CleanTech OC Daily - 10/17/12

Green clouds are all about scale

According to two companies that sell green data center services to IT companies, the key to driving clean power for data centers is scale. For example, because of the large amount of computing being done, Apple built a solar plant to power its data center in North Carolina, it wouldn’t be cost effective for a smaller company to do so.  In the future, according to Eirikur Hrafnsson, founder of GreenQloud, webscale computing will become so massive that it will require more renewables as power sources.

PV Module Consolidation in 2013-2014: What to Expect

After several years of sustained profits and strong growth, the PV manufacturing sector is in a downturn and on track for a consolidation. GTM shares eight trends they expect to play out in the coming months and years (full article gives explanations of each):

1.      Most Firms in High-Cost Locations to Exit Market by YE 2013

2.      Thin Film Space to Contract to Less Than 10 Active Manufacturers by 2015

3.      Aggressive Downstream Build-Out in China Will Prop Up Select Domestic Suppliers

4.      Select Struggling Pure-Play Chinese Firms Will Receive Additional Debt From Domestic Lenders

5.      Large Chinese Firms Will Continue to Acquire European Module Companies

6.      Select Pure-Play Chinese Firms Could Be Acquired by Diversified or State-Owned Chinese Firms

7.      Will Smaller Chinese Firms Be Allowed to Exit?

8.      Even Larger Diversified Firms Will Be Forced to Exit the Market Without Aggressive Product or Business Model Differentiation

Lessons From the Past Ten Years: Angels

Even with VC-investments in cleantech at a low, entrepreneurs have remained active which gives angel investors an opportunity to be introduced to promising technologies and companies. GTM article author Rob Day spoke with a group of angel investors who gave three general suggestions on how to engage with cleantech startups at this challenging time in the industry.