Green Tech at a Crossroads: In Search of the Green Tech Google

A year ago, solar-technology start-up Ausra was ready for the big time. There were plans on the table to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to build giant power plants and to conduct an initial public offering of Ausra shares by 2010.

Then the recession hit. Ausra executives refocused on more modest goals, such as building small solar units, and selling equipment for industrial operations like desalination and food processing. It also is trying to sell to utilities, rather than build massive solar plants itself.

“Utilities are really in a great position to build large-scale projects,” said Katherine Potter, communications vice president at Ausra. “You need to walk before you can run, but the technology is there.”

That IPO goal, it’s fair to say, is off the table for the foreseeable future. And as executives came to accept that Ausra had to change its business, the Palo Alto, Calif., company cut about 10 percent of its 108 employees.

Ausra isn’t the only green-tech company dealing with reduced expectations. Despite high hopes, $14.5 billion in worldwide venture funding over the last two years, and cheerleading from the Obama White House, 2009 could be a make-or-break year for many green-tech outfits. And the stakes may be greater than the fortunes of a few entrepreneurs and their investors.

Save The World, Make Money

Can the United States simultaneously lean on green-tech investment to help fix its broken economy, wean itself off dependence on foreign fuel sources, and address climate change concerns? President Obama, for one, appears to be a believer in one of the fundamental underpinnings of green business: you can make money while helping save the world.

“One of the key points that…I will repeat again and again during the course of my presidency is there is not a contradiction between economic growth and sound environmental practices,” Obama said when he named his energy and environment team in December. “I think that the future of innovation and technology is going to be what drives our economy into the future. And the energy economy is going to be part of what creates the millions of jobs we need.”

Green-tech entrepreneurs and investors are well aware of these lofty goals. But these days, they’re more focused on other issues, such as finding the money to stay in business and landing customers.

“We had closed a round of funding in October for the next stage of vehicle development–then all of that went off the table in about six days,” said John Waters, the CEO of stealthy electric-car start-up Bright Automotive, which restructured two months later and managed to find alternative funding.

The question isn’t whether the green-tech movement will whither away. Already, there is a growing consumer niche for green technologies, from rooftop solar panels to low-power consumer electronics made from recycled materials.

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Union Ironworkers Provide Training for Green Energy Job Corps

Accredited Apprenticeship Training Program Secures Safety and Productivity throughout United States and Canada

The skilled tradesmen who do more than you can imagine - Union Ironworkers - in response to Vice-President Biden’s recent comments regarding green jobs training, are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to install and maintain green energy projects in a safe and productive manner throughout the United States and Canada.

“Vice-President Biden is correct in stating that a well-trained workforce is required to successfully erect, install and maintain the promising green energy category. Our members are not only capable of successfully achieving this goal, but also in a position to immediately begin work on green and renewable energy projects as soon as the economic stimulus package is appropriated,” said Joseph Hunt, general president of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers.

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British Company Romag Tests Solar-Powered Electric Car Parking Bay

Glass and plastics specialist Romag Holdings has developed a new solar-powered canopy that could offer a recharging bay for electric cars in open-air car parks.

The PowerPark system consists of a panel of Romag’s PowerGlaz photovoltaic modules standing over and above a car parking bay.

The PV panels generate electricity to charge electric vehicles parking underneath, or to feed into the national grid or a building’s power supply when it is not being used to charge up an electric vehicle.

Romag Holidings has already secured a contract with regional development agency One NorthEast to build two prototypes at its own site in County Durham and at Tegrel Engineering in Blaydon on Tyne, where the steel structure used in the product is made.

The company will be targeting owners of car parks including airports, stations, supermarkets, shopping centres, offices and public buildings to take up the product, pointing to government ambitions to encourage the use of electric vehicles nationwide.

Romag, which already produces PowerGlaz panels and building-integrated PV systems at its 30MW capacity production facility in Consett, says the new PowerPark canopy systems will be “very competitive” in price when launched.

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MIT Team Builds Solar Car for World Solar Challenge (Video)

Calling any vehicle Eleanor is a bit cheeky, considering that it evokes the image of brawny Ford Mustangs made famous in the movie “Gone in 60 Seconds.” In this case, it may even be ironic, since the car the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team is referring to is solar-powered, rides on three wheels, and tops out at 90 mph.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s latest competitor in the upcoming 10th World Solar Challenge couldn’t be more different than its namesake. Its Eleanor is low slung, highly aerodynamic, and covered by 6 square meters of silicon solar cells that generate 1,200 watts of electricity. On board the car is a 6kWh lithium ion battery pack that stores enough power to travel from New York to Boston without the sun, or about 250 miles at around 55 mph.

But on a sunny day, the solar car can run nonstop at a cruising speed of 55 mph, and calculations show that it can reach 90 mph.

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Industrial Nanotech Enters Solar Energy Market after Completing Successful Field Trials

Industrial Nanotech, Inc., an emerging global leader in nanotechnology, announced today that the Company’s “Nansulate Solar” is currently being specified on both solar panels and the pipes and tanks of solar hot water systems to increase efficiency and lower operating costs.

“Field trials of Nansulate Solar began a year ago in March of 2008 by Universal Energy Group, Inc., located in Stockton, California,” stated Francesca Crolley, VP of Operations and Marketing for Industrial Nanotech. “After twelve months of data collection, the product proved to successfully increase the efficiency and lower the operating cost of solar systems when used on the solar panels of solar energy systems and on numerous components of solar hot water systems. Universal Energy Group is now including Nansulate Solar as the standard in their solar installations and selling to other solar energy companies. Additional information about this product can be found at Nansulate.”

