RENEWABLOG

Getting Going at GoingGreen

A whole crew of Schwartzers is here at GoingGreen, a dynamite show on cleantech (full disclosure, Schwartz is a sponsor). The speaking list is a who's who of leaders in the space,  from both the investment and company sides. We'll be filing posts throughout the next two days.

To paraphrase show head Tony Perkins, it's nice to be 3,000 miles away from Wall Street. Morgan Stanley has a big cleantech practice, and two of their senior foks, Michael Grimes and David Chen, laid the foundation for green investing. Insights include:

• In times of short-term market "volatility" (polite word for Wall Street exploding), long-term asset investing produces oversized returns. Cleantech fits this bill perfectly.
• While cleantech feels a lot like the dotcom boom (and bust), differences like 1) the fact that "end markets" are real (ie--we need to develop new energy sources), and 2) the "grid parity environment" will produce multiple winners in multiple sectors, bodes well for the market's future.
• There are three big factors in 2009 cleantech growth: 1) Need three or four good IPOs, 2) the next US president's green policies must help, and 3) credit markets need to stabilize.

Loads of impactful panels over the next two days, more to come...

Posted by Mike Farber on September 16, 2008 at 11:45 AM