbridge will invest $500m (C$525m) in the 250MW Cedar Wind Energy Project in Colorado, which Renewable Energy Systems Americas (RES-Americas) will build under a fixed-price engineering, procurement and construction contract. Financial details of the contract were not released.
Construction of the project, which a US affiliate of Enbridge will own and operate, is scheduled to begin shortly with “substantial completion” expected in late 2011, the company says.Click here for full story
Bob Wigley's Green Investment Bank Commission has delivered a blueprint for how private sector funds can be successfully diverted into funding essential investment, particularly in energy. Click here for full story
Economists must trust predictions from climate scientists and stop tinkering around the edges of the climate change debate, a top federal bureaucrat said last night. Click here for full story
THE federal government has been accused of playing with semantics in telling the G20 it had no fossil fuel subsidies to phase out under an agreement by world leaders last year. Click here for full story
Fostering a clean energy revolution is much easier said than done, particularly in the current environment. Clean energy ETFs may seem like a slam dunk, but there is plenty of risk surrounding this sector at present. Click here for full story
Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) introduced S. 3464 – dubbed the “Practical Energy and Climate Plan Act” – on June 6, 2010. The bill’s biggest flaw is that it establishes no overall limit or price signal on the carbon pollution that is driving global warming.
AN international conference on the Gold Coast this week will hear Australia will be one of the hardest hit developed countries when climate change starts to bite. Click here for full story
A national recycling scheme for cans and bottles would save the NSW public $168 million a year, according to an independent study using data from a secret federal government report. Click here for full story
Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Senator Penny Wong, has welcomed the passage of the enhanced Renewable Energy Target and Building Energy Efficiency legislation through the Parliament. Click here for full story
The Energy Networks Association (ENA), as the peak national body for Australia’s energy network businesses, has today welcomed the historic announcement that The Hon Julia Gillard MP has been elected as the first ever female Prime Minister of Australia. ENA also congratulates The Hon Wayne Swan MP on being elected as Deputy Prime Minister. Click here for full story
The project that inspired other states to push for offshore windfarms was the Cape Wind project. The project is the first offshore windfarm with federal approval in North America. It is located off of the coast of Cape Cod.
Another global brand name, Westinghouse, is entering the photovoltaic market, this time with an interesting variation of panel design. Click here for full story
The Alternative Technology Association (ATA), Australia’s leading household sustainability organisation, voiced its strong approval of the passing of the Renewable Energy Target (RET) amendments by the Australian Parliament. Click here for full story
In 2005, a light bulb went off for GE, which pledged to spend $1.5 billion on alternative technology by 2010. Their Ecomagination department eclipsed that goal in 2009 and has recently committed a further $10billion to the cause. Masdar City in Abu Dhabi will be the first to showcase the results. Click here for full story
Portuguese renewable energy company EDP Renovaveis SA ( EDPR.LB) through its U.S. unit Horizon Wind Energy LLC has secured $141 million of institutional equity financing from Wells Fargo Wind Holdings LLC, EDPR said in a regulatory filing Monday. Click here for full story
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Cleantech investment up 65% worldwide
