Sunday, December 10, 2006

Green Investment Updates Part 2


This week we found two more articles about the trend to alternative energy investments. In the first, the New York Times reports on the likely beneficiaries of the changed US congress being a range of companies from across the sector. According to the article investors can expect subsidies, tax policy and research dollars to be focused on all manner of alternative energy companies in the coming years, with predictable benefits in stock prices.

In a related article, Newsweek describes the venture capital group Kleiner Perkins decision to invest $200 million dollars in green tech.

The most interesting thing to us about all of these articles taken as a whole is the frequent and unqualified comparisons between green tech and the .com boom. Then again with so many of these companies still unprofitable, maybe the comparison is justified.



Sunday, December 03, 2006

Green Investment Updates



Last month brought us two very interesting articles about the potential for investing in clean energy from two very different sources.

First Outside Magazine published an article in which Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk says, “Energy is way bigger than the Internet” as he explains the investment opportunity in green growth. The accompanying feature describes a variety of funds and investment vehicles available for interested parties to cash in on the coming boom.

While one could be forgiven for not wanting to take investment advice from the same people who give you recommendations for breathable footwear, not long after the Outside issue hit the stands, none other than the Economist produced an article reporting on the same investment trend.

The growing investment potential of clean energy tech is something we have been writing about for a while here, but while the potential is clearly enormous, the Economist correctly points out there is nothing inevitable about it. Much of the investment money is contingent on continuing subsidies because clean energy sources are still not cost competitive with polluting ones. While this will doubtlessly change in the coming years, until it does we are only one bad election away from a major dip in support for clean energy technology.