We're tired of bubbles, right? Anyone 30 or older has lived through two big ones so far, with a brief period of prosperity separating the decimation of dot-com largesse and mortgage-fueled paper wealth. It could take until 2014 for the jobs lost to be replenished, and there's little reason for optimism.

So, with the economy in the tank, we can focus elsewhere -- maybe on saving the planet. If we can't put green in our wallets, maybe we can add some to our lifestyles. Or, you could do both. Green technology could be the next boom in the United States, even if we do lag some parts of the world, and investing in clean solutions is really nothing other than investing in the next big thing. Even if you don't give a damn about climate change (or don't think it exists at all), the green market could likely become your employer -- or trigger the economic growth that will create your next job.

Some signs are visible already.

Rajendra Pachauri, U.N. climate scientist, has good news and bad news. I'll give you the latter first: eat less meat. Doing so will help slow global warming. The good news, also related to climate change, is that Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the United Nations, investing in green technologies now is a smart move. So, by following Pachauri's advice, you cut down on your meat but reward yourself with a decent investment return.

If you take his advice as a whole (pretending you don't know you can do one part without the other), it's like getting paid to eat your veggies. Everyone who's been five years old at some point knows that being given green to eat green is ample motivation. The fun part, here, is that you're financing it by investing in green. It all matches!

Venture capital investment in clean technology grew 10% from the second quarter to the third this year. According to a report by the Cleantech Group and Deloitte, 134 companies received investments of $1.59 billion – up from $1.2 billion in the second quarter. The sector's upward trajectory continues, with last quarter marking the second in a row of double-digit growth. In the first quarter of 2009, venture capital investment in cleantech companies hit a low of $1 billion.

The strong third quarter has made the cleantech sector the largest in the venture capital business, according to the Cleantech Group, pulling ahead of biotech. Twenty-seven percent of venture capital funds invested in the second quarter of 2009 went to cleantech companies – up from 3% at the beginning of 2004.

GreenBytes, a unique data storage appliance company, has just received an $8 million Series A round of investment financing. Battery Ventures completed the deal, which provides fresh resources for the Rhode Island-based energy-efficient technology company.

Founded in 2007, GreenBytes offers network attached storage (NAS) and storage area network (SAN) solutions that reduce energy consumption, providing a cost savings opportunity while also addressing corporate social responsibility considerations.

New York Times (NYSE: NYT) Columnist Tom Friedman returns to the subject of China and the global economy, and it's a column investors would be wise to review.

In a nutshell, Friedman argues that those who assert that green technology doesn't have the right stuff to move the U.S. GDP needle are misguided. China is investing hundreds of billions of dollars in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power, and wind power.

If you want to feel like what you do for a living makes a difference, you'll soon face an embarrassment of riches.

The alternative energy industry -- the green business -- is about to ramp up its hiring, with the next year likely to show an increase in demand, according to U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

At times it may not seem like a new economic policy is growing out the ashes and mistakes of the old one -- the U.S.'s decade of descent. Partisan bickering in Washington can sometimes magnify the nation's many areas of contention.

But, in reality, policy is coalescing and here is one trend that's likely to be a feature of the new economy: economic expansion through investment and increased exports, and not through consumption.

A great deal of the new technology that U.S. car companies are showing at the big auto show in Detroit is based on the U.S. car industry's plans to "go green." Some of those programs are based on electric cars. Others are based on ethanol hybrids.

According to Reuters, "the stars of the show were a slew of new or improved fuel-efficient and eco-friendly 'green' cars like the Toyota Prius and Chevrolet Volt."

Some analysts think The Big Three are too late to the table with "green" cars and that Japan has too big a lead. That may not be the problem at all.

Often cars powered with alternative fuels are more expensive than gas-driven cars. All that modern technology costs something. Consumers are looking at gas in the $1.70 range and oil prices moving toward $30 a barrel. Car buyers are often short-sighted. Why buy a hybrid when a gas car is inexpensive to operate? Oil prices may not go back up for two or three years. Maybe.

"Green" may not sell because the price of filling up an "old style" car has become remarkably cheap again.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

With gasoline prices going through the roof lately, the main question on every motorists' mind has been how to save some money at the pumps. The obvious answers are to either drive less, or buy a car that uses less gas, preferably a gas-electric hybrid. Hybrids, unfortunately, are pretty expensive, but Honda (NYSE: HMC) has announced plans for releasing an affordable gas-electric hybrid next year.

Honda plans on this new hybrid to be a brand new car model for the company, and the model will only come in the hybrid version. In addition, it will also be coming out with new hybrid versions of its already popular Civic and CR-Z.

The company's President, Takeo Fukui, stated that there has been a lot of attention placed on hybrids recently, and that now was the time to "go to the next step." He did not make any predictions on just how much the new hybrid-only model would cost, other than it would be affordable. There was also no mention of the name for the new model, but some descriptions were given, including that it would be a 5-door sedan with new weight reduction technology to help improve the vehicle's efficiency.

Josh Wolfe is best known for his industry-leading expertise in nanotechnology and likewise his focus is often on small, emerging growth companies.

But ironically, one of his core 'buys' is a company that ranks among the biggest of the big: General Electric (NYSE: GE). In his Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Tech Report, he looks at GE and its leading role in "green" technology.

"General Electric disappointed investors when its quarterly earnings recently fell for the first time in 5 years. Profits fell 5.8% to $4.3 billion and revenues rose 8% to $42.2 billion, short of the expected $44 billion.

"Moreover, GE reduced its 2008 annual earnings forecast, citing seizure of credit markets for struggling operations in its consumer and commercial finance divisions.

