global geothermal news - january

Lending woes push alternative energy to back burner
By KRISTEN HAYS Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Jan. 1, 2009, 10:20PM
Never mind the fall in oil prices. It’s the credit crunch that has siphoned momentum from alternative and renewable energy.

Analysts say many capital-intensive new projects or expansions of established ones are pretty much on ice until access to money loosens up.

“All of the factors that were pushing for more investment into the sector have disappeared: oil, gas, coal, and by extension, electricity prices, are lower.

But the sector remains politically popular. President-elect Barack Obama touts a plan to invest $150 billion over a decade and create 5  million jobs. He also favors a mechanism to cap greenhouse gas emissions and let polluters deal in permits to emit carbon dioxide, known as cap-and-trade.

A recent Merrill Lynch report said “cleantech” — including solar, wind, geothermal and biofuels — appears inevitable given the Paris-based International Energy Agency’s forecast that the equivalent of four new Saudi Arabias must come on line by 2030 “just to offset expected declines in oil production from current fields.”

The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that renewables will fuel 12.5  percent of all U.S. electricity generation by 2030, up from 8.4 percent in 2007. Electricity producers consumed more than half of all renewable energy in the U.S. in 2007, the EIA said.

The Merrill report said venture capital funding cycles start with initial money to address technology risks and a second round funds prototypes. A third round supports production, and a fourth round typically lets the startup increase volume that leads to an exit toward an initial public offering or a merger.