Our heart and deepest sympathy goes out to the Japanese people. Our report today looks at the near and longer term impact of the Japanese tragedy to the renewables industry.
Nuclear suddenly became more expensive as the cost of capital for any new plant has risen signifcantly and in Europe sentiment has swung clearly against nuclear and towards natural gas and renewables.
Japan is a major producer of components and technologies across the clean technology space. It is hard to fully comprehend the impact on value chains across the different areas, but already there have been disruptions of polysilicon plants, semiconductor wafer plants, as well as LED producers.
Solar is flexible and fast to install. It can take up to 10 years to build a 1GW nuclear power station. Germany installed 2GW of solar last June. We expect it to be a major beneficiary of the Japanese rebuilding program.
Renewable stocks across Europe are up strongly. It is clear that sentiment towards renewables has changed and we expect governments to phase out nuclear power stations and cut build programs and funds to be pushed towards renewable energy.
GSL Price at posting:
56.0¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