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Sunsei GreenMeter Approved for Rebates in California

ICP Solar Technologies Inc., a developer, manufacturer and marketer of proprietary solar panels and products, today announced that the Company’s Sunsei® GreenMeter^TM has been approved for certain solar-based incentives in the State of California. Specifically, the GreenMeter^TM has been added to the list of approved products under California’s PMRS subsidy program, such that residents installing this unique ICP Solar application will qualify to receive rebates, tax credits, and other incentives under the “Go Solar California” initiative - a $2.2 billion program. The Sunsei® GreenMeter^TM is now listed as an eligible Meter and the associated web service is listed as an eligible Performance Monitoring and Reporting Service provider.

“California installers can now offer their clients an advanced, accurate metering and monitoring product with an even more attractive value proposition - making it easier to spur adoption of this innovative, solar-powered solution,” said Sass Peress, CEO. “Expanding into the California solar market - the largest in North America - is critical to our successful rollout out of the Sunsei® GreenMeter^TM and establishing it as the leading application of its kind.”

BusinessWire

Los Angeles Solar Measure Falls Behind in Votes

A controversial ballot measure in Los Angeles to increase solar power installations in the city has fallen behind, and will be rejected unless thousands of late or provisional ballots swing the outcome.

Measure B, as the issue was known, would require the local utility - the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power - to ramp up solar power production dramatically by installing 400 megawatts’ worth of panels by 2014. (That is a substantial amount - nearly one-third of the size of a record solar deal recently signed by Southern California Edison.)

The controversy centered on how - not whether - Los Angeles should move forward with solar power.

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Acme Group Invests $30mn in California eSolar to Build India Solar Thermal Plants

Acme Group will have exclusive rights to eSolar’s design to set up thermal solar power plants in India.

Gurgaon-based telecom power solutions firm Acme Group has made an investment of $30 million for a 5% stake in California-based eSolar. The US-based company is involved in developing, constructing and deploying modular, scalable solar thermal power plants. Acme has also entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with the company. The deal involves Acme Group having exclusive rights to eSolar’s design to set up thermal solar power plants in India.

Acme can also work with other companies to build solar thermal power plants in India using eSolar technology. ACME is targeting 1,000 MW of solar power within India over the next 10 years. The company has already signed power purchase MOUs for 250 MW.

Though this is eSolar’s first international licensing agreement, it had entered into a similar agreement with US-based NRG Energy.

It raised $130 million in funding from Google.org (Google’s philanthropic arm), Idealab and Oak Investment Partners in April 2008.

eSolar was founded in 2007 by Idealab Inc founder Bill Gross and Asif Ansari. Idealab is an incubator based in Pasadena, California and its companies include Picasa, which was acquired by Google.

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Eco Barons Lead The Way In Alternative Energy Investments

The global rich are going green as never before. This first Sunday Times Green Rich List shows that the enthusiasm among the world’s wealthiest for investments in areas as diverse as electric cars, solar power and geothermal energy is unaffected by the recession.

The Green List has unearthed 100 tycoons or wealthy families worth £200m or more who have made either serious investments in green technology and businesses or hefty financial commitments to environmental causes. In total, the Green 100 are worth nearly £267 billion. The top 50 are listed below and the next 50 can be found on The Sunday Times - The Green Rich List.

This enormous sum demonstrates that many of the world’s richest tycoons and entrepreneurs have embraced environmentalism. Indeed, the list is dominated by America’s wealthiest financiers and entrepreneurs such as Warren Buffett (worth £27 billion) and Bill Gates (worth £26 billion).

These two canny investors, who regularly swap places at the top of Forbes magazine’s annual list of world billionaires, have spent some of their financial firepower on areas such as wind power and electric cars in Buffett’s case, while Gates has backed alternative fuels such as oil from algae. These are not trifling sums here. Buffett has invested $230m in the Hong Kong battery-maker BYD.

Many of the 35 Americans in the Top 100 are drawn from Silicon Valley. Having made their first fortunes in microchips, the internet or software, the likes of Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin (each worth £7.5 billion) are turning to green investments with all the entrepreneurial zeal that made their first fortunes.

It helps that the Obama administration is committed to a huge stimulus package involving the very technologies that investors are focusing on.

Even tycoons who are not in President Barack Obama’s camp have moved into alternative energy, none more so than T Boone Pickens, oil explorer, corporate raider and a Texan Republican to his core. He is using part of his £1.8 billion fortune on filling the huge and windy Texas Panhandle with turbines as part of his Pickens Plan to wean America off its dependence on foreign energy.

American money may be chasing smarter and greener technologies, while the Chinese rich on the list are definitely about mass production of green technologies.

The 17 Chinese tycoons in the Top 100 are concentrated at the bottom end of the list and they are almost exclusively involved in solar and electric-car technology. It is a ferociously competitive market with unremitting pressure to cut costs and gain market share.

As such, all the Chinese fortunes have been hammered as share prices have fallen sharply. A year ago, many would have been in the Top 50, but not now. Indeed, some of them will not survive the steep downturn they are now battling through. But out of it will emerge winners selling much cheaper and more technically advanced products to a huge market worldwide.

There are 10 British or British-based tycoons on the list. None is going head-tohead with the Chinese in mass production. And they are not taking the German route. The seven German tycoons are largely involved in wind turbines and the like. This is a bespoke market - meat and drink to the German industrial sector.

The pity is that aside from Sir Richard Branson, who is investing in alternative fuels, there are no real British equivalents of Aloys Wobben. A German engineering graduate, Wobben started Enercon in 1984, building his first wind turbine in his back garden. Today the company employs 6,000 staff and exports sophisticated turbines all over the world.

German entrepreneurs who have made their fortunes elsewhere are also moving into green technology in a serious way, defying the prevailing economic gloom.

Twins Andreas and Thomas Strungmann built a £6.8 billion pharmaceutical fortune. Having sold their pharma business, they put many millions into saving a German solar company early last year just as the economic outlook worsened.

