SHOWING THE MONEY

Money flowing to new ideas in energy/Venture funding spikes to $445.1m
Robert Weisman, August 26, 2006 (Boston Globe)
- With rising energy prices stoking demand for new technologies, venture capital firms are showering attention, and hundreds of millions of dollars, on a field investors have long ignored: alternative energy...

...Start-ups working with solar, battery, hydrogen, wind, and fuel cell technologies raised $445.1 million in venture funds nationally in the first six months of this year, 56.1 percent more than the $285.2 million raised by such companies in all of 2005...
- In New England, venture investments in alternative energy companies spiked to $87.9 million in the first half of 2006, six times more than the $13.5 million invested all of last year...

- At today's higher energy prices, ``a lot of the things that didn't look economical in the past are starting to look more economical," said Jeff Andrews , a partner at Atlas Venture...