Garden Show Ireland 2010 - Admission. Feeding the Green Monster - Green Tech. As HSBC research estimates that revenues from climate-related businesses could exceed US$2trn by 2020, JOHN KENNEDY looks at the green-tech companies in Ireland that have the potential to help make us the clean-tech Silicon Valley of Europe. It was while driving through an endless flow of traffic on a hot Indian day in an electric car manufactured by Reva, one of the companies he had invested in, that venture-capitalist extraordinaire Tim Draper got stuck beside a petrol station.
“It hit me there and then that I was looking at a dinosaur.” Draper, the savvy investor who is credited with not only ‘inventing’ viral marketing but also making astute investments in internet giants such as Skype and Hotmail, told a Trinity College Dublin audience in November that many of his investments today are in green-tech companies, including Tesla, which makes luxury electric vehicles. “There is no doubt in my mind that clean tech is going to be bigger than ICT,” he told his audience. Green investment. Business: Energy: Renewable: Wind: Turbines: Sm.