NewEnergyFinance.com defines Renewable Power and Clean Energy Sectors

What is New Energy?


At New Energy Finance we define the following 16 sectors as making up the clean energy industry:


Renewable Energy & Bioenergy Sectors

* 1. Biofuels


Liquid transportation fuels including biodiesel and bioethanol. These can be derived from a range of biomass sources, including sugar cane, rape seed (canola), soybean oil or cellulose. Our database excludes producers of base biomass, but includes suppliers of everything from the processing technologies and equipment, through the logistics of distribution, to manufacturers of energy systems which are specially adapted for the use of biofuels and products, and the services on which they depend.


* 2. Biomass, solid waste and biogas


Production and consumption of solid and gaseous fuels derived from biomass. Solid biomass for the energy sector can include a number of specially-grown crops, such as elephant grass or coppiced willow, but it can also consist of crop residues such as straw. We include in this sector processors of other waste matter for energy generation, such as sewage waste, chemical by-products and biogas produced from municipal waste, as their exploitation often involves the same technologies as grown-for-purpose biomass. Increasingly we are seeing developers, generators and utilities enter this sector.


* 3. Geothermal


Geothermal power has long played a part in the energy mix of countries with obvious geothermal resources, such as Iceland and Japan. Recent advances in two areas, however, mean that geothermal energy can play an increasing role worldwide: new drilling techniques allow users to tap into resources that had been too deep to access; and new ways of extracting useful power from lower temperature geothermal fields allow productive use of resources that could not have been used economically in the past.


* 4. Mini-Hydro (<50MW)


There may seem little new about hydroelectric power. Indeed at New Energy Finance we don't cover large-scale hydroelectric power projects. However, there are interesting developments in small-scale and low-head hydro power, and even very small scale hydro solutions. Hydro power is undergoing a renaissance and has a lot to contribute to the deployment of renewable energy globally.


* 5. Marine

The marine sector covers all technologies relating to extraction of energy from the sea. Possibilities include waves and tide, either via tidal barrages or tidal flow generators. Note that exploitation of marine biomass would be categorised in biomass, rather than in this sector.


* 6. Solar

The Solar sector covers all technologies that capture energy directly from the sun, either using a photo-voltaic (PV) material, or via a passive technology such as a concentrator or stirling engine. The solar energy sector is already substantial - cost reductions through new technologies or through increased manufacturing scale should see it breaking into new areas of energy demand over the coming decades.


* 7. Wind


Wind is the renewable technology that has had the biggest impact on our energy usage patterns over the past decade. The next decade will see continued activity, particularly in developing countries and offshore. The Wind Energy Sector includes components and sub-assemblies for wind turbines as well as manufacturers of turbines themselves. A big part of this sector, however, consists of the various developers, generators, utilities and engineering firms that have sprung up to exploit opportunities to build wind farms around the world.


Power Architecture Sectors

* 8. Generation Efficiency


This sector covers technologies that result in a step-change improvement in the generating efficiency or reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of existing power generation equipment. Important technologies in this sector include breakthroughs in motor or generator design, as well as software, sensor and control technologies which result in step-change improvement. This sector includes breakthrough CHP technologies (i.e. that are more than just relocating traditional generating equipment closer to heat users).


* 9. Smart Distribution


As sources of power supply become more variable (many renewable sources are intermittent), and the importance of reducing grid losses becomes higher with higher power costs, so the significance of improving power distribution will grow. This sector includes a number of technologies that target such improvement, from the forecasting of renewable resource availability, through software to balance supply and demand or find grid faults, to technology that allows peak shifting or intelligent meter reading.


* 10. Power storage


Many renewable energy and emerging energy technologies are either intermittent, or have response curves that are unable to follow the dynamic demands that will be put on them when deployed. Batteries and other energy storage technologies therefore become key enablers for any shift to these technologies. We call the sector power storage in order to underline the fact that hydrogen storage is in the Hydrogen sector, even though we include here mechanical technologies like flywheels that are straight potential replacements for batteries.


* 11. Energy Efficiency and Demand Reduction


Power efficiency and demand reduction approaches may not strictly be part of the renewable energy and energy technology industry, but they are highly relevant to investors in the space. Shifts in our sources of energy over the coming 20 years must be accompanied by wholesale improvement in our energy efficiency. This sector covers a range of technologies that reduce the use of energy in retail and commercial buildings, including advanced insulation, building components and intelligent systems for managing power consumption. It also includes technologies focused on reducing the use of energy in a wide variety of industrial processes.


* 12. Carbon Capture and Sequestration


Given the very substantial energy appetites of China, India and the US, and the substantial amounts of coal and natural gas available in those countries, it is highly unlikely that they will move rapidly enough to clean and renewable energy sources. One type of technology may allow us to continue using these fuels without adding to the emissions of CO2. Carbon capture and sequestration technologies involve the separation of CO2 from the exhaust stream from the burning of fossil fuels, and its long-term storage, either in depleted oil and gas fields, under the ocean or elsewhere.


Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Sectors

* 13. Hydrogen


The hydrogen sector covers everything from the production and storage of hydrogen, through its distribution and the various technologies and applications in which it can be used. Hydrogen is not, of course, a renewable fuel source - it is only a carrier of energy, in the same way electricity is not a source but a carrier of power. But if produced renewably hydrogen looks like a promising candidate to replace fossil fuels in transport as these are depleted, and governments and corporations are investing accordingly.


* 14. Fuel Cells


Many observers believe that fuel cells will lie at the heart of any post-fossil energy architecture. Although they have been around for 150 years and their performance is not in doubt, their high manufacturing costs and low reliability mean that they have yet to capture any mass markets. A large number of companies and research initiatives are hoping to change that over the coming decade. We draw a distinction between the hydrogen industry and the fuel cell sector: fuel cells can burn a variety of hydrocarbon fuels, and hydrogen can be used by other systems, such as internal combustion engines. There is, however, substantial crossover between the two sectors


Other Sectors

* 15. Carbon Markets


The ratification of the Kyoto Protocol gave a boost to the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS). Elsewhere in the world other carbon markets are emerging, whether as a result of regulation or for voluntary trading. The carbon market is not part of the clean energy industry, but will significantly influence its development. The main companies participating in the energy-relevant aspects of the carbon market are logged in this sector.


* 16. Services & Support

The rapid growth of the clean energy industry will require the development of a complete sector of service companies dedicated to serving the needs of technology and equipment suppliers, owners of renewable energy and biofuels assets, and so on. In this sector we put providers of information and research (such as ourselves), specialised clean energy financial services companies, consultants and the like.


In addition to these 16 sectors, which make up the clean energy industry itself, the New Energy Finance Desktop includes details of other active and important organisations of two types: the general financial services industry, and the Governments, NGOs and policy-makers.

There is, of course, a futher sector which could contribute very significantly to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions: nuclear power. We don't take an absolutist anti-nuclear position - in fact we believe that nuclear power deserves a place in the energy mix of most developed countries - but we don't consider nuclear power to fall within our remit. Whatever a country's position on nuclear power, the need to implement renewable energy and new technologies throughout the remainder of its energy architecture remains as urgent. And unlike increasing the use of renewable energy sources, reliance on nuclear power will not improve the world's energy security.


More suggested research:

Geotherma.Info Geothermal Energy Companies

WindIntell.com Windpower Stocks Investing