Investing and Living On and Off the Grid

A couple of interesting items from today's EEI newsletter.

First, EEI reports: "Venture Capital Now Backing ‘Green’ Technologies in Energy Sector

The Associated Press examined the viability of the green technology industry and found that venture capitalists now are backing the sector fully. Wrote the AP: "North American venture capitalists invested more than $1.6 billion in clean-tech companies last year, a 35 percent increase over 2004, according to a report by the Cleantech Venture Network."

Network Senior VP Craig Cuddebach was quoted as saying: "It's a strong area for venture capital. It's no longer a choice between whether you will be clean or profitable."

Wrote the AP: "As prices of more traditional energy sources continue to rise, the global market for clean energy sources such as biofuels, hydrogen fuel cells and solar and wind energy rose to $40 billion last year, and is expected to increase to $167 billion by 2015, according to a report released last month by Clean Edge Inc., a Bay Area marketing firm."

The AP also reported that Vinod Khosla, a Kleiner Perkins associate who recently has launched a venture capital firm, "is financing a California ballot initiative that would increase taxes on oil companies to fund alternative energy."
Associated Press via the Contra Costa, Calif., Times , April 12."

No boom lasts forever, but now sounds like a very good time to get in on this boom and ride it for a couple of years. I'm no financial guru, for sure. But clean energy is good business, not the economy-buster that the oil companies and their bought-and-paid-for politicians have tried to tell us it would be.

EEI also reports that: "Grid-Connected Renewable-Powered Homes Gaining on Off-Grid Homes
Households utilizing renewable energy to supply electricity are no longer confined to the traditional off-grid homes, the USA Today reported today. Instead, while off-grid homes still account for a large share of the renewable energy-powered homes, more and more grid-connected homes also are adding solar or wind energy systems.

States are making such ventures more feasible, with 17 states now offering rebates on solar and wind energy system purchases, compared with just three in 2000. Wrote the newspaper: "Despite a hodgepodge of state laws, the trend points up a budding grass-roots movement to displace at least some of the nation's power generation from pollution-belching plants to small, clean neighborhood nodes. That eases strains on transmission lines."

Off-grid homes number 180,000, with the number rising 33 percent each year over the past decade. Wrote the newspaper: "These days, a growing number of off-gridders could link up fairly cheaply but prefer to be untethered for myriad reasons, including rising electricity rates, a desire to cut power plant pollution and concerns about blackouts or terrorism."
USA Today , April 13."

See above re: green energy and good business. Some smart young person is going to become THE contractor to go to for solar panels and other green remodeling in your state. She'll likely make a bundle.