The phenomenon is worldwide as practically every nation and economic zone has various aggressive efforts to promote and develop various 'greentech' initiatives. Recently I have completed searches where I have brought into this space professionals from other sectors where they possessed skills and experiences that were coveted and desired by clients.
Interestingly the U.S. Congress passed the "Green Jobs Act" in August earmarking $125M for job training programs for the emerging marketplace, where $25M is specifically identified to be applied to the chronically poor. It is a mere drop in the bucket but it is more than symbolic when just three years ago the Bush Administration had the National Renewable Energy Labs placed on the budget chopping block only to be politically forced to rescind this policy decision. More importantly this 'Greentech Space' that is now part of major platforms of the currently leading Presidential candidates where all candidate positions can be reviewed here: The leading Democratic candidates have well defined energy plans and investment programs:
- Senator Barack Obama plan calls for an investment of: "$150 billion over the next ten years to develop and deploy climate friendly energy supplies, protect our existing manufacturing base and create millions of new jobs.
- Senator Hillary Clinton's plan calls for: ."Doubling of federal investment in basic energy research, including funding for an ARPA-E, a new research agency modeled on the successful Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, plus a $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund, paid for in part by oil companies, to fund investments in alternative energy. The SEF will finance one-third of the $150 billon ten-year investment in a new energy future contained in this plan.
- Former Senator Edwards plan calls for: "creating a New Energy Economy Fund by auctioning off $10 billion in greenhouse pollution permits and repealing subsidies for big oil companies. The fund will support U.S. research and development in energy technology, help entrepreneurs start new businesses, invest in new carbon-capture and efficient automobile technology and help Americans conserve energy.
These are all far-reaching and aggressive policy initiatives that with the expected Democratic Party controlled Congress probably will see some form of implementation. Even the Republican Party Presidential candidates acknowledge the need for investment into the 'Greentech Space' although they are less defined or specific, falling on traditional free market themes.
- NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani has a published position paper on the energy area where he seeks more encouragement of entrepreneurs in new technology and more use of natural gas and coal conversion.
- Senator McCain's plan is embedded in a speech and cap and trade legislation demonstrate efforts to reduce carbon emissions and large growth in the nuclear power industry. Recently he has sought to rapidly expand ethanol production.
- Former Governor Romney plan also focuses on voluntary reductions in carbon emissions and increased domestic drilling, liquid coal, nuclear, and biofuels for energy independence.
Even with the proposed billions of dollars proposed by Democratic candidates or new policy initiatives by the Republican candidates, the private venture capital market and R&D expenditures from existing corporate entities are pushing this market far greater than the original expectations prophetized by financial analysts. In the most recent publications reports establish that the growing greentech/cleantech as the third largest sector behind software and biotech and now eclipsing telecom as an investment sector.
In the 3rd quarter of 2007 the 'greentech/cleantech sector', made up of alternative energy, pollution and recycling, power supplies and conservation, saw a new record investment of $844M, involving 62 deals. This represented an 80% increase in dollar investment and a 35% increase in the number of deals in this from 2006. In the first half of 2007 the global investment in 'greentech' exceeded $1.1B in the first half of 2007 alone with 71 deals compared to $583M and 49 deals in 2006. This puts the expected investment to approach $3B if trends continue.
One of my most active clients just received $20M from top venture capitalists to further the development of their technology that produces clean methane gas from subsurface deposits of coal and oil reserves by utilizing biotechnologies in anaerobic microbiology. Recently I completed a search for their Chief Financial Officer who was brought on to manage the area of capital financing. Now I am engaged in looking for soem leading scientists in anaerobic microbiology and genetic microbiology as well as a senior business development professional. This firm's long-term growth goes beyond 'clean energies' where clean methane (natural gas) can be used in both internal combustion and fuel cell technologies, into areas of agriculture, waster treatment and even medicine. Through their current technology one can project that replacement of much of the invasive mining operations of coal and oil while still producing the cleanest carbon-based fuel.
Another set of clients in the solar sector is I am seeking senior engineers in other fields of nanotechnology, silicon manufacturing and thermal processing. Each of these firms have recently received venture capital financing and seeking to aggressively expand their marketplace.
What I am trying to conclude is that this sector is going to expand rapidly. Whole measures of professionals are going to be demanded from business and operations managers, B2B and retail marketing programs, corporate financing and most importantly disruptive and innovative engineering and science professionals. The future of energy will be distributed under a variety strategies and models. There will remain a centralized grid but it will be augmented by local and personal power generation and passive highly efficient conservation strategies. Overtime the grid will probably see the similar trends that are taking place with the old centralized landline telephone system.
Transportation changes will evolve quickly with different strategies with propulsion (biodiesel, electric, fuel cell) where even the idea of exclusive distribution of personally owned and financed vehicles. Last week I read a venture capital backed idea to set up a lease financing company to augment the electric car industry, which comprises one-half of the capital expense of the electric automobile. How this affects you and your own career remains to be seen, but if you are willing to change you might have to take some short term back tracking or risks of a smaller firm that is still emerging but the opportunity is there for a while.
