Nyaman Beranjangsana dengan Mobil Hijau

Terlepas dari minimnya (polusi) suara yang ditimbulkan mobil hijau, masih ada sederet keuntungan menggunakan mobil hijau.

(Thinstockphoto)

Sama sekali tidak terdengar raungan suara mesin saat seorang rekan men-starter mesin green car atau mobil hijaunya. Kendaraan berpenampilan trendi ini pun melaju nyaman dalam hening di tengah belantara lalu lintas perkotaan yang riuh dan menjenuhkan.

Terlepas dari minimnya (polusi) suara yang ditimbulkan mobil hijau, masih ada sederet keuntungan menggunakan mobil hijau. Bebas polusi udara, eco-friendly dan hemat energi. Selain trendi, biaya perawatan mobil hijau juga lebih efisien, tidak mahal dan tidak serumit mobil non hijau.

Sang rekan percaya, dengan memiliki dan mengendarai mobil hijau maka secara langsung turut berkontribusi menjaga lingkungan. Menciptakan kondisi udara yang lebih baik—bebas polusi.

Berbeda dengan mobil kebanyakan, mobil hijau melepas lebih sedikit gas karbon dioksida dan karbon monoksida. Makin sedikit gas buang, makin lestari lingkungan. Sebagaimana kita ketahui, menghirup udara yang tercemar kedua gas berbahaya itu dapat mengganggu kesehatan. Terutama saluran pernapasan, bahkan menyebabkan kanker dan kematian.

Mobil hijau menggunakan bahan bakar hidrogen atau elektrik (listrik) yang ramah lingkungan. Pengeluaran bahan bakar bensin pun dapat dihemat hingga 98 persen. Mobil hijau tak hanya menguntungkan bagi lingkungan, juga keuangan penggunanya. Terlebih pajak mobil hijau jauh lebih rendah dibanding mobil non-hijau.

Selain Toyota Prius dan Lexus RX-450, pilihan mobil hijau kini tertuju pada "Agya" dan "Ayla," mobil compact hasil kolaborasi terbaru PT Astra Internasional Tbk (ASTRA), Toyota Motor Corporation (TOYOTA), dan Daihatsu Motor Company (DAIHATSU).

Mobil berkapasitas lima penumpang yang dirancang mengikuti program pemerintah Low Cost Green Car (LCGC) ini dikenalkan kepada kalangan pejabat dan pers dalam acara bertajuk Kebanggaan untuk Indonesia pada Rabu (19/9) di Ballroom 3, Ritz Carlton Pasific Place, Jakarta.

Johnny Darmawan, Presiden Direktur PT Toyota Astra Motor (ujung kiri) di peluncuran Agya dan Ayla di Jakarta, Rabu (19/9). (Vega Probo/NGI) 

Agya dan Alya juga akan ditampilkan di ajang Indonesia Internasional Motor Show (IIMS) ke-20 yang berlangsung pada 21-30 September 2012 di JIExpo Kemayoran, Jakarta. Hadir selaku tuan rumah acara Kebanggaan untuk Indonesia, Presiden Direktur PT Astra International Tbk Prijono Sugiarto, Executive Vice President Toyota Motor Corporation Yukitoshi Funo, dan President Daihatsu Motor Company Koichi Ina.

Tamu undangan, Menteri Perdagangan Gita Wiryawan, dalam kata sambutannya memuji desain kedua mobil hijau yang luar biasa dan harga yang relatif terjangkau. Hal senada juga disampaikan Menteri Perindustrian Muhammad S. Hidayat yang menyatakan dukungan pemerintah terhadap produksi mobil hijau. Selain ramah lingkungan, juga mengikuti tren dan memenuhi kebutuhan.

Inilah salah satu cara memberi yang terbaik bagi Planet Bumi tercinta tempat kita berpijak: berkendara dengan mobil hijau.

(Vega Probo)

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Perubahan Iklim Dorong Penyebaran Malaria Burung Hingga ke Kutub Utara

Penyebaran ini bisa membawa kehancuran bagi burung kutub yang tak pernah menghadapi dan tak punya sistem pertahanan tubuh terhadap malaria.

Elang bondol alaska. (Thinkstock)

Malaria merupakan penyakit yang biasa ditemukan di kawasan tropis atau subtropis. Namun kini, penyakit itu telah ditemukan pada burung-burung di Alaska, dan perubahan iklim global akan mendorong penyebarannya lebih jauh lagi ke utara. Kesimpulan tersebut merupakan hasil studi yang dilakukan oleh para peneliti dari San Francisco State University, dan dipublikasikan di jurnal PLoS One.

Menurut Ravinder Sehgal, salah satu peneliti, penyebaran tersebut bisa membawa kehancuran bagi burung-burung kawasan kutub yang tidak pernah menghadapi penyakit seperti itu dan tidak memiliki kekebalan tubuh terhadap penyakit yang bersangkutan. Yang menarik, temuan ini juga bisa membantu para ilmuwan untuk memahami dampak perubahan iklim pada malaria yang menyerang manusia, yang disebabkan oleh parasit serupa.

Dalam studinya, para peneliti mengamati sampel darah dari burung-burung yang dikumpulkan dari empat kawasan berbeda dengan Anchorage sebagai kawasan paling selatan, Denali dan Fairbanks sebagai kawasan tengah, dan kawasan Coldfoot yang mewakili titik paling utara, atau sekitar 900 kilometer dari Anchorage, Alaska.

Menggunakan citra satelit dan data lain, peneliti berhasil memprediksi bagaimana lingkungan bisa berubah akibat pemanasan global dan bagaimana parasit malaria mampu bertahan hidup di masa depan. Diperkirakan, pada tahun 2080 mendatang, penyakit itu akan menyebar ke utara, hingga ke Coldfoot dan seterusnya.

“Saat ini, tak ada malaria burung yang hadir di atas lintang 64 derajat, tetapi di masa depan, dengan pemanasan global, ini tentu akan berubah,” kata Sehgal. “Penyebaran ke utara sangatlah membahayakan, karena banyak spesies yang hidup di kawasan kutub utara yang tidak pernah terkena dan sangat rentan terhadap penyakit itu,” ucapnya.

Sebagai contoh, kata Sehgal, penguin di sejumlah kebun binatang mati karena terserang malaria karena mereka tidak pernah bertemu dengan malaria sehingga tidak memiliki pertahanan alamiah terhadap penyakit itu. “Kini ada banyak burung di utara seperti burung elang atau burung hantu salju yang bisa mengalami hal serupa,” ucapnya.

