Clean tech, the Silicon Valley, and Al Gore

Al Gore addressed attendees at the Silicon Valley Network's "State of the Valley" conference at Joint Venture on Friday, empowering the region's business and community leaders to take a front-line position in the war on climate change.

While the IPCC was making a very sobering "state of the climate" address, Al Gore spread gospel about the opportunities of clean technology and the Valley's receptiveness to developing the sector, according to the San Jose Mercury News yesterday.

Any doubt that human production of carbon dioxide is accelerating climate change should be gone, he said....

The human species, Gore said, "cannot'' continued its current approach to energy consumption. "We cannot. It would be suicidal. But change is difficult.''

The good news, he suggested, is that Silicon Valley is tackling the crisis. The region, as Gore noted, has recently embraced "clean tech'' with glee.

The Mercury News reported that clean tech funding to firms in the valley increased from $141 million in 2005 to $516 million [ed. note - a 365.95% increase if my math is right!] in 2006, according to the group's latest annual Silicon Valley Index assesment. Compare that with the national figures compiled by the Cleantech Venture Network, which state cleantech VC investment totaled a record $2.9 billion for 2006, representing a 78% increase over 2005 cleantech investment of $1.6 billion and a 140% increase over 2004 investment of $1.2 billion.

These numbers obviously reflect an accelerating growth trend overall, with growth in the Valley outpacing national figures. According to the Merc, the CEO of local Miasole characterized the solar market in the Valley as "just absolutely exploding."


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