The solar sector captured most venture capital and private equity investments, with young solar companies in the US attracting $702 million in 2007 compared with $181 million in 2006.

Despite the global credit crunch in 2007, new investment in clean energy industries like wind and solar power rose sharply to break through the $100 billion barrier for the first time, a research group, New Energy Finance, said .
According to International Herald Tribune, Michael Liebreich, chief executive of the group, which is based in London, said investments had risen 35 percent to reach $117.2 billion in 2007, from $86.5 billion the year before.
The sector had performed well because important factors that drive investment in clean energy, like fears about dwindling supplies of traditional sources of energy, remained strong even as financial markets plunged into turmoil amid the crisis over subprime mortgages in the United States in the second half of the year.
Liebreich said a “wave of liquidity washing through the sector shows no signs of abating,“ adding that significant technological strides were taking place in areas like wind, solar, biomass and energy efficiency.
Even so, Liebreich warned investors to be careful to identify technologies and business models that were good bets.
“Inevitably, there are sectors where investors’ excitement is running ahead of what can be delivered,“ Liebreich said. “There will also be volatility, as in any growth sector where valuations are driven more by expectation than by proven historical cash flows.“
The study issued was the fourth of its kind by New Energy Finance. Comparable figures for clean energy investment in 2005 and 2004 were $54.6 billion and $28.6 billion, respectively. Wind power accounted for $24.8 billion, or nearly half of all new investments in projects in 2007, with many of these initiatives concentrated in Asia.
New investment in projects that involve deriving energy from biomass and waste grew by 51 percent to $7.1 billion. As in the case of wind, most of the surge in biomass took place in China.
Another large chunk of new investment, $14.5 billion, went to biofuels, even though the ethanol industry had stalled in the United States and many producers there had dropped their expansion plans. Instead, investments in biofuels were strongly buoyed by a shift in focus to Brazil.
The solar sector captured most venture capital and private equity investments, with young solar companies in the United States attracting $702 million in 2007 compared with $181 million in 2006.
In Europe, where the solar industry is comparatively mature, investment of early-stage venture capital totaled a comparatively meager $59 million.
Early stage venture investment in energy efficiency companies more than doubled in both North America and Europe to $316 million and $96 million respectively.
Money raised by clean energy companies on stock markets rose by a whopping 80 percent compared with 2006 - but much of that increase was due to the flotation by the giant Spanish utility Iberdrola of its renewable energy arm, Iberdrola Renovables.
That deal raised $6.6 billion, or six times more than the previous record. Stripping out the Iberdrola deal, new investment raised on stock markets grew just 17 percent.

Buildings guzzle a large part of the energy pie and also emit substantial greenhouse gases. Technology is addressing how to turn them green, finds out Jayalakshmi K.
Hotels, especially the starred varieties, are big guzzlers of energy and water, perhaps the biggest. Each room consumes on an average 110 units per occupant per day and 150 liters of water! At present, in India, there are about 10,000 rooms in the four and five star hotels. This number is poised to double by the Commonwealth games in 2010, Deccanherald.com reported.
It goes without saying that an energy-starved nation where many do not have access to electricity has to do something about the wasteful use of energy.
Much can be done but it will have to start with regulations made compulsory.
Architects and designers need to be given a mandate to reduce this energy budget. Much can be done, feel experts, by introducing control systems, individual metering, use of renewable energy, etc.
There is a Rs 15,000 crore potential for green building materials by 2010 by when there will be around 1,000 green buildings in India, comprising 4-5 per cent of the total building sector. (Now there are nine which are Leed certified and 80 ongoing projects registered under Leed.)
While the hesitation is still about initial capital costs which are about 4-6 percent higher for green buildings, this is expected to come down as the market and supply get better. But consider how green buildings can cut greenhouse emissions by 40 percent, it makes sense to invest in green technology.
There is need to invest in technology and building expertise. At Loughborough University, UK, research has been going on into looking at low carbon energy technology. Dr Dennis L Loveday, professor of building physics, who was in Bangalore recently, spoke on the various initiatives undertaken as also various studies.
In the UK, around 40 percent of emissions are from buildings and of this 70 percent comes from the domestic sector.
So this sector is very important. But while developing technology we need to keep the user in mind and offer an easily retrofittable technology. Good insulation is the starting point when considering the two key areas of space heating and water heating.
Insulation to reduce loss of heat is being addressed by research at Loveday’s university and elsewhere. Use of a kind of glass fiber that reduces heat loss, as also double glazed glass with a layer of vacuum in between has been found to be very effective but “we need some value engineering to be done to reduce cost.“
There is also work being done on solar PVs embedded into the system as also in the architecture. An interesting work is on fuel cells for energy requirements of buildings and Loveday’s university has delivered 1 MW power from fuel cells.
In the UK there is a proposal to make all buildings zero carbon by 2016. Does the professor believe it is possible?
He clarifies that this could mean the new buildings as “working on structures already built is a bit more difficult and costly“ but there are examples already of such zero emission townships. Like at Sutton, London where there is the Beddington zero energy project that does not add any carbon to the atmosphere by a combination of technologies, design and renewable energy use!
Loveday believes that the role of occupants is important. With smart metering to give user information on the use of electricity they use with each gadget, the user can know how to use energy sparingly.
Bi-generation where fuel is used to generate electricity and the waste heat used for space or water heating, tri generation where the same heat is used for cooling are some other areas of work.
Heat pumps are another solution picking up. Heat can be picked up from air or water or land and the low grade heat upgraded to give a high coefficient of perform.
“For each kw of electricity you can have the equivalent of four kws! But we need to make it more adaptable for domestic use now,“ says Loveday.
Heat pumps basically work the same way as a refrigerator does in taking away heat from the surrounding and delivering it elsewhere.
Design of homes can also reduce the heat/cooling load by using natural ventilation, orientation in right direction, etc. The university does work on thermal comfort using mannequins. One study looked at the thermal insulation afforded by the Arab clothing!
The other aspect of green buildings is the embodied energy aspect. This is the energy built into the material right from the source to use. Steel and aluminum have high embodied energy as also glass.
While most renewable energy sources are available at the site, use of biomass is often criticized as it has high embodied energy, beginning with its origin as a crop requiring water right up to transport from faraway places!

