Silicon Valley Shifting to Power Grid After Solar Sours - Bloomberg

Silicon Valley investors that helped build the solar industry are shifting cash into electricity-grid technology and energy-storage developers after bets on panel manufacturers failed to pay off.
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Investment flowing from private equity and venture capital firms into renewable energy fell 34 percent to $5.8 billion last year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the lowest since at least 2006.
Competition for the best investments from Blackstone Group LP to Warren Buffett along with a plunge in profit from the solar and wind industries prompted the shift.
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“We are going through a repositioning of cleantech,” said Wal van Lierop, founder of Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, which is based in Vancouver. “The big sectors -- solar, wind and LEDs -- are in the process of being consolidated. They’re maturing, so they fall out of the cleantech opportunity basket. We now are trying to find the next hot spots.”

Investment flowing from private equity and venture capital firms into renewable energy fell 34 percent to $5.8 billion last year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the lowest since at least 2006. That accounted for 2.2 percent of the $268.7 billion invested in the clean energy industry, down from as much as 6.5 percent in 2008.

Canadian carbon tax would not expedite Keystone approval: Redford

[Alberta Premier Alison Redford] "I haven’t heard from decision makers down here that if we were to implement (a carbon tax) that that would somehow shift the dial on those issues”

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[Michael E. Mann] ... Indeed, silence by MSM on the Keystone XL protest was deafening...