Monday 20 February 2012

GE launches fund to help European clean tech

GE launches fund to help European clean tech

A pan-European partnership has been set up by the Carbon Trust and energy firm GE to accelerate growth in clean tech. GE claims new research shows despite record global investment in renewable technologies, the market share in Europe is decreasing.

According to a recent Bloomberg New Energy Finance report, in 2007 42% of the world's clean energy investment took place in Europe compared to just 25% today. During the same period Asia and Oceania has almost doubled its share of overall investment.

The deal includes an initial $5 million (£3.15m) incubation fund which will help develop low carbon infrastructure ideas and is part of a wider $200 million (£126m) GE ecomagination Challenge, a global innovation initiative with Venture Capital partners that aims to fund the best ideas around clean tech technology.

Tom Delay, Chief Executive of the Carbon Trust said: "During a downturn, supporting these businesses becomes doubly important: research studies show that such high growth businesses account for a disproportionate amount of job growth. At the same time, they have a greater need for capital than lower growth businesses and this can be an issue if banks are restrained on lending. Incubation funds such as this one can help."

Written by

Bruna Pinhoni

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