If you want to make money from the clean technology revolution -- through investments, employment or cutting costs -- then The Clean Tech Revolution by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder is a must read.

Like CliffsNotes does for classic literature, this book condenses the essential information about the technologies, players, challenges and opportunities across the spectrum of clean technologies into 285 accessible pages. Clean tech is defined by the authors as "any product, service, or process that delivers value using limited or zero nonrenewable resources and/or create significantly less waste than conventional offerings."

Chapters covering solar, wind, biofuels, green building, transportation among others provide concise breakdowns of the technologies and companies that are at the forefront of their respective industries. The authors size up the market opportunity for each industry and predict the likely leaders.

Each chapter identifies "breakthrough opportunities," technologies or new business models that if commercialized could be disruptive to existing markets. Each chapter's list of "ten to watch" is a shorthand guide to up and coming privately and publicly owned companies that are worth investors' attention. Even if you are skeptical of the pace at which clean technology will be adopted, it's good to know who the competitors will be and their offerings.

Although it contains a plethora of statistics and projections -- much of it gleaned from research by the co-authors' Clean Edge research -- the book is an engaging read that will have you running to your computer to act on what you're learning.

While the biofuels, wind and solar power sectors may be familiar opportunities to many readers, the book identifies one under-reported area that will be critical to anyone who owns an electrical device. The Smart Grid chapter outlines the technologies needed to update the patchwork power grid into a stable and efficient distribution mechanism.

The book concludes with chapters about the economic opportunity of the clean tech revolution as whole and how cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Austin and Portland are creating "clean tech clusters" that are energizing the local economies.

There's also a chapter on clean tech marketing, including correcting a mistake that many clean/green companies have made -- focusing on the environmental impact of their products instead of leading with the economic benefits. "...It's very touch to convince mainstream consumers to pay significantly more for a cleaner more efficient product or service." Tell people how much money they'll save in the long run, however, and you have a lot more people listening.

The Clean Tech Revolution isn't a tome preaching to the choir of environmentalists; it's an agnostic analysis of a business and transformation that will be larger in magnitude than the industrial revolution.

(Disclosure: I have known the authors personally and professionally for some time. The book is also available from Amazon through our "Books That Matter" section.)