The Clean Tech Revolution - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Clean Tech Revolution is a 2007 book by Ron Pernick

Ron Pernick

Ron Pernick, co-author of The Clean Tech Revolution and co-founder and principal of Clean Edge, is "an accomplished market research, publishing, and business development entrepreneur with two decades of high-tech experience"...

and Clint Wilder

Clint Wilder

Clint Wilder is a veteran business and technology journalist who won the 2002 American Society of Business Publications Editors award for best feature series. He is also co-author of The Clean Tech Revolution: The Next Big Growth and Investment Opportunity, published in June 2007, which has been...

, who say that commercializing clean technologies

Clean technology

Clean technology includes recycling, renewable energy , information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, Greywater, and many other appliances that are now more energy efficient. It is a means to create electricity and fuels, with a smaller environmental...

is a profitable enterprise that is moving steadily into mainstream

Mainstream

Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....

business. As the world economy faces challenges from energy price spikes, resource shortages

Peak oil

Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. This concept is based on the observed production rates of individual oil wells, projected reserves and the combined production rate of a field...

, global environmental problems

Global warming

Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...

, and security threats

Brittle Power

Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security is a 1982 book by Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, prepared originally as a Pentagon study, and re-released in 2001 following the September 11 attacks. The book argues that U.S. domestic energy infrastructure is very vulnerable to...

, clean technologies are seen to be the next engine of economic growth

Economic growth

In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...

.

Pernick and Wilder highlight eight major clean technology sectors: solar power

Solar power

Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...

, wind power

Wind power

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....

, biofuels, green building

Green building

Green building refers to a structure and using process that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition...

s, personal transportation

Sustainable transport

Sustainable transport refers to any means of transport with low impact on the environment, and includes walking and cycling, transit oriented development, green vehicles, CarSharing, and building or protecting urban transport systems that are fuel-efficient, space-saving and promote healthy...

, the smart grid, mobile applications, and water filtration. Six major forces, which they call the six C’s, are pushing clean technology into the mainstream: costs, capital, competition, China, consumers, and climate. Very large corporations such as GE

Gê

Gê are the people who spoke Ge languages of the northern South American Caribbean coast and Brazil. In Brazil the Gê were found in Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Bahia, Piaui, Mato Grosso, Goias, Tocantins, Maranhão, and as far south as Paraguay....

, Toyota and Sharp

Sharp Corporation

is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. Headquartered in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan, Sharp employs more than 55,580 people worldwide as of June 2011. The company was founded in September 1912 and takes its name from one of its founder's first...

, and investment firms such as Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...

are making multi-billion dollar investments in clean technology.

The book has been reviewed in USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

, Business Week, Energy Priorities, Sustainability Investment News and several other magazines, and has been translated into seven languages.

Themes

Pernick and Wilder explain that, in the 1970s, clean technology was considered “alternative,” the province of back-to-the-land lifestyle advocates, altruistic environmentalists, and lab scientists on research grants. Such technology was in an early stage of development, was too expensive, it did not have widespread political support, and very few large, established companies were embracing the sector. Even at the start of the 21st century, the term clean tech was not yet in the financial or business community’s vocabulary. But now, throughout much of the world, in trends large and small, there is "the beginning of a revolution that is changing the places where we live and work, the products we manufacture and purchase, and the development plans of cities, regional governments, and nations around the globe."

Pernick and Wilder define "clean tech" as "any product, service, or process that delivers value using limited or zero non-renewable resources and/or creates significantly less waste than conventional offerings." They highlight eight major clean technology sectors: solar power

Solar power

, wind power

Wind power

, biofuels, green building

Green building

s, personal transportation

Sustainable transport

, the smart grid, mobile applications (such as portable fuel cells), and water filtration. The authors explain how investors, entrepreneurs, and individuals can profit from technological innovation in these areas. Pernick and Wilder identify some specific clean technologies, companies, and regions that are leading the way.

The authors present a list of drivers for clean tech: "high energy prices, depleted natural resources, volatile sources of foreign oil, record deficits, and unprecedented environmental and security challenges". The central message, which is repeated in almost every chapter, is that a clean tech revolution with benefit humanity worldwide, and will require significant collaboration between the public and private sectors.

Pernick and Wilder present examples which show that the "clean tech revolution" is already under way. Very large corporations such as GE

Gê

, Toyota and Sharp

Sharp Corporation

, and investment firms such as Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs

are making multi-billion dollar investments in clean technology. Emerging clean tech cities are seen to include Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

, where wind power generates 20 percent of Denmark's electricity, and Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, a leader in "green" buildings saving energy, heating and cooling costs. Statistics from the U.S. and from abroad, especially from China, India, Brazil, and Europe are presented.

The authors' say that nuclear power

Nuclear power

Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...

and clean coal

Clean coal

Historically used to refer to technologies for reducing emissions of ash, sulfur, and heavy metals from coal combustion; the term is now commonly used to refer to carbon capture and storage technology...

are not clean technologies. Apart from the risks associated with nuclear power, "multibillion-dollar nuclear plants are simply not cost-effective when compared with other energy sources." The authors also believe that clean coal is an oxymoron for a myriad of reasons, including the sheer number of coal mine-related deaths and the fact that coal-fired plants, even some cleaner ones, are major contributors to serious illnesses such as asthma, heart disease, and mercury poisoning.

Pernick and Wilder do not recommend specific stocks or securities. They prefer to lay out a blueprint of opportunities, technologies, companies, and trends that may build successful businesses and strengthen economies.

Six C's

Pernick and Wilder identify six major forces, which they call the six C’s, that are pushing clean technology into the mainstream and driving rapid growth and expansion: costs, capital, competition, China, consumers, and climate.

