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At the San Francisco Mayor’s Office, I’m learning more about the investment climate here in the US, and in particular the clean technologies attracting investment. In general, venture funds continued to seek out and invest significant sums in opportunities during 2009, although the pace and scale of investment had slowed a little from previous years.
The three leading investment areas for the first quarter of 2009 were: solar, biofuels and advanced batteries, with more than 17 green investment companies operating in the SF area alone.
The US Government, in common with many others globally, is allocating historic amounts of capital to clean technologies. San Francisco is leading the way, with the largest municipal program to incentivise a switch to solar power. Residential incentives can be as high as $7000 for low income households, up to $10000 for businesses, and not-for-profit organisations have no cap on the incentives which run at $1500/kW.
Other forms of state-led stimulus include loan guarantees and tax incentives. Clean technologies accounted for 13% of all stimulus packages last year. There seems little doubt that Governments are serious about the development of cleantech industries.
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