Para peneliti sendiri belum bisa memastikan bagaimana penyakit itu bisa menyebar di kawasan Alaska. Namun kini mereka tengah mengumpulkan data-data tambahan untuk menentukan spesies nyamuk mana yang mentransmisikan parasit Plasmodium, yang menyebabkan malaria.

Data yang dikumpulkan ini juga mengindikasikan bagaimana dan jika malaria pada manusia juga menyebar ke arah utara. Menurut Sehgal, pengobatan modern yang ada saat ini sulit digunakan untuk melacak penyebaran penyakit itu, namun pemantauan terhadap burung bisa menyediakan petunjuk bagaimana perubahan iklim global juga mempengaruhi penyebaran malaria pada manusia.

(Abiyu Pradipa. Sumber: Phys.Org)

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2100, Prediksi Pergeseran Ekosistem Pasifik

Ini akhirnya berekses juga pada komunitas dan industri yang bergantung pada hasil laut.

ilustrasi ekosistem di Samudera Pasifik. (Thinkstockphoto).

Kurang dari seabad lagi, diprediksi akan terjadi perubahan lokasi dari para penghuni laut di Samudera Pasifik. Mereka diperkirakan bakal berpindah lebih dari 965 kilometer.

Dari beberapa hewan besar, penyu, hiu, dan paus, akan menerima dampak paling besar. Ini akhirnya berekses juga pada komunitas dan industri yang bergantung pada hasil laut.

Demikian hasil kesimpulan studi terbaru yang dipublikasikan Nature Climate Change yang meneliti distribusi fauna di utara Pasifik. Studi ini mempelajari perubahan yang akan terjadi di lokasi tersebut seiring meningkatnya suhu laut dan level produksi.

"Untuk spesies yang telah tertekan oleh overfishing atau perilaku manusia lainnya, peningkatan waktu migrasi dan hilangnya habitat bisa menjadi pukulan berat," ujar Elliott Hazen, peneliti dari National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Dikatakan Hazen, prediksi ini bisa berubah jika ada skenario ekosistem kelautan yang tercipta. "Ini kemungkinan dapat menolong memprioritaskan dan mengatur mereka (penghuni laut) secara proaktif."

Kesimpulan pergeseran ini didapat setelah para peneliti yang terlibat menggabungkan model matematika dengan data dari "Tagging of Pacific Predators" (TOPP). Sekitar 4.300 tag elektronik dari TOPP ditempatkan pada 23 spesies dengan rentang waktu 2000--2009.

Penempatan ini memungkinkan pandangan baru mengenai jalur migrasi dan titik pertemuan spesies predator laut di utara Pasifik. Salah satu jalur kunci yang ditemukan bernama Zona Transisi Pasifik Utara. Area ini adalah pertemuan air kutub yang dingin dan kaya nutrisi menuju utara, dengan air hangat dan miskin nutrisi menuju selatan. Kekayaan region ini digunakan oleh beragam predator di laut, termasuk mamalia dan burung.

Studi menyimpulkan, region ini bisa bergeser sejauh lebih dari 965 kilometer. Menyebabkan hilangnya 20 persen keanekaragaman hayati dan berdampak ke beberapa hal lainnya.

(Zika Zakiya. Sumber: Phys.org)

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Gempa Aceh Adalah Gempa Kembar

Oleh Yunanto Wiji Utomo

SERAMBI INDONESIA/M ANSHAR 

Pusat gempa 8,5 SR di Aceh (lingkaran merah).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Gempa yang terjadi di Provinsi Aceh Nangroe Darussalam, Rabu (11/4/2012) sore, ternyata bukan satu gempa utama yang diikuti dengan sejumlah gempa susulan. Rangkaian gempa itu merupakan dua gempa utama.

"Gempa kemarin sebenarnya gempa kembar. Jadi ada dua gempa utama," kata Danny Hilman Natawijaya, pakar geologi dan palaeotsunami dari Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (LIPI).

Gempa pertama terjadi pada pukul 15.38 WIB dengan kekuatan 8,5 skala Richter. Pusat gempa pada kedalaman 10 km, berjarak 346 km barat daya Kabupaten Simeuleu.

Adapun gempa kedua terjadi pada pukul 17.43 WIB dengan kekuatan 8,1 skala Richter. Pusat gempa punya kedalaman 10 km dan berjarak 483 km barat daya Simeuleu. "Lokasi pusat gempa keduanya memang berdekatan, semua berpusat di luar zona subduksi," kata Danny saat dihubungi Kompas.com, Kamis (12/4/2012).

Akibat dua gempa yang terjadi kemarin, Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika (BMKG) mengeluarkan peringatan dini akan potensi terjadinya tsunami. Peringatan tsunami diakhiri pukul 19.45 WIB.

Tsunami memang terjadi setelah gempa besar pertama, meskipun dalam intensitas kecil. Berdasarkan informasi BMKG, tsunami terjadi di Meulaboh setinggi 80 cm pukul 17.00 dan di Sabang setinggi 6 cm pukul 17.04.

Tsunami besar tidak terjadi sebab gempa lebih dipicu oleh gerakan sesar miring (oblique) dan di luar zona subduksi. Tsunami besar bisa terjadi bila pusat gempa di zona subduksi dan gerakan sesar vertikal. Hingga saat ini, telah ada 28 gempa susulan yang terjadi akibat dua gempa yang terjadi kemarin.

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Gempa Aceh Sinyal Pembentukan Lempeng Tektonik Baru

Oleh Yunanto Wiji Utomo

Caltech 

Grafik menunjukkan sesar (berwarna abu-abu) yang tegak lurus dan arah rupture (panah berwarna)pada gempa Simeulue April lalu. Bintang berwarna kuning menunjukkan tempat dimana rupture bermula.

LONDON, KOMPAS.com — Gempa yang mengguncang Aceh, tepatnya Simeule, 11 April 2012, punya banyak keistimewaan dan dampak serta diperkirakan menjadi bagian dari proses pembentukan lempeng baru.

Demikian hasil studi ilmuwan yang dipublikasikan di jurnal Nature, Rabu (26/9/2012). Ada tiga makalah ilmiah yang menguraikan hasil riset tentang gempa sesar geser yang terbesar sepanjang sejarah itu.

