The Week In Cleantech (Aug. 17 to Aug. 23) – Do We Need An Energy Revolution Or Evolution?

The Economist is currently running an interesting poll on whether we can solve our energy problems with existing technologies or whether we will need breakthrough innovations. Add your vote! On Sunday, Domenick Yoney at AutoBlog Green told us that electric bike sales were soaring world-wide. I’m not sure what’s a good play on this, but an interesting trend to note nonetheless. On Monday, Matthew McDermott at TreeHugger told us about another biofuel feedstock we may not have considered. Earlier this summer, David Pauly at Bloomberg was telling us about yet another such potential feedstock, which apparently is the craze with commodity speculators. On Tuesday, Jennifer Kho informed us that New Energy Finance was predicting a 43% solar silicon price drop. On Wednesday, Cleantech.com reported that Nexus India Capital had closed a $220 million fund. India is not as flamboyant a growth story as China, but anyone who’s been to Bangalore can attest to the fact that this is country with the ability to be a dominant player on the technology front. Add to this major problems with the nation’s power infrastructure, and you can see why this quiet giant might one day be a major player in alt energy technologies. On Thursday, Reuters informed us that carbon funds were to grow in 2008, albeit at a slower pace because of uncertainty. If there is one sector that’s exposed to the whims of politicians in the broad environmental investing space, it is this one. I like emissions trading; my grad work was in the area of market-based policy tools. But the contrarian in me can’t help but feel a little uneasy at so much capital flowing into something that’s so closely tied to the political mood du jours. On Friday, TheStreet.com let us know all that we needed to know about wind energy. The Title says it all! The Week In Cleantech is a collection of our favorite stories from the past week generated by our Cleantech News service. Register your site with us if you want your articles to appear here.