What is clean energy?
Clean energy really falls into four camps: energy generation, energy savings, energy storage, and energy management (on a ‘smart grid’). Clean energy generation produces no net carbon footprint at its source. All net energy savings are clean, no matter what the source. Energy storage ultimately helps save energy by storing excess energy and delivering it when needed later. Energy management augments generation and consumption with intelligent systems.
Which energy generation methods are clean?
Some types of clean energy generation include wind, solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, geothermal, some types of bio-fuels, and fossil fuels that can sequester carbon as they are combusted.
What are ways to achieve energy savings?
Energy savings come in many forms, and are simply a matter of doing things more efficiently than they have been done in the past. For instance, LED lighting that uses only 20% of the energy of conventional lighting is 80% “nega-energy” and all nega-energy is clean energy. Carpooling, walking or riding bikes in lieu of driving a petro-fueled car also creates nega-energy.
Is now the time to start investing in clean energy?
Clean energy is the future of energy. We didn’t run out of stones at the end of the Stone Age, nor will we run out of oil at the end of the age of fossil fuels. Not all current clean energy technologies will survive the rapid innovation cycles over the next decade. Investors contemplating clean technology investments must be knowledgeable about the entire spectrum of energy and technology in order to gain upside in their investment choices. Blindly investing in clean technology is risky, therefore, the best way to gain insight into the business is to experience it yourself. Put solar panels up, visit wind farms, talk to people in the field, and read, read, read.
How Can We Be Sure Clean Energy is a Safe Investment?
The momentum of clean energy technology is as assured as our adoption of personal computers and the Internet has been over the past few decades. Investing in the Internet just 10 years ago would have yielded far better returns than investing in newspapers. Similarly, investing in clean tech now will be much safer in the long run than investing in fossil fuels. Just like the Internet transformed communication, we might say that an “Ener-net” is transforming energy generation, transmission, and consumption. This transformation in our energy infrastructure from molecules (coal, oil, gas) to electrons (solar, electric, fusion) is very similar to the transformation from newspapers to the Internet. So, clean energy is a good investment idea overall, but of course there will be winners and losers along the way.
Which product categories do you invest in?
Solar panels, wind turbines, waste to energy plants, pollution control equipment, electric motors, and electric vehicles.
Do you invest in private companies?
Not usually. Most of our investments are liquid, publicly traded companies on US exchanges. If we do make a private investment then we choose companies that have a high probability of undertaking a liquidity event in 24 to 36 months.
