BIGGIES GO AFTER NEW ENERGY

For better AND for worse, New Energy is now Big Business.

Investors put more toward renewable energy
Caroline Humer, June 19, 2007 (Reuters)

WHO
Private equity fund First Reserve (director Glenn Payne), General Electric's Energy Financial Services (Jim Burgoyne, managing director)
the trend is clear (click to enlarge)

WHAT
Renewable energies such as solar and wind are drawing investment dollars from giant investors previously interested more in oil and gas.

WHEN
Ongoing, getting bigger all every day

WHERE
Where Main Street meets Wall Street

WHY
- First Reserve: will put 10-15% of new $7.8 billion private equity fund toward renewable energy ($780 million - $1.17 billion). Examples: a 50 percent stake in Blue Source, a U.S.-based aggregator of greenhouse gas emission reduction offsets, a landfill waste company called Industrial Power Generating Corp., or Ingenco.
- GE: will double spending in renewables to $4 billion by 2010. Examples: a deal with French wind company Theolia, a stake in combined wind assets, construction of a solar power plant with SunPower Corp. unit PowerLight and Catavento SA in Serpa, Portugal.
- Key: deals big enough for such giant investors
1. double investment...2. double revenues...3...projected growth...their ad campaign is their business plan (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Payne: "Many of the renewables are now at the intersection of Main and Wall Streets. There is a significant Main Street appetite for renewables, and there is starting to be a size and order of magnitude that get the attention of folks such as us…"
- Burgoyne: "There are more people flooding into the space, both from a development standpoint and a capital standpoint…"