SEP Report Ranks the Top 100 US Cleantech Innovation Hubs

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SEP Report Ranks the Top 100 US Cleantech Innovation Hubs

2025-04-03 22:00 Last Updated At：22:10

BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 3, 2025--

Saoradh Enterprise Partners (SEP), a Colorado-based venture capital (VC) and research firm, has released the 2024 US Cleantech Innovation Hubs Survey, the second edition of its comprehensive ranking and analysis of cleantech ecosystems across the US. SEP defines innovation hubs as ecosystems driven by research funding, technology development, and venture formation. The report evaluates the 100 leading cleantech hubs in the nation, identifying their strengths, weaknesses, and potential for impact.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250403938883/en/

In 2025, the urgency for global climate action remains at the forefront, including in the US at the state and metropolitan levels. Investments in cleantech have surged, outpacing fossil fuel investments for the first time. According to PitchBook Data, Inc., global clean energy markets are projected to reach $1.3 trillion in 2025 and $2 trillion in 2030, marking a significant shift toward sustainable energy solutions. VC investments into companies innovating clean energy technologies support this shift, which equaled $17.9 billion in 2024 and $89.4 billion since 2020.

Despite this momentum, many promising cleantech hubs remain overlooked. SEP’s Survey highlighted a cleantech commercialization gap — the disconnect between regions receiving VC funds and those leading in research and development (R&D). While California, Massachusetts, and New York secured 45% of VC cleantech funding, they accounted for only 25% of university R&D cleantech spending. This discrepancy suggests that the nation’s cleantech research remains under-commercialized, slowing decarbonization efforts.

One major challenge contributing to this gap has been the lack of comprehensive datasets on cleantech innovation hubs to inform investors, policy makers, and other stakeholders. This scarcity results in investment decisions that lack an understanding of regional cleantech ecosystems and a rigorous, data-driven analysis necessary to assess technology availability, viability, and market deployment.

“At SEP, we aim to close this commercialization gap by using the Survey as a compass to find great technology and build the companies that commercialize it – and to share its findings with other investors, corporations, economic development agencies, and policymakers to drive optimal cleantech development in the US,” said Paul Nelson, Managing Partner of SEP.

The SEP Survey includes a robust index scoring system with 13 datasets grouped into three stages (research, technology, and venture) to rank cleantech hubs at the granular level of metropolitan statistical areas. The 35-page Survey Whitepaper report and accompanying online Hubs Data System provide access to underlying details. Examples of the Whitepaper’s content include:

Top 10 2024 Cleantech Innovation Hubs

Leaders across the US reviewed the Survey, provided their take on its benefits to cleantech development, and are using it to help solve critical issues such as global warming, including the American Energy Society, Colorado Cleantech, Pitchbook, Governor of Colorado, Research Triangle, Stanford University, Center for Houston’s Future, Energy Capital Ventures, and more.

“It comes as no surprise that the Bay Area continues to rank 1st for innovating and commercializing cleantech, as identified by SEP in the 2024 Cleantech Innovation Hubs Survey. Leveraging the existing ecosystem of large companies, startups, academia, non-profits, and government organizations that exist within these Innovation Hubs is critical to building resilient cleantech ecosystems and to decarbonizing industry.”—Naomi Bones, Managing Director of Stanford University Natural Gas Initiative and Co-Managing Director, Stanford Hydrogen Initiative (Bay Area hub #1)

“Colorado has always been a leader in clean energy technology, and we are proud to be among one of the top in the country. Our cleantech industry creates good-paying jobs that power our economy, while developing innovations that protect our air quality and our state for future generations. While top ten is a good place to be, we won’t rest until we’re #1.” —Colorado Governor Jared Polis (Colorado Cleanrange hub #5)

All quotes can be viewed on SEP’s website. Access to the executive summary, Whitepaper, and online data system here.

About SEP

Saoradh Enterprise Partners (SEP) is an early stage cleantech venture capital and transactional research firm. The firm embodies a new approach to drive commercialization of impactful technologies across all sectors that comprise the cleantech ecosystem.

SEP leverages its innovative market and technology research platform to identify the best cleantech and invest in early stage companies to commercialize opportunities in US innovation hubs The firm partners with innovators, entrepreneurs, and corporations in a balanced approach at the magical intersection of science (what’s possible), finance (what’s bankable), industry (what’s needed), and planet (what matters).

To learn more, visit www.saoradh.com.

Asian markets plunge as Japan's Nikkei 225 index dives nearly 8% after the big meltdown on Wall St

2025-04-07 09:06 Last Updated At：09:11

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares nosedived on Monday after the meltdown Friday on Wall Street over U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff hikes and the backlash from Beijing.

U.S. futures also signaled further weakness. The future for the S&P 500 lost 4.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 3.5%. The future for the Nasdaq lost 5.3%.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost nearly 8% shortly after the market opened and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 tumbled more than 6%.

South Korea’s Kospi lost 4.4%.

Oil prices sank further, with U.S. benchmark crude down 4%, or $2.50, at $59.49 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up $2.25 to $63.33 a barrel.

On Friday, Wall Street’s worst crisis since COVID slammed into a higher gear. The S&P 500 plummeted 6% and the Dow plunged 5.5%. The Nasdaq composite dropped 5.8%.

The losses came after China matched President Donald Trump’s big raise in tariffs announced last week, upping the stakes in a trade war that could end with a recession that hurts everyone. Even a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market, usually the economic highlight of each month, wasn't enough to stop the slide.

So far there have been few, if any, winners in financial markets from the trade war. Stocks for all but 14 of the 500 companies within the S&P 500 index fell Friday. The price of crude oil tumbled to its lowest level since 2021. Other basic building blocks for economic growth, such as copper, also saw prices slide on worries the trade war will weaken the global economy.

China’s response to U.S. tariffs caused an immediate acceleration of losses in markets worldwide. The Commerce Ministry in Beijing said it would respond to the 34% tariffs imposed by the U.S. on imports from China with its own 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10, among other measures.

The United States and China are the world’s two largest economies.

The central question looking ahead is: Will the trade war cause a global recession? If it does, stock prices may need to come down even more than they have already. The S&P 500 is down 17.4% from its record set in February.

Trump seemed unfazed. From Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida, he headed to his golf course a few miles away after writing on social media that “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH.”

The Federal Reserve could cushion the blow of tariffs on the economy by cutting interest rates, which can encourage companies and households to borrow and spend. But the Fed may have less freedom to move than it would like.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Friday that tariffs could drive up expectations for inflation and lower rates could fuel still more price increases.

“Our obligation is to keep longer-term inflation expectations well anchored and to make certain that a one-time increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem,” Powell said.

Much will depend on how long Trump’s tariffs stick and what kind of retaliations other countries deliver. Some of Wall Street is holding onto hope that Trump will lower the tariffs after prying “wins” from other countries following negotiations.

Trump has said Americans may feel “some pain” because of tariffs, but he has also said the long-term goals, including getting more manufacturing jobs back to the United States, are worth it.

On Wall Street, stocks of companies that do lots of business in China fell to some of the sharpest losses.

DuPont dropped 12.7% after China said its regulators are launching an anti-trust investigation into DuPont China group, a subsidiary of the chemical giant. It’s one of several measures targeting American companies and in retaliation for the U.S. tariffs.

GE Healthcare got 12% of its revenue last year from the China region, and it fell 16%.

In the bond market, Treasury yields fell, but they pared their drops following Powell’s cautious statements about inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.01% from 4.06% late Thursday and from roughly 4.80% early this year. It had gone below 3.90% in the morning.