Two financing vehicles on the cusp of untangling new, lower-cost capital for clean technology projects got a huge helping of publicity during recent clean technology conferences.

Venture capitalists invested $368 million in 61 cleantech deals in the first quarter, a 35 percent decline in dollars and 13 percent in deals from the prior quarter, according to a PwC MoneyTree report. The investment total is the lowest since Q1 2006. The quarterly total VC investment activity fell 12 percent in terms of dollars and 15 percent in the number of deals compared to the fourth quarter of 2012. The report found that less money is flowing into capital-intensive cleantech deals while there’s more interest in capital efficient IT sectors where round’s amounts are smaller.

After peaking in Q2 2010, VC investments in smart grid have slowed down considerably, and continue to amble along with no clear direction, says Mercom Capital Group. “Silver Spring Networks’ long awaited IPO was the lone highlight in an otherwise slow quarter” said Mercom’s CEO. The two top deals were Cylance and Sentient Energy, both raising $15 million, with grid optimization firms getting the most funding in the quarter. There were four M&A transactions in Q1.

The Master Limited Partnerships Parity Act was reintroduced to help investors lower the cost of capital for renewable-energy projects and put more institutional capital into play....

Cambridge Associates, a global institutional investment advisor, launched a quarterly report to evaluate the company-level performance of venture capital and private equity investments...

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Despite current challenges, the industry guru breaks down the key industry trends that will cause clean energy investment to triple by 2030.

The DOE is ready to invest in technologies after storms in the Northeast exposed the grid’s soft underbelly.

Despite investing trillions of dollars in renewable energy, barely a dent has been made over the last two decades in reducing the amount of carbon in the world’s energy supplies, according to a report by the International Energy Agency. View Article