将废物转化为可再生能源越来越多地成为利用废物管理和可持续能源的有利方式。自去年12月以来，提供浪费可再生能源解决方案的公司已收到超过2亿美元的扩张融资。越来越多的风险资本家和企业投资者正在宣布新的可再生能源投资计划。支持可再生能源商业化的增加的资金始于一段时间，投资者似乎厌倦了这一部门。私募股权基金银湖合作伙伴表示，它将与乔治索罗斯基金合作，以创建银湖Kraftwerk，这是一项新的基金，专注于为能源和资源部门提供企业创新者提供增长资本。Carmaker BMW已宣布为交通创新和应用提供1亿美元的风险投资基金。加速伙伴，巨型风险投资基金报告称，它希望筹集20亿美元的新资金来投资中国的能源公司。VantagePoint Venture Partners表示，它创造了致力于可再生能源投资的1亿美元基金。去年12月的可再生电力投资占据了3000万美元的LS9 Inc.的融资，这是一家私营的旧金山的可再生燃料公司，采用专门设计的微生物将基于工厂的材料转化为燃料和化学品。从那以后，风险资本家投资了7500万美元的Fulcrum Bioenergy; $45 million in Genomatica, and $51.7 million in Harvest Power. The tsunami in Japan and the subsequent nuclear energy crisis, as well as the spike in global oil prices, has sparked renewed interest in alternative energy sources. At the same time, investors in public renewable energy companies are losing confidence and have been selling off their stakes because many of these companies have failed to demonstrate the growth they promised. Portugal’s EDP Renováveis, France’s EDF Energies Nouvelles and Spain’s Iberdrola Renovables, three of the most visible renewable companies in Europe, have seen their share prices drop well below their initial offering prices. “The key question on waste-to-renewable companies is the same as it is for all companies – what is the value proposition for the customer?” asks John T. Preston, a managing partner of Vanterra C Change Transformative Energy & Materials Fund, which makes investments in companies that help transform the operations of industrial users and producers of energy and materials. “A typical customer will not pay a premium for environmental reasons. This is especially true of business customers who cannot put themselves at a competitive disadvantage relative to their competitors,” says Preston. Many cleantech companies fail to realize this fact and sell based on “environmental sizzle” rather than “economic substance.” Ultimately the value of any company is driven to the true economic value. The long-term trends favor cleantech, but for public companies the short-term value is driven mostly by performance within the next 12 months, Preston and others say. Still, there is funding available for longer term. In January, Fulcrum BioEnergy announced it had closed a $75 million round of financing, capital that will be used to finance its Sierra Biofuels plant in Reno Nevada. The plant, which is expected to cost $120 million to build, will use a proven thermochemical process to convert municipal solid waste into ethanol. Genomatica reported it had raised an additional $45 million. New investors include VantagePoint Venture Partners, which has committed $2.5 billion to cleantech investment; Bright Capital Partners; and Waste Management. All existing investors joined the new round — Alloy Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Mohr Davidow Ventures and TPG Biotech. Harvest Power, which converts organic waste to renewable energy and fertilizer products, raised $51.7 million in a financing led by Generation Investment Management, the London-based firm managed by Al Gore and David Blood. And LS9’s fourth round of financing was led by global investment firm BlackRock and included previous investors Flagship Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and CTTV Investments, the venture capital arm of Chevron Technology Ventures. Significantly, most of the venture investments – except for Harvest Power, founded in 2008 – are in older companies. And almost all of them are moving forward in partnership with big energy corporations. Analysts note that most of them will probably never be of any size or substance to go public, especially after the experiences of their European counterparts. In fact, says one fund manager, “I think the VC model is broken as it relates to cleantech. No one is showing returns. This is not sustainable because the long term will never arrive.”
可再生能源初创企业和他们的背板能够获得高估值，部分原因是全球对能量转换解决方案的兴趣，部分原因是他们投射高增长。但可再生能源的增长严重依赖于政府补贴和支出，尽管有希望的支持者从未争辩的是投射的行业正在增长的支持者，但尽管有希望的前景。