Category: Opinion

May 28 2009

Liebreich: The Risk is that the Next Cycle Could Be Another Roller-Coaster

By Michael Liebreich Chairman and CEO New Energy Finance Last month our chief editor Angus McCrone reported on the astonishing drop in investment activity in the clean energy sector in Q1 this year, and speculated on whether the stimulus funds being launched with so much fanfare around the world would help prevent 2009 being consigned […]

April 23 2009

McCrone: Will the Cavalry Come Over the Hill?

By Angus McCrone Chief Editor New Energy Finance So now we know how bad it is. The clean energy sector was in deep hibernation through the winter months, with investment levels sharply down in asset finance, venture capital and private equity, and – most dramatically of all – in the public markets. New Energy Finance’s […]

March 26 2009

Liebreich: Is It Right to Feel Optimistic, Pessimistic, or Even Both?

By Michael Liebreich Chairman & CEO New Energy Finance We were delighted to welcome so many of you to the second New Energy Finance Summit in London earlier this month. If there was one single over-riding question, it was whether or not it was justifiable to feel optimistic about the state of the world, and […]

February 19 2009

McCrone: Last Into Recession, but Can Clean Energy also Be the First Out?

By Angus McCrone Chief Editor New Energy Finance Is the clean energy sector in recession? There is no doubt that much of the rest of the world economy is – every day seems to bring grimmer and grimmer figures, one of the latest being that Japan’s economy contracted by an extraordinary 3.3% in the last […]

February 19 2009

McCrone: Last Into Recession, but Can Clean Energy also Be the First Out?

By Angus McCrone Chief Editor New Energy Finance Is the clean energy sector in recession? There is no doubt that much of the rest of the world economy is – every day seems to bring grimmer and grimmer figures, one of the latest being that Japan’s economy contracted by an extraordinary 3.3% in the last […]

January 22 2009

Liebreich: New Energy Finance Sees Year of Consolidation for Clean Energy in 2009

By Michael Liebreich Chairman & CEO New Energy Finance With Barack Obama now firmly installed in the White House – after a historic US election that felt like it lasted decades – we can now declare that 2009 has truly begun. This is the time of year when we go out on a limb and […]

December 18 2008

Liebreich: Our Crystal Ball Foresaw Aspects of 2008 – But Not Their Severity

By Michael Liebreich Chairman & CEO New Energy Finance So 2008 finally draws to a close – an “annus horribilis” if ever there was one. We have seen with shattering clarity the end of a long period of general economic growth optimism; in the clean energy sector we have seen the end of an extraordinary […]

November 20 2008

Liebreich: Reasons to be Fearful, Reasons to be Cheerful

By Michael Liebreich Chairman & CEO New Energy Finance Project developers are finding it much more difficult to get debt finance. Ambitious companies are having to shelve plans to go public. Large corporations are trimming back some of their ambitions in renewable energy. Clean energy share prices have fallen by more than 50%. The price […]

October 30 2008

Liebreich: Taking Stock of Clean Energy After October Storm

By Michael Liebreich Chairman & CEO New Energy Finance “April is the cruellest month”, claims the famous opening line of TS Eliot’s Wasteland. Maybe for poets, but not for investors: October 1907, October 1929, October 1987, October 2008. As I write this, the NEX index of leading clean energy stocks is down two thirds from […]

September 29 2008

Liebreich: Time to Plot a New Future for Policy on Clean Energy

By Michael Liebreich Chairman & CEO New Energy Finance The clean energy sector has had a tremendous few years, with investment volume soaring nearly five times between 2004 and 2007, but new challenges mean that the next decade of development is likely to look very different. This makes it essential that we use this moment […]