The Wall Street Journal ran this story today about the boom in investment and sales growth in alternative energy (or “greentech”) companies.  The story makes us think, of course, of Oregon, which is proving to be a cleantech hotbed.  We’ve written about this in the past in our Renewable Business in Green Portland post and in our Starting a Green Business post.  This latest WSJ article discusses the growth in cleantech from a national perspective, much of it driven by startups and venture capitalists anticipating favorable cleantech policies, including tax incentives, as well as stricter energy regulations under the new Obama Administration.  Here are some good quotes from the article:

Some venture capitalists think clean technology is the next big thing — the innovation that will drive the economy, much as Internet-related ventures did a decade ago.

…

Executives at venture-capital backed Greenline Industries Inc., a Larkspur, Calif., maker of biodiesel production equipment, believe the Obama administration will create a huge demand for biodiesel and other advanced biofuels.

…

And unlike with other new types of technology companies, the growth of clean technology “depends on the right kind of government policies and incentives,” Mr. Fan says, because implementation requires a certain amount of infrastructure and tax credits to offset the expense for users.

This last quote makes us wonder what kind of tax credits Obama’s Administration may offer cleantech companies.  Some Oregon companies (maybe too many? — see this post) already benefit from the Business Energy Tax Credit, among other incentives.  Now perhaps similar federal tax credits will be offered.  One federal tax credit that’s already doing a great deal for solar companies is the 30 percent solar energy investment tax credit, part of Congress’ financial bailout package passed in October 2008.  For more on that, as well as more information and graphics about surging investments by venture capital in cleantech, check out this frontline link.

We’ll be looking forward to the developments post-inauguration.

Tags: alternative energy, green tech, obama administration, startups

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 9:07 pm and is filed under Corporate, Green Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.