Makalah pertama yang didasarkan pada penelitian yang dipimpin Matthias Delescluse mengungkap bahwa gempa Aceh adalah bagian dari proses terpecahnya lempeng Indo-Australia membentuk lempeng baru.

"Ini adalah bagian dari proses pecahnya sebuah lempeng. Ini adalah proses geologis. Ini memakan waktu jutaan tahun untuk membentuk batasan lempeng baru dan akan ada ribuan gempa yang dibutuhkan," kata Keith Koper dari University of Utah, salah satu peneliti.

Delescluse dari Ecole Normale Superiure di Paris seperti dikutip BBC, Rabu, menyatakan, "Proses ini akan memakan waktu 8-10 juta tahun. Jadi, Anda bisa membayangkan panjangnya proses yang dibutuhkan untuk membentuk batasan baru."

Sumatera terletak di atas pertemuan lempeng Sunda dan Indo-Australia. Lempeng itu bergerak satu sama lain dengan kecepatan 15 cm per tahun. Lempeng Indo-Australia yang merupakan bagian besar Samudra Hindia bergerak ke bawah Sunda.

Gesekan antara dua lempeng tersebut merupakan akar dari banyak gempa besar di Indonesia, termasuk gempa bermagnitudo 9,1 yang terjadi 26 Desember 2004 serta memacu gelombang tsunami yang menewaskan ratusan ribu orang.

Gempa yang terjadi 11 April 2012 lalu terjadi tepat di lempeng Indo-Australia. Terjadi deformasi yang kompleks pada lempeng terjadinya gempa. Deleusche mengatakan, bukti menunjukkan bahwa pergerakan lempeng menyebabkan stres di bagian tengah.

"Australia telah bergerak terhadap India dan India telah bergerak relatif terhadap Australia," kata Deleusche saat diwawancara dalam BBC World Service Science In Action Programme.

"Mereka terpisah oleh banyak patahan. Dan, jika Anda melihat Bumi saat ini, di antara banyak lempeng hanya ada satu patahan. Jadi, proses yang kita bicarakan adalah proses bagaimana dari beberapa patahan menjadi hanya satu," kata Deleusche.

"Itulah pertanyaannya, kita tidak tahu seberapa panjang waktu yang dibutuhkan untuk melemahkan satu sehingga akan melokalisasi deformasi dan menghentikan yang lain untuk aktif. Saat ini, ada banyak patahan di Samudera Hindia yang aktif," tambah Deleusche.

Makalah kedua yang dipublikasikan mengungkap mekanisme terjadinya gempa Simeulue. Thome Lay dari University of California, Santa Cruz, menguraikan bahwa ada 4 patahan yang terlibat gemnpa saat itu.

Menurutnya, tiga patahan paralel satu sama lain sementara satu tegak lurus. Gempa diduga merupakan gempa dalam lempeng terbesar yang p[ernah terjadi sepanjang sejarah. Livescience memberitakan, patahan tempat terjadinya gempa ini sudah "tidur" 45 juta tahun lalu.

Dalam makalah ketiga, diungkapkan bahwa gempa Simeuleu memacu ganyak gempa lain di dunia. Dr Fred Pollitz dan rekannya dari United States Geological Survey (USGS) menelitinya.

"Dari kebanyakan gempa bumi, Anda bisa memperkirakan peluang gempa susulan takkan lebih dari jarak 1.000 km," katanya.

"Tapi, gempa April 2012 memicu banyak gempa besar dan berpotensi menghancurkan di seluruh dunia, dengan waktu delay beberapa jam hingga beberapa hari. Ini secara efektif memperluas jangkauan gempa susulan hingga ke seluruh dunia," katanya.

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Quenching China's Thirst For Water

By Jack Perkowski, Contributor

Česky: Pitná voda - kohoutek Español: Agua potable (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As China’s already large economy continues to industrialize, the country’s growing thirst for oil has been well documented. However, many believe that water, not oil, may ultimately prove to be the most valuable liquid in the Chinese economy. While a rich country can buy oil from the global marketplace and ship it virtually anywhere fairly economically, water is another story. In most cases, a country must learn to live with and survive on its own water resources. In this context, water scarcity is not just a China issue; it’s a matter of concern for all of the world’s developing countries.

Within the next fifty years, the world population will increase by another 40 to 50 percent. This population growth — coupled with industrialization and urbanization in developing markets like China, India and Africa — will result in an increasing demand for water. The World Water Council, founded in 1996 to promote awareness, build political commitment and trigger action on critical water issues, notes on its website that more than one out of six people (1.1 billion) in the world already lack access to safe drinking water, and that more than two out of six people (2.6 billion) lack adequate sanitation. Due to population increases and increased per capita usage of water as a result of lifestyle changes, the proportion of water needed for human use is increasing.

China’s water issues are particularly acute. The country’s water supply is smaller than that of the U.S., yet it must meet the needs of a population nearly five times as large. Industrialization has taken its toll on this already limited resource. Industrial and biological pollution has contaminated almost 90 percent of the underground water in Chinese cities. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one out of four (300 million) Chinese do not have daily access to clean water, and that one out of two (700 million) are forced to consume water below WHO standards. High population density, a poor ratio of available water to demand, and regional imbalances in available water supplies are serious challenges for China in managing its usable water supply. Frequent floods ravage cities in the south and east, and droughts are a regular occurrence in the north and west.

When China opened up in 1978, economic development was given first priority and little attention was paid to environmental considerations. At the beginning of this century, China began taking steps to mitigate the harmful environmental impact of its rapid economic development. Air quality was addressed first as the country began implementing tighter vehicle emissions standards and new environmental regulations. Although much has been done, the impact of thirty years of neglect has been considerable, as any visitor to China will attest. Those of us living here get used to suffering from periodic bouts of the “Beijing cough.”
In its 12^th Five-Year Plan which began in 2011, China will shift its environmental focus to water. From 2011 to 2015, the country will spend a total of $536 billion on water purification and waste water treatment plants, irrigation systems, and flood control projects. Currently, only 50 percent of urban sewage is treated. By 2015, the government intends to add 42 million tons of daily sewage treatment capacity to increase its urban waste water treatment rate to 85 percent.

In 2006, new safe drinking water standards were introduced that increase the water quality monitoring parameters from 35 to 106 items. Unfortunately, very few of China’s existing water purification plants can meet these higher water standards, so the law has not been rigorously enforced. Over the next five years, it is estimated that an additional investment of RMB 220 billion ($35 billion) will be needed to upgrade existing purification facilities and bring them into compliance.

