First published in Cleantech magazine 2011 Issue 5. Copyright Cleantech Investor Ltd
Dear Reader
At the Euromoney Renewable Energy Finance Forum in London (REFF London) in September, I chaired the Crystal Ball Panel. The panelists included Vivek Mittal of Millennium Resource Strategies, Jamie Fergusson of the International Finance Corporation, Eriks Atvars from Unicredit Bank AG and Peter Hobson from the EBRD. Not surprisingly, in the current climate, the key topic discussed was the future of financing renewable energy. The predictions and conclusions were varied, but there was a clear consensus that we need innovation in financing structures for renewables.
Just two years ago I was myself one of the Crystal Ball panelists at REFF London 2009. Although the fallout from the credit crisis was evident, the most important topic of discussion on the panel then was technology development and which technologies – and technology companies – would be the most important in renewables. How times have changed.
In this issue of Cleantech magazine, we discuss a number of innovative policy level solutions for the financing of renewables and cleantech. Jonathan Johns, who chaired a panel entitled ‘Generating transactions – understanding investor appetites’ at REFF London this year, comments on the potential for encouraging high energy users to invest in renewables through ‘remote net metering’ which, he argues, would be a move towards the democratisation of power.
Companies such as Google and Ikea are actively investing in renewable energy projects. And in other clean technology segments, corporate venture activity is playing an increasingly important role and merger and acquisition activity is on the rise. With venture capital investors stretched for cash and increasingly conservative, the role of traditional industry in the financing of cleantech is increasingly important.
On page 31 we discuss the recent auctions in Brazil, which saw prices for wind energy fall below the price of energy from natural gas – and look at how the Brazilian Government has linked energy policy to industrial policy to promote the creation of a wind manufacturing industry in the country. Brazil’s auction system was the winner of the Landmark Renewable Energy Deal of the Year at the Renewable Energy Finance Awards held in conjunction with REFF London.
Our lead feature in this issue highlights some of the fallout from the collapse of Solyndra in the US, which has resulted in rising concern about the perceived threat from Chinese competition in the cleantech and renewables industries. Elsewhere, however, renewable energy companies and countries are looking to China for collaboration in – and potentially financing for – renewables. The feature on Sino-Irish (-British?) Wind looks at some possible implications of the collaboration between Mainstream Renewable Power and China’s Sinovel for the Irish wind energy market.
Anne McIvor
October 2011
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
