Mr. O'Rourke: There are more names for this space than you can count. I think most like to refer to it as "cleantech" or clean energy technology. Where I have tended to focus these days is on renewable energy technology, which is a subset of that. If you look at cleantech overall, it includes energy generation and the complements to energy generation, such as smart grid technologies and energy storage, and a bunch of other stuff. Just for clarification, I have spent the majority of my time recently looking at solar energy generation.
TWST: Why solar?
Mr. O'Rourke: A few years ago solar had the largest emerging market, at least
from a public equity perspective. It effectively followed wind as an emerging
renewable energy source. It was the up and coming renewable energy generation
source that was by far the most interesting at the time, because it was
perceived to be closest to economic viability, albeit with incentives. It is
turning into a real industry, although it is not yet economically viable on a
standalone basis; it still requires incentives, but I think we see a clear path
to get to stand alone economic viability over the next several years.
Tickers included in this excerpt: FSLR, SPWRA
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