Notes from the week

• Interesting article in the FT on cleantech. Important point (highlighted by the Cleantech Venture Network's Nick Parker) made in the article is that the quality of entrepreneurs across cleantech segments is on the rise, often serial entrepreneurs. Having increasingly strong management teams to back is clearly one of the several encouraging factors in the cleantech market right now for venture investors.

• On the general topic of fuel cells, while the investors quoted in this piece come largely from the public markets, it's still interesting to see this investors' take on timing the hydrogen economy.

• The development of trading markets for the emissions reductions created by energy efficiency projects, the renewable energy credits ("green tags") created by green energy projects, and carbon credits overall, will all have important implications for the adoption of clean energy technologies by the private sector, even in the absence of regulatory change. Thus, the subject of this very informative post in Cleantechblog...

• We always knew that pond scum will somehow save the planet... One has to wonder how this discovery would be implemented commercially. In a system similar to GreenFuel's? Large enclosed wading pools planted behind hydrogen vehicle refueling stations? If it's photosynthesis driven, it's going to require a lot of surface area and access to sunlight...

• We've mentioned aerogels before -- here's an interesting overview and critique.

• Adoption of renewables in the U.S. is not only growing, but the rate of adoption is also growing, in a very good sign for investors.

• Reading this, just wanted to acknowledge that the last time the company was mentioned we weren't passing along such flattery (scroll down to "amusing reads"). A fun juxtaposition. And while we're (kind of) on political topics, it was great to see that the job cuts at NREL were reversed...