America’s wealthy are not just investing in new technology, they are also spending their fortunes on direct environmental activism, saving large tracts of wilderness from developers, endowing university research into green energy, climate change and the like.

This can have a huge impact in changing the mood in favour of more green activism on the political front, making the climate right for Obama to push through radical green initiatives that would not have been contemplated in George Bush’s presidency.

There is little evidence of any appetite among Britain’s super-rich for this approach. Firmly rooted in property, finance or retailing, they have little time or surplus wealth for anything other than lip service to green issues.

They are also involved in firefighting to keep their businesses afloat. When the recession is over, there are precious few forecasters who think the City and the like will return to its glory days.

With traditional factories and industries closing in record numbers, where will Britain’s future prosperity come from? It is a sobering thought.

Dr Philip Beresford has compiled The Sunday Times Rich List since 1989.

THE GREEN RICH LIST

An extended version of this list, covering 100 entries, can be seen at www.timesonline.co.uk/richlist

1) £27bn Warren Buffett (US) Wind power

Warren Buffett, America’s canniest investor, is the face of modern capitalism at its best. The son of a Nebraska politician, Buffett delivered newspapers as a boy and filed his first tax return at the age of 13, claiming a $35 deduction for his bicycle.

He took over an ailing textile firm called Berkshire Hathaway in 1965 and turned it into his investment vehicle for a range of holdings in well known American companies and brands, including Coca-Cola and Dairy Queen.

Among the holdings is MidAmerican Energy, a leading wind-energy utility. In August it announced a joint venture with American Electric Power, to invest in grid projects.

The initial plans are designed to take advantage of wind development in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

More recently, Buffett invested $230m in a Hong Kong-listed Chinese company, BYD, which produces batteries for electric cars. BYD Auto’s own electric car, the e6, left, made its debut at the Detroit Auto Show in January.

But even the “Sage of Omaha” is not immune to the recession and stock-market turmoil and his fortune has fallen to £27 billion.

2) £26bn Bill Gates (US) Renewable fuel

Microsoft founder Bill Gates stepped down from the software giant last year to devote his time and money to philanthropy. He has given away much of his wealth in recent years to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has $29.7 billion to spend on favoured causes.

More than half of Gates’s wealth is outside Microsoft now. He has also invested in ventures through his Cascade Investments operation, including a holding in Pacific Ethanol, a fuel company.

More recently he invested in Sapphire Energy, a Californian company that intends to make motor fuel from algae.

Algae are the renewable-fuel industry’s great green hope because they are rich in oil and can grow in a range of conditions. Many companies are betting they can create fuels or other chemicals cheaper than existing feedstocks. In all, Gates is worth about £26 billion.

3) £22bn Ingvar Kamprad (Sweden) Furnishing

The founder of the cut-price but stylish furniture retailer Ikea, Ingvar Kamprad, is a committed environmentalist and has put that at the top of Ikea’s agenda in the 36 countries where it has stores.

Among Ikea’s environmental initiatives are four UK stores that have waste-to-energy technology and geothermal systems (energy generated from natural heat beneath the Earth’s surface). All the stores are to be supplied with 100% renewable energy for electricity and heating by 2012 and overall energy consumption is to be reduced by 25% by that date.

Ikea’s car fleet has been changed to Honda hybrids and there is an initiative that gives employees discounts to buy hybrids, and interest-free loans to convert their cars to LPG.

Ikea has also given its workforce folding bicycles and low-energy light bulbs, replacing them free of charge for the lifetime of workers’ employment with the company. Bilan magazine in its December 2008 Swiss Rich List put Kamprad’s fortune at £22 billion.

4) £19bn Marcel Brenninkmeijer (Holland) Natural power

Marcel Brenninkmeijer chairs Good Energies, a £3.6 billion investment fund that targets green-energy projects. He is a member of the Dutch family behind the fashion retailer C& A and manages the green investments on behalf of the family’s Swiss-based parent.

Good Energies has investments in more than 30 companies in North America, Europe and Asia involved in wind and solar power. In Canada, Good Energies’ portfolio now includes investments in the wind-power developer Sequoia Energy, wind consultant Eolectric, wind and run-of-river power firm C-Free Power Corp and solar-grade silicon maker 6N

Silicon Inc. C& A, started in 1861 by two brothers, has stores in 16 countries. It has helped the Brenninkmeijer family to a £19 billion fortune, according to the recent Dutch rich list in Quote 500 magazine.

5) £15bn Mukesh Ambani (India) Life sciences

Among Mukesh Ambani’s interests in his Reliance Industries operation is Reliance Life Sciences (RLS). It is testing intercropping of jatropha and pongamia - non-edible fuel crops that can grow on wasteland - at its research and development farms. On the seeds front, RLS is developing hybrid varieties of biofuels that will double the yield under irrigated conditions, which is about 10 tonnes a hectare. At the farm level, RLS has alliances with Indian farmers to build clusters of 100,000 acres feeding into 100,000-tonne biofuel extraction plants.

Reliance Industries has taken a pounding during the recent stock-market turmoil. Forbes magazine in its November 2008 Indian rich list reckoned that Ambani’s fortune had fallen £20 billion in a year, down to £15 billion, but he is still India’s richest person.

6) £14.4bn Michael Bloomberg (US) Natural energy

The mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, made his fortune from the traders’ terminals and platforms that bear his name. As mayor he has promoted a green agenda for New York. He has enacted a plan called PlaNYC: A Greener, Greater New York to fight global warming, protect the environment and prepare the city for the extra 1m people who are expected to be living there by the year 2030.

Bloomberg’s vision doesn’t stop there. He wants New York to start generating its own green power by using solar panels, harnessing river tides and even placing wind turbines on top of city bridges and skyscrapers. Forbes in its October 2008 list of the 400 richest Americans reckoned he is easily worth £14.4 billion.

