Economics of Energy

If oil remains above 50 bucks a barrell, alternative energy investment will continue


Energy is a 6 Trillion Dollar world wide industry. 100 Billion invested worldwide in 2006 in renewable Energy. Wind and Solar are growing more than 30% a year. Global investment is predicted to go to 750 Billion over the next decade. To put in perspective, Exxon spent over 80 Billion between 02-06 on Oil,Gas exploration and refining, PTSW pg 3 in all big oil,big power and auto represent 15% of the US economy and employs 2.2 million. Over 2 billion people don't have access to affordable power. 700 billion invested in the US to this point and another 800 billion est till 2020 in nuclear, coal, electricity. ptsw Tar sands in US Canada are the size of FLA. The second largest to the Saudi's. Shift of Energy World will move from Houston.detroit to California and the North east. 124 renewable startups in Ca in 2006. 10 % of American VC investment in Renewables. Cleantech Capital Group thinks they will grow to 10 Billion in 2009 10 times what DOE spends. That model was based on two linked ideas: 1) energy was inexhaustible, inexpensive and benign; and 2) China could count on raising its living standards by forever being the world’s low-cost manufacturing workshop, based on cheap energy. (from a Tom Friedman article)

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, will need crude prices to remain above $49 a barrel to avoid a fiscal deficit