Renewable energy boom drives up share prices

A boom in renewable energy shows no sign of petering out, with investors greedy for shares in wind-generator companies which are booking huge new sales.

Two sales announcements in Germany this week illustrated why a giddy bidding war has developed between Indian and French interests for one of the main German builders of rotor-turbines, Repower.
German manufacturers of solar-power equipment have also been boosted by the renewables trend.

Solar World, which opened a new wafer-production plant at Freiberg in Germany’s Saxony state Friday, said it would continue to add wafer capacity at the site, doubling output by 2009 compared to today.

The company said it was even contemplating quadrupling output, which is measured by the power-generation capacity of the photovoltaic cells it makes: 1,000 megawatts per year was conceivable.

Monsters and Critics