Five cleantech predictions for 2009

Silicon Valley venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners has unveiled its cleantech predictions for 2009. We covered Lightspeed’s predictions for 2008 at the same time last year and the big theme then was solar (view those 2008 predictions here).

Here’s the five cleantech trends Lightspeed’s Andrew Chung is predicting in 2009:

1. Cleantech funding will slow significantly, forcing startups to seek alternative growth strategies
2. Companies will come under increased pressure to achieve competitive cost economics
3. Investor interest in energy storage, especially for automotive and grid-scale applications, to grow strongly
4. Government will play larger role in cleantech, as policymakers around the country increase their support
5. Cleantech comes of age in China

You can find a more detailed analysis of those predictions from Chung on the Lightspeed blog here.