For the first time, energy storage received the most venture capital funding ($514 million), displacing solar ($350 million). Solar also lost the No. 1 spot in deal volume. Energy efficiency was the most popular area, with 34 funding rounds.

Energy storage (e.g. batteries) — considered something of a silver bullet — still presents sizable technological hurdles, while efficiency is now clearly the low-cost, plain vanilla version of clean tech.

This rotation of sorts is commonplace in maturing industries.

By no coincidence energy efficiency and storage, specifically electric cars, along with the booming recycling business, are our three winners.

At the same time, the U.S. solar industry is clearly one of our three losers.

Nothing as fatal as those events struck the ethanol industry, our third loser, which is more a victim of conventional market forces and uncertainty over government incentives, a key element in the alternative  energy sector.

All three losers, however, have one thing in common — momentum has temporarily shifted against them and that’s rarely good for keeping and attracting investors.

Source cnbc.com.

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His website contains a lot of excellent information about him and his views. For his views on conventional and alternative energy, please visit mittromney.com/jobs/energy .

When oil prices rise, the Canadian dollar usually rises because Canada is a major exporter of oil. The Canadian Economy benefits from higher oil prices. The reverse is true for Japan, which imports most of its oil. The Japanese Yen falls in value when oil prices rise. In addition to the correlation with these currencies, higher oil prices creates more interest in alternative energy including solar power, wind energy and biofuels. The stocks of companies in these industries often rise when oil prices increase.

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