Surprises abound in first Global Cleantech 100 ranking

A first Global Cleantech 100 list was jointly released today by the Guardian newspaper and the Cleantech Group, illustrating what sectors of clean technology are attracting the most attention, and where.

The two organizations surveyed hundreds of cleantech experts to identify 3,500 companies with the best commercial potential. Then, 35 panelists narrowed the field to produce the top 100 list—the first global, peer-reviewed look at the industry, according to the researchers.

“Particularly in times like this where the public markets are relatively inactive, it is important to have some means of doing a status check, to measure where progress is being made,” said Stephan Dolezalek, managing director and cleantech group leader at VantagePoint Venture Partners, and a panelist for the ranking.

“Otherwise the public can easily get a view that there are a thousand great ideas but virtually no great companies yet, as only a few solar and wind companies have really succeeded on the public markets. These 100 companies, and particularly the top 10, represent the next wave of great public cleantech companies.”

“The top companies are pioneers in their segments. They got there and grew large before others really even recognized the importance of the market segment they were addressing,” Dolezalek told the Cleantech Group. “Many of these are common names today, but were really the first of their kind when they got started. They are also the closest to commercial reality, which is critically important in showing the viability of investing in renewable energy.”

Read the full lists of winners, criteria and panelists here »

Companies in the energy field dominated the list, with 74 of the final 100 spots. The energy-generation sector took 37 spots, while 18 energy-efficiency and 10 energy-storage companies made it on the list. Energy infrastructure companies took nine spots.

Panelist Iyad Omari, investment director at London-based Frog Capital, said the same survey, if taken a year or two ago, would probably have awarded the most top spots to companies generating wind and solar power.

“It’s a sign of the times. Even from a government perspective, there’s a lot of support for rolling out or trying out smart grid technology,” he said.

The water and wastewater sector accounted for 11 spots on the list. That included Israel-based Aqwise, which developed a process to treat waste water with enhanced biological processing. CEO Elad Frenkel said making the Global 100 list signifies that the cleantech sector is recognizing water technologies as being as important as energy.

“It’s another very good sign of the progress the company is making,” he told the Cleantech Group today.

Dolezalek said the 2009 ranking represents the current thinking of investors, who made up the majority of members of the panel.

“In the U.S. there is now a very heavy focus on energy efficiency, and these types of surveys do tend to represent the current view of where money is likely to be made,” he said. “By contrast, some areas, like solar, were probably under-represented, but that too is a reflection of the current moribund public market for solar stocks.”

The United States took the lion’s share of the top 100 spots with 55 companies, including eight of the top 10 rankings. European firms took 36 spots, while five were based in Israel and three in India. China had no companies on the 2009 list.

Rhea Hamilton, senior investment manager for Robeco Private Equity in the Netherlands, said the U.S. dominance was likely due to the region’s leadership in venture capital investment. In the second quarter of 2009, North America accounted for 66 percent of the investment total, while Europe and Israel made up 21 percent, India took 11 percent and China was at 1 percent (see Cleantech may have seen the worst, rebounding to $1.2B in 2Q09).

“The U.S. is a much more developed venture capital market than Europe or Asia, so it doesn’t surprise me that the majority of companies are coming from the U.S. because that’s where the funding has been in the last year,” she said. “In the next couple years, you’ll see more of their European counterparts on the list because the funding side is also increasing in Europe.”

Omari said the 2009 ranking was a snapshot of the cleantech sector today but not a guarantee of success in the future. He noted that budding entrepreneurs and investors can look to the list for guidance as to what makes some companies more successful than others.

“We see too many companies focused purely on technology. A lot of these winners are focused on solutions, commercial applications, and partnerships, and they’re still focused on the carefully determined breadth of what they do,” Omari said. “Younger companies can look at these leading companies and try to develop strategies living up to these lessons.”