Finally, a new regulation on Water Resources Utilization will limit the annual consumption of water to 635 billion cubic meters by 2015, further increasing the need for water recycling facilities. For this reason, China expects to spend $69 billion on industrial waste water treatment. Because per capita water resources in China are only a quarter of the world’s average, and industrial water consumption constitutes a quarter of the country’s total water consumption, the recycling of deeply treated industrial waste water is essential.

Implementation of the water-related programs called for in the 12^th Five-Year Plan has already begun. In 2011, the first year of the plan, total spending on water resources management increased significantly to RMB 345.2 billion ($54.6 billion). In addition to water treatment and recycling, China has already initiated programs to limit the loss of human life and property damage caused by flash floods. At the end of last year, RMB 3.8 billion ($603 million) was earmarked to subsidize flash-flood forecasting projects in 1,100 counties throughout the country. It is expected that the number of counties will be increased to 1,800 and that $1.8 billion will be spent on flash-flood forecasting programs by 2013.

Although China is the second largest economy in the world, it is still in an embryonic stage of development. There are many product, technology and service gaps yet to be filled, each of which represents a new business opportunity. Helping China to quench its thirst for water appears to be one of them — and a big one at that.

Source: Forbes

Water Emergencies: Time for New Plans and Technology

By Peter Gleick, Subscriber
CEO Pacific Institute, MacArthur Fellow, National Academy of Sciences

Water bags can serve as temporary storage reservoirs in emergencies.

The world faces a wide range of serious, complex, and long-term water challenges, from shortages to contamination to local and regional disputes over water to long-term climate changes. But there are other challenges that are short-term, emergency situations that could also be addressed by some new thinking and new technology.

We’ve seen the headlines recently: Earthquakes have destroyed the water systems of Haiti and part of Japan. Typhoons or hurricanes have contaminated or destroy water delivery capabilities, as in New Orleans and elsewhere. Droughts are, as we speak, leading to serious water emergencies in Tuvalu and Tokelau and Texas. When water is short, people and economies suffer.

Yet we always seem surprised, and our responses are typically hurried, ill-considered, and very expensive. We airlift bottled water to disasters, which permits bottled water companies to claim great humanitarian benefits, but is an extraordinarily expensive and unsustainable response. We send in small-scale desalination equipment, which is also costly, technically complex, and limited in capacity. These kinds of responses are sometimes necessary, but it is time to add to our arsenal of options.

First, we need to take water disaster planning seriously. In California, for example, it has long been understood that the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (the “Delta”) region, with major water infrastructure, is vulnerable to earthquakes, levee failure, and sea-level rise, among other threats.  [Indeed, most of the state and its water systems are vulnerable to earthquakes.] A large fraction of California’s water deliveries originate in the Delta. Despite this understanding, there is still no serious emergency response plan in place. For example, a recent draft Delta Plan stated,

“Despite the risks of levee failure, no published emergency action plan exists that addresses the consequences to federal and State water supply deliveries in the event of catastrophic levee failure in the Delta… failures are inevitable and will require the implementation of well-coordinated and carefully developed emergency-response planning efforts.”

Given the current risks of disasters, the growing threat to water systems from climatic changes, and the high stakes of water-system failures, innovative emergency response plans should be aggressively pursued. The old saying applies: “Seeing the future is good, but planning for it is better.”

One possibility is the widespread advance deployment of fabric bags capable of storing and moving bulk water supplies. These bags have been tested in the past, and even used for a time to tow bulk water through the Mediterranean to water-short areas. For a few years, a company called Nordic Water Supply from Oslo, Norway, transported water in bags 200 meters long from Turkey to the northern coast of Cyprus. In the late 1990s, another company, Aquarius Water Trading and Transportation, towed water in bags in the Aegean Sea.

And an American entrepreneur, Terry Spragg, has pushed this idea for many years and has developed innovative fabrics and connections systems, including what may be the world’s largest zipper. While there has been some talk about using these bags on a regular basis for long-distance bulk water deliveries, they seem to have a clear role to play in emergencies. Why not preposition hundreds of these “Spragg bags,” carefully folded and stored in regional stockpiles, so that they can be immediately deployed, filled with freshwater, and towed to nearby coastal areas in disasters. Or these bags can be flown to disaster sites and used as on-the-ground storage reservoirs where water can be appropriately produced and treated to provide high-quality water (see the photo below). Recently, Spragg has proposed that these fabrics can be used to produce a “flexible fabric pipeline” as a key component of an emergency response plan to move water moderate distances in a disaster. This idea has been proposed to the State of California as a way to temporarily and quickly address water disruptions caused by a disaster that affects the water-delivery systems of the Delta, such as an earthquake that destroys levees, disrupts flow patterns, or damages pumping systems. Yet state agencies have not even conducted the basic analyses or field tests to determine how effective or useful these options would be. Indeed, at the moment, California’s emergency response plans seem to be to pre-position piles of rocks so that levees can be repaired, along with a lot of handwaving and moaning about risks.

The “fabric pipeline” and “water bag” ideas have several possible advantages, including

• Relatively low cost.
• The environmentally benign nature of the system (as compared to semi-permanent rearrangement of channels and flow or more major construction projects.)
• The speed with which the system could be deployed.
• The modular nature of the system, so that it can be progressively expanded.
• The resilience of such a system, which could be rapidly repairable and movable.

This is a novel idea, but we need new ideas and new actions. At a minimum, significant tests of the abilities of water bags should be conducted quickly and comprehensive, to evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, and costs, and develop strategies for their use. Emergency planners take note. FEMA, or state agencies, or international emergency response groups should test these systems immediately and if appropriate, deploy them widely as a new tool in our arsenal for addressing inevitable future water emergencies.

Peter Gleick

Source: Forbes

Water Technologies

The Wave Of  The Future?

By Rebecca O. Bagley, Contributor

Česky: Pitná voda - kohoutek Español: Agua potable (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As the population of the world grows, the demand for fresh clean water – by individuals, by governments, and by businesses and industry – increases. The current challenges associated with maintaining and sustaining an adequate supply of clean water are spurring opportunities to develop new innovations that will protect the environment and create jobs.

In Northeast Ohio, we have learned – the hard way – that water simply cannot be taken for granted.  Over the past several decades we have poured considerable resources into fixing a water system that had become embarrassingly broken.  The Cuyahoga River.  Lake Erie.  They became the rallying cry for an emerging environmental movement which continues to this very day.

