09.9.2010

Well, besides a lot of cash on hand, the three are driving The Clean Revolution. Are we fully immersed in The Clean Revolution? Not yet. Exxon is #1 on the US FT500, yes and energy use is likely to rise when we come out of the recession, but as these three economic giants show, clean tech is not a niche investment market and the rising billionaires are not oil or coal giants. I’ve highlighted a few business stories that signal a new generation of investment in energy and wealth, one based on clean technology.

1. 2008-2009, New Power Capacity Added World-wide was 53% Fossil Fuels and 47% renewables. This close to 50-50 breakdown is unprecedented and may be a bell-weather in the rise of renewables.
    
2. On August 8th, The Washington Post reported on the rise of the ‘clean rich’ and the decline of the ‘dirty rich’. “When the list (Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest individuals) was first published in 1982, 38 percent of its members had made their fortunes in oil and manufacturing, and 12 percent in finance and technology. By 2006, those ratios had nearly flipped: 36 percent of the richest Americans made their wealth from finance and tech, while 17 percent earned it from manufacturing and oil.”

   Even without a price on carbon, it is starting to pay to invest in The Clean Revolution.
    

3. The famous US private equity firm, Blackstone, is investing $300m into Moser Baer Projects including “4GW of thermal power capacity, and a further 1GW of solar and hydroelectric capacity.”

   Blackstone’s mission is centered on return on investment. Solar thermal provides that return.
    

4. Most significantly, Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported that “China Development Bank has made no less than $23 billion available for Chinese companies in just over six months of 2010” for clean energy.

   In case you were looking for a comparison, $23 billion is about twice the market capitalization of the largest coal company in the US, Peabody Energy.