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'Cleantech' Investing Gets Its Day in the Sun
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"You can get a technology right and a market size right, but if the market timing takes longer to evolve or it's smaller than you think, it can be a big risk," Silver said.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]"What's going on, on Capitol Hill, can really be central to the success or failure of cleantech investments," said Jean-Luc Park, director of venture investments for Bethesda's Calvert Group, which has $15 billion in holdings geared toward achieving a social benefit.
Park has been looking at companies that install solar systems, rather than invent the panels, figuring that such businesses would not be so affected by regulatory swings.
Park has learned the trials of such investing through his backing of hydrogen energy, which for years has been touted as a cleaner, more efficient alternative to natural gas but failed to gain much traction.
"The hydrogen economy has unfortunately taken a lot longer than we hoped," Park said.
Now, hydrogen's time may be coming. Calvert has backed H2Gen, an Alexandria firm that's received $49 million in funding from several venture capitalists. H2Gen technology converts gas traveling through pipes into clean hydrogen, bypassing the need for a new transport system that was needed with first-generation of hydrogen-energy technologies.
"Energy security and environmental security are coming together," said C.E. "Sandy" Thomas, president and founder of H2Gen. "Hydrogen is one of the solutions that solves both."
