Tech Confidential caught up with Susan Mac Cormac, head of Morrison & Foerster LLP’s cleantech practice, at the AlwayOn Going Green conference in Davis, Calif. She moderated the morning panel on emerging clean energy technologies.

Mac Cormac said a lack of education on the part of venture capitalists runs the risk of creating bubbles in certain areas of cleantech in part because it now encompasses such a broad spectrum of complex technologies.

“This is not like IT because if you’re going to make smart investments you’re going to have to understand the technology and the environmental impact,” she said. “Most of the VCs don’t have that expertise; but because they don’t want to miss the trend, they follow other VCs rather than doing the research themselves.”

Because of these big challenges, Mac Cormac said firms like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, VantagePoint Venture Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson are hiring experts in certain areas of cleantech so they can better judge their opportunities. —David Shabelman

See Sept. 11 story from TheDeal.com

Tags: Clean Tech, vc, venture+capital