Cleantech companies have definitely seen high profile failures over past few years. I guess some cleantech founders would have been better off opening a new British restaurant in downtown Palo Alto.
The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_Reduction_Act has invested $1 trillion in cleantech to attract another $3 trillion in private investment. It’s so successful that other nations are complaining that it is unfair.
Agree with the other poster, many exploit government subsidies, regulations or promise pie in the sky results but don't deliver, then investors head for the door.
Windmills, solar panels, Hydrogen, battery tech, electric motors/generators have been around in some cases for hundreds of years, with very well known engineering properties/chemistry. If it was as simple as making a profitable H2 car, it would have been done a long time ago. But the fuel tank would take up a large part of the passenger compartment and need to be pressurised to 10,000psi, can't mess with physics.
Something like 20% of new restaurants fail in their first year. Getting off the ground in a competitive industry isn't easy.
60%**, and about 80% in the first 5 years. This is excluding new restaurants from already established companies tho.
It's the same way with all companies trying to develop new technology. Most of them end up failing. Back during the phone app boom most companies that just took an old business model and put it on phones failed and that wasn't even very innovative.
What would you sell in a British restaurant in Palo Alto?
Some of them may be set up to exploit government subsidies, and once the handouts stop, the doors close.
Because cleantech does not have a compelling business model. Most company uses green as nothing but PR. So if you can just greenwash with some cheap press releases, why spend real money on real tech?
This is an overly-broad statement. You're saying there's no viable business models whatsoever to be had with wind farm, solar panel, geothermal, electric vehicle, battery, building energy efficiency, improved grid, and building materials technologies, among many others? I can point you to a hundred companies employing these technologies in profitable ways.
There is generally a high failure rate of new businesses anyway. So a lot of cleantech going bust is hardly a shock. Investors typically know that many of them will go bust, but if they see there is a chance to rake it in if the firm succeeds they will back it. All it really needs is for a handful to succeed to have a major impact.
As for initiatives, what do you mean by that?
Its also worthwhile noting that the vast majority of companies, initiatives, projects, ideas, and other things fail. For a variety of reasons. There is no such thing as a sure bet even if the evidence indicates that it should be.