By Nick Hodge

Hundreds of millions of years ago, the earth was covered with shallow oceans filled with algae and other simple critters.

As landmasses shifted and grew, water was displaced, leaving thick masses of algal residue that were eventually buried and compressed.

Skip forward a few eons, throw in some heat and pressure and ta da . . . oil.

Then, in 1859, Colonel Drake drilled the first oil well in Titusville, PA, unleashing not only oil, but an economic juggernaut that would dictate our way of life for years to come.

The world began to use oil for everything from fuel to waterproofing, and since then has consumed over a trillion barrels. With such furious consumption - and no way to make more - world oil reserves are set to dwindle.

By Nick Hodge

Even Oil Billionaires are Switching to Cleantech

"Oil, energy, the environment. It is the story of our time."

Those are the words that begin the now-famous Chevron (NYSE: CVX) commercial alerting the public that an oil company can be a part of the solution.

By Nick Hodge

Are Oil Prices Still the Main Energy Indicator?

In the early days of what is now called the "cleantech industry," it was assumed that the price of oil would be the main indicator of the value of new technologies. In other words, as the price of oil fluctuated up and down, so would the perceived value of clean energy companies.

And so it went for the next few years. Whenever oil prices spiked, the stock prices of cleantech companies followed soon after.

It makes sense--at least initially. Oil was one of the cheapest energy resources on the planet, dwarfed by the cost of renewable energy technologies at the time.

So when oil prices went up, newer energy sources became all the more competitive. Simple.