7) £13.2bn Michael Otto (Germany) Mail order

Michael Otto retired at the end of 2007 as head of the Otto Group, the world’s largest mail-order company, started by his father in 1949. With a 30% rise in online sales last year, Otto also maintains its position as the web’s biggest retailer after Amazon. The Otto Group has long touted environmentally safe products and practices. As far back as 1995 it was launching environmentally-friendly products. In 1992 Otto banned chemicals in lacquer, paints and fibres from its product ranges, as well as fur products and goods made of tropical wood. Otto also supports a foundation that funds preservation of the River Elbe.

8) £11.5bn Paul Allen (US) Natural fuels

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital investment arm sank $250,000 into Seattle’s Imperium Renewables, which plans to supply 40% of the growing American market for diesel fuel made from vegetable oil.

Last August Vulcan was part of a consortium investing £20m in a Californian company called Alta Rock Energy, which develops enhanced geothermal systems. This improves on the century-old technology of tapping geothermal energy from geysers, hot springs or volcanoes to generate electricity. Allen’s property investment company is constructing 100m sq ft of housing made from environmentally sensitive materials in Seattle. Allen still has a substantial stake in Microsoft, though this represents only 20% of his wealth today. Forbes valued Allen at £11.5 billion in its 2008 list of the 400 richest Americans.

9) £8.2bn Donald Bren (US) Environmental research

In 1997 low-key Californian developer Donald Bren pledged $15m to what became the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, topping that up with a further $5m in 2004. The Bren School educates research scientists and environmental management professionals. It also plays a leading role in identifying and solving the environmental problems of the 21st century. Bren’s fortune is put at £8.7 billion in the 2008 Forbes list of richest Americans..

10) £7.5bn Sergey Brin (US) Green energy

Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s huge wealth has been deployed in a variety of green initiatives. Like business partner Larry Page, Brin is a top investor in Tesla Motors, which developed the Tesla Roadster, a battery electric vehicle with a range of 220 miles. Google, with huge financial resources, is also going green. Last August it invested $10m to produce electricity from underground heat. The move is part of Google’s effort to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into green-energy sources, starting with solar, thermal, high-altitude wind power and now geothermal energy.

Google’s shares have been hit hard in the recent stockmarket turmoil but Brin is still worth at least £7.5 billion.

10) £7.5bn Larry Page (US) Green energy

Google co-founder Larry Page is an investor with co-founder Sergey Brin in Tesla Motors, which developed the Tesla Roadster electric vehicle. Some £42m has been invested by Google to develop solar and wind power, plug-in hybrid cars and other ideas.

One of the aims is to make “RE less than C” - renewable energy cheaper than coal. An alliance with the industrial giant General Electric was announced last September to make this happen..

12) £7.2bn Serge Dassault (France) Electric cars

Groupe Dassault is a French aviation and software giant that has always been at the forefront of technology and is now investing heavily in electric cars. It is developing a high-performing car with Electricité de France (EDF), the country’s main electricity company. Dassault is also joining an electric-vehicle project in Israel. He has the resources - he is reckoned to be worth £7.2 billion by France’s Challenges magazine..

13) £6.8bn Andreas and Thomas Strungmann (Germany) Solar power

Twins Andreas and Thomas Strungmann are Germany’s top entrepreneurs. Their father, Ernst, ran the family-owned drug company, Durachemie, until 1979, when he asked his sons to take it over. The brothers sold Durachemie in 1986 and used the proceeds to launch a hugely successful pharmaceutical company called Hexal.

In 2005 the Strungmanns sold the business as well as their 68% stake of US Eon Labs to the Swiss company Novartis for $7.5 billion. Since then they have been investing their wealth in biotechnology, property and more recently solar power. The Strungmanns have a £6.8 billion fortune..

14) £6bn Hansjörg Wyss (Switzerland) Open space

Hansjörg Wyss, a Swiss tycoon, has lived in Pennsylvania for 30 years. He runs Synthes, a Swissbased medical-implants and bio-materials company. Wyss is also a committed environmentalist and heads the Wyss Foundation, which gives scholarships to students getting their masters in conservation. His two foundations work on wilderness and open-space preservation. His fortune was put at £6 billion in Bilan’s Swiss rich list in December 2008..

15) £5.8bn Philip Anschutz (US) Wind power

The son of an oil prospector, Philip Anschutz bought out his father in 1961. His big break came in 1971 when he bought a huge tract of land along the Utah-Wyoming border. In the early 1980s, the Anschutz Ranch, with its 1 billion barrel oil pocket, became the largest oil-field discovery in America since Prudhoe Bay in Alaska in 1968. He sold a half-interest in it to Mobil Oil for $500m in 1982. His Anschutz Corporation took over development of the TransWest Express project, a $3 billion, 900-mile transmission line proposal designed to deliver wind-generated electricity from Wyoming to California, Arizona and Nevada. Another Anschutz company is developing a 2,000MW wind farm. With a £5.8 billion fortune in the Forbes 400 list, Anschutz is well able to afford such investments.

THE Green Rich List 100 was compiled by using the many rich lists published annually round the world. First and foremost, information was compiled from Forbes’s list of the world billionaires and various offshoots such as rich lists for China, Hong Kong and Korea.

In addition, the following was used. The Hurun Report gave a more comprehensive Chinese rich list with its own energy list of the top Chinese solar-power millionaires. In Germany, data was obtained from Manager magazine; in France, Challenges; in Norway, Kapital; in Switzerland, Bilan; in Holland, Quote 500; in Australia, Business Review Weekly; Canadian Business.

Where possible figures were updated to take account of changing share values. To qualify, the tycoons had to have big investments in green projects or by their actions have given significant backing to green causes..

