![]() New Energy, which is funded partly by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, is close to completing a dry mill ethanol factory in Rensselaer, Indiana. But such criticisms haunt ethanol investors like New Energy Capital. Ethanol bashers contend that the grain alcohol requires more energy to make than it creates. Critics of solar photovoltaic cells predict the technology will only exacerbate the current worldwide shortage of silicon. In May, the Federal Aviation Administration, concerned about the effects of wind turbines on radar, placed a moratorium on the construction of new wind farms in the Midwest. So-called clean fuels (that is, fuels that do not release carbon dioxide into the air or those that come from renewable resources) are not entirely problem-free, either. (The former British Petroleum is now BP Plc, and brands itself as “Beyond Petroleum.”) Or, they could take their massive cash reserves and buy alternative-power technologies - and then let them wither. Big-oil companies could jump into the renewable-fuels business, pushing smaller players aside in the process. OPEC could flood the market with cheap oil. The wind-power industry has practically shut down every time the federal production tax credit has been left to expire.Ĭlean-fuel executives know they can’t avoid every risk. In 1973, the Arab oil embargo jump-started scores of alternative-fuel projects, many of which faded away when petroleum prices dropped. If clean fuels aren’t competitively priced, they won’t last.” “We’re past the crunchy-granola stage,” says Richard Baxter, senior technology analyst at Ardour Capital Investments LLC. That puts CFOs at alternative-energy companies squarely on the hot seat. And regardless of fears about global warming, clean fuels will not catch on unless they cost as little as fossil fuels. To obtain funding, CFOs at these outfits must convince lenders of the viability of often-exotic technologies - no easy sell. Securing capital remains difficult for new-fuel businesses, particularly those short on earnings. The switch from novelty to commodity is no sure thing, however. airline industry.) “Renewables are poised to grow,” insists Dan Goldman, CFO at clean-energy specialist New Energy Capital Corp., headquartered in Hanover, New Hampshire. ![]() (That’s more than the revenue currently generated by the U.S. All in, research and publishing firm CleanEdge predicts that by 2015, sales of clean fuels will hit $167 billion. Close to Las Vegas, Solargenix recently broke ground on a 64-megawatt solar thermal plant - the largest to be built in nearly 15 years. Commercial wind farms have cropped up in 34 states, with turbines dotting the rolling farmland near Walla Walla, Washington, and the marshes outside Atlantic City, New Jersey. is ramping up production of vehicles that can run on the high-octane home brew as well as gasoline. Nationwide, there are 101 ethanol mills, and another 40 are being constructed or expanded. The build-out of the clean-fuels industry has commenced in earnest. One company, natural- and organic-food retailer Whole Foods Market, now meets all of its electricity needs through wind power, a technology whose fuel source is free. Business leaders, too, are exploring ways to insulate their companies from price spikes. Legislators in several states, worried as much about potential power shortages as they are about the environment, have set aggressive targets for clean-fuel production of electricity. Indeed, the clean-energy industry (solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, hydrogen, fusion) has moved far beyond its early tree-hugger image. With fuel costs rocketing to the top of the worry list for CFOs (see By the Numbers), finance executives in the clean-fuel sector - once seen as a noble but foolhardy pursuit - now find themselves at the center of the action. Points came out of retirement to join Solargenix as finance chief in 2004. “I knew right then that this technology would work.” Points still recalls the eerie silence, punctuated only by the soft electronic whir of actuators moving giant mirrors 1/16th of an inch. But as the former McDevitt Street Bovis finance chief stood in the barren desert, out among the endless rows of sky-blue reflectors, he felt as though he had stepped into an alien world. Although Points had heard about solar electric-generating plants from his friend John Myles, CEO of Solargenix Energy, he hadn’t given the concept much thought. It was 2001, and the retired finance executive had booked a tour of Solel Corp.’s solar thermal power plant in the Mojave Desert. The first time Don Points visited Kramer Junction, California, he didn’t know what to expect. ![]()
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