{"id":18611,"date":"2014-01-15T18:57:10","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T00:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/gregladen\/?p=18611"},"modified":"2014-01-15T18:57:10","modified_gmt":"2014-01-16T00:57:10","slug":"the-most-impressive-comeback-story-you-havent-heard-guest-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/15\/the-most-impressive-comeback-story-you-havent-heard-guest-post\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Impressive Comeback Story You Haven\u2019t Heard (Guest Post)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Most Impressive Comeback Story You Haven\u2019t Heard<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Ross Chanin & Emilee Pierce<\/em><\/p>\n

If you read the tech press, you know the scoop: Google just bought Nest Labs (the maker of smart thermostats and smoke detectors) for $3.2 billion<\/strong>. For context, that\u2019s more than three times<\/a> the amount that Facebook paid for Instagram in last year\u2019s blockbuster deal and Google\u2019s second largest<\/a> acquisition to date.<\/p>\n

What you probably haven’t heard is what this megabuy says about the cleantech industry. In fact, you probably haven\u2019t heard that it involves cleantech at all. That\u2019s because the vast<\/a> majority<\/a> of media<\/a> coverage focused on Google and what this acquisition tells us about the Internet giant\u2019s future plans.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s another story here. Nest is hardly the only cleantech company making headlines these days. Among the others: Tesla<\/a>, the maker of luxury electric cars, posted a market cap reaching $22 billion<\/a> in 2013; Solar City, a leading residential solar installer, saw its stock rocket<\/a> 700 percent in the twelve months following its IPO; and Opower, which deploys social influence to reduce energy consumption, doubled<\/a> its user base in the last year alone.<\/p>\n

These companies aren\u2019t one-off successes. We think they represent the forefront of an impressive industry comeback fueled by appealing products, sleek marketing, big data, and elegant software. Nest made smart thermostats cool, Tesla made an electric car a status symbol, and Opower made energy consumption a neighborly competition. At American Efficient, we hope to make renewable power a must-have for you and your favorite local coffee shop.<\/p>\n

Clean technology choices aren\u2019t new, but appealing, sleek and simple ones are. We have a crop of new, consumer-facing cleantech brands to thank for that. We now want<\/em> to purchase renewable power for our home or business, install solar panels on our roof, upgrade to efficient home products, drive an electric or hybrid ride — just to keep up with the Joneses. That\u2019s big news.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: You won\u2019t hear about the cleantech comeback from your morning paper or nightly news program. Mass media continues to portray cleantech companies as either lonely orphans or oddly healthy members of an otherwise sick family (See: 60 Minutes: The Clean Tech Crash<\/a>). But the real story is about what\u2019s new and what\u2019s next: cleantech with a consumer-friendly design and sound economics. In our view, it\u2019s a cleantech comeback. And a big one at that.<\/p>\n

Ross Chanin is co-founder and CEO of American Efficient<\/a>, a clean tech company that helps consumers purchase renewable power and energy efficient products through a network of retail businesses, competitive power suppliers and regulated utilities. Emilee Pierce is American Efficient’s VP of Marketing & Partnerships. More info at: http:\/\/www.americanefficient.com<\/a>\/<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Most Impressive Comeback Story You Haven\u2019t Heard By Ross Chanin & Emilee Pierce If you read the tech press, you know the scoop: Google just bought Nest Labs (the maker of smart thermostats and smoke detectors) for $3.2 billion. For context, that\u2019s more than three times the amount that Facebook paid for Instagram in … Continue reading The Most Impressive Comeback Story You Haven\u2019t Heard (Guest Post)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1202],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5fhV1-4Qb","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}