This is a great start for us, Kristy. Thanks for kicking things off!

I think of the green/clean tech space from a few finance angles: firms funding from within - reinvested capital whether private or public firm; foundations/philanthropists funding projects for profit or for nonprofit/public good; angels and VCs; other connections with universities and public tax dollar investment.

with case studies, i think it is important to flush out the structure of how money flows in and out of clean/green tech so we are clear about the motivations and goals who is financing the R&D, deployment, relationships in private/public sphere, etc.

at the level of ecocities, you are right that the diffusion of technology to meet energy needs specifically will need to be a balanced mix of solar, wind, hydrogen, biofuels, etc. as a 'cocktail' of sorts. i think of technologies for rain catchment, desalinization, carbon sequestration, large scale organic farming/fishing/forestry as of major importance.

you are right that we need to develop a basic level of metrics across each of the research areas we are covering. i know of this through modeling software, performance testing and commissioning for green buildings. i would definitely recommend that you include some consideration of real time wireless monitoring systems for buildings (energy use, water use, temp, iaq, etc.). for financiers of green buildings, this real time performance monitoring technology will be at the forefront of their underwriting criteria platform.

i can foresee the banking and insurances industries as demanding to understand in real time how the real estate or companies or technologies they are investing in or insuring performs in real time. several european and other financial institutions are beginning to do this now.

also, technologies to measure carbon footprints, offsets, neutrality, and carbon negativity are at the center of global warming.

new Blog I just found...

http://earth2tech.com/

Cheers,
R