Despite the worldwide recession, total venture capital and private equity investment in clean energy went up 24 percent in the first quarter of 2010, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “We continue to anticipate $180 to $200 billion in new investment in clean energy this year,” said Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Hudson Clean Energy Partners, a billion-dollar private-equity firm based in Teaneck, exclusively invests in clean energy. Energy Capital Partners, a Short Hills private-equity firm focused on fossil fuel and renewable power, has a $2.25 billion fund with significant clean energy investments.
Denham Capital Management, another Short Hills-based private-equity firm, has $4.3 billion under management, with more than 20 percent of its two most recent funds dedicated to clean and renewable energy. Ridgewood Capital, a $2.6 billion energy-focused private-equity firm with offices in Montvale, also has a dedicated renewable-energy subsidiary.
So far in 2010, the pace of clean energy investment has been strong, said Jason Rissanen, an audit partner for Deloitte in San Jose.
According to John Doer, “Green technologies - going green - is bigger than the Internet. It could be the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century.”
More than three-quarters of private equity executives polled at a recent conference by KPMG said they planned to invest in renewable energy of some sort within the next year, with on-shore wind being the most popular technology, followed by off-shore wind and energy from waste.
Despite the global economic slump, total clean-energy investment last year grew 5% to $155 billion. For the first time ever, investment in clean power generation outpaced investment in traditional energy sources: $140 billion for wind, solar, and the like compared with $110 billion for traditional power sources, according to a new report prepared by New Energy Finance for the United Nations’ Environmental Program.
Still, even as policy in the U.S. lags, other countries are leaping forward. That’s the topic of one of DB Climate Advisors’ most recent reports, called The Green Economy: The Race Is On. “The U.S. is falling behind,” the researchers write. “This can be seen through renewable energy capacity growth and capital investment relative to the economy.” Successful government policy needs TLC, the report says–meaning Transparency, Longevity and Certainty. China and Germany are both outpacing the U.S. in that regard and in 2009, China and Brazil clean energy investment was about three times greater than that in the U.S. as a percentage of GDP.
