New Energy World Network: Connecting Investors, Innovators & Deal-Makers worldwide
New Energy World Network: Connecting Investors, Innovators & Deal-Makers worldwide
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Anders Jansson, CEO of Minesto, shares his views on why marine energy is ‘the best of the best’ and says new technology that can harvest energy from low velocity ocean and tidal currents can multiply the sector’s potential. 
World smart grid sales climbed to $36.5bn in 2012 a growth of 30 per cent on 2011 and M&A activity reached $19.5bn almost doubling the value of deals in the previous year, according to memoori’s latest report. This confirms that solid progress has been made in the last three years but other findings show that all is not well. 
World smart grid sales at installed prices climbed to $36.5bn in 2012 a growth of 30 per cent on 2011 and M&A activity reached $19.5bn almost doubling the value of deals in the previous year, according to the latest report from sector specialist Memoori. 
As the roll-out of smart meters takes place across Europe, governments have to make a decision on the primary communication technologies that will be used to connect the meters to utility companies. The choice of infrastructure will have significant short and long-term effects on the cost, efficiency and carbon footprint of the smart grid and its ability to deliver enhanced customer value. Nick Kamen, head of energy and utilities sector, with Vodafone, discusses the options being considered to facilitate smart meter connectivity. 
2012 was a seminal year for three industries that share some fast moving technologies and vertical markets, Electronic Security, Energy Management and the emerging Smart Grid, writes Allan McHale, author of smart grid blog Memoori. 
It takes outside-the-box thinking to outsmart the solar spectrum and set a world record for solar cell efficiency. The solar spectrum has boundaries and immutable rules. No matter how much solar cell manufacturers want to bend those rules, they can't. Bill Scanlon from US National Renewable Energy Laboratory asks, how can we make a solar cell that has a higher efficiency than the rules allow? 
Development needs data: water security, oceans governance and food security need data, information, knowledge, networks and imagination to shift power in the public interest, according to James Cameron, chairman of Climate Change Capital, who shares his perspective on climate change. 
Climate chaos, natural resource scarcity, demographic changes and macro economic burdens are challenging governments, especially urban areas, to deal with massive infrastructure issues, writes Ben Goldsmith, partner at WHEB Partners. 
Investing in agriculture is about funding the innovation required to meet soaring demand for food, says Jürgen Siemer, senior analyst at SAM Group. 
‘Greed’, said Gordon Gekko, the villainous investment banker played by Michael Douglas in the 1987 film Wall Street, ‘is good’. He went on: ‘it clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.’ With companies that actively work to reduce their environmental impact making more money, it seems sustainability and greed go hand-in-hand, writes Andrew Ure, managing director of OgilvyEarth. 
In order to tackle climate change, governments will need to leverage a share of the $117tr of assets managed by private investors. However, various barriers and risks have prevented private sector capital for climate change mitigation projects to flow at the scale required, writes Steven Gray, head of UN and international policy, carbon finance, and Nicholas Tatrallyay, senior analyst at Climate Change Capital. 
Australia’s Clean Energy Bill and Carbon Tax have been controversial, but measures are in place to avoid predicted job losses, says sustainable recruitment consultancy Allen & York. 
In early June, the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) published the results of smart-meter field trials, concluding that ‘in some cases there was little effect on home comfort, as actions focused on unnecessary consumption, while in others the effect was noticeable – for example, a colder and darker home’. This reveals a stark truth: smart meters do not, in themselves, provide a value proposition to consumers, writes Ian Rose, professional services director at PassivSystems. 
Offshore wind is a source of great potential for investment over the next ten years. Many countries expect wind power to account for a large share of their renewable-energy investment to meet energy and climate goals - but offshore wind technology is not cheap. Terry Pratt and Jose Abos, credit analysts at Standard & Poor's, discuss the challenges of financing offshore wind projects across Europe. 
The issuance of ‘green bonds’ may pave the way for increased private investment, but investors must be made aware of exactly what the risks are, says ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on its return from the Rio+20 Summit. 
The literal meaning of the expression The King is Dead – Long Live the King' is that the king has died, and it is hoped that the new king will live a long time. But the reasoning for the statement goes deeper. Reflecting on what has happened in the smart grid business over the last two years this expression does strike a chord, writes sector specialist Memoori. 
As a new report is released that shows pension funds alone could contribute $301bn to the green economy, there are new calls for a minimum level of asset allocation to be placed into low carbon investments. 
The question of which energy technologies generate the most greenhouse-gas emissions — cradle to grave — now has a more precise answer, thanks to a meta-analysis of life cycle assessment studies done by the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. 
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) will have a broad agenda: poverty reduction and economic growth, climate and clean energy, food security and sustainable agriculture, water, healthy seas and oceans, biodiversity, healthy forests and ecosystem services. The hope is to be able tackle the different agenda items together in a holistic way, writes Rupert Edwards, head of strategic development at Climate Change Capital. 
A real opportunity exists in developing businesses that integrate the smart grid with smart buildings, writes sector specialist Memoori. 
