A report released by Cambridge Energy Research Associates, concludes that investments in green energies will be pushed, not only by the oil shock, but also because of a greater demand. What makes today different from the 1970’s is that people are worrying about global warming, thus they will be ready to pay a clean energy more expensive. “The report projects that rising private and public investment in clean energy could surpass $7 trillion by 2030″. In 2007, $125 billion was invested worldwide. This is 20 percent more than 2006. The investment will be focused on wind, geothermal and solar power, bio-fuels, nuclear energy and techniques to capture and store carbon emissions.

Such investments will be necessary to absorb the stronger energy demand in new industrialized countries. It is also interesting to note that nuclear power has become a clean energy as we focus now on reducing CO2 emissions. Twenty years ago, classifying this energy as clean would have created a revolution.

Source: International Herald Tribune, Wednesday, February 6, 2008.

Last week, we were wondering if ethanol could be a good solution for the environment, and to reduce CO2 emissions. Moreover, it is not a good solution for the food market. According to a United Nations report, sixty internationally foodstuff climbed 37% in 2007. Producers prefer selling their crops to ethanol refineries instead of food markets. Palm oil, soybean oil and other types of vegetable oil prices are increasing. Economists talk about the “oil shock from India to Indiana”. These oils are a good fat complement for poor people in Asia and Africa. Riots occurred in Mexico, Morocco, India (Mumbai), Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen. In China, 3 people died, and 31 were injured, after a Carrefour supermarket announced a limited time promotion on cooking oil. Thus, the Chinese Government decided to control oil, meat, eggs, milk, and grain prices. Egypt banned rice exports and the European Union restricted palm oil imports.

Resources rarefaction added to the usual bad repartition between North and South will cause many problems. Ethanol is definitely not a good solution to reduce CO2 emissions. Nations would search and invest in alternative solutions, and overpass the powerful bio-fuel American lobby, especially when 9 billion people will live on Earth by 2050. The Third World instability will also affect our way of life.

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/19/business/worldbusiness/19palmoil.html?pagewanted=3&_r=2&ref=world

The seventh annual Wall Street Green Trading Summit will take place in New York on 2-3, April 2008. It covers carbon emissions trading and finance, renewable energy markets, cleantech venture capital, green hedge funds and energy efficiency financial markets. More sponsors joined the Summit this year, showing their interests for green investments. 450 attendees are expected this year.

The Summit will set out an informal stream for green investors. Investments are still weak in the sector. As the real estate bubble is collapsing, the Global economy needs innovations to reflate the economic growth. The next financial bubble could be the green one.

Soure: http://www.wsgts.com/ 

SunEdison will build a 7 Megawatts Solar plant in Spain, next to Barcelona, capital of Catalonia. The plant will be delivered by the third quarter of 2008. The consortium involves the American company SunEdison, and two local joint ventures: Blue Green Capital and Sunergy. SunEdison provides equipment supply, financing, design and construction oversight,  while Blue-Green-Capital and Sunergy provide local project development services.

SunEdison is the North American largest solar energy service provider. It is still a private Company that could go public in the future, as Goldman Sachs, MissionPoint Capital Partners and ALLCO are their investors and/or advisers.

full story: www.sunedison.com 

The Renault-Nissan alliance (PINK: RNSDF), the Israeli Government (represented by Ehud Olmert), and the power company Project Better Place have signed a memorandum to build and deliver electric cars by 2011. The car will be manufactured by Renault-Nissan, Project Better Place will construct an electric recharge network across Israel, and the Israeli Government will provide tax incentives to the customers. The car will be electric fully powered, and will have similar performances to a 1.6 liter gasoline engine. Its autonomy would reach 100 km in town, and 160 km on highway. This become possible in a small country like Israel.

Renault-Nissan controls 9% of the vehicles global market. This memorandum is an occasion to show the World that the French-Japanese Alliance is involved in the green revolution. Moreover, this investment is a good publicity, and the occasion to position the group in this region. Israel wants to reduce its CO2 emissions but the justification is mainly strategic. The country can not deal oil with its neighbors. Its oil supply comes from Mexico, Norway and United Kingdom. After planning to build a huge solar plant in the Negev Desert, Israel wants now to cut on oil dependence.

Source: http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=51290&src=rss 

Iceland, in the Northern Atlantic Ocean, where live 300 000 people, is the 5th of 146 countries in the environmental sustainability Index (2005). Many islands in the World have energetic supply problems, especially high costs. Luckily, Iceland produces hydroelectricity and geothermal energy. The next step is to break free from the constraints of fossil fuel.