“Northeast Ohio used to be the poster child for pollution problems, but the region has made progress since the 1960’s and developed an expertise in water remediation,” said Fran DiDonato with the Alliance for Water Future. “Now Northeast Ohio is recognized as a model for ecosystem recovery and has gone from a burning river towards a Green City on a Blue Lake.”

The region has learned how to capitalize on its work with water to spur new technologies to treat, conserve, and utilize water. Water technologies have become a component of Northeast Ohio’s economy – creating new industries and jobs, while simultaneously protecting the region’s precious water assets.

In addition to our existing programs focused on advanced energy and flexible electronics at NorTech, we are applying our cluster development model to the water technology sector to build upon Northeast Ohio’s existing strengths in water technology.

Through our InSeven^SM roadmapping process we have identified three areas on which to focus: automation and controls, corrosion protection systems and sorbents – materials which remove contaminants from water.  The worldwide market for these sectors extends well into the tens of billions of dollars.

The projections show that by 2019, those 3 sectors of our regional water technology cluster could generate more than 3,500 direct jobs.

The region, due in part to its past efforts on the local waterways, has the underpinnings of companies, which could generate such a convergence of expertise and capabilities.

Automation and controls may be our strongest sector today.  As industry continues to expand in the underdeveloped parts of the world, companies and governments will increasingly need to adopt measures to efficiently treat and provide water for their burgeoning populations and expanding needs.

Anti-corrosion agents have long been an industrial strength in Northeast Ohio given our background in advanced materials, polymers and coatings.  Given the region’s competitive edge in this sector, there is an opportunity to compete in the worldwide corrosion-protection market.

We’ve also learned that the need for removing contaminants from water will drive the market for sorbents.  One of the strongest short-term needs for sorbents is the natural gas industry – driven in no small part by the explosion in hydraulic fracturing, which has taken a major toehold in Northeast Ohio.

While the need for fresh, clean water creates enormous challenges, it also creates opportunities to develop and implement new technologies that can improve the efficacy and lower the cost of treating water. Demand for these technologies is across the globe, and I suspect we will continue to see an increase in activity and investment in this area.

In fact, I recently returned from a Water Innovation Summit in Berkley that was hosted by the Cleantech Group.  It was an interesting mix of government, companies, consultants, banks and venture capitalists.  Water Technology is a challenging and exciting area for technology development and innovative solutions.  I will cover more insights from the Summit in the Water .

Market Opportunities and Challenges for Water Innovation

In my last post, I talked about how critical clean and efficient use of water is to local economies as well as to our very existence.  But, what challenges need to be addressed to maximize current opportunities?

Recently, the San Francisco-based Cleantech Group, convened top investors, utility executives, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and public sector leaders for a Water Innovation Summit. The Summit focused on three themes: smart water, resource recovery, and water re-use and looked at similarities and relationships between water and other natural resources. Financing and innovation opportunities and challenges were common discussion items.

“The interactive discussions amongst the top industry leaders in attendance at the Water Innovation Summit revealed several themes surrounding water and innovation,” said Sheeraz Haji, CEO, Cleantech Group. “There is significant demand for water innovation from oil and gas, mining, and agricultural industries. ‘Water as a Service’ and distributed water treatment emerged as top innovative business models.”

Water and the important role it plays in oil and gas exploration, whether it’s for enhanced oil recovery to drilling and well stimulation, or fracking was top of mind during the Summit.

There were also discussions around innovation that would be more relevant to utility markets such as smart metering, leak detection, pressure regulation, water quality monitoring and more.

One thing was clear – the demand for water innovation is growing. Good news is, according to summit attendees, many suitable technologies and applications already exist.  Implementation, however, remains a high hurdle.

In many cases, the solutions reside with smaller companies that do not have the resources (financial and otherwise) to make an impact on their own.  In Northeast Ohio, we’ve tackled those kinds of problems in other industries through our cluster efforts.  Whether it’s a lack of resources or giving small, innovative companies the proverbial foot-in-the-door, clusters have been proven to be an effective leg up.

“Being part of a regional cluster of companies in the water industry helps to raise visibility of emerging water technology solutions,” said Missy Hayes, Director of Business Development and Marketing of MAR Systems Inc., a clean water technology company based in Cleveland, Ohio. “This increased visibility also helps regulators and policy makers recognize the technologies that exist in their own back yard so they can make informed decisions about important policies that will impact the industry.”

This is especially true when small companies are dealing with large customers – in this case, municipal water systems.  Such municipal systems tend to shy away from unproven technologies until they can demonstrate their viability and their longevity.  Clusters can help provide the kind of credibility and know how needed to overcome the small company’s barriers to entry.
“The industry needs to help utilities understand the emerging technologies that substantially improve the options to clean, treat, recycle and preserve water,” said Stephen Spoonamore, president of ABSMaterials, Inc., a startup company developing water technology solutions for municipal, industrial, and oil and gas applications.

He continued, “A lot of 21st century chemistry, including pesticides, herbicides and pharma products in use today simply can’t be treated or removed with 19th century filtration technology. We need to pair 21st century solutions with these emerging challenges. That’s why creating awareness is the first step towards companies and utilities working together to implement solutions that will drive down costs and improve both efficiency and water quality.”

ABSMaterials and MAR Systems are part of a growing cluster of water technology companies in Northeast Ohio, who attended the Water Innovation Summit. Both companies were recognized in for their work in the Top 50 Water Tech Listing™ by The Artemis Project™.

In addition to access and awareness financing can be a major stumbling block in the water innovation space.  Leaders at the summit wondered if the water industry can learn from financing models established in solar, energy efficiency and other cleantech markets.

On October 15-16, I, along with approximately 300 industry professionals will convene in Cleveland for the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds’ Annual Conference to discuss innovation capital for emerging industries like, water technology. We will discuss best practices and strategies for successfully investing in high-potential companies and new technologies.  I will be sure to share themes from this conference in a future post.

Although the challenges facing the water industry are global, more and more we’re finding that the solutions are more locally based – where local companies can more effectively and efficiently address the unique twists on their own home-grown issues.  And that’s where increased and enhanced collaboration tend to carry the day.

Source: Forbes 1, Forbes 2 and Forbes 3

Clean technology: what is the future of green energy?

