Early-stage energy companies that want to manufacture hardware or produce fuel are still facing a so-called valley of death that few have figured out how to cross.
For energy technology startups in the United States, a lot has changed in five years. Between 2008 and 2011, venture capitalists were making record investments in companies building new technologies, and the government was enthusiastically doling out loans to help them commercialize products. Today, several high-profile company failures later, that support has largely evaporated. In 2014, VC investment in clean-energy companies was less than half 2011 levels. The hunt for funding is especially bleak for startups looking to produce solar cells, batteries, or biofuel, the very types of technologies probably needed to transform the world’s fossil-fuel-based energy systems.