Iberdrola Renovables (IBDRY.PK), based in Spain, is the world's largest wind developer and one of the largest renewable energy project developers, with 10.5 GW of assets worldwide. It also has the largest portfolio of future projects at over 5.7 GW.

The company constructs and operates plants and sells the electricity to utilities under long term power agreements. It has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Wind power companies have been on a roller-coaster ride for a year, but they are attracting attention once again as gas prices march upward and consumers look toward renewable alternatives for investment opportunities and jobs. First Trust Global Wind Energy (FAN) and PowerShares Global Wind Energy (PWND) have responded to the renewed interest, rising 39.73% and 41.92%, respectively, during the three-month period ended June 22. In a June 16 New York Times article, Katie Howell noted that scientists believe that wind power, strategically placed in jet streams, could power up the entire planet. While the push for alternative wind could make both FAN and PWND good holdings for long-haul investors, the funds are different in several key areas.

PWND tracks the NASDAQ OMX Clean Edge® Global Wind Energy Index, which is made up of companies that are primarily manufacturers, developers, distributors, installers and users of energy derived from wind sources. PWND’s index is made up of 31 companies, with 33.40% considered large-cap growth, 25% considered mid-cap growth and 30.67% considered small-cap growth. The top three countries represented in PWND are Spain, France and Denmark, with 23.07%, 14.50% and 11.78% allocations, respectively. When it comes to sector allocations, PWND is made up of 43.59% industrials and 42.77% materials. The expense ratio for PWND is 0.75%.

Given the global economic instability, population trends, environmental, political and social challenges ahead; we are looking at a rapidly evolving requirement for the next ten years or more of increasing sustainable energy solutions.

Note the closing summary analysis, that provides details to these shifts coupled with the increasing price of oil from aging fields in the months and years ahead enabling the growth of sustainable energy sectors as supported by research data including from the EPA, DOE, and International Energy Agency, 2009.

A $3 billion deal has been finalized for the London Array wind farm to be built on a 90-square-mile area that will be 12 miles off the coasts of Kent and Essex. The world's largest offshore wind farm, the London Array will begin construction this summer after the British government doubled the incentives for offshore wind energy, says the project's main owner, Denmark's DONG Energy.

The 1,000-megawatt Thames Estuary behemoth had been in doubt after Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A) pulled out of the scheme last year because of rising costs, leaving DONG with a 50 percent stake, Germany's E.ON AG (EONGY.PK) with 30 percent and Abu Dhabi's renewable energy fund, Masdar, with 20 percent. Madar is just coming off a recent solar panel deal with China's Suntech Power Holdings (STP) and First Solar (FSLR).

Many indicators show that clean techs may lead any potential worldwide economic recovery. For example, since 2005 many of the leaders in turbine manufacturing have opened U.S. facilities; of the top 10 global suppliers in 2007, seven — Vestas Wind Systems (VWDRY.PK), GE (GE) , Gamesa (GCTAF.PK), Suzlon Energy, Siemens (SI), Acciona (ACXIF.PK), and Nordex (NRDXF.PK) — have an American manufacturing presence. (The other three — Enercon, Goldwind, and Sinovel — do not yet sell into the U.S. market.) In addition, the homegrown Clipper Windpower (CRPWF.PK) has joined GE Energy as a major domestic player in the production of utility-scale turbines, with the two companies together capturing 50% of the 2008 domestic market.

Domestic manufacturing for large components in particular, such as towers and blades, has increased significantly over the past several years, with the majority now produced in the U.S. As for the thousands of smaller and midsized components, while the U.S. continues to import some of them (mostly from Europe) many more can now be sourced from American companies.

The financial fiasco has sidelined climate change and energy as hot topics, but the move to sustainability may do far more to shape our lives. Over time, trillions of dollars are likely to be channeled into solutions. For investors, clean and green offer a triple bottom line: Heal the planet, renew the economy and turn a profit.

Green investing is also a terrific way to damage your own bottom line if you make unwise, or unlucky, decisions. In emerging fields with great futures but skimpy track records, shares tend to climb high on faith and fall hard on despair. Crowds of contenders are brutally winnowed, leaving one or two standing and the rest forgotten.

Common knowledge states that wind energy's big drawback is that the wind doesn't blow all the time, so you have a big problem when it doesn't. Denmark's DONG Energy doesn't see it that way.

By 2007, Denmark was getting about 20% of its electricity from wind. As an existing power company integrating wind, it has enough conventional generation to supply demand any time the wind isn't blowing. The problem is when the wind is blowing during a time of low demand (i.e. overnight). In that situation, the wind farms generate more electricity than needed to meet demand. In other words, there is not a market for all the electricity that can be generated by wind, and as a result, DONG Energy is giving up a significant portion of the return on their investment because some of the electricity goes unsold. This is particularly frustrating because DONG Energy is under pressure from Danish political leaders to add more wind energy.

Wind power generating capacity has been growing quickly in the U.S. In 2007, wind capacity grew by 46%, adding 16 million megawatt-hours of electricity to our annual production. The wind turbines were manufactured by seven companies.

By Jennifer Kho

FPL Group (FPL), which owns utility Florida Power and Light Co., said Monday it would build less wind-power capacity than previously expected as part of a 25 percent cut in its planned 2009 capital expenditures.

By Ucilia Wang

The days when wind farm developers had trouble securing turbines might be over.

In a recent trip to China, I experienced the “China Speed” in developing their new mega cities all over the country. The magnitude is beyond my imagination. Anything in this country is “big”. 1.3B population, yes it is a “B”, and let me tell you this, the population of children under age 10 is the same as the whole population of Canada: 40 Million. The China’s biggest city Shanghai is twice the size of New York. The high speed train of Shanghai is two times faster than US, that is half the speed of an airplane.

Then you will ask, where does China get all the energy it needs? The answer is simple, China does not have enough energy to sustain such a magnitude of growth, and it imports crude from every single corner of the earth. And it is planning big for its next generation of energy: Wind power.

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Living in a small town in Western Pennsylvania, I am within 20 miles of several active windfarms, a Gamesa (GCTAF.PK) wind turbine manufacturing plant, a resurgent coal mining industry, Waste Management (WMI) landfill gas capture projects, and natural gas exploration as part of the Marcellus Shale deposit.

Even before T. Boone Pickens stepped up to the podium, investors across America were well aware that energy alternatives would be important, perhaps necessary, to meet the country’s energy needs in the future. Although gas prices have backed off of recent highs, the future of U.S. energy still hangs in the balance.

While investors seem to agree that oil supply is the problem, there is more than one proposed way to deal with unflagging demand. As ideas develop into multinational corporations, