Cleantech definition

Clean technology, or "cleantech," (synonymous to most people with "greentech") is new technology and/or related business models intended to provide solutions to global climate or resource challenges, or desire for energy independence, while offering competitive returns for customers and investors.

Cleantech represents a diverse range of products, services, and processes, all intended to:

• Provide superior performance at lower costs, while
• Reducing or eliminating negative ecological impact, at the same time as
• Making more efficient and responsible use of natural resources

Cleantech industry taxonomy - September, 2012 
The following is Kachan & Co.'s taxonomy of what industries constitute cleantech. Other taxonomies exist. But not all have accommodated latest innovation.

Why is a clean technology taxonomy important? As a list of nested categories, it shows where a clean technology “fits”. It helps vendors understand their competitive sets. It defines and helps investors understand the breadth of the sector and its sub-categories, and helps research and data organizations report consistently.

click here to download the kachan & Co. cleantech taxonomy in powerpoint slides (1.1 mb)

First introduced in 2010 and updated in 2012, this categorization was informed by Kachan staff's years of writing thousands of clean technology articles and reports. Dozens of others’ frameworks were reviewed in our original work from 2010, with special acknowledgement to taxonomies from Cleantech Group, China Greentech Initiative, StrategyEye, Greentech Media, Skipso and Wikipedia, all of which informed our decisions.

In outline form, Kachan & Co's taxonomy of what fits where in cleantech:

• Clean energy
  • Wind
    • Turbines
    • Components, incl. gearboxes, blades, towers
  • Solar
    • Crystalline silicon
    • Thin film
    • Other emerging photovoltaic
    • PV module technologies
    • Inverters
    • Thermal
    • Concentrated solar power
      • Thermal
      • Photovoltaic
    • Financing providers
    • Systems
  • Renewable fuels
    • Ethanol
    • Cellulosic ethanol
    • Biobutanol
    • Biodiesel
    • Methanol
    • Drop-in synthetic fuels
    • Biogas
    • Hydrogen [when produced from non-fossil sources]
  • Marine
    • Tidal
    • Wave
    • Run-of-river and other small scale hydro
    • Ocean thermal
  • Biomass
    • Wood combusion
  • Geothermal
    • Natural aquifer
    • Hot dry rock enhanced
  • Fuel cells
    • PEM
    • DMFC
    • SOFC
    • MCFC
    • Zinc air
  • Waste-to-energy
    • Waste heat recovery
    • Anaerobic digestion
    • Landfill gas
    • Gasification
    • Plasma torching
  • Nuclear
    • New fission designs
    • Fusion
    • Non-uranium fuels
    • Waste disposal
  • Emerging
    • Osmotic power
    • Kinetic power
    • Others
  • Measurement & analytics
    • Software systems
    • Sensor and other hardware
• Energy storage
  • Batteries
    • Wet cells (e.g. flow, lead-acid, nickel-cadmium, sodium -sulfur)
    • Dry cells (e.g. zinc-carbon, lithium iron phosphate)
    • Reserve batteries
    • Charging & management
  • Thermal storage
    • Molten salt
    • Ice
    • Chilled water
    • Eutectic
  • Mechanical storage
    • Pumped water
    • Compressed air
    • Flywheels
    • Other moving mass
  • Super/ultra capacitors
  • Hydrogen storage

