It’s not every day a digital media news site opens in Kendall Square. But lately it seems like it’s every month or two. In yet another sign of the explosion of activity in the clean-energy sector, Greentech Media—a Cambridge-based market research, news, and events company devoted to alternative energy investment and technology information—announced its launch today. Greentech has settled in just down the street from Xconomy, which itself opened at the end of June. We welcome our new neighbor and kindred spirit.
Greentech’s founders, Scott Clavenna and Rick Thompson, worked at Light Reading, a telecom industry media venture that was founded in early 2000 and sold five years later to CMP Media. “A lot of this is what we learned at Light Reading,” says Clavenna, whom I first met back in July over lunch at Similans, our neighborhood Thai restaurant. Specifically, that means a business model focused on what he calls three legs of a stool: market research, events such as webinars, and breaking news and feature stories. He sees such information as vital as the field of clean energy grows. The company’s press materials note that more than $2 billion was invested in energy technology startups last year—and that clean energy is already a $55 billion industry expected to quadruple in the next decade.
In light of such growth, one of Greentech’s main goals is to bring more cohesion and analysis to what the founders see as a segmented arena, where ventures in solar, wind, biofuels, and so on are compartmentalized. “I think a lot of the people in this market are focused on their own sector,” says Clavenna. Not only will Greentech seek to provide a more comprehensive view of the field, he adds, “It’s really important now to have independent analysis delivered to the market.”
Greentech is partnering with the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development, a Cambridge firm specializing in photovoltaics and alternative energy analysis, for some of the webinar and market-research components of its business. The Greentech site also features a cleantech investing blog hosted by local venture capitalist Rob Day, a principal of @Ventures.
Through Prometheus, Greentech produced its first market research report— on thin-film solar energy—in July. Last month it also conducted webinars on solid-state lighting and solar power investment. Today’s launch marks the debut of the web site, with a slew of articles and feature stories, including daily coverage of the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition in Milan. Power on, neighbor.
