Heiko von Dewitz (pictured), Intel Capital’s clean-tech investment director, said: "We started our clean-tech investments in 2007 and focused on smart grid, distributed energy generation, solar and the supply chain and electric transportation."
Intel Capital prefers some of the sectors in which it operates in clean-tech to others. Von Dewitz said: "What I consider most attractive for Intel is energy efficiency, the smart grid and green IT. In smart grid management we think there is an analogy to telecom networks in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, where a huge call for innovation really transformed the sector. We foresee the utility of the grid taking a similar route over time. We think software or system-based investments make for a very attractive investment for the VC community."
By contrast, Intel said it found it quite difficult to justify electric transportation investments. Von Dewitz said: "We act very much in terms of investment criteria. We check strategic relevance and the risk-return profile of an investment itself.
"Electric cars are a long road and hard to make a fit with the typical investment criteria. There are very interesting applications of this technology but the time to market has proved to be too big a hurdle. We are investing shareholder money and on a standalone basis it is a very difficult proposition."
He added another tricky area was solar, although he said the sector was more advanced than electric cars. "Solar has a different history. The industry is now suffering from overcapacity and steep price erosion, and is going through a consolidation phase.
"Solar is a lot more advanced compared with electric vehicles and there is a viable solar proposition with a presence in many areas of the world. The problems with electric vehicles are more fundamental even if it is a very interesting niche."