Thus, the Government adopted a plan to develop hydrogen engines. By 2035, most of the cars will be hydrogen fuelled. In April, the the first hydrogen power commercial vessel will carry people for whale watching tours. In the future, all the draggers will be hydrogen fuelled. 70% of the country economy depends on fishes exportation.

Due to its wealth, people and companies can pay $7 a gallon of fuel. If the country breaks free from the oil supply, it would become totally independent, and wealthier than it is. On top of this, Iceland will cut domestic inflation, which is mainly caused by variation prices of oil. This initiative will be interesting to follow even if it is much more easier to develop hydrogen energy in a small and wealthy country like Iceland than in the United States, India or China. The amount of the investments is lower, and involving people is easier.

Full story: http://tyler.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2008/1/24/3483984.html 

Premier Ed Stelmach announced the plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The long term goal is to reduce emissions to 14% below 2005 levels by 2050. The Strategy is more based on CO2 capture and storage than developing renewable energy. Investments will be weak in this sector. This goal is far from the objectives set by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE). The NRTEE advised Alberta to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions of 24% by 2020, and 66% by 2050.

This decision is directly linked to the oil lobby, very powerful in Alberta. Oil provides wealth, and a high level of life to people from this State. The main problem caused by this policy is global for Canada. If the country does not reach its objectives, it would put Canada in a difficult situation reliance on other countries.

Ironically, since January, The Tobacco Reduction Act bans smoking in all public places and workplaces, and prohibits smoking within five metres of a doorway, window or air intake of a public place or workplace. That will certainly not help Alberta to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, nor people to breath a cleaner air.

Full story: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2008/01/24/alta-environment.html?ref=rss

VERA SUN ENERGY Corp. (NYSE:VSE) produces ethanol from corn, in Nebraska and Ohio. They’re taking advantage of the “Energy Independence and security act” that would allow the United States to reduce their dependence on foreign oil. The USA also want to develop the energy diversity. On top of this, ethanol does not produce CO2 emissions. We consider that emissions are compensated by the sequestration when the corn grows.

On the other hand, University of Minnesota studies showed that ethanol production monopolizes 20% of US corn crop. Thus, the corn prices have doubled. In addition to that, eating corn that we grow creates less greenhouse gas emissions than burning them in engines.

For all these reasons, biofuels appear as a short term solution for the environment, and for investors. Oil, biofuels and food prices are linked. Vera Sun stock fell 35% since early January, following Monsanto (NYSE: MON) and Pacific Ethanol (NASDAQ: PEIX). Short-term opportunities exist, but it appears dangerous to bet on biofuels, especially if the recession endures, and the oil price continues to fall.

Full story: http://www.hotstocked.com/article/0409/ethanol-and-verasun-energy-corp.html

Schott Solar Inc. will build a new solar power plant factory in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It will cost $100 million, employ 350 people, and produce 64 Megawatts by the end of the first quarter of 2009. The Company wants to expand its plant to 800,000 square feet with 1,500 employees. That represents a total investment of $500 million.

Schott Solar Inc. is wholly owned by the German Company Schott AG which is part of  Carl  Zeiss Group. In North America, the company employs 2,500 people in 16 operations. Mark Finocchario, CEO of Schott’s North American operations underlined the potential of the US South-West to develop Solar energy. Especially, New Mexico set an aggressive policy to grow renewable energy. The State could became the “Land of Enchantment” for green energy.

Full story: http://www.us.schott.com/english/news/press.html?NID=211 

After Canada last month, the European Commission has announced its master plan to reduce CO2 emissions, and develop renewable energy by 2020. The Communication sets the objective to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20%, and increase to 20% the share of renewable energies in the energy consumption. Commission President Mr Barroso, set series of measures that will discussed by the end of 2008:

_Rebuild the EU Emission trading system by including more than 40% of the total emissions. It means 10,000 industrial plants across the EU.

_Reduce step by step the polluting licences amount.

_This system could raise €50 billion annually by 2020. This amount will be re-injected to develop green innovations, carbon capture and storage, and R&D.

_A minimum target of 10% for use of biofuels in transport in order to save 35% of CO2 emissions in this sector.

The Commission considers this period as an opportunity, that should create thousands of new businesses and millions of jobs in Europe. The plan would cost 0.5% of the EU GDP, or €3 per week and per citizen by 2020. The Canadian action plan could cost between 1% to 2% of economic growth, during the same period.

These plans are relatively expensive but necessary. If the recession period is confirmed, the investment volume will decrease. However, we hope they will be concentrated in the green sector in order to reach the objectives set by the Kyoto Protocol, and to strengthen the security of supply.

Full story: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/80&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en