During last night's reception, the founder of WEF, Dr. Klaus Schwab told us "first timers" that we should not expect to sleep while at Davos, 'You can sleep when you get back home' were his exact words. I thought that this was said in jest but I am learning the truth in these words. Last night I was finally able to get to bed at 2AM and had to get up at 6AM. The sessions today will continue until 2AM so I am not sure if I will get any sleep at all. In light of this, I hope that you will not be very harsh on me with respect to spelling or grammatical errors. Update 2008: Economics The theme of the first conference that I attended was a discussion of issues likely to dominate global economy in coming 12 to 18 months. Panelists were Ferenc Gyurcsany (Prime Minister of Hungary), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Managing director of the World Bank),

FTSE's new ET50 index, which tracks the 50 largest pure play greentech companies by market cap, has picked up Sweden's AP7 as its first benchmarking fund. The ET50, which debuted last week with a $170 billion market cap, tracks companies in power gen and energy efficiency (68%), water tech and pollution controls (15%), and waste and resource management (17%). It's five largest holdings are Vestas (11.34%), SunTech (7.25%), First Solar (6.03%), Gamesa (4.99%), and Iberdrola (4.08%), with the top 10 companies comprising nearly 50% of the index. ET50's geographic distribution is heavily weighted towards U.S. companies (41.19%), with Denmark (14.97%) and Spain (10.57%) rounding out the top three. While other major indices, such as WilderHill and Clean Edge, focus primarily on power gen

Watching the major auto manufacturers killing themselves to release a green product is embarrassing in a way similar to watching an aging, cortisone-infused quarterback rely on his running game because he can’t perform well in the pocket anymore. Despite amassing nearly twenty years of experience designing, developing and producing green vehicles, the leading car companies have largely failed to introduce a product that addresses two critical problems facing green transportation: building a zero-emissions car everyone wants and anyone can afford. At last week’s North American International Auto Show the leading car companies proudly displayed concept cars and products with names like EcoBoost, FCX Clarity, and Green Line, though none presented an operational business model for bringing these so-called green vehicles to the mass market. By way of comparison, it took GM only eight years to develop the H2 and market it successfully in the U.S. and abroad. While the titans in Detroit were busy rolling out their shiny new toys, recent announcements from India and Israel proved

Well, here I am in the storied valley of Davos, Switzerland – the site of World Economic Forum annual meetings (http://www.weforum.org). I have heard about the WEF annual meetings for so long that being invited to the 2008 meeting is a dream-come-true. However, being here after being honored by the WEF as a Technology Pioneer gives me the carte blanch to walk up to any one and strike up a conversation. Well, I plan to do just that and report it all to you through daily posts.SwitzerlandSwitzerland must have been created by God to give human-kind a taste of heaven and a respite from daily struggles. I know if from experience, having lived here for two years during the mid-90s. It is small country but crammed with all the natural beauty in this world. Switzerland is the land of mountain peaks that kiss the sky, crystal clear lakes, beautiful sunrises and sunsets from its numerous valleys. Whether hiking, skiing or just relaxing in your chalet with a glass of wine and a good book, you can get away from the world and recharge your batteries before plunging back into the daily rat race. It is the land of world famous resorts – St. Moritz, Grindelwald, Zermatt and of course, Davos. It is a skiers heaven during winters and

This week we’re trying something new on this very new blogspace - a guest blogger, live from the World Economic Forum at Davos. Pankaj Dhingra is the CEO of Nanostellar and he’s one of the anointed few Technology Pioneers to be invited to attend, sit on a panel, and make his contribution to the betterment of the global economy (it sure needs help this week!). He’ll be discussing green job creation among other things. Should be fun. Forgive him if he shows his bias for a company named Nanostellar. And diesel emission controls. And the Swiss Alps.

It's about time to put up a new Greentech Media Top Ten Startups. It's been hiding down here for months in it's quiet little corner, keeping to itself. Not really doing what a good top ten startups list should do - eliciting spit-takes of disgust and incredulity, nods of approval, or just annoying all the companies that didn't make the list. This was a nice list; diplomatic, catholic, well considered, self-satisfied. It had touched on all corners of the greentech universe and anointed fewer than a dozen companies some special status among the hundreds of peers. It launched with the site, back on September 4, and made for some decent reading, and was read. Especially the Bloom Energy entry. That remains one of the most read pages on our entire site. But now, as the new year begins, this list has grown a little mossy and some of these entries have a certain gamey smell to them (we almost had Imperium on the original list, which would definitely be smelly today, wouldn't it?). Were updating the list now, and we'll post it in

We have assembled an amazing team here, research analysts, journalists, editors, and top-notch sales and web production staff, all led by an executive team with great vision and entrepreneurial strength. And all of us spend all day reading and thinking about greentech, each applying our particular knowledge to understanding a market that is overwhelming in its excitement and its dynamism. We already work hard to deliver the best of that knowledge through our detailed research reports and newsletters, as well as our aggressive news coverage. But still there's more. We have lively internal debates about the direction of the greentech market, the meanings of new developments in its various sectors, and how best it can be encapsulated and understood. In thinking about the development of our team and our company, we think about the development of the greentech market as a whole. Until now, these discussions have lived mostly in series of internal e-mails and IMs, but we want to open them up to our readers, for your perusal and participation. And we hope to bring in voices from around the industry to contribute to the conversation, so stay tuned for guest bloggers that will be helping us out. Think of Green Light as the third leg of the information that we offer, a more direct, more opinionated, more fluid account of the goings on in greentech. We hope you enjoy it as much as we will.