Yes, windmills on cars. How about a Solar strip down the middle of all our highways that cars plug into and the plug travels with them? Wacky? Yes. Creative? Absolutely. Picking the winners? Much tougher. An esteemed Panel shared some of the more outlandish ideas that had crossed their path in the CleanTech category yesterday at Globe 2008. A centrifuge in your basement 9 feet in diameter? Free energy from nothing? Replace all the highways with a monorail that would come to the front of your house and carry all the Internet and phone cables too?

As Marc van den Berg of Vantage Venture Partners of San Bruno, California noted though, you cannot always see the winners. He spoke of an entrepreneur Vantage passed on that had a cannon that shot a sail out from the back of container ships - that venture got funded and has proven to reduce fuel costs by 15% - who knew? As Marc stated, “As VCs, we are measured by our slugging %, not our batting average” so risk is a given and picking the winners equal parts skill and luck.

The latest event covered by fundfindr.tv was the Globe 2008 conference on Green Entrepreneurship, Sustainability and the Intersection of Business and the Environment. We connected with some of the up and coming entrepreneurs in the Trade Fair, noted the real international flavor of the delegates, speakers and attendees and most importantly for fundfindr.tv captured some insights on Cleantech Venture Funding.

A panel presentation shared the current trends and opportunities including over 300 cleantech deals in North America in 2007, over $7B in VC investment and that cleantech represented the fastest growing asset class for venture capitalists. Dr. Wal van Lierop of Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital also noted that Energy Generation continued to be the biggest sector but that strong growth was also being seen in other classes.

Marc shared the following as the major drivers for CleanTech:

1. Oil/Gas Price volatility
2. Climate Change
3. World Economic Growth (great slide showing Beijing pollution)
4. Need for Energy Security
5. Public & Corporate Awareness
6. State level policy mandates on renewable energy

The panelists debated whether there was a cleantech bubble or the biggest economic opportunity of our lifetime? Write us a comment on what you think. Look for a follow-up post on the International view, exciting development in Canada on categories like microbials and a Top 10 list on the greatest challenges facing cleantech ventures and investment.