SOLAR TODAY - May 2011

PowerHouse Dynamics Introduces eMonitor eMonitor from PowerHouse Dynamics is a software package that enables home owners and small businesses to monitor both solar production and energy consumption, saving 30 percent on their energy bills. power housedynamics.com

Devices (photovoltaics), Ciris Energy (cleaner coal) and CoolPlanetBioFuels (non-food biofuels).

Japanese companies including Sharp (6753. T), Toshiba (6502.T) and Panasonic (NYSE: PC) pledged to invest $4.5 billion in cleantech over the next 15 months. South Korean companies Samsung and LG Group have pledged billions more.

Much of the funding over the past year came from government, whether in the form of cheap debt in China, sweet off-take deals for European offshore wind, feed-in tariffs for solar or a regulatory push for smart grids. The industry needs to continue to drive down its costs and reduce its reliance on this sort of support.

Overall, it looks like cleantech will prevail this year even in the face of waning European feed-in laws and the lack of energy policy in the United States. Bloomberg New Energy Finance has long predicted that $500 billion a year will have to be spent on clean energy for carbon emissions to peak by 2020. Even excluding investment from the public markets, if we add up government, angel and venture capital, M&A, corporate investments, project finance and private equity, we are halfway there. ST

Investing from page 26

NatlTour-ad-8x5-0311_ 72 3/22/11 4:09 PM Page 1

Inspiring the
nation to go solar
October 1, 2011

The ASES National Solar Tour is the largest grassroots solar event in the world. Join more than 170,000 people this October in 3,200 communities across the U.S. and Mexico. Attend open-house tours to see how neighbors are using solar energy and energy efficiency to reduce monthly utility bills and to help tackle climate change.