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Investing in Clean Energy - Start a company, Study or Buy,
but start an active involvement.
Investing in Clean energy, either through green stocks, green funds, setting up
your own business, or investing in your own energy system is from a rational
point of view a great decision. There are no guaranties
in life but the statistic, authoritive projections and
venture capitalist all embrace this sector and not without a
reason
Upside Potential of Alternative Energy investments
The upside potential of alternative energy sector is enormous. If we define the
potential market for these products as the same that are now using fossil fuels
we are talking about a $3.5 trillion a year market. Witch such a huge market
even the tiniest crumb of the cake is a fortune in it's own.
And if these renewable energy sources are going to
replace the old conventional forms is beyond doubt. The reserves we have, the
production capabilities, and the "logarithmic growing" demand for energy from
ourselves and the emerging economies fuelling painful supply and demand system.
Energy prices are sky rocketing, the US is totally depended on a resource of
which it needs almost three times as much as it can produce. The energy needs of
the emerging economies are growing at such a pace that it will not take as long
as we thought that most of the easily accessible wells are going to dry up. As a
result prices will increase even further. I know that I'm not telepathic, but
even with High School economy this is not a difficult conclusion.
What it boils down to is that we as the worlds most powerful economy have placed
ourselves at the mercy of foreign powers. All the symptoms of a heavy addiction
are visible. Even the president Mr. G. W. Bush, usually not one of the most
active advocates of alternative energy use came to that conclusion.
Meanwhile the renewable energy industry is showing double digit growth rates.
According to the International Energy Agency (http://www.iec.org) and
(http://www.eia.doe.gov) the growth in this field is spectacular.
A quick breakdown of the main
industries and annual growth rates (2006)
| Solar Energy |
17% |
| Geothermal Energy |
4.7% |
| Wind Energy |
11.7 |
| Tidal Enery |
13.2% |
These are the annual growth rates that will therefore
compound or build on one and other, like interest on money or debt. At first
glace you can think that this kind of growth will be
short-lived and un sustainable. Think again. Let get our pocket calculators and
see what the impact of this pace really is.
At this moment about 87 % our energy comes
from the Fossil Sources, like Oil, Coal or Natural Gas. about 6% from
clean energy forms, and the rest is generated through nuclear reactors.
Back to the present - A Birds Eye View of the Clean Energy Sector.
An estimate about the present size of the alternative
energy sector is difficult to give. The rapport Clean Energy 2007 from the
CleanEdge program (http://www.cleanedge.com) estimates the total worldwide sales
at about $55 billion for 2006. A sharp increase from the 40 billion of 2005.
Projecting CleanEdge growth expectancy of 15.1% annually to the coming 10 year
period means going from $55.1 billion to $226 billion in 2016.
That fact that a lot of venture capitalists are turning to the solar-power
business, does mean that these people with very keen noses on where money is
going to be made makes the case for investing in clean energy even stronger.
As far as I can look at the playing field of economics, business and science I
see no reason to believe that pumping out an information based economy, an
internet, computers with broadband connections in almost any home and traveling
to the planets is more difficult than solving our energy riddle. Only a few
decades ago most of the above mentioned now every day items where seen as
illogical, unnecessary, or plain impossible.
When man faces a challenge and doesn't think the solution lies in taking what he
needs from his neighbor our creativity and goal oriented way of acting are
incredible.
So we have a new opportunity to invest in a "Microsoft or Apple from the early
1980's" or start a "Google" just before Larry Page came up with the idea in
1996, and started Google Inc in 1998 -- Not even a decade ago we where oblivious
to the impact Google would have on our lives.
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