Friday, 18 May 2012
The Global Renewable Energy Index is crashing
Oh dear. Read the whole lot here. And just remember this - in Australia, some unions have poured a lot of superannuation money into these money pits. If the Australian renewable sector goes the same way, a lot of union members are going to have their retirement funds hammered.
The RENIXX® (Renewable Energy Industrial Index) World is the first global stock index, which comprises the performance of the world´s 30 largest companies of the renewable energy industry whose weighting in the index is based on the market capitalization (free float).
Since 2008, the index has lost about 90% of its value. In the last month, the nosedive seems to be accelerating
Filed Bankruptcy:
Solyndra
Beacon Power
Ener1
Range Fuels
Solar Trust of America
Spectrawatt
Evergreen Solar
Eastern Energy
Unisolar
Bright Automotive
Olson’s Crop Service
Energy Conversion Devices
Sovello
Siag
Solon
Q-Cells
Mountain Plaza
Teetering on the Brink:
Abound Solar
A123 Systems
Brightsource Energy
Fisker Automotive
First Solar
Nevada Geothermal
SunPower
Nordex
The Bard Group
Amonix
NRG Energy
Alterra Power
Enel Green Power
Sunpower Corp
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4 comments:
In 1900 there were 200-300 US car companies with vaguely equal shares of a small hand crafted car market. By 1990 there were basically three left. Hate to break it to you but in that time the US car market grew tens of thousands of percent. Small boutique industries encourage small boutique industry players, as they grow into large industries most of Jose small companies fail, the survivors grow and are forced to become lean and efficient until a few big players remain. This is proof of industry evolution not industry decline.
"This is proof of industry evolution not industry decline."
Yes but these manufacturers were making cars, a product that people actually wanted. Unlike wind turbines and solar panels, products that governments must force people to pay for. Look at electric cars, they've been around since the 1920's and they disapeared because nobody bought them. Today there are two e-cars available, last year the total combined sales of the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt came to 20,000 units. That's nothing. Even the lowly Chevy Cruze sold 240,000 units. Its always the same thing with electric cars, people talk about buying e-cars, but nobody actually does. In a year or two, the Leaf and the Volt will be gone. The reason they will be gone is that the government does not force the public to pay for them, like wind and solar. These industries will eventually shrink back to nothing again.
cheers
If there were companies in the index that were growing, then they would be offsetting the companies that are declining or going out of business. It's possible to have an index where lots of companies are going broke, but the index is going up because a few big players are going gang busters. An index of US car manufacturers that started in say 1900 would show dramatic growth through to the 1970s thanks to the rise of GM, Ford and Chrysler - even as hundreds of their competitors were bought out or went under.
Clearly, that isn't happening. Think again. The index is crashing because every company in this sector is struggling or has gone belly up.
Everyone who invests money into superannuation funds has a right to expect that the Trustees of that fund will invest their money in sound, income producing (or capital gains) investments.
The Trustees of these funds are PRSONALLY liable for proper investment decisions, Trustee liability is NOT limited as is corporate liability.
If members of union superannuation funds were to find that their returns on investments were inadequate, or that capital had been lost due to shoddy investment decisions, the Trustees are PERSONALLY liable for these shortfalls. It is possible that we may see union fund trustees losing their family homes if fund members find they have not received the best of possible returns due to "ideological" investment decisions by their trustees.
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