Projections in Cleantech Business Plans Should Be Reasonable
Here’s a report that predicts that a certain market, in this case, the market for Flexible AC Transmission Systems will grow to $1,386.01 million in 2018. That’s about $1.4 billion – predicted to the nearest $10,000?
This is a mistake I tell entrepreneurs not to make in their business plans, i.e., overstating the accuracy of their predictions, since it makes them look silly. We don’t have that level of certainty on events that will occur in the next five seconds, let alone the next five years. It’s like using a yardstick and claiming you’re measuring something to the nearest nanometer.
Obviously, renewable energy has a whole host of nay-sayers who make a variety of points, including:
A bit off topic perhaps, but I know that a ton of readers here have their own blogs, and thus have to deal with spam. My spam filter, Akismet, which used to be excellent, btw, has for some reason gone downhill recently, and just let through a comment from a guy whose email address clearly says that he’s selling fake Louis Vuitton handbags and whose comment to one of my posts on solar PV is as follows: コート ロング.
With enough solar energy to power almost 12,000 homes and employ 3,200 Texans, 
Though I’m obviously not a fan of Big Oil, I try to stay somewhat conversant with the issues that these behemoth entities face, and so I read a number of articles like this one on 
I attend frequent fund-raisers for 
I’m on my way out for lunch with a new-found friend, environmentalist 
Why is the stock market doing so well when prospects for economic strength in the U.S. are so scary? It’s because the market – or even the set of large companies that happen to be headed here in the U.S. — doesn’t really care too much about America’s economic future. General Motors generates most of its profits selling in Asia, and General Electric, with its ever-widening array of renewable energy solutions, understandably believes the U.S. market is something of a joke. 
I don’t know what percentage of our readers here are on the Sierra Club’s email lists, but let me tell you something: they write really well. I get something at least a few times a week, and I’m always impressed with how clearly and forcefully their representatives communicate with the written language.
