I’ve enjoyed The Clean Tech Revolution: The Next Big Growth and Investment Opportunity, by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder. It is a marvelous tour d’horizon of the many experiments underway and funded in areas such as energy efficiency and pollution reduction. The “content” is enlightening, but the “context” even more so. That is, “intractable” problems effectively are embraced and ameliorated—often in surprisingly short order—only when the Giant called “market forces” is awakened. The economic tipping point has arguably been reached—and the likes of the Silicon Valley V.C.s are moving in for the “cleantech” kill-killing. Will there be a burst bubble that wipes out the bank accounts of thousands? Of course! And like Web 2.0 today, it inevitably will be followed by more experimentation of new flavors—and doubtless more burst bubbles. But the race is on, and progress, I confidently predict, will be astonishing in the next 5, 10, 20 years.
(All hail Joseph Schumpeter redux.)