Renewable. Thing that provides you for lifetime something, perhaps at a cost, but once it is set, it gives you all you need in the long run. It seems the excitement about renewable energies (or other renewable things, after all) and companies that makes them is...either less quiet, or quite not there. And I must admit I don't understand a lot, since above all the environmental conditions that doesn't play much in the market, many goods are bound by the problem of the supply or so on, and renewable are exactly the independence, at least partly, of an human supply. It is basically unlimited, even if it requires maintenance, I agree. This is something that should interest investors, especially the long term one? But in the past years, I feel like there was more excitement about it, but now, it's hard to hear about them. Is there's a "rock star" renewable company? What happens?
There is no long term money to be made from selling renewable technology. Sure they will get a big payday in the beginning, but month after month, year after year, the powers that be will not profit from the sale of oil that drives our economy. What society needs is not in the best interest of big business. Big business wants us to be subservient, and be constantly paying for oil just to run the economy and the flow of cash to those who are in control. If everyone was given 1000 watt solar panels and a solar car tomorrow, the oil companies would be shaking in their boots, because they won't be collecting billions from citizens.
Siemens and GE both have huge business interests in renewable energy. There are plenty other companies that operate here too. Not sure why you don't hear as much about them as Exxon, BP or Shell ect perhaps because they don't have the size and market caps that the big oil companies do. There is going to be a tonne of cash waiting to be made in the energy industry though, as the push towards cleaner energy sources gets stronger and the technology gets better.
The thing is, a lot of people do math like this. Oil = energy. Energy = electricity. Oil = electricity. And following that. Cheap oil = cheap electricity. = less demand for renewables. In reality, less than 1% of the US oil consumption goes towards electricity production. And I'd imagine most countries to be exactly the same. So the price of oil really has nothing to do with sources of electricity. It's a big misconception and a big reason why people are not talking about renewables that much.
I agree. Very few power plants run on fuel oil. Fuel oil is used for small scale power plants and or in remote areas.
The truth is, it depends of which big company is behind which technology. I mean, now, it's not only little companies that gets involved inside the renewables. Big companies (like those quoted above, but there's also support from some government, US Department of Defense have a 3 gigawatts renewable capacity objective for 2025) are also behind renewables, much like there's big companies behind oil. The only thing is that the big companies behind oil are historical so have stronger feet than their renewable counterpart. But still, there's a market and it's still available. Also, renewable doesn't mean you don't have to pay. For example, with wind power, you still pay for each kWh, much like you pay for your gallon right now. Doesn't change much. I agree, many cash waits silently for renewable companies. But this silence is still intriguing. You're right about these market caps and so on. About the petroleum, you're right. Of the US production of electricity, it is exactly 1%, while coal stands for 39% of the energy production of the US. You also see 7% of renewables, mainly via the wind (4.4%). However, oil is used in plastic, airplanes, helicopters, trucks, cars and so on, so its influence is still quite there.
