AltEnToday

There is a lot of excitement in the Silicon Valley these days with alternative energy. I went to hear Mr. Ajit Nazre of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers speak at a San Jose State Entrepreneurial Society event, and had the opportunity to ask him where he sees major investment flowing in the next 5-15 years. His answer? A resounding “clean-tech and energy”. He didn’t even hesitate.

He did mention, however, that the investment framework for a clean-tech deal are far different than the transactions around info-tech (essentially my personal background). The investment horizon has to be lengthened dramatically - an info-tech deal should yield a positive ROI (return-on-investment) within a couple of years. Clean tech projects might take substantially longer (think 5-10 years). Beyond just the horizon planning, the sheer dollar amount is considerably more. An info tech company might need $10-20 million to get off the ground and compete against major, established players. Clean-tech and energy projects take $250 million - $1 billion just to start. Some projects may be even larger.

With this in mind, I began exploring the local marketplace for solar and clean-tech / green-tech companies that are already in the funded & operations stages. One of my first discoveries was Nanosolar. They provide what they call “Third-Generation” solar technology, including a technique that makes creating solar panels as easy (well, according to their website) as printing on an ink-jet printer. I’m going to continue to follow this company, and see what opportunities arise. Check out the Nanosolar company blog to see the latest news on their projects, investments and partnerships, and operations.

The company is based in San Jose, California and Germany.