VCs Discuss Cleantech At Seattle’s Renewable Energy Finance Forum

Gregory Huang at Xconomy gives us his highlights at the Top 10 Takeaways from VCs At Renewable Energy Forum

Key points I found of interest:

Record investment levels in energy

Cleantech isn’t a sector. It’s many different sectors with very different markets

Solar is dead. “We’ve placed our bets in solar already,” said Atluru of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. “You’re going to see solar drop off.

Smart grid is getting a lot of attention from info-tech investors, in part because it’s capital-efficient.

Waste, water, and recycling aren’t getting as much investment as they deserve, but that may change given the enormous market opportunities worldwide

time horizons for exits have increased to 7-9 years, up from 5-7 years not too long ago

The needle has moved from optimism to skepticism in cleantech

The enthusiasm of entrepreneurs in this sector is an order of magnitude higher than any other sector.

the panelists agreed that entrepreneurs are ahead of investors when it comes to dealing with the economic downturn

The full story.