New Energy Finance, as provider of financial news, data and analysis on the renewable energy and energy technology sector, has launched the Global Energy Innovation Index.
The index tracks the largest 50 quoted companies around the world which derive the majority of their value from renewable energy or energy technology. New Energy Finance believes sales in these sectors are going to grow from around $25 billion in 2004 to $100 billion within a decade, driven by the world’s response to concerns about climate change and energy security, as well as developing world growth and the arrival of new technologies.
The 50 companies in the Global Energy Innovation Index are quoted on 11 different stockmarkets around the world. The largest company is Vestas Wind Systems A/S of Denmark, the world’s leading independent wind turbine manufacturer with a capitalisation of just under USD 2.2 billion. The smallest company in the index is US-based SatCon Technology Corporation, which manufactures and sells power and energy management products for digital power markets, with a market capitalisation of $57m. The aggregate market value of the companies in the index as at 1 January 2005 was just over $14.6 billion.
The USA is the leading country represented, with 27 companies accounting for $7.3 billion of the index’s capitalisation (almost exactly half). Denmark is in second place, due to the presence of industry giant Vestas, with Canada in third and Japan fourth. The collapse in values over the past two years of German quoted wind companies such as Plambeck Neue Energien, Nordex and REpower leaves Germany in fifth place, followed by Australia. The UK, despite a spate of IPOs on AIM during 2004, could only manage seventh place with an aggregate market capitalisation of its companies of just under $470m.
Michael Liebreich, CEO of New Energy Finance, says: “This is a time of great change in the energy industry. The politicians have done a lot of heavy lifting to create the conditions for renewable energy to take off, but only time will tell if they have done enough. We are clearly seeing increasing volumes of venture capital and project finance flow into the sector; this index will enable us to track the value of publicly quoted shares over time and keep an eye on the sector’s pulse.”
The company will be updating the Global Energy Innovation Index once every two weeks as part of its New Energy Finance Briefing newsletter