It’s increasingly looking like the cleantech space could overtake investments in overhyped Web 2.0 companies in 2006. Now wouldn’t that be nice.

The Cleantech Venture Network has released third-quarter 2005 investment numbers for the cleantech market, which saw $425 million (U.S.) spread out across 69 separate financing deals throughout the period. This is roughly a 15-per-cent increase over the second quarter. Some other interesting points:

* Cleantech investments represented 8.1 per cent of the $5.263 billion of venture capital invested in North America during the third quarter. This is up quite dramatically from 6.1 per cent during the second quarter.

* Cleantech as an investment category now ranks sixth in size, behind software, biotech, telecom, medical devices/equipment and semiconductors. It should be pointed out, however, that many cleantech companies have products that fall into those other categories, so the lines are often blurred.

* The most active investor in the quarter was EnerTech Capital, with five deals under its belt. Chrysalix Energy (of Vancouver), Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers each participated in three financings.

* Most investments were in companies in the Northeast, while West Coast investments continue to slip. Energy-focused companies captured 59 per cent of investments, up 33 per cent from the previous quarter.

* The big tech winners were water purification and management technologies, which along with materials recycling and recovery companies saw investments double in the quarter.

“The cleantech sector continues to garner increased attention from major companies,” said Nick Parker, chairman and co-founder of the Cleantech Venture Network, pointing to the recent announcement by British Petroleum to commit more than $8 billion over the next ten years to alternative and renewable energy.

BP is just the latest industry giant to direct big numbers — and big talk – at the cleantech space, putting it in a group that includes GE, Toyota, Ford, and Sun Microsystems. ”We will continue to see the tremendous growth reflected in the Q3 2005 numbers,” added Parker.

I can’t help but see dotcom-like fever emerging in the cleantech space, particularly when I see both Wired magazine and Red Herring devoting cover stories to high oil prices and the growing interest in technologies that will take us beyond fossil fuels.

Funny, there’s all this hype about Web 2.0, but investments in pure-play Internet companies actually dropped to $596.3 million (U.S.) in the third quarter, down from $840.5 million in the second quarter. On the other hand Cleantech investments, which aren’t that far behind Web 2.0 investments, are growing quarter by quarter. It will be interesting to see whether cleantech can truly overtake Web 2.0 investments in 2006.

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