Wealthy Take Alternative Route

16) £ 4bn Hans Rausing (UK) Packaging

Hans Rausing, the Swedish industrialist who moved to Britain in the early 1980s, helped to develop the Tetra Pak operation founded by his late father in 1944. It revolutionised the packaging of products such as milk and juices. Rausing sold his 50% stake for about £ 4.4 billion. in 1995. Since then he has been investing heavily in products such as Ecolean, the environmentally- friendly packaging material made from chalk. The Rausing family is valued at £ 4 billion to reflect the collapse in asset values.

17) £ 3bn Kirk Kjeld Kristiansen (Denmark) Toymaker

Lego, the world’s sixth largest toymaker, was founded in 1932. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, grandson of the founder, remains its sole owner. Lego is regarded as one of the most environmentally sensitive companies in the world.

Kristiansen has a foundation to back environmental causes. Forbes rated his fortune at £ 4.4 billion. early last year. In the current climate he should be worth £ 3 billion.

18) £ 2.7bn Dennis Washington (US) Conservation

Montana billionaire Dennis Washington’s interests extend to copper mining, railroads, barges and tugs and environmental remediation.

The latter work is carried out by Envirocon. Founded in 1988, the company has completed more than 40 remediation projects in Montana and many more nationwide.

Washington’s wealth was put at £ 3 billion in the October 2008 Forbes 400 rich list. We cut him back to £2.7 billion.

19) £ 2.4bn Alicia& Tannetta Fentener van Vlissingen (Holland) Conservation

The late Paul Fentener van Vlissingen turned his family- owned company, SHV, into a global giant in energy, recycling and retail while at the helm from 1984 to 1997. He retired to live on a Scottish estate until his death in 2006 from cancer. He set up the African Parks Foundation after meeting Nelson Mandela and it now runs 10 parks in seven African nations. His conservation work is being carried on by his daughters, Alicia and Tannetta, worth £ 2.4 billion according to the Quote 500 Dutch rich list in late 2008.

20) £ 2.3bn José Manuel Entrecanales (Spain) Renewable energy

The Acciona Group built the first wind farm in Spain at Tarifa in 1994 and became a serious investor in renewable energy .

Three years ago construction accounted for 80% of the firm’s business; now it makes up only 40%. The rest comes from electricity, renewable energy and water desalination. That is the work of José Manuel Entrecanales, who joined the Acciona board as finance director in 1992 and became chairman in 2004. The family owns around half the £ 4.85 billion company. Its stake is worth £ 2.3 billion.

21) £ 2.2bn Aloys Wobben (Germany) Wind turbines

Engineering graduate Aloys Wobben built his first turbine in his back garden, financed by building electronic elements.

In 1985 his company Enercon produced 55kw turbines with a gearbox and capable of variable speed. In 1992 Wobben figured out how to build windmills that were gearless and functioned without hydraulics.

Today Enercon has more than 6,000 employees. Wobben’s fortune was put at £ 4.5 billion in the 2007 German rich list produced by Manager magazine. With values slashed, we halve that .

22) £ 2bn Norbert Rethmann (Germany) Waste services

From a small German haulage business in the 1930s, Rethmann has developed into a transport- to- waste multinational. It is now run by the founder’s third son, Norbert, who joined the business in 1961. It has three main subsidiaries: logistics, recycling of animal carcasses, and water and environmental services. It is moving into eastern Europe with a facility to recycle poultry waste and a biofuel production line. It has 3,000 trucks running on biofuel. In 2007, Rethmann had sales of £ 6.8 billion. In today’s climate, the family should be worth £ 2 billion.

23) £ 1.9bn Bill Koch (US) Renewable energy

Fred Koch, a Kansas oilman who invented a way to refine petrol from heavy oil, died in 1967 leaving his conglomerate, Koch Industries, to his four sons. The brothers fell out and in 1983, Bill, an MIT graduate, sold his stake to two of his brothers for $ 1.3 billion. Bill Koch set up the Oxbow Corporation with roots in renewable energy planning, building and operating geothermal power plants that tap deep into the earth for natural steam. Oxbow’s power plants in the United States, the Philippines and Costa Rica received awards for providing clean, reliable and renewable energy. It is also involved in ultra- clean coal production from mines that are reclaimed after use. Forbes put his fortune at arbout £ 2.03 billion in October 2008. We cut him back to £ 1.9 billion today.

24) £1.9bn Stephan Schmidheiny (Switzerland) Sustainable development

Stephan Schmidheiny has removed himself from all formal positions at the family cement company Eternit and lives in Costa Rica, focusing on philanthropy. His 1992 pamphlet, Changing Course, argued that eco- efficiency and sustainable development were good for business. He has promoted Grupo Nueva, his Latin American building products and forestry companies, as models of environmentally sound capitalism. Among his investments is a British solar panel company, Solarcentury.

In 2003, he donated $ 1 billion to ” sustainable development”programmes. Bilan magazine in its December 2008 Swiss rich list put his fortune at nearly £ 1.9 billion .

25) £ 1.8bn Nicolas Berggruen (Switzerland) Wind power

Nicolas Berggruen grew up in France and Switzerland. His father, Heinz, was once the world’s greatest Picasso collector. Nicolas now lives in hotels in America, having made a fortune in finance .

Berggruen’s first job was buying and selling property.

He founded an investment firm in 1986 and has never looked back. Berggruen Holdings now has net assets of more than $ 3 billion. Today he invests in art, property and private equity. He owns an Indian hotel chain, Turkish wind- power licences and Israeli real estate. Forbes put his fortune at £ 2.03 billion in October 2008. We cut him back to £1.8 billion ..

25) £ 1.8bn Gordon Moore (US) Bio-diversity

Gordon Moore co- founded the chip- maker Intel in 1968, becoming chairman in 1979. In 2002 the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation gave $ 261m to Conservation International to prevent species extinction and to expand protection of bio- diversity hotspots, such as the African rainforests. Moore travels twice a year with Conservation International on his crusade to save 25 of the most threatened natural places on earth. These areas cover a mere 1.4% of Earth’s land surface yet they shelter 60% of the world’s animal and plant species. Having given half his fortune away, Moore’s remaining Intel stake has been hit by the credit crunch and he is worth about £1.8 billion ..