"'Green' has become transparent at GE. The missing ingredient to BP's green appeal, it seems, was some element of independent accountability. In 2005, when General Electric CEO Jeffery Immelt launched GE's own brand of green initiative, ecomagination, he hired New York consultant firm GreenOrder to keep score.

Bill Joy was a co-founder and scientist at Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) until he left for private capital in 2005, joining Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Although out of the tech spotlight these days, many still follow what he has to say based on his credited involvement with inventing several widely-used internet technologies. As a venture capitalist, many want to know what Joy sees as viable investments from 2007 moving forward.

He gave a glimpse of what he's not looking at this week when he delivered an outlook at the Lux Research conference on nanotechnology. According to Joy, green technology is hot, internet is not. Wha? Internet investing is out of style with one of its founders? How can that be? Let me put it mildly: the valuations of some companies operating almost solely in the 'net these days makes for a "wacky" investment strategy, according to Joy.

Although Joy speaks the virtues of several semiconductor firms, he stated that internet investments are "wacky right now" and that the better opportunity in the near term will be in green technology investments. You know, ones that allow electric autos to become affordable and available, as well as alternative energy sources like photovoltaic products that convert sunlight directly into energy.

He shuns biodiesel and ethanol in favor of all-electric personal transportation and notes that investment in these areas is exploding. His firm has already invested in solar thermal and photovoltaic technology, but the sheer fact that Joy slaps all internet investments is a surprise. Perhaps he's one of the many who think Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s current $620+ share price is a bit overblown. Does Google even have a moat? Perhaps, perhaps not. Bill Joy doesn't care, and he's not investing there. Are you?

There are a whole lot of things to like right now about Trina Solar Limited (NYSE: TSL), the Chinese manufacturer of solar modules. The stock opened the year at $18.86 and closed Wednesday, August 8, at $62.08. Not a bad run up. Yes, the company is basically a start up, being in production only since 2004, and investors must be able to tolerate a high level of risk with patience. But the company is expanding on a variety of fronts while still maintaining a healthy enough balance sheet. Trina Solar 1Q 2007 earnings release back in May indicated a very positive investment scenario (the 2Q release is scheduled for August 23).

Despite the fact that the 1Q figures pertained to the winter quarter, generally a slow time for solar technology companies, Trina Solar posted a 10% increase in net revenues, to $42.5 million, from the previous quarter, but a staggering 194% (not a typo) increase from 1Q 2006. Gross profits from the quarter increased 5.3% to $9.5 million, and net income increased 7.3% to $4.7 million. Bear in mind Trina Solar posted these figures despite higher prices for raw materials and a decline in per unit price. Demand for solar technology continues unabated. Trina Solar shipped 17% more units by volume in 1Q 2007 than in 4Q 2006. That increase in volume meant Trina Solar produced and shipped 300% more solar watts in 1Q 2007 than 1Q 2006, and has plans to accelerate increases in both unit and watt volume.

Trina Solar is still in a rapid expansion phase, as is only to be expected from a company dealing in newer forms of technology. The company recently completed testing on its new line of increasing efficient solar modules and plans to market these modules to new and existing customers in Germany, Spain and Italy. At full manufacturing capacity, Trina Solar expects to produce 50 million solar watts with this product line. CEO Jifan Gao forecasts that Trina Solar will ship 87-80 million watts worth of solar modules in FY 2008, generating net revenues in the $270-$300 million range. Perhaps the wider investment community will hear of Trina Solar during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Socially conscious investors may want to grab a copy of this week's (April 2, 2007) edition of FORTUNE magazine, which is all about the greening of corporate America. No longer can companies merely not pollute: The double bottom line of both economic profitability and social responsibility demands that companies re-engineer themselves and their products to be as environmentally friendly as possible.

Companies that are ahead of the game will prosper. Companies that lag behind in environmentalism will be punished by investors as well as the media. The article "Green is Good" summarizes the green activities of 10 well known companies that stand to reap rewards for their environmentally sensitive manufacturing and operational practices. Companies taking the lead towards a low-carbon economy are:

A couple weeks ago I wrote an article about B5 blend biodiesel now being produced by Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation Ltd. in New Zealand. At that time I promised to provide their prospectus when it became available. I've received an email from them indicating that the prospectus is now available. If you would like to view their prospectus, either as a PDF file or as hard copy, contact Aquaflow by using this link: Aquaflow Bionomic Corp.

This is not intended as an endorsement of Aquaflow or B5 biodiesel. I'm simply providing this information as a direction for readers to investigate if they are believers in the advancement of alternate fuels. For right now, information from Aquaflow is actually rather scant, but they are working directly with the government of New Zealand, and you may wish to contact either or both of them. This situation involves overseas investment in brand new technology -- please do be careful.

B5 biodiesel consists of 5% fuel processed from algae that flourishes in sewage settling ponds, blended with 95% currently available fuels. This could translate as an unending fuel source that will be perpetually obtainable. It's a solid investment idea as long as people keep eating and ... well, you know. Possible downsides to putting dollars into backing this fuel include the newness of the technology use and its limited scale. This is an investment idea that should be researched extensively before jumping into. Technology in its infancy can be a tough game to play, but the rewards can be phenomenal.

GE is pushing forward to make alliances with developing countries. As predicted by its CEO, China and India would be two main areas GE would be seeking to make major inroads. It isn't a surprise that GE has struck a deal with China to invest $50 million in a partnership agreement with the Chinese government.

What is really interesting is that GE's partnership is for developing green technologies, another byproduct of the Ecomagination process. The money being used is for energy effeciency and water filtration technologies. GE makes $5 billion in revenues from China, they're hoping that will double by 2010 ...