The world's canniest investors and business minds aren't letting the green revolution slip past them; they're ponying up cash, hoping to fund alternative energy startups and eco-solutions that might one day remake the market. What exactly are they betting on? The Times of London compiled a list of the world's foremost "eco barons", and where they're investing their money. Here's the top ten:

Of course, the list provides only cursory indication of the sector and it doesn't provide any indication of how much investment is piling into each sector. This would allow you to roughly analyze which technologies seem most primed for success. A Japanese magazine recently did a similar exercise, asking engineers: What technology is most likely to pull us out of the present recession? The survey's big winners were solar cell and green vehciles—from electric cars to next-gen battery tech. But look at the precise results, the methodolgy seems a little inane—why are Blu-Ray recorders even on the list?!—but it does scream for more thorough excercises of this sort. Anyone out there know of any good studies or predication markets which give a good overview of where the eco investments are heading?

[Image via Jeroenolthof.nl]