When searching for alternatives to Big Oil alternative energy investment in wind power may be the way to go.
Photo:Danny McL’s, Creative Commons, Flickr
Wind power offers one of the best possible alternative energy investments. Unlike some alternative energy technologies and ideas, producing wind power has been tested; it's a proven technology. There's always room for improvement, but that is more likely to be made when a strong base is involved. Another reason you might consider investing in wind power is that other state and local governments are investing and they are unlikely to pull out anytime soon.
The possible problems you might run into? Grid stability may not be able to handle the power, leading to bottlenecks in transmission. This could slow down the growth of wind power, at least until electric grids catch up and moratoriums in places like Alberta, Canada are lifted. But even with all that, suppliers of wind power, and companies that offer the technologies and products (such as carbon fiber and wind turbines — Owens Cornings (OC) supplies these) that make wind power work, are doing fairly well.
Wind installations are going in across this country, and companies like EDP (ELCPF.PK) and Iberdrola (IBDRF.PK) are emerging as international leaders. It is even possible to hedge your wind power bets by investing in companies that invest in wind power and other alternative energy. News Corp. (NWS) is investing in hyrdoelectric power in Scotland, and even some Big Oil companies like Chevron (CVX) and BP (BP) are investing in alternative energy. These are solid companies with the potential for growth, and alternative energy is playing a part in that.
Here are some interesting statistics from a summary of a study put out by Emerging Energy Research (you have to pay if you want the full study):
- By 2015, the wind power market in the U.S. is expected to grow to 49,000 MW from last year's 11,000 MW.
- The U.S. is exepcted to have the largest wind market (19% of installed global wind capacity) by 2015.
- From 2007-2015, more than $65 billion is expected to go into investing in new U.S. wind capacity.
- 53% of the market growth between now and 2015 is expected in New York, Minnesota, Colorado, Texas, Washington and California (so consider regional investments).
Disclosure: BP is the only company of those mentioned above that I am investing in.