NEW YORK--You can't avoid the bubble question when it comes to clean-tech investing. Get used to it: with a massive movement of capital into the sector projected in the future, people are bound to fret.
Bill Green, a panelist from VantagePoint Venture Partners, had a chart that made the point in a compelling way.
On one side was the market capitalization of the top 10 companies in energy, chemicals, auto, materials, and water--a whopping $3.5 trillion. Venture capital investment in the clean-tech sector--which sells into all of those industries--was about $2.2 billion last year.
Meanwhile, the market capitalization for the top 10 IT firms is $1.5 trillion. Venture capital investment into all IT-related sectors was $16.4 billion.