Costs. "Perhaps the most powerful force driving today’s clean-tech growth is simple economics. As a general trend, clean-energy costs are falling as the costs of fossil fuel
Fossil fuel
Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years...

energy are going up. The future of clean tech is going to be, in many ways, about scaling up manufacturing and driving down costs."
Capital. "An unprecedented influx of capital is changing the clean tech landscape, with billions of dollars, euros, yen, and yuan pouring in from a myriad of public and private sector sources."
Competition. "Governments are competing aggressively in the highstakes race to dominate in the clean-tech sector and build the jobs of the future."
China. "Clean tech is being driven by the inexorable demands being placed on the earth not only by mature economies but also by the explosive demand for resources in China
Energy policy of China
The energy policy of the People's Republic of China is a policy decided on by the Central Government with regard to energy and energy resources. The country is currently the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases according to a Dutch research agency. However, China's per capita emissions are...

, India
Solar power in India
India is densely populated and has high solar insolation, an ideal combination for using solar power in India. India is already a leader in wind power generation...

, and other developing nations. Their expanding energy needs are driving major growth in clean-energy, transportation, building, and water-delivery technologies."
Consumers. "Savvy consumers are demanding cleaner products and services that use resources efficiently, reduce costs, and embrace quality over quantity."
Climate. "The debate around climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

has gone from question mark to peer-reviewed certainty, and smart businesses are taking heed."

The six C’s are a simple list of factors, not necessarily a useful framework for understanding, or profiting from, the clean technology industry.

Release and reception

The Clean Tech Revolution was published by Collins

HarperCollins

HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...

as a 320 page hardcover

Hardcover

A hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...

book on June 12, 2007. An e-book

E-book

An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...

version was published by HarperCollins

HarperCollins

on June 7, 2007. In 2008, a revised paperback edition was published, with a new sub-title: Discover the Top Trends, Technologies and Companies to Watch. The book has been translated into seven languages.

Paul Gruber from the Erb Institute

Erb Institute

The Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise is an interdisciplinary institute at the University of Michigan fosters professional education, public outreach and scientific scholarship supportive of the transition to sustainability – that is, meeting the fundamental needs of a growing human...

states that the The Clean Tech Revolution is logically organized and is "an excellent resource for those who would like a solid understanding of clean tech and the potential of each sector". He also says that it is very useful for those seeking out the names of companies, NGOs, agencies, and people working on each technology. Gruber identifies one omission: the concern that major investments in clean technology parallel those made during the Internet boom, with the attendant fear that there "may be a bubble burst with clean tech".

The physicist and environmentalist, Joseph Romm, has recommended The Clean Tech Revolution to people who are looking for one book to help them understand what is happening in clean technology. He says The Clean Tech Revolution is the only book that covers the whole gamut of the latest in clean energy and yet isn't swept up in fads like hydrogen cars.

Russ Juskalian from USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

says The Clean Tech Revolution shows the green movement not in "heartstring terms" but as economically profitable. The real power players are the mainstream consumers, investors, entrepreneurs, governments and multinational corporations whose "eyes are trained on that most crucial of economic fundamentals: the bottom line".

According to Reena Jana from Business Week, The Clean Tech Revolution is a "readable, straightforward guide to earth-friendly business strategies". The authors explain how businesses can follow the lead of companies such as Toyota by designing, selling, or funding inventive eco-friendly products and services. Jana says that the Toyota Prius

Toyota Prius

The Toyota Prius is a full hybrid electric mid-size hatchback, formerly a compact sedan developed and manufactured by the Toyota Motor Corporation...

is just one well-known example of successful clean technology in action.

Denis Du Bois, editor of Energy Priorities magazine, commented on the realistic and comprehensive coverage of the book. However, he suggests that The Clean Tech Revolution is not an explanation of the technologies and how they work, nor is it an analysis of energy or environmental policy

Environmental policy

Environmental policy is any [course of] action deliberately taken [or not taken] to manage human activities with a view to prevent, reduce, or mitigate harmful effects on nature and natural resources, and ensuring that man-made changes to the environment do not have harmful effects on...

. Policy is complicated and the authors avoid discussing it in detail. Little discussion ties the various clean technologies together and a "single-minded American focus" dominates. There is very little on the influence of mass transit and urban planning in Europe and other progressive regions. The chapter on water focuses on filtration, and skims over toxins (and the myriad global laws regulating them). This already is an area of considerable opportunity, and it affects even "green" industries, such as photovoltaics

Photovoltaics

Photovoltaics is a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity using semiconductors that exhibit the photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaic power generation employs solar panels composed of a number of solar cells containing a photovoltaic material...

manufacturing.

Francesca Rheannon in Sustainability Investment News says that the book does not ask the most challenging question of all: is "clean growth" an oxymoron? She says that at a time when some experts say carbon emissions will need to be cut by 80 to 90% by 2050, the world may have to accept the prospect of steady or even decreasing production, no matter how clean it is. Rheannon also states that there is little coverage of social issues. For example, nowhere is there mention of how water supply privatization and delivery by multinational corporations could affect the poor people of the world.

Authors

Author Ron Pernick is co-founder and managing director of Clean Edge

Clean Edge

Clean Edge is a leading U.S. research and publishing firm that helps companies, investors, and policymakers understand and profit from clean technologies...

, a research and strategy firm in the USA which focuses on the commercialization of renewable energy

Renewable energy commercialization

Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature and economically competitive, include biomass, hydroelectricity, geothermal power and heat...

and other clean technologies

Clean technology

. Clint Wilder is senior editor at Clean Edge, and a veteran business and technology journalist. Both authors have been mapping clean technology trends for many years, and identifying business opportunities for prospective investors.

Themes

Six C's

Release and reception

Authors

See also