But he said that the company’s 100% renewable goal was challenged in some markets by regulatory barriers, which prevented direct power purchase agreements and permitting hurdles.

“Many of our attempts to install renewable energy on our roofs parking lots or land have required significant time working with regulators to manage permitting rules that inadvertently prevent renewable installations.

image via Walmart

“When the right combination of these nine align we have the opportunity to do what we believe we do best, leverage our scale, our creativity and our willingness to take risks to drive significant new renewable energy capacity.”

Big Numbers to Meet Big Challenges

Rex Northen, executive director of the Cleantech Open, said that the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio +20, had recognised the need for “bottom up entrepreneurship” in cleantech to stimulate economic recovery and address climate change and energy poverty.

“There is a focus on harnessing bottom up entrepreneurship to serve 1.3 billion people without access to adequate energy,” he said. “That is not the big news that everybody is looking for but for us it’s really good news.”

Despite challenges in the global economy and the cleantech sector, Cleantech Open panellists suggested that the volumes of capital invested alone indicated recognition of the opportunities in clean energy.

In his summary remarks, Jeffrey Jacobs, Chevron Technology Venture’s vice president, said that the $1 trillion invested since 1992 “is a big number”.

“Therein provides one potential answer to the question: has cleantech arrived? To attract that kind of money that much investment very clearly people clearly recognise the opportunity.

“But the answer to that question can also vary depending on what sector you look at and what part of the value chain you occupy within cleantech. In the solar space as the integrator and consumer of product such as solar that [Chevron] uses in a beneficial re-use capacity we’re thrilled with the arrival and development of cleantech.

“However, if you happen to be a manufacturer of that technology you may be less than pleased with the returns you’re seeing at this moment.”

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