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A few weeks ago I found myself walking around a vast underground complex in Wiltshire in the West of England that was once a military bunker belonging to HM Army, but whose new owner, Ark Continuity, wants to turn into a network of subterranean data centres.

Data centres use an extremely large amount of energy, not only because of the power needed for their servers to function but also because of the air conditioning that is usually required to keep those servers cool. However, the Wiltshire underground complex is a big space with a stable temperature of approximately nine degrees centigrade, which means (according to Ark) that the aircon can be dispensed with.

A recent trip to Reno, Nevada, to attend the Geothermal Resources Council’s annual gathering, set me thinking after I met up with two recently-floated geothermal companies. Is it possible for one stock market to play host to the entire range of cleantech companies that are out there, or will certain stock markets always favour particular flavours of cleantech firms?

Welcome to the latest issue of Quoted Cleantech. This month’s newsletter has been expanded to eight pages, adding more news, comment and now featuring two company profiles instead of one. Another addition is our table of cleantech indices on the back page. This is aimed at helping our readers better understand how cleantech stocks in general are performing month-by-month, and we expect to add more indices to the table in the future.

Some cleantech companies are clearly continuing to suffer from the credit crunch, which has squeezed renewable energy project funding worldwide. Solar wafer and module manufacturers are still complaining about oversupply in their markets, while large-scale wind farm projects are being kept on hold as developers struggle to raise the funds required. However, there is hope on the horizon thanks, in part, to government economic stimulus programmes that include a cleantech component. Carbon emission targets connected to climate change initiatives will, of course, continue to provide incentives.