This time last year our blog ran the title “Will Smart Grid Outperform its Clean Tech Cousins and Become the Jewel in the Crown?” We cited a number of reasons why the financial community found it the rather unattractive dull member of the Clean Tech family but noted that more investors were giving it a second look with some now of the belief that it is a more attractive business proposition than renewables. We explored the reasons why they were changing their minds and these included; *The Renewable Energy business is taking longer to deliver against its promises and needs more funds before it will generate profit. Most systems are capital intensive and rely on “old technology” that has a strong element of empirical science which has not always scaled up too well. *The vast majority require large subsidies to compete against traditional energy sources. Whilst it is a given that these subsidies are necessary […]