"Green" is being over-hyped. Reality isn't keeping up with expectations.
Examples:
According to a post by Ragan Communications 95% of products have misleading labeling when it comes to being environmentally friendly. Talking and walking are two entirely different things.
Then there's Vestas Wind Systems. Their last earnings report was dismal and the stock took a big drop. Then this week they reported they're laying off 3-thousand workers. The company also predicts weak future demand. Why? No capital available to buy the systems, especially to build the infrastructure to get the power from where the wind is, to where the demand for power is.
Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports that "Solar panels at sports facilities generate more goodwill than power." Progressive Park in Cleveland has a $180,000 solar array that produced 29,000 kilowatt hours over the last three years. The facility itself consumes 17 MILLION kilowatt hours per year which according to BusinessWeek is enough to power 1500 American homes.
Recovering the initial investment on wind and solar is measured in decades. In most stock portfolios, it's the green stocks that are in the red. Green energy just isn't living up to ever increasing expectations spewed mainly by politicians but not the industries that produce them. That said green does and must have a future.
As I've posted here before, we're a very long time from realizing and benefiting from the potential of alternative energy like wind and solar. I hope I live long enough to see it all because it's where we need to be moving in the future.
In the meantime, the same politicos touting all things green need to remember we have existing resources in coal, gas and oil that will be needed to bridge the gap to the promised land.
We can, and need to have it both ways.
Brian Olson
Conversation Starters LLC
"We start the conversation about you"
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