25) £ 1.8bn T Boone Pickens (US) Natural power

T Boone Pickens, the American oil billionaire, is planning to spend $ 60m on a television campaign to educate the American public about the dangers of sending $ 432,000 per minute to foreign countries for their oil. Pickens is promoting the use of natural gas, wind power and solar energy to offset and eventually limit dependence on oil. He is also leasing thousands of acres of Texas to build wind farms.

Forbes estimated his fortune at £2.2 billion in its October 2008 list of the richest Americans.

We have cut Pickens back to £1.8 billion .

25) £ 1.8bn Jeff Skoll (Canada) Electric cars

Canadian entrepreneur Jeff Skoll was the first president and full-time employee of the auction site eBay. Skoll produced the company’s hugely successful business plan and remained until 1998. Since then he has devoted himself to film production through Participant Pictures, which made Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and won an Oscar. Skoll backs environmental causes through the Skoll Foundation, to which he donated $250m in eBay shares. He is an investor in Tesla Motors, which is developing electric cars. Skoll sold much of his eBay stock in the bull market, collecting at least $2 billion. Canadian Business in its December 2008 list of the 100 richest Canadians, reckoned his fortune had fallen 30% in a year to £1.8 billion.

29) £ 1.7bn Stein Erik Hagen (Norway) Electric cars

Stein Erik Hagen founded the Norwegian RIMI discount store chain with his father in the 1970s. He then sold out, receiving $ 1 billion in 2004 for his remaining stake. He later bought into department store chain Steen & Strom through his Canica consumer- goods operation. Steen & Strom was sold in July 2008, netting Canica about £ 990m. One of his investments is in Think, the Norwegian electric car venture. Hagen was valued at more than £ 2 billion by Forbes in its 2008 list of the world billionaires. We cut him back to £ 1.7 billion.

29) £ 1.7bn Theodore Lerner (US) Green sports

In 1952 lawyer Theodore Lerner borrowed $ 300 from his wife to start his Lerner Enterprises property group. He made a fortune building huge shopping malls in the suburbs of Washington DC. Today he owns large tracts of land around the US capital and Dulles airport. He also owns the Washington Nationals baseball team, which moved into a state- of- the- art green stadium last year. Lerner is also buying wind power tax credits and moving his business into a new ” green” headquarters in Maryland.

Forbes put his fortune at £ 2.4 billion last October. We cut that back to £ 1.7 billion in today’s difficult climate .

29) £ 1.7bn David Rockefeller (US) Sustainable agriculture

The grandson of John D Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil, the giant that fuelled the American industrial revolution, David Rockefeller has become one of the great philanthropists in America. He gave away some $ 770m between 2004 and 2008. He pledged $ 25m to the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, devoted to sustainable agriculture and food education, that sits on farmland his family has owned for close to a century in New York. At a recent Exxon Mobil annual meeting Rockefeller family members demanded the company adopt greener measures. In October last year Forbes ranked Rockefeller’s fortune at about £ 2 billion.

With falling asset prices, Rockefeller’s worth has been cut back to £ 1.7 billion.

32) £ 1.5bn Edward Bass (US) Eco research

Edward Bass’s money comes from the oil fortune built by his late uncle. An ardent environmentalist, Bass was an early pioneer of charitable giving in the field. Having studied architecture at Yale, he gave $ 20m to the university in 1990 to establish a research and teaching centre to study the global environment. He spent $ 200m on the Biosphere 2 in Arizona, an experiment in space living. Although it failed, Biosphere 2 still carries out research into saving desert plants. Worth around £ 1.7 billion in October 2008, we cut Bass back to £1.5 billion in these straitened times.

32) £ 1.5bn Nicky Oppenheimer (South Africa) Wildlife conservation

South African tycoon Nicholas Oppenheimer owes his fortune to the diamond empire De Beers and mining giant Anglo American. In recent months, Anglo American’s share price has more than halved and Oppenheimer’s remaining stake is worth £ 564m ( down from £ 1.35 billion a year ago).

With a £ 786m fall in his share stake and other asset price falls, we cut Oppenheimer back to £1.5 billion. But this is still enough to support his eco causes. In 1999 Oppenheimer donated a nature reserve to the South African National Parks.

He handed over 4,500 hectares last year for an eco- campus for disadvantaged youths.

34) £ 1.3bn John Whittaker (UK) Wind power

John Whittaker nearly became a priest but went into the quarrying business instead. Lancashire-born but now based on the Isle of Man, the tycoon is a leading developer in northwest England through his Peel empire. Among its assets are the Trafford Centre, Liverpool’s John Lennon airport and the Manchester ship canal. Whittaker, backed by a Saudi tycoon, took Peel private in 2004 and soon after split his empire into separate companies. His two main companies — Peel Holdings (TCL) and Peel Holdings (Land & Property) — had £2.07 billion net assets in 2007-8. Peel is investing heavily in green energy. In 2008 a £50m wind farm was opened in Lancashire. More ambitiously, Whittaker is looking at a £50 billion Ocean Gateway development along the Manchester ship canal and the Mersey. It proposes a Mersey barrage that would supply up to 260,000 homes with power. Wind and waste would also be harnessed for the Ocean Gateway project, which Whittaker is pushing with his customary zeal and tenacity. He has the clout, with a £1.3 billion fortune.

35) £ 1.2bn Sir Richard Branson (UK) Renewable energy

At 58 Sir Richard Branson has been busy burnishing his green credentials. He launched Virgin Fuels in 2006, to aid research into renewable energy. His transport business will provide up to £1.5 billion to renewable energy over the next decade. Branson has spent £ 16m on bio- ethanol plants in America, and has committed more than £ 50m to similar projects. He has offered a $ 25m prize for an invention to remove carbon dioxide from the environment. We reckon the Virgin business empire should be worth at least £ 1 billion. We add another £ 200m for cash from disposals and personal assets.

