Those of you interested in green investments might like to know that I have just launched a new venture, www.solarclubs.com, which is a group buying website for domestic solar photovoltaic (pv) panels. As you may know, the government's current feed-in-tariff payments of 43.3p per kWh are extremely generous and will provide you with approximately 10% return on your investment in solar pv.
We now have solar clubs operating in East Sussex, West Kent, and Brighton & Lewes, offering around 20% discount on list prices for domestic installations.
We are also a portal for independent solar clubs run by green groups in places such as Wantage, Barnet and Reading.
Check it out now at www.solarclubs.com

Anybody want to buy a wind turbine in the Caribbean?

Paradise Bay Resort was the first hotel in the world that placed a utilitiy grade (80 kW) wind turbine on their premises. The hotel opened at the end of 2007 after facing big damages after hurricane Ivan. 9 months after opening the recession started , causing prolongued opening losses. Now, the hotel is preparing to upgrade the resort to 4* and offers the wind turbine for sale to finance this operation. The price of the wind turbine is 171,000$ and has an annual yield -guaranteed to be taken by the utility- of 17,100$. This is not just a good business opportunity but also helps an ECO resort that had a bad start.

For more info: jamesgrenada@gmail.com
James Post, Paradise Bay, La Tante, St. David Grenada, Westindies
tel. ++1-473-405-8888

Green Bonds from Ecotricity

Where in the market can you find a totally green and ethical investment paying a guaranteed 7%? Not many places, is the answer, until the recent offering by Ecotricity, which is proposing a series of EcoBonds to help finance the development of 12 new wind farms.

The fixed rate bonds, which will have an initial 4 year term, are open to UK-based individuals, companies, trusts, charities and other legal entities and are subject to a minimum £500 investment (existing Ecotricity customers get an extra bonus, with an annual interest rate of 7.5%).

Ecotricity supplies green energy to over 42,000 customers from 51 wind trubines at 15 wind parks across the UK. The company has also recently submitted plans for its first large-scale solar farm, based next to its existing windpark in Lincolnshire, which will be the UK’s first combined wind and solar energy park.

Ecotricity has plans to build more than 1,000 MW of green electricity generation capacity and supply more than 500,000 customers within the next 10 years. It also intends to increase its investment in other green energy technologies, including solar and green gas made from organic waste. Ecotricity already has planning consent for a further 12 windmills with 78 more at various stages in the planning process, which together would almost treble Ecotricity’s electricity generation capacity over the next few years.

For more information visit www.ecotricity.co.uk/ecobonds

Great Amazon review!

I'm delighted with the first review of The Green Investing Handbook on Amazon, written by an investment specialist from Richmond:

"I've read several books covering investment in this area. Unsurprisingly many bleat on and on about the positives, largely preaching to the converted, as well as doing so in what amounts to a very naive point of view for any professional investor or financier. This book is a very welcome antidote to all that rubbish: it's fabulously up to date and speaks with an intimacy with financial markets and their players that is missing elsewhere and yet is essential if one is seriously researching renewables. I'm giving it a rare 5 stars because it does exactly what is says on the tin, so to speak, which so many books like this simply don't do. Highly recommended to finance professionals. Congratulations to the author".

Vestas - time to buy?

Shares in Danish turbine manufacturer Vestas have nosedived by around 20% following last week’s disappointing results, where it was revealed that the company generated second-quarter revenues of €1,007 million (£825 million), a drop of 17% relative to the second quarter of 2009. Vestas said the drop was expected due to the credit crisis, and gave positive news with order intakes reaching a record level of 3031 MW in the quaurter, which is not only the highest level ever recorded but equals the entire order intake for 2009.

My view is that the sell-off has been over-done, and given the company’s prospects this is a good time to snap up some shares. The Vestas board seem to agree, having given their backing to the company following the price fall by splashing out DKK3.95million (£435,741) on shares.

Andreas Schreyer at The Green Investor in the US is also bullish on this stock: “Vestas has weathered the storm better than many wind companies and comes out of it in a much stronger position, with its capacity intact and well positioned geographically”, he comments. “Within a couple of quarters, the company will most likely be announcing record revenue and profitability, and by all of our measurements, the company is now extremely undervalued. A steal really, and with very little downside risk.”

Disclosure: C F Hanna Ltd has holdings in Vestas.

The big oil companies are getting desparate as their profits plunge and they're forced to spend billions in extraction costs as yields from oil fields fall. Now Shell has announced a plan to build a fleet of floating natural gas plants, each weighing 6,000 tonnes and costing up to $6 billion. The plan is to sail the vessels to 'environmentally-sensitive' areas or far out to sea, and pump out the gas before superchilling it to liquid form for transport. It sounds entirely reasonable until you think about the sort of mindset which this represents. This was perfectly exemplified by Shell's VP for Upstream operations, John Chadwick, who's pushing this baby. "This way we can drain one field and move onto the next", he told the Sunday Times. It's the old, old story - and they still don't get it. Just drain one field and move onto the next, until all the gas runs out too. Another shocking fact in the same article was that Shell spent $30 billion on exploration and production last year alone - imagine where that company could be headed if they'd spent that on renewables research.

IRENA goes to Masdar City

The new International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is to be located in Masdar City, the world's first zero-carbon city which is currently taking shape in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This will no doubt be a great bonus for Masdar City – it’s a natural choice, given its eco-credentials – however you have to wonder about all the horse-trading that went on behind the scenes. The Germans were pushing for Bonn to be the IRENA headquarters, and had put their weight behind the Danish renewable-energy expert Hans Jørgen Koch to head the new group. Instead, the French candidate, Hélène Pelosse, was chosen as the new head of the emerging agency. But guess what? France only decided to vote for Abu Dhabi after “inking a multi-billion dollar nuclear-power deal with the emirate”, according to Rechargenews.com. So now the suspicion is that the French will be pushing for nuclear power to be included in IRENA’s policy framework. As that well-known French saying goes, “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose…..(‘the more things change, the more they stay the same”).