Bill Nussey talks with Alan Russo of STEM, a leading clean energy company in storage, microgrids and, most recently, AI software that ties it all together. Read More
Podcast #020: Alan Russo: Can artificial intelligence turbocharge local energy?
Creating the definitive list of cleantech investment firms
The Freeing Energy team is putting together the definitive list of venture capital and private equity firms investing in clean energy technologies. We need your help. Read More
Four questions investors should ask before funding cleantech startups (Part 4)
After the 2011 collapse of cleantech investing, the industry is starting to show signs of life once again. Investors are slowly dusting off their checkbooks. This article has four core questions and five parts of the value chain that investors should consider as they fund new cleantech companies. Read More
A blueprint for cleantech investing (Part 3)
Cleantech is one of the biggest and most exciting technology industries today. But, despite the buzz, it remains complex and opaque. This article breaks it down into bite-sized chunks and explains how the terms and segments fit together. Read More
How will we fund the transition to a clean energy future? (Part 2)
Even conservative estimates forecast that transitioning to clean energy will require trillions of dollars of investments. Where will all this money come from? For better or worse, most of it will come from traditional sources like banks and governments. But, even thought it’s relatively smaller, venture capital will play a critical, catalytic role by lowering the risks for every other type of investment. Read More
How venture investors lost $10 billion in the cleantech collapse of 2011 (Part 1)
Clean energy is one of the largest business opportunities in history. But, in 2011, the US venture capital industry lost over $10 billion betting on it. What led to this cleantech collapse? And what did we learn as funding for cleantech is on the rise again? Read More
What is the best way to make electricity? The answer isn’t simple
How should we generate electricity for the world’s grids? This may be one of the most important questions of the 21st century. The stakes are incredibly high. At $2 trillion a year, electricity is one of the largest and most influential industries on earth. Whichever directions we take, some of the world’s largest corporations will… Read More
Help wanted: the clean energy industry could really use the skills of tech executives
I was recently invited to speak a group of Georgia-based technology executives. I’ve included some excerpts from the slides and a list of some of the more exciting clean energy companies in the region. Read More
How did CEO Chandu Visweswariah take Utopus Insights from clean energy startup to $100M acquisition in 12 months?
On February 2, 2018, US$12 billion wind turbine giant, Vestas, acquired New York startup, Utopus Insights, for $100M in cash. Utopus provides several products including predictive analytic software tools that help utilities manage intermittent energy sources like wind. This is a behind the scenes story of the Utopus CEO… Chandu Visweswariah is one of the… Read More
The biggest business opportunity in history
Clean energy is the biggest business opportunity in history. Let me explain. To put this in perspective, look at the first bar above (1). The creation of the US interstate highway system is often cited as the largest infrastructure project ever. Between 1954 and 1991, the US invested $468 billion to create it (that number is… Read More
