Green Investing and the US Military
The green investments market has recently seen a number of factors come together which act as a strong buy signal. Many green stocks have rallied, and an ever increasing number of investors are looking into the green markets. The tipping point for green investing has arrived, and there can be no doubt that it is no longer a ‘fad’ sector (as it was considered by many just a few short years back), but in fact the sector of the future: there was the gold rush, the oil rush, and now we are all set for the green rush.
Even the US military is going green – transportation of fossil fuels such as diesel costs lives – the military has calculated more than 250 lives are lost a year in the transportation process. 6000 conveys are needed a year in Afghanistan and Iraq to meet the energy needs of the military in and there is a casualty in one in every 25 conveys. The military is a massive consumer of fuel, using more than many countries. It, for instance, uses twice the amount of fuel than the whole of Ireland.
Solar technologies are of particular interest to the army. These include solar technologies such as portable solar chargers, and low energy lights, such as LED’s. The ultimate aim is for army bases abroad to be completely self-sufficient in terms of energy.
The navy aims to make its island bases energy independent as well. It has a wide range of projects currently on the go, amongst which is to generate energy through wave power. This is done by placing a very large buoy offshore which turns the lateral movement of the waves into electricity via a generator, and that electricity is then delivered to where required via an underwater cable.
The US Air Force intends to run its jets on a 50-50 mixture of traditional jet fuel and biofuel. It has recently completed a test flight on a plane using this fuel mix. Biofuels can be produced practically anywhere in the world, even in desert conditions.
Such projects are not based on technologies which are purely experimental and at the laboratory stage, but real products that are on the market right now. One of the forerunning companies in wave power, for instance, is Ocean Power Technologies. The company has already supplied the navy in Hawaii with power generating buoys. As green investments go, this is exactly the sort of company investors should be researching into. There can be no doubt that their potential is huge.
There are a number of US biofuel companies that will be conducting IPO’s in the near future, such as PetroAlgae, and Gevo, based in Florida and Colorado respectively.
These sort of companies are well worth observing as a potential future investment. As things are now, the value of these companies needs to be established, and some history needs to be developed. Make sure you do your research, and your green investments maybe the best you ever did!
