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Renewables A Good Bet, Minus Ethanol - Fund Mgr
By Mr Ethanol | April 1, 2008
CattleNetwork.com:
Renewable energy is still a good investment for private equity, but high corn prices have taken investors’ eyes off ethanol, said Scott Brown, chief executive of New Energy Capital.
New Energy Capital is a holding company that acquires minority or majority stakes in renewable energy companies.
“Any kind of renewable that generates energy, especially wind and solar power, are experiencing billions of dollars in new investments,” Brown told Dow Jones Newswires in a telephone interview.
“We’ll probably be investing $10 million each in three different projects over the next six months, our biggest investment in the sector yet,” he said, without saying in which renewable energy NEC would be investing.
Over recent weeks, large energy companies have announced billion-dollar investment projects in renewable energy, but none for corn-based ethanol, which is the primary renewable fuel in the U.S.
Last Thursday, Southern California Edison announced it would be investing around $875 million in solar power, by placing 250 megawatts of advanced photovoltaic generating technology on 65 million square feet of rooftops in southern California, SCE said.
Also, global energy giant AES announced on March 25 that it was joining forces with private equity firm Riverstone Holdings to invest nearly $1 billion in solar energy projects worldwide.
Since 2005, just before U.S. President George W. Bush declared the U.S. should turn corn into ethanol to mix with traditional gasoline, NEC had holdings in three ethanol companies.
But now, as far the renewable energy market goes, ethanol has gone out of favor for investors, Brown said.
“If you’re an ethanol company today, you just cannot secure private finance for anything,” he said.
Topics: Biofuel, Energy, Ethanol, Trends |
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