Energy efficiency has investors seeing green
Nichola Groom
Reuters
Friday, February 01, 2008
Wall Street has piled billions into solar panels, wind farms and other alternatives to oil and gas, but many investors also see big opportunities in making better use of older, dirtier energy sources.
"Very few people will tell you that efficiency is a really green form of energy, but it's the greenest of all," said Kevin Landis, chief investment officer of San Jose, Calif.-based Firsthand Funds, which owns several energy efficiency stocks.
Energy efficiency companies may be top "green" initial public offerings this year due to growing corporate interest in efficiency programs.
Boosting efficiency could be the easiest, quickest way to reduce emissions of harmful greenhouse gasses, starting with the task of installing new metering hardware and usage control systems in every home and building, proponents say.
As U.S. energy consumption has skyrocketed in recent years, so-called demand response companies like Comverge Inc. and EnerNOC Inc. have helped utilities reduce peak demand, such as on hot summer days, when cranked-up air conditioners prompt utilities to bring their oldest coal-fired plants on line, or buy high-priced power on the open market.
Demand response companies have software that automatically adjusts an air conditioner's temperature or turns off a swimming pool pump when electricity supplies are tight. Customers are warned ahead of time about the changes with devices that broadcast signals from the utility.
Signal Hill alternative energy analyst Michael Carboy said energy efficiency companies will be among sought-after IPOs in 2008.
"The companies that are going to go public are not going to be those that are raising capital for yet another new energy source, but those that have products and services that focus on using energy more efficiently," said Carboy.
© The Calgary Herald 2008
