CleanTech winds are blowing strong

Last week's Innovate2006 conference in Zaragoza included a pre-conference tour of the region with an interesting visit of Endesa and one of the largest Spanish windmill farms, located just a few miles north off Zaragoza. At the end of 2004, Endesa were involved in operational wind farms delivering 1,124 MW, with a further 250 MW under construction, a 20% share of Spanish wind power.

This visit resonated for me with all the recent interest in cleantech funding, and the slew of IT-CleanTech companies that we at Occam have looked at in the past few months.

Financing for companies attempting to develop new sources of renewable energy, new processes and materials for manufacturing, and new technology for managing energy use, rose to a six-year high of $513 million in the first quarter of 2006, according to data from Cleantech Venture Network LLC. This is up from $502 million in the fourth quarter of 2005 and over 50% above the $336 million invested in the first quarter of 2005. It was new energy investments that led the way. Companies developing new technologies for energy generation raised $357 million in the first quarter, more than the total invested in all clean technology sectors in the first quarter last year, according to data from the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based industry tracker.

Jefferies analyst recently produced a CleanTech industry overview which is very good and can be found here, while the full report can also be found here.

Interesting IT4Cleantech companies to watch:

• Ergelis