35) £ 1.2bn Ted Turner (US) Wildlife conservation

Ted Turner is best known as the man who built the news channel CNN. In 2006, Turner gave up his broadcasting interests to concentrate on his charity and environmental work. Through Turner Enterprises, he owns 15 ranches in Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

His 1.9m acres make Turner the largest individual landowner in North America. His mission is to manage land in an economically sustainable and ecologically sensitive manner, while conserving native species. Among these are 50,000 bison. After giving away £ 1 billion in recent years, Turner’s remaining fortune is worth around £ 1.2 billion.

37) £ 1.1bn Otto Happel (Germany) Solar power

The German industrialist Otto Happel turned his father’s dust removal business into the thermal engineering firm, GEA. In 1999 Happel sold his stake to MG Technologies in exchange for $ 1 billion in cash and a 21% stake in the combined group, eventually selling that holding for about $ 630m. He now runs a consulting firm from his Swiss base. Among his investments is a stake in Conergy, Europe’s largest solar power company.

He put in £ 125m last November which should help Conergy ride the recession, which has hit it hard. Bilan magazine in its December 2008 Swiss rich list put Happel’s wealth at £1.1 billion. We agree.

38) £ 1bn Julian Robertson (US) Global warming

Former American hedge fund maestro Julian Robertson retired from running his Tiger hedge fund in 2000 after a spectacular 20- year run. Since then he has concentrated on running Tiger as his personal investment vehicle and philanthropy. The Robertson Foundation has about $ 1 billion in assets and has targeted global warming as a primary area of concern. The foundation is underwriting the first global warming public service advisory campaign along with the Environmental Defense and the Ad Council.

Robertson’s fortune was calculated at £ 1.27 billion late last year. We clip it back to £ 1 billion as asset values tumble.

38) £ 1bn Tom Siebel (US) Alternative energy

Tom Siebel joined the Oracle software operation as a salesman in 1984 and beat every quota that its boss Larry Ellison came up with. Ellison, one of the richest men in the world, and Siebel fell out when Oracle would not take his sales- tracking software to market and he left the company in 1991. In 2005 Siebel netted $ 500m in cash when he sold his own Siebel Systems- to Larry Ellison. He now chairs First Virtual, with interests in property, agribusiness and asset management. He has pledged $ 100m to establish the Siebel Fund for Excellence in Science and Engineering for the University of Illinois to use on research in areas such as alternative energy. He is trying to set up a green building contest with a $ 20m prize.

Siebel’s £ 1.3 billion fortune in October 2008 will have slipped in the economic turmoil. We value him at £ 1 billion.

40) £ 900m Carl Berg (US) Clean technology

Property developer Carl Berg, a former vending- machine repairman, worked night shifts to pay his way through university. He bought Mission Continued on page 9 WW

West Properties in 1997. It now manages 8m sq ft across 110 properties and counts Apple and Microsoft among its Silicon Valley office tenants.

Berg has also sunk $ 100m of his money into Valence, a company developing clean and environmentally friendly rechargeable battery technology. Worth £ 1.2 billion in the recent Forbes 400 rich list, Berg should still be worth about £ 900m.

40) £ 900m Tom Golisano (US) Natural resources

A New Yorker, Tom Golisano used $ 3,000 and a credit card to start his Paychex company in 1971. It provides payroll services to small businesses and has grown to be the second- largest payroll processor in America. In 2007 he gave $ 10m to the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York to create an institute to enhance environmental sustainability in manufacturing. The idea is to support innovative research into ways to use natural resources with care, caution and wisdom. Golisano was worth £ 1.2 billion last October but, with Paychex shares having fallen nearly 30% since Forbes did its sums, we have cut Golisano back to £ 900m.

42) £ 800m Nicholas Pritzker (US) Electric cars

Nicholas Pritzker’s grandfather was a Chicago lawyer who went into business, creating the Hyatt hotel chain and the industrial group Marmon. The Pritzker family became hugely rich as a result. But it has been plagued by dynastic feuding and the empire has been split 11 ways. Nicholas Pritzker’s share was put at £ 1 billion by Forbes in its October 2008 list of the 400 richest Americans .

We reckon that will have slipped to £ 800m in the recession. Pritzker was a backer in 2006 of the electric car firm Tesla Motors. In 1996 he set up a foundation to support environmental causes in Chicago funded from the profits of a local Hyatt casino.

He also supports Conservation International, the group that helps to conserve land and preserve species.

42) £ 800m Peter Sperling (US) Renewable energy

It was a blow to Peter Sperling in November when California’s voters rejected proposition 7 mandating greater use of renewable- energy sources.

Sperling spent $ 5.5m backing the proposition, which would have required public and privately owned utilities in the state to get at least half their electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar and geothermal power by 2025.

Arizona- based Sperling could afford it. He chairs CallWave, a Californian software group, and his father founded the privately- funded University of Phoenix, which enrols 300,000 students. Sperling also contributed $ 5m to protect the Ellwood Mesa coastline of California.

Forbes puts his fortune at £1.1 billion. In the present climate that has been cut back to £ 800m.

44) £ 750m John Doerr (US) Green venture capitalist

A leading venture capitalist in California, John Doerr has worked for nearly 30 years in Silicon Valley. He joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1980 and has funded many top tech companies such as Sun Microsystems, Amazon and Netscape. An early $ 12.5m investment in Google made Doerr very rich.

He is looking at alternative energy investments and his firm has invested $ 200m in a dozen renewable energy operations. Doerr’s fortune was assessed at £1.1 billion by Forbes in its October 2008 list of the 400 richest Americans. We cut that to £ 750m in the current climate ..