• Efficiency
  • Smart grid
    • Transmission
      • Sensors & quality measurement
      • Distribution automation
      • High voltage DC
      • Superconductors
      • High voltage control devices
    • Demand management/response
    • Management
      • Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) & smart meters
      • Monitoring & metering
      • Networking equipment
      • Quality & testing
      • Self repairing technologies
      • Power conservation
      • Power protection
      • Data analysis systems
  • Green building
    • Design
    • Building automation
      • Software & data analytics
      • Monitoring, sensors and controllers
      • Metering
      • Networking & communication
    • Lighting
      • Ballasts & controllers
      • Solid state lighting
      • CFLs
      • Daylight harvesting
    • Systems
      • HVAC
      • Refrigeration
      • Water heating
    • Consulting/facilities management
      • ESCOs
  • Cogeneration
    • Combined heat and power (CHPDH)
  • Data centers & devices
    • Component efficiency improvement
    • Virtualization
    • Intelligent power management
    • Smart appliances
  • Semiconductors
  • Collaborative consumption systems
    • Bartering
    • Bike sharing
    • Carpool/Ride sharing
    • Car sharing
    • Collaborative workspace
    • Co-housing
    • Coworking
    • Garden sharing
    • Fractional ownership
    • Peer-to-peer lending
    • Seed swap
    • Shared taxi
    • Time banks
    • Virtual currencies

• Transportation
  • Vehicles
    • Improved internal combustion
    • Hybrid electric
    • Plug in hybrids
    • All electric
    • eBikes
    • New vehicle types
    • Rail transport innovation
    • Water transport innovation
    • Components
    • System integration
  • Traffic management
    • Fleet management
    • Traffic & route management
    • Lighting & signals
    • Parking management systems
    • Behavior management
  • Fueling/charging infrastructure
    • Vehicle-to-grid (V2G)
    • Fast charging
    • Battery swapping
    • Induction
    • Alternative fuel conversion
• Air & environment
  • Carbon sequestration
    • Carbon capture & storage
      • Geological
      • Ocean
      • Mineral
      • Bio capture, incl. algae
      • Co2 re-use
    • Geoengineering
    • Biochar
    • Forestry/agriculture
  • Carbon trading/offsets
    • Software systems
  • Emissions control
    • Sorbents & scrubbers
    • Biofiltration
    • Cartridge/electronic
    • Catalytic converters
  • Bioremediation
  • Recycling & waste
    • Materials reclamation
    • New sorting technologies
    • Waste treatment
    • Waste management & other services
  • Monitoring & compliance
    • Toxin detection
    • Software systems
    • Sensors & other measurement/testing hardware
• Clean industry
  • Materials innovation
    • Nano
      • Gels
      • Powders
      • Coatings
      • Membranes
    • Bio
      • Biopolymers
      • Biodegradables
      • Catalysts
      • Timber reclamation
    • Glass
      • Chemical
      • Electronic
      • PV
    • Chemical
      • Composites
      • Foils
      • Coatings
    • Structural building material
      • Cement
      • Drywall
      • Windows
    • Ceramics
    • Adhesives
  • Design innovation
    • Biomimicry
    • Software
  • Equipment innovation
    • Efficient motors
    • Heat pumps & exchangers
    • Controls
  • Production
    • Construction/fabrication
    • Resource utilization
    • Process efficiency
    • Toxin/waste minimization
  • Monitoring & compliance
    • Software systems
    • Automation
    • Sensors & other measurement/testing hardware
  • Advanced packaging
    • Packing
    • Containers
• Water
  • Production
    • Desalination
    • Air-to-water
  • Treatment
    • Filtration
    • Purification
    • Contaminate detection
    • Waste treatment
  • Transmission
    • Mains repair/improvement
  • Efficiency
    • Recycling
    • Smart irrigation
    • Aeroponics/hydroponics
    • Water saving appliances
  • Monitoring & compliance
    • Software systems
    • Sensors & other measurement/testing hardware
• Agriculture
  • Crop farming
    • Natural fertilizers and amendments
    • Biological weed, pest and disease control
    • Precision irrigation and fertilization
    • Land management
    • Biotechnology
    • Tools and equipment
    • Waste innovations
    • Transport decay prevention
  • Controlled environment agriculture
    • Hydroponics, aeroponics and vertical farming
    • Improved greenhouses
  • Sustainable forestry
  • Animal farming
    • Waste innovations
  • Aquaculture
    • Health & yield
    • Containment
    • Waste innovations