We Have a Passion for New Energy
Including new and renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, storage, distribution, combined heat & power (CHP), biofuels, anaerobic digestion, biomass, etc.
Clean energy has grown to be 12% of today’s global energy production. This is an accelerating process. The shift to sustainability is a huge improvement for everyone. Global warming and climate change have long attracted a growing and passionate audience. The unforeseen externalities of the use of coal, gas and oil have now become so overwhelming that they are impossible to ignore, and the CO2 released collects in the atmosphere and stays there for thousands of years. There have always been storms and bad weather but today the impact on the following has intensified: climate migration, sea level rise, wildfires, melting ice and glaciers, droughts, localized famines, shifting ecosystems, spreading warm weather diseases, coral bleaching, increasing temperatures, tornadoes, storms, hurricanes, cyclones, melting tundra and floods. In the past, none of the aforementioned mattered to the mainstream investor as long as the fossil fuels were cheaper than renewable energy. This is no longer the case. Costs are falling and there is still no sign they have bottomed. Coal and nuclear energy are diminishing in use, but the flow of ever-present oil has bubbled up to 96 million barrels per day. Gas usage is also stable to higher. Never before has so much CO2 been emitted into the atmosphere, making today the worst fossil climate impact in history.
Luckily, fixing this challenge is also one of the largest business opportunities in history.
Renewable energy and sustainable technologies are a major investment focus. There are critical investment opportunities where technological progress is frothing over and will contribute significantly to our quality of life. There is also accelerating growth in the pillars of renewable energy, solar and wind power that will carry investors forward for decades. Although nuclear fusion power is the holy grail of energy technology, there are many other avenues for energy investment outside traditional oil and gas. These include electricity storage where innovations in energy density and innovative materials such as graphene, cobalt and lithium, and essential components such as electrodes and electrolytes continue to be made. These advances will revolutionize intermittent renewable energy, solar and wind power as well as many other verticals such as automobiles, boats and aircraft as well as home automation. Autonomous everything and the internet of things will all be made better with storage. Mechanical methods of energy storage using gravity such as pumped hydro which represents 95% of global electricity storage today are also being improved.
Biofuels have had a bad initial start as ethanol fuel was initially hardly an improvement on emissions. Made from corn or sugarcane, bio-fuels brought immediate conflicting interests to bear. Farmers and engineers have improved food ethanol yields to the point where they now make a bigger difference to greenhouse gases. However, the key expected breakthrough here is access to the abundant sugars from cellulose. Globally, cellulose grows at 16,000 tons per second and is a major untapped resource that is carbon neutral and can replace oil. Luckily it is another area that is just about to make investment history. Nuclear innovation is also shaping up. 4th generation nuclear reactor designs can be safer, diminish the chance of proliferation, consume conventional “expended” fuel rods and bridge humanity to large scale emissions-free electricity generation. Of course, the holy grail, fusion power is also underway globally in over 30 different global programs, some private and some public. Investment potential can also be found in solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, storage, palletization, water purification, waste to energy and sustainable farming.
Innovations in these areas are not limited to energy production but also to many other verticals such as plastics, neutraceuticals, foods, drugs as well as energy. It is an exciting time. There are shorter development cycles and at any moment, new discovery can refresh our vision of a better world as well as effective wealth creation for investors.