44) £ 750m Caroline Getty and Anne Earhart (US) Conservation

Caroline Getty and sister Anne Catherine Getty Earhart are heirs of oil tycoon J Paul Getty.

After a battle over Getty’s estate, a 1985 settlement gave the sisters $ 750m apiece. Both live in California where they have backed environmental causes. Caroline Getty gave $ 1m to Nature Conservancy in support of two California parks bonds. The sisters’ wealth was put at about $ 1 billion by the Orange County Business Journal rich list last August .  The drop in the economy brings their fortune back to £ 750m.

46) £ 700m Sebastian Pinera (Chile) Conservation

Sebastian Pinera, one of the richest men in Chile, is running for president this year. Armed with a Harvard economics doctorate, Pinera founded Bancard, Chile’s credit card giant. His other interests span aviation and real estate.

He also created Parque Tantauco over 120,000 windswept hectares located on an island near Patagonia. The not- for- profit Fundacion Futuro, where Pinera is president, is looking into water preservation and renewable energy projects. His wealth was put at £ 900m by Forbes early last year. We clip Pinera back to £ 700m now.

46) £ 700m Petter Stordalen (Norway) Renewable energy

Norwegian entrepreneur Petter Stordalen is a committed environmental activist and investor. He has invested in Norway’s Think electric car project and renewable energy. Much of his wealth comes from hotels. The Norwegian rich list in Kapital magazine puts his fortune at £ 900m. We clip him back slightly to £ 800m.

48) £ 650m Jorgen Philip-Sorensen (UK) Eco-consumerism

Jorgen Philip-Sorensen is investing heavily in Ecover, the ecological consumer brand he rescued in 1999. He retired in 2006 as chairman of G4S, formerly Group 4 Security.

Philip-Sorensen retains a stake that has defied the turmoil and is now worth £ 334m. He has sold £ 260m worth of shares in recent years while his other interests including his Ecover stake, add at least £ 50m. In all Philip- Sorensen should be worth around £ 610m after tax.

49) £ 648m Tulsi Tanti (India) Wind turbines

Indian tycoon Tulsi Tanti used to run his own textiles business. In 1994 it was thrown into crisis by soaring power costs. He was able to commission two windmills to supply electricity to his plant in Gujarat. This led to the creation of the Pune- based Suzlon Energy which sold its first wind turbine in 1995. Six years later the textile business had been hived off and Tanti, along with his three siblings, plunged into wind- turbine generation. Suzlon is now the fifth- largest wind - turbine maker in the world. Last March Forbes valued Tanti at £ 2 billion but in a study of the biggest losers from the downturn at the end of the year, he was valued at £ 648m.

50) £ 620m Jaiprakash Gaur (India) Wind power

Jaiprakash Gaur founded the Jaypee Group in 1958 after studying civil engineering. The company has interests in power, cement, infrastructure, construction, property and education. It is diversifying into wind and thermal power generation. Forbes valued Gaur at £ 1.9 billion early last year, but his fortune had collapsed to £ 620m by the year’s end, according to Forbes..

A convenient truth for eBay billionaire 25= £ 1.8bn Jeff Skoll ( Canada) Electric cars Canadian entrepreneur Jeff Skoll was the first president and full- time employee of the auction site eBay. Skoll produced the company’s hugely successful business plan and remained until 1998.

Since then he has devoted himself to film production through Participant Pictures, which made Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and won an Oscar, left. Skoll backs environmental causes through the Skoll Foundation, to which he donated $ 250m in eBay shares. He is an investor in Tesla Motors, which is developing electric cars. Skoll sold much of his eBay stock in the bull market, collecting at least $ 2 billion. Canadian Business in its December 2008 list of the 100 richest Canadians, reckoned his fortune had fallen 30% in a year to £ 1.8 billion. Weagree..

Power from the Mersey 34 £ 1.3bn John Whittaker ( UK) Green energy John Whittaker nearly became a priest but went into the quarrying business instead.

Lancashire born but now based on the Isle of Man, the tycoon is a leading developer in northwest England through his Peel empire. Among its assets are the Trafford Centre, Liverpool’s John Lennon airport and the Manchester ship canal. Whittaker, backed by a Saudi tycoon, took Peel private in 2004 and soon after split his empire into separate companies. His two main companies, Peel TCL and Peel Holdings ( TCL) and Peel Holdings ( Land and Property) had £ 2.07 billion net assets in 2007- 8. Peel is investing heavily in green energy. In 2008 a £ 50m wind farm was opened in Lancashire.

More ambitiously, Whittaker is looking at a £ 50 billion Ocean Gateway development along the Manchester ship canal and the Mersey. It proposes a Mersey barrage that would supply up to 260,000 homes with power. Wind and waste would also be harnessed for the Ocean Gateway project, which Whittaker is pushing with his customary zeal and tenacity. He has the clout with a £ 1.3 billion fortune.

Philip Beresford

Building Design + Construction

Growing Excitement, Expectations For Green Jobs Corps

When Rita Bryer sees 300-foot-tall wind turbines sprouting up from the prairie near her home in western Oklahoma, she can’t help but wonder about the view from the top, where blades the size of semi-trucks spin.

“Out here, you can see the wind turbines from 10 miles away,” she said. “Think about how far you’ll be able to see when you’re at the top.”

So, partly out of curiosity, partly because she wants to be part of something new, the 51-year-old is leaving behind a career of odd jobs and oil-field work.

She’s going back to school to become a wind turbine mechanic — one who’ll have to scale the turbines to make repairs.

Across the country, people like Bryer are looking to the renewable energy sector in hopes its “green-collar jobs” will offer them stability in this shaky economy. Some are signing up for community college or apprenticeship programs that train students to be wind turbine mechanics, solar panel installers, fuel-cell engineers or energy efficiency experts.

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