Fiona Harvey

Guardian Professional

Despite predictions about the decline in the use of coal, there has been an increase in Europe, partly due to increased use of shale gas in the US which has lowered coal prices. Photograph: Greg Wood/AFP/Getty Images

The inauguration of the Sheringham Shoals wind farm on 27 September, off the coast of north Norfolk, marked an important milestone for offshore wind power in the UK and beyond. For the first time, the UK could boast more than 2GW of offshore generation capacity – more than anywhere else in the world.

Ed Davey, secretary of state for energy and climate change, hailed the opening as confirmation of the future direction of UK energy policy. "We believe that offshore wind power has a major role to play in the UK's future energy, and as more developments such as these come along, costs will come down," he said. "We need a diversified energy mix to keep energy bills down."

Sheringham Shoals also shows the direction of UK energy for another reason – its major investors were also present, accompanied by the Crown Prince of Norway. Statkraft and Statoil, Norway's national energy utility and oil company respectively, are estimated to be investing £1.2bn in the new offshore wind farm. This illustrates that the majority of the UK's investment in renewable energy is now coming from overseas, including Norway, Denmark and Germany. It also reflects, in part, the nature of the UK's energy market, where the majority of the big six energy suppliers – Eon and RWE of Germany, EDF of France and Iberdrola of Spain, which owns Scottish Power — have overseas origins.

Christian Rynning-Tønnesen, chief executive of Statkraft, said the UK was a particularly attractive area for investment in renewable energy because of its large wind resource – about 40% of Europe's wind capacity, according to estimates – but also its regulatory regime. "We find the regulatory regime provides enough incentive – but not too much – to make it viable to site offshore wind farms here," he told the Guardian.

He said: "We are actively seeking new sites for offshore wind projects." But he added: "If we cannot find any projects that are suitable, we will invest elsewhere."

The future growth of clean technology

Rynning-Tønnesen's words are likely to cheer investors in offshore wind in the UK, who have been under some pressure in recent months because of political rumblings from the rightwing of the UK's coalition government against the subsidies accorded to wind power. But they also underline the political risk attached to renewable energy investment in the UK.

Clean technology is growing in the UK – about 80% of the UK's top new infrastructure projects can be classified as "green", according to the Labour party. But the UK's clean technology industry is acutely aware that future growth is not guaranteed – it depends on government policy, investor appetite and the continued reduction of costs.

Gaynor Hartnell, chief executive of the Renewable Energy Association, says: "We need a consensus across the political spectrum in favour of renewable energy, and that will unleash investment and jobs."

Around the world, clean technology investment is still strong, despite slowing economies even in powerhouses such as China. In 2011, according to the Global Wind Energy Council, more than half of the global market for wind power installations was accounted for by China and India combined, with China taking about 43% of the market.

Beyond China and India, other nations are eager to catch up on clean energy. South Korea, for instance, recently became world leader in tidal power – a technology in which the UK had hoped to be a pioneer – with a new tidal farm capable of supplying energy to 500,000 homes. Its first offshore wind turbines have also begun generating, and the country, which has a wide variety of suitable locations, hopes quickly to become a world leader in this technology too.

Connie Hedegaard, the European Union's climate change commissioner, characterises the drive for clean energy as a competition between Asia, including China, India and their neighbours, and Europe. "China is moving ahead very rapidly on these technologies," she says. "Europe must not fall behind, and that will take effort from governments and industry."

A new lease of life for fossil fuels

But it is a race not only among countries, but among a variety of different fuels and technologies. Jeremy Leggett, founder of the solar technology specialist SolarCentury, is a former oil expert turned clean technology evangelist. He warns that fossil fuels have been making a comeback around the world, amid the recession and a newfound abundance of fuels such as shale gas. "Society currently allows the carbon fuel incumbency – the coal, oil and gas companies, their bankrollers and their institutional supporters – to get away with a deeply dysfunctional defence of their narrow short-term interests," he says.

In Europe, according to the International Energy Agency, there has been an increase in the use of coal in the past year, in defiance of long-term predictions of its decline. The resurgence has been partly the result of the US moving away from coal towards shale gas, which has lowered prices for coal, but also because of low prices on carbon within the European Union's emissions trading scheme.

The EU ETS was supposed to encourage a move away from high carbon fuels such as coal, because under the scheme companies are allocated a quota of greenhouse gas emissions and must pay for extra permits to produce more carbon. This should benefit lower carbon fuels, such as renewables, and penalise coal.

But the recession has resulted in a large excess of cheap carbon permits on the market, which has made coal – the highest carbon form of electricity generation – more economic. So companies that had been preparing to put their coal-fired power plants out of action now see a new lease of life in their operation.

There could be few clearer indications that the future of energy supply in Europe and around the world, and of clean energy in particular, are determined as much by governments and their policies as by the companies involved.

Source: Guardian

Welcome to the Global Cleantech 100 2012

By Chris Mandle

The 2012 Global Cleantech 100 - a list of the world's private companies most likely to have a significant impact over the next 5-10 years Photograph: Jonathan Bradey/ VisualMedia/Vismedia

This year's Global Cleantech 100 received a 25% increase in nominations – 8,285 in total. The venture by the Cleantech Group, published simultaneously by the Guardian, gives a snapshot of the most significant innovative clean technology companies in the world right now. The list represents the collective opinion of hundreds of individuals within the wider global cleantech innovation community. They were asked which 100 of today's private cleantech companies are the most likely to make the most significant market impact over the next 5-10 years.

Below is an outline of the methodology, the process of selecting theCleantech 100 and a full list of the panelists:

Here are the top 100 companies:

