Which green companies are best positioned to weather the downturn?

"Well established, international companies like Vestas [one of the world's largest wind turbine manufacturers]." says Newsweek. "It's a very tough time for earlier stage companies."

CNet’s Green Tech blog says the opposite: "Smaller companies are more likely to survive the current — and coming — lean period... "because younger firms, in general, demand less capital to operate."

Where you really don't want to be is caught in the middle, needing a big infusion of capital to get to the next stage.

Both sides do agree that the recession will produce a shakeout, putting weaker companies out of their misery, but that green tech is not another dot-com. These companies are aimed at solving real problems and the outlook over the next decade is strong.