The world of wind has been substantially reshaped in the past three or four years.

At a time when most people choose to avoid the harsh winter winds that roar past corn stubble and whip up billowing dust clouds over table-flat fields, farmers in the Thumb of Michigan now talk about catching the wind and all the money that comes with it.
Michigan’s first commercial wind farm--a collection of 32 towering turbines that conjure visions of H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds“--is scheduled to begin operating in a few weeks, spurring for some a near-gold rush mentality in this sparsely populated area, Grandhaventribune.com reported.
Thousands of dollars in a guaranteed annual harvest come with each windmill placed on a farmer’s land, and that lure has gone a long way toward interrupting the horizontal sameness of vast corn and bean fields.
“I can’t wait till they get going,“ said Bob Webber, who turned over easement rights to a portion of his property in Huron County for a proposed second wind farm, with 42 turbines.
“I’m looking forward to seeing a lot more of them. ... This would be a big deal for me,“ Webber said.
For generations the tallest structures in the agricultural Midwest have been grain elevators, but the rapid growth of the wind-power industry is altering the landscape in states such as Iowa, which has about 960 turbines, and Minnesota, which has about 860 turbines, according to the American Wind Energy Association, a trade group.
Iowa and Minnesota rank third and fifth, respectively, in annual electrical power generated by wind (Illinois ranks 11th), and a utility executive in Detroit said he envisions the tip of Michigan’s Thumb planted with more than 1,000 wind turbines. The 32 Michigan turbines reach 400 feet from the base to the tip of the rotor blade and are projected to provide electricity to more than 15,000 homes served by Wolverine Power Cooperative, in western and northern Michigan.
Because of consistent wind speeds that buffet the Thumb, a region that juts into Lake Huron and Saginaw Bay, “Huron County is the sweet spot,“ said Trevor Lauer, vice president of retail marketing for DTE Energy Co. The Detroit-based electric utility has bought easement rights to 30,000 acres in the county, taking advantage of good winds and what appears to be a path of least citizen resistance.
“Agricultural land and wind play together very well,“ said Lauer, adding that wind power has “reached a tipping point. It’s no longer a question of if but when, and to what extent.“
Last month TPI Composites announced it will open a factory in Newton, Iowa, to build wind turbine blades. That will be the fifth turbine parts manufacturer that has set up operations in Iowa in the past two years, driven by a soaring national demand for turbines.
TPI is a leading developer and volume manufacturer of large-scale composite structures for the wind energy, transportation and military vehicle markets.
During the first nine months of last year, Texas, the nation’s leader in wind energy, installed nearly 600 turbines. An additional 136 were scheduled to be installed by the end of the year.
“The world of wind has been substantially reshaped in the past three or four years,“ said Randall Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association. “There’s a rush of capital into it.“
There is, of course, a wide chasm separating the dream of large-scale alternative power and the actual implementation of it. Energy transmission problems and political obstacles--namely resistance from people who find the turbines ugly or a Cuisinart-like threat to birds--loom large. Wind power accounts for a mere 1 percent of energy generation nationwide. And turbine proposals in resort and seaside areas such as Cape Cod have provoked loud protests. Federal tax credits are a vital lifeline to the industry.
But the investment in wind power is taking root in sparsely populated areas of the Midwest and across the country, due in large part to state mandates forcing utilities to generate a certain percentage of their electricity--say, 10 to 20 percent--from alternative sources. At least two other wind power ventures are under consideration in Huron County. Michigan’s entry into wind power is notable because this state, by virtue of its long marriage to the automobile industry, is perhaps the ultimate fossil fuel state.
State officials say the wind farm due to open around Jan. 1 will save Michigan residents $4 billion on power generation over the next 20 years.
“This makes a statement very clearly that we think renewables (energy) will be part of the future,“ said Craig Borr, executive vice president at Wolverine.
The more immediate beneficiaries of the gradual move to wind power are people like Bob Krohn, who owns about 1,500 acres near the town of Pigeon. Krohn spends most of his early mornings with longtime friends, downing coffee at a round Formica table at the Dutch Kettle, a keep-your-hat-on restaurant where the most expensive item on the menu is $5.85. The three turbines on Krohn’s property will earn him $18,000 to $30,000 a year, he said.
“We’re so used to seeing them now,“ said Krohn, whose turbines are among the 32 in the $90 million project developed by John Deere Wind Energy.