Category: Opinion

December 21 2010

Liebreich: Clean Energy 2010 – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

By Michael Liebreich Chief Executive Bloomberg New Energy Finance This is the final Monthly Briefing of 2010, so it’s time to ask ourselves how the year will go down in history, and how that compares with our forecasts from the start of the year. 2010 will not go down as a vintage year for clean […]

November 26 2010

Liebreich: How to Conjure Up Progress on the $100bn Climate Challenge

By Michael Liebreich Chief Executive Bloomberg New Energy Finance Starting from Monday, the international Climate Change circus will descend on Cancún for the latest attempt at replacing the Kyoto Protocol, which is due to expire in 2012. Last year’s COP15 meeting in Copenhagen ended after two fractious weeks of protests and negotiations, with a document […]

October 28 2010

Liebreich: Power Struggles – The Growing Geopolitical Role of Electricity Markets

By Michael Liebreich Chief Executive Bloomberg New Energy Finance Between 1929 and 1933, in response to a vicious recession sparked by a credit bubble, European powers embarked on a rivalry which would see world trade collapse to nearly nothing within four years – creating the conditions which ultimately led to the outbreak of the Second […]

September 24 2010

Liebreich: The Perils of Protectionism

By Michael Liebreich Chief Executive Bloomberg New Energy Finance Take a Western world struggling to escape from recession and high unemployment. Add an industry which is growing rapidly but absorbing an increasing amount of government support. Sprinkle on some cut-price competition from an emerging economy, and what do you get? In our forecasts at the […]

September 24 2010

Liebreich: The Perils of Protectionism

By Michael Liebreich Chief Executive Bloomberg New Energy Finance Take a Western world struggling to escape from recession and high unemployment. Add an industry which is growing rapidly but absorbing an increasing amount of government support. Sprinkle on some cut-price competition from an emerging economy, and what do you get? In our forecasts at the start of the year, we identified protectionism as one of the key risks for the clean energy sector in 2010. And sure enough we are hearing a growing chorus of complaints around the world about unfair trade.

August 27 2010

McCrone: Watch the Debt Markets for Clues on the Next Twist for Clean Energy

By Angus McCrone Chief Editor Bloomberg New Energy Finance “It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it,” said Mr Spock. 2010 looks set to be a record year for clean energy investment, but not as we know it. At the start of the year, we predicted total new investment in clean energy in the […]

July 29 2010

Liebreich: The Real Story Behind China’s Lead Role in Clean Energy Investment in 2010

By Michael Liebreich Chief Executive Bloomberg New Energy Finance A month ago, we discussed in these pages Chinese solar equipment maker Yingli’s global sponsorship of the World Cup, putting it alongside the likes of Budweiser, Adidas and Sony along the touchlines during the tournament. Did Yingli’s $20-30m spend represent a bold long-term investment in the […]

June 28 2010

Liebreich: Deepwater Horizon – Fossil Fuel’s Chernobyl?

By Michael Liebreich Chief Executive Bloomberg New Energy Finance Three months ago, I described the Magnificent Seven decadal themes that we expect to propel clean energy’s progress between now and 2020. One of them was the occurrence of “Black Swans”: unpredictable game-changing events that will transform the energy investment landscape for countries and companies. At […]

May 27 2010

McCrone: Spain and Latin America Raise the Stakes on Feed-In Tariffs

By Angus McCrone Chief Editor Bloomberg New Energy Finance Sometimes it is more comfortable to be proved wrong than proved right. When we published analysis last summer warning that the feed-in tariff regimes in Germany, Italy and – particularly – Spain might prove an expensive way of achieving additional renewable energy capacity, we did so […]

April 26 2010

Liebreich: Strong Tailwinds, but Clean Energy Share Prices Remain Becalmed

By Michael Liebreich Chief Executive Bloomberg New Energy Finance Since the end of last year, the news flow in the clean energy sector has been predominantly positive, yet share prices have remained becalmed. Since the disappointment of the Copenhagen COP 15 meeting last year, the policy emphasis has continued to shift from carbon to renewable […]