Cleantech, just what in the heck is it and why, as an investor, do you care? As an investor, you should care about cleantech for two main reasons. First, there's profit in it—and the field is growing. Second, it's earth friendly.

Cleantech is the field term used by most (some also call it greentech) to describe products and services that improve productivity and performance while reducing earth-harming costs in the areas of energy consumption, waste and pollution.

What started as a small movement has exploded in recent years. According to Thomson Financial, investment in cleantech has avalanched by 500% in the past two years. As climate change becomes more of a hot topic, cleantech grows.

Cleantech items you might be familiar with include wind farms, hydro power, solar power and biofuels. There are six main industries within cleantech. Those industries are:

1. Energy (This is the main sector)

2. Agriculture

3. Transportation

4. Water

5. Advanced Materials

6. Energy use / manufacturing

Energy is the big industry in cleantech and the one that gets the most press. A couple companies that you may want to start your investing research on are:

1. Applied Materials

2. Cabot Corp.

3. Energy Conversion Devices

4. First solar

5. SunPower

While most people gravitate toward researching solar power investment opportunities, don't neglect other power sources. Wind farms (collection of wind turbines), for instance, are growing. The USA currently has the largest wind farm site. By 2020, the UK is working to power all its homes via wind farms.

According to a series of clean energy projections, solar power will be outpaced by biofuels and wind power—with fuel cells far, far behind. Over the next ten years, growth in just these areas is supposed to pass the 400% mark.

Why the sudden burst though? As oil prices skyrocket and talk of climate change heat up, so has the political climate. Over the past two years, especially recently, politicians (and the world) have embraced the need for change now. This change in attitude has led to political developments that have stimulated investments. The result are growths in technology, which are making cleantech options more feasible and profitable. As this trend increases, the market will expand, which means more opportunity for the cleantech investor. Now is the time to get on board. It's not too late.

There are many companies participating in the cleantech field and many are publically traded. While many are on the NYSE and NASDAQ, you can also find cleantech companies being traded in the pink sheet arena (OTCBB). And there are quite a few companies with sizable per share prices. Of course, if you're into speculating with penny stocks, there are many of those opportunities in the cleantech arena.

If you're interested in learning more about cleantech investing or the field in general, check out some of the URLs I've provided below. Cleantech is an investment you can feel good about. The cleantech field is exploding. The past two years have been instrumental in it's growth and there are no signs of it slowing down anytime soon.