From time to time, publishers send me free copies of recently released books, with the implicit agreement that I will review them if doing so might be of value to readers. Last week, I reviewed I.O.U.S.A., and I still have a few books in my reading queue. The most recent one I finished was John Rubino’s “Clean Money: Picking Winners in the Green-Tech Boom.”

As the title implies, this is a book about emerging technologies that will promote greater energy efficiency and/or cleaner energy creation. In July, I reviewed Profit from the Peak, another book on alternative energy, so I probably approach this book with more background knowledge than most.

Clean Money is very comprehensive in its discussion of all the possible avenues for investing in clean/green tech, and I was quite surprised at the breadth of applications. The prior book was focused fairly tightly on oil, so while there is some overlap, there are plenty of new areas of discussion that make this book different. In particular, I liked the discussion of short candidates – all too often looking for upside in the future is accompanied by ignoring those who will be hurt, but (assuming the underlying thesis is correct) I’ll venture that there will be more high-percentage plays on the short side than the long side.

My main reservation about this book is that it does an excellent job from an educational perspective, but I don’t know if it made me a savvier investor able to make money from the next big thing in clean energy… because I don’t know if anyone has any idea of what that will be. We still look to be very early in the game in terms of energy breakthroughs, and – to the author’s credit – he recognizes that and advises caution in believing all the press releases.

From an investor’s perspective, it is simply too early to tell where the benefits will accrue – will some company create a key patented process, and bank huge profits? Or will a multitude of alternatives emerge, driving down profitability (and investment returns) for all? There are many secular trends that have benefitted society as a whole, but have created no value for shareholders in the companies that provided those benefits. That would be my concern if I am investing in clean tech, and is why I don’t plan on buying anything related to clean tech, at least at present.

Nonetheless, maybe you’re a person who wants to become better informed about what is happening with clean tech, or you’re an investor willing to do the research into where the best opportunities are. If so, this book will prove valuable as a starting point and continuing resource.

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Disclosure: I received a free copy of the book to review.