Almost every startup green company lasts as long as the Fed grants and loans. It is absolutely absurd, if a business cannot show on paper that it can turn a profit without a grant, it should not get one. Yet, these are the companies that get them.
It is one thing to operate a profitable company, that uses green technology to further enhance their viability, visibility, profit margin, or reduce impact. It is another to create a make-believe green company that manufactures a product, at a loss, for a make-believe green market. The former should get the grants to expand or improve systems, the latter should never be considered.
I know of a few companies (ran by master grant-writers) who I would take bets on that will be filing for Banko in the next 3 years. The owners have certainly paid themselves pretty well by now. They are generating expensive green products, for a market that is unwilling to pay for them. Yet these companies are continually talked about in the newspapers and business journals, as they do a great job of self promotion.
I should not disparage this system too much, as my company has turned profits from several of these wild-eyed green ideas, at least in the preliminary phases. But when we would look at these projects and ask "Where is the money going to be made" it was always clear that it would be made from the fed-grants, and then everyone would walk away from it once it operated without the safety net.
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WDFW - Turning outdoorsmen into golfers since 1994.