Copied from Oilyman on General ASX ForumTed Turner Says Clean...

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ForumTed Turner Says Clean Energy Offers Reprise of Cable TV Success
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By Tina Seeley

April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Ted Turner says clean- energy technology is “the greatest business opportunity that the world has ever seen,” reminding him of cable television back when he founded CNN.

“The more windmills there are, the better, and the more solar panels,” Turner said in an interview. “The field is wide open. This is a startup, like cable TV was 40 years ago.”

Turner, the former vice chairman of Time Warner Inc., is the 376th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $1.9 billion, according to Forbes magazine. It has also called him the largest individual landholder in the U.S.

“I’m putting my money where my mouth is and I’ve made a multimillion investment in solar power,” Turner, 70, said in the interview in Washington on April 24. “I’m looking to make an investment in wind power as well.”

Turner said he has a “multimillion-dollar” stake in First Solar Inc., the world’s largest maker of thin-film solar power modules. In 2007, Turner sold DT Solar, a commercial solar- project installer, to First Solar for $34 million.

Lisa Morse, a spokeswoman for Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar, wasn’t available for comment. Phillip Evans, a spokesman for Turner, didn’t respond to an e-mail request for information about his holdings.

First Solar rose $3.96, or 2.8 percent, to $147.46 on April 24 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.

Solar Analysis

Turner said he may expand his solar investments. If he enters the wind business as well, he said that wouldn’t put him in competition with his friend T. Boone Pickens, chief executive officer of BP Capital LLC, because the field is so open.

Turner also has given money to George Washington University in Washington to support a new Institute for Analysis of Solar Energy. Barbara Tesner, assistant vice president of development for the university, declined to specify how much Turner donated.

Turner said “one big question mark” hanging over the alternative-energy industry is the climate change legislation Congress is currently working on.

“One reason we created this institute, they’re going to have, as I understand it, a government relations component, and we’re going to lobby for a strong energy bill that encourages the development of clean, renewable energy,” said Turner.

“It’s absolutely imperative that we immediately, as fast as we humanly can, within 10 years, phase out major fossil fuel sources and change them over to clean renewable energy,” he said.

Turner founded the Cable News Network in 1980. He is chairman of Turner Enterprises Inc., a closely held company based in Atlanta that manages his investments and land holdings, including more than 2 million acres in the U.S. and Argentina.