Company	Country	Sector	Description
1366 Technologies	United States	Solar	Developer of manufacturing technology that reduces costs and increases the efficiency of silicon wafer production for solar cells
Agilyx	United States	Recycling & Waste	Developer of a technology that converts mixed waste plastics into synthetic crude oil and other petrochemical products
Alta Devices	United States	Solar	Developer of solar cells with single-junction thin-film Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) photovoltaics
Amantys	United Kingdom	Smart Grid	Developer of power electronic products
Amprius	United States	Energy Storage	Developer of advanced lithium-ion batteries for consumer electronics and automotive applications
Applied Solar Technologies India	India	Solar	Developer of solar PV off-grid power solutions for telecom towers
APTwater	United States	Water & Wastewater	Developer of water treatment technologies and provides operating services for industrial and municipal clients
Aquion Energy	United States	Energy Storage	Developer of batteries based on ambient-temperature sodium-ion technology
ArrayPower	United States	Solar	Developer of a low-cost solution for DC-AC power conversion to replace the inverters traditionally used with solar PV systems
Attero Recycling	India	Recycling & Waste	Provider of e-waste management and recycling services.
Avantium	Netherlands	Biofuels & Biochemicals	Developer of a process to convert biomass into bio-based materials and fuels
Beijing Goldenway Bio-Tech	China	Recycling & Waste	Developer of BGB biological treatment technology to recycle urban organic waste
BioAmber	United States	Biofuels & Biochemicals	Developer and producer of green chemicals from agricultural feedstocks with a focus on bio-based succinic acid
Boston-Power	United States	Energy Storage	Producer of lithium-ion battery technology for the portable power, electric vehicle and utility energy storage markets
Breathing Buildings	United Kingdom	Energy Efficiency	Provider of low energy ventilation systems, using the principles of natural mixing ventilation in winter and natural upward displacement ventilation in the summer.
Bridgelux	United States	Energy Efficiency	Developer and manufacturer of technologies and solutions for solid state lighting
BrightSource Energy	United States	Solar	BrightSource Energy, Inc. is a leader in the design and development of concentrating solar thermal technology used to produce high-value electricity and steam for power, petroleum and process markets.
BuildingIQ	United States	Energy Efficiency	Developer of energy management software that improves the energy efficiency of HVAC systems in commercial buildings
CellEra	Israel	Fuel Cells & Hydrogen	Developer of Platinum-Free Membrane fuel cell technology, combining aspects from PEM and Alkaline FCs
Clean Power Finance	United States	Solar	Provider of power purchase (PPA) financing for solar PV installations, as well as customer acquisition software for installers
CoaLogix	United States	Air	Developer of catalytic reduction regeneration technologies, mercury remediation technologies, and coal-fired power plant management services
Compact Power Motors	Germany	Transportation	Developer and manufacturer of ultra-compact electric motors
Coulomb Technologies	United States	Transportation	Provider of electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions
Digital Lumens	United States	Energy Efficiency	Developer of intelligent LED-based lighting systems for industrial facilities that reduce lighting energy use and provide fully integrated controls and reporting capabilities
Driptech	United States	Agriculture & Forestry	Developer and manufacturer of micro-irrigation systems for small plot farmers in developing countries
EcoMotors	United States	Transportation	Developer of high-efficiency engines for use in cars, light trucks, marine applications, agricultural vehicles and stationary generators
EdeniQ	United States	Biofuels & Biochemicals	Developer of a cellulosic ethanol conversion technology using agricultural waste and synthetic biology
Electro Power Systems	Italy	Fuel Cells & Hydrogen	Developer of self-recharging fuel cell systems for backup power applications
Emefcy	Israel	Water & Wastewater	Developer of Electrogenic Bioreactors (EBR) that treat industrial wastewater and generates renewable electricity and the Spiral Aerobic Biofilm Reactor (SABRE) that treats municipal wastewater
ENBALA Power Networks	Canada	Smart Grid	Developer of smart grid platform to increase grid reliability and efficiency
Enecsys	United Kingdom	Solar	Developer of micro inverters for solar PV systems
Enerkem	Canada	Biofuels & Biochemicals	Enerkem develops biofuels and chemicals from waste with proprietary thermochemical technology
EnerVault	United States	Energy Storage	Developer of flow battery technology for applications in large-scale energy storage solutions for commercial, utility, and grid applications
Enlighted	United States	Energy Efficiency	Provider of lighting control systems for energy management applications
EnOcean	Germany	Energy Efficiency	Developer of energy harvesting sensors and communication systems for use in building automation and energy management systems
Envia Systems	United States	Energy Storage	Developer of a cathode material for lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles
Epuramat	Luxembourg	Water & Wastewater	Provider of compact, energy-efficient and chemicals-free water and wastewater treatment solutions for municipal and industrial clients as well as oil-water separation systems.
FilterBoxx	Canada	Water & Wastewater	Supplier of containerized water treatment systems to industrial, municipal, resort and aboriginal clients
FirstFuel Software	United States	Energy Efficiency	Provider of energy analytics software for commercial buildings and utility clients
FRX Polymers	United States	Advanced Materials	Developer of a patent protected, non-halogen, non burning family of transparent high flow thermoplastics in the global flame retardant plastics market
Genomatica	United States	Biofuels & Biochemicals	Developer of green chemicals from renewable feedstocks such as sugar and trash
GeoStellar	United States	Solar	Developer of data geomatics software to compute the precise solar power potential of every rooftop, lot and field.
GreenRoad Technologies	United States	Transportation	Provider of fleet management software
Harvest Power	United States	Recycling & Waste	Maximizes the value of organic materials through the production of renewable energy and soils, mulches and natural fertilizers.
Highview Power Storage	United Kingdom	Energy Storage	Highview Power Storage is a developer of utility-scale energy storage and power systems to optimise energy resources and help decarbonise the grid. Its proprietary process uses cryogen (liquefied) air.
i2O Water	United Kingdom	Water & Wastewater	Water technology vendor addressing water leakage and advanced pressure management for utilities.
Ioxus	United States	Energy Storage	Developer of ultracapacitors and hybrid-capacitors that can be made into individual cells, pre-packaged modules, or complete systems
Joule	United States	Biofuels & Biochemicals	Provider of diesel and ethanol directly derived from sunlight and CO2 using micro-organisms
Kaiima	Israel	Agriculture & Forestry	Developer of genomic-based breeding technology to develop high-yielding energy crops for bio-diesel, bio-ethanol, and biomass energy
LanzaTech	United States	Biofuels & Biochemicals	Developer of a process that increases industrial energy efficiency by capturing waste gases (CO, CO2) and converting them to fuels and chemicals
Lattice Power	China	Energy Efficiency	Developer of high-output white LEDs based on gallium nitride (GaN) die fabricated on silicon substrates
Liquid Robotics	United States	Transportation	Developer of an autonomous unmanned marine vehicle propelled by waves for scientific, research, and defense applications
LS9	United States	Biofuels & Biochemicals	Developer of genetically modified microbes, converting feedstock into renewable fuels and chemicals in a one-stage fermentation process
