News
BLOG - Cleantech beats economic slowdown
Climate Capital Network (http://www.climatecapital.net) - Madonna, Paul McCartney and Google are doing it and private equity has followed. Going green is cooler than ever, according to data published by researcher New Energy Finance. The clean energy sector received a record level of investment from venture capital and private equity firms this year following a surge of more than $5bn (€3.3bn) in the second quarter, according to the data. The combined global total of $8.4bn in the first half represented a 17% increase from the $7.2bn invested in the sector in the same period last year and a 65% increase from the same period in 2006.
Deal sizes have grown too. Investment bank Jefferies published its fifth cleantech review which found a significant increase in financing rounds of more than $100m in the US. In the second quarter this year, nine companies raised more than $1bn from private equity funds, smashing the previous record of $422m from the third quarter last year. Ethanol producer Osage Bioenergy raised the most with $300m.
BLOG - Fortis launches 400m Euro clean energy fund
Climate Capital Network (http://www.climatecapital.net) - Fortis Bank, the Benelux financial conglomerate has invested €50m into a private equity fund managed by recently acquired ABN Amro. The fund is trying to raise €400m and will invest in clean energy with a focus on wind energy. It will be managed by Joost Bergsma, a partner, who previously advised a number of European companies. Please go to Fortis for further information >>
BLOG - Wind turbines in underground trains?
Climate Capital Network (http://www.climatecapital.net) - Here is a theoretically smart invention. But would it be able to work in practice? A university student from Bournemouth University has come up with the idea of using a ring of wind turbines round the inside of the tunnel approach to a London Underground station to extract and harness some of the energy from slowing trains. He calculates that if each turbine was 250mm in diameter and had five blades, the 16m/s speed of the air being dragged along by the train would spin the turbine at 2,444 rpm. This would produce 150V at 15A or 2250W of power for the 20s that it would take each train to go past. Just four turbines would then produce 43.3 MJ per day.If you are interested to know more, please visit this site >>
BLOG - $258 billion/year if countries hedged their weather risks
Climate Capital Network™ (www.climatecapital.net) - an interesting study came out of WeatherBill.com, the weather derivatives startup headed by former Google executive David Friedberg. The study seeks to provide an intuitive and accurate ranking system for weather sensitivity in sixty-eight countries. Results show that countries with extreme temperature variations and high levels of mining and agricultural output are the most sensitive to the weather. Brazil is found to be the most weather sensitive country and Pakistan the least. The US is found to have the largest total weather sensitivity, estimated at $2.5 trillion, or 23 percent of the national economy. Estimates suggest that world output could grow by as much as $258 billion per year if these countries were to hedge their weather risk, roughly estimated to be $5.8 trillion.