12/6/12, "So, how's your green energy stock doing?" Steve Goreham, Washington Times communities
"Is green energy a fad that has run its course? The investment community seems to think so.
RENIXX® World, the Renewable Energy Industrial Index of the world’s top green energy companies, hit an all-time low below 146 on November 21, down more than 90 percent from the December 2007 peak.
The RENIXX index was established in 2006. It’s composed of
the world’s 30 largest renewable energy companies with more than 50
percent of revenues coming from wind, solar, biofuel, or geothermal
energy, or the hydropower or fuel cell sector. The index includes
equipment producers, such wind turbine companies Vestas (Denmark),
Gamesa (Spain), and Suzlon (India), solar equipment companies such as
First Solar (USA), Suntech Power (China), and Sun Power (USA), and also
utilities such as Enel Green Power (Italy) and China Longyuan Power
Group. Of the 30 companies, 10 are headquartered in China, 10 in Europe,
and 7 in the US.During the heydays of 2007 and 2008, the RENIXX index was on a roll. Former Vice President Al Gore’s book An Inconvenient Truth reached number one on The New York Times best seller list in July, 2006. His documentary movie by the same name became a worldwide hit the same year. In December 2007, Mr. Gore shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The world was whipped into global warming frenzy.
Subsidies and mandates for green energy existed for many years, but during 2006—2008 governments redoubled the emphasis on renewables. California enacted the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2006....Illinois, Michigan, and other states passed or strengthened Renewable Portfolio Standards, requiring electrical utilities to buy an increasing percentage of renewables or pay fines. The European Union approved the Climate Action and Renewable Energy package in 2008, requiring increased renewable energy and biofuel use and tighter emissions restrictions.
Money poured into green energy stocks. Kevin Parker, Director of Global Asset Management at Deutsche Bank, talked about Mr. Gore and a green investment fund that the company created....“Within two months almost 10 billion dollars flowed into this fund. Can you imagine? 10 billion! There has never been such an overwhelming success.” The RENIXX index rocketed to over 1,900 in December of 2007.
But the subsidy-driven green energy wave soon hit a brick wall of fiscal reality. Spain paid solar operators up to ten times the rate for conventional electricity with a 20-year subsidy guarantee.... In 2009, Spain cut the subsidies and its solar market dropped by 80%.
In Germany, feed-in tariffs of eight times the market rate resulted in the installation of over one million roof-top solar systems by 2010. But the 20-year guarantee also produced a subsidy obligation of over $140 billion. German electricity rates climbed to the second highest in the world and continue to climb to pay for green energy....Germany cut feed-in subsidies three times in 2011 and announced a complete phase-out by 2017. Spain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other nations cut subsidies for wind, solar, and biofuels during the last three years....
Dozens of companies went bankrupt, such as German companies Solon and Solar Millennium, and US-based Solyndra."...
"Steve Goreham is Executive Director of the Climate Science Coalition of America and author of the new book The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism: Mankind and Climate Change Mania." via Tom Nelson, graph from Goreham, TWTC blogs
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