Marrone Bio Innovations	United States	Agriculture & Forestry	Developer of natural weed, pest, and disease management products
McPhy Energy	France	Fuel Cells & Hydrogen	Developer and producer of solid state hydrogen storage solutions for renewable energy and industrial gas storage
Miartech	China	Smart Grid	Designer of integrated circuits for power line communication systems, utilizing power lines as a medium for transmitting information
NanoH2O	United States	Water & Wastewater	Developer of thin-film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membranes for the desalination market
Nest	United States	Energy Efficiency	Design-focused energy management company whose flagship product is a networked "learning" thermostat for home use
Nexant	United States	Energy Efficiency	Provider of intelligent grid software and clean energy solutions, including electric power grid and alternative energy technologies and services.
Nexeon	United Kingdom	Energy Storage	Developer of second-generation lithium-ion batteries
NexSteppe	United States	Agriculture & Forestry	Developer of sustainable feedstock solutions for the biofuels, biopower and biobased products' industries
NovaLED	Germany	Energy Efficiency	Developer of energy-saving, long-life organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs)
Novomer	United States	Advanced Materials	Producer of polymers and plastics made from CO2 and other renewable materials
Nualight	Ireland	Energy Efficiency	Producer of LED lighting for food displays and chilled cabinets in food retail
Nujira	United Kingdom	Energy Efficiency	Provider of high efficiency radio frequency and power amplifiers for the wireless communications industry
On-Ramp Wireless	United States	Smart Grid	Developer of wireless communication systems for the water, smart grid and other industries that allow device communication in hard to reach environments
Opower	United States	Energy Efficiency	Developer of a software-as-a-service that utilizes customer engagement and billing analytics for utilities
OPXBIO	United States	Biofuels & Biochemicals	Manufacturer of renewable bio-based chemicals and fuels including BioArcylic from sugar feedstocks
OSIsoft	United States	Energy Efficiency	Provider of real-time data infrastructure solutions for management of resource consumption and process performance
Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies	Canada	Water & Wastewater	Provider of fertilizer produced from municipal wastewater
Panoramic Power	Israel	Energy Efficiency	Developer of a low-maintenance platform for businesses to monitor their energy usage, using low-cost wireless sensors and a cloud-based data management service
PassivSystems	United Kingdom	Energy Efficiency	Developer of automated, wireless, interactive home energy management systems
Power Plus Communications	Germany	Smart Grid	Provider of broadband power line systems for smart grid applications, particularly smart metering
Powerit Solutions	United States	Energy Efficiency	Provider of energy management systems which automatically predict, regulate, and reduce peak demand
PowerSense	Denmark	Smart Grid	Developer of smart grid applications for medium voltage grid owners and power companies
Project Frog	United States	Energy Efficiency	Designer and manufacturer of resource efficient and zero net energy modular buildings
Purfresh	United States	Agriculture & Forestry	Developer of ozone technology to provide safe, fresh, high quality produce and water
Recyclebank	United States	Recycling & Waste	Developer of a financial rewards system for households that recycle
RelayRides	United States	Transportation	Developer of a peer-to-peer car sharing platform that connects car owners willing to rent their cars that are not in use, with drivers who need short-term vehicle access
Renmatix	United States	Biofuels & Biochemicals	Developer of a water-based technology for the production of cellulosic sugar intermediaries for biochemicals and biofuels.
Sakti3	United States	Energy Storage	Developer of advanced solid state lithium ion battery technology, aimed at the electric vehicle market
Saltworks Technologies	Canada	Water & Wastewater	Water treatment solutions provider of energy efficient technologies for desalination, purification, and industrial water treatment.
Siluria Technologies	United States	Conventional Fuels	Developer of methane conversion technology for creating fuels and chemicals from natural gas
Silver Spring Networks	United States	Smart Grid	Provider of networking communication technologies and solutions to utilities for advanced metering, as well as home energy management, distribution automation, and other related applications
Skyonic	United States	Air	Developer of a CO2 mineralizing technology for industrial use
Solairedirect	France	Solar	Developer of solar PV installations for residential, commercial and community-scale customers
SolarCity	United States	Solar	Provider of design, financing and maintenance services for solar power customers
SolarEdge	United States	Solar	Provider of distributed DC systems that maximize power generation of residential and large-scale photovoltaic solar sites
Soraa	United States	Energy Efficiency	Developer of gallium nitride (GaN) based semiconductors for LEDs
SustainX	United States	Energy Storage	Developer of compressed air energy storage technologies that can be sited flexibly
TaKaDu	Israel	Water & Wastewater	Provider of a web-based platform that monitors water distribution networks and alerts in real-time on inefficiencies, water loss, faults and other network problems.
Tendril	United States	Energy Efficiency	Provider of a home energy management SaaS platform that facilitates interaction within the energy ecosystem and provides utility solutions
TIGI	Israel	Solar	Developer of a solar thermal collector that generates heat for domestic hot water, space heating and industry
Transphorm	United States	Energy Efficiency	Developer of technology to eliminate the electric conversion losses when converting power from one form to another, AC/DC, AC/AC, DC/AC and DC/DC
Trilliant	United States	Smart Grid	Provider of unified smart grid communications solutions that enable advanced metering, distribution automation, and demand response
Vigilent	United States	Energy Efficiency	Developer of intelligent energy management systems for data centers, telecommunications facilities, and large, commercial buildings
Viridity Energy	United States	Smart Grid	Developer of smart grid demand response technology
Voltea	Netherlands	Water & Wastewater	Developer of a scalable water desalination technology using membrane capacitive deionization (CapDI)
WaterHealth	United States	Water & Wastewater	Provides water purification and disinfection technology to underserved rural and peri-urban communities in developing countries.
ZeaChem	United States	Biofuels & Biochemicals	Developer of a cellulose-based biorefinery platform capable of producing advanced ethanol, fuels and chemicals

Methodology

To qualify, a company must be independent, for-profit and cannot be listed on any major stock exchange. An initial list is built from nominations made by hundreds of experts worldwide. This year we received 8,285 nominations, 25% more than in 2011, giving a long list of 5,177 companies.

A scoring system ranked these companies based on their validations (including third-party awards) and a short-list of 236 companies was presented to the panel, which consisted of 75 individuals. They ranged from leading financial investors in Asia, Europe and North America, representatives of multinational corporations, pioneers, leaders, old veterans and new entrants in cleantech; the full list of names can be found below.

Ultimately firms are scored on three key criteria: their innovation, their market's size and growth, and the company's ability and resources to execute its technology. The result is this comprehensive guide to the best 100 companies in cleantech.

Source: Guardian