Editorial: Green alternatives attract big investors (Minn. Star Tribune)

[pinto]

Investors find profit potential in earth-friendlier enterprises.
Published: August 21, 2006

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but without investment most inventions might as well have never been born. So it's exciting to survey the rising tide of capital flowing toward renewable energy and other earth-friendly sectors, as noted recently by such publications as Business Week and Newsweek. Consider these indicators:

• Investment in clean-energy projects climbed 89 percent in the United States from 2004 to 2005 -- and 62 percent worldwide, for an estimated global total of $49 billion.

• Surging capital is not only bringing familiar technologies to the marketplace, it's encouraging development of alternatives to the alternatives -- like cheaper ways of making solar electricity and plant-based ethanol.

• Investment banks are not only steering clients toward green energy companies, some -- including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase -- are buying the companies for themselves.

• The list of famously shrewd business visionaries making major investments in green businesses includes Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Jeffrey Immelt, Richard Branson and L. John Doerr.

<more>

http://www.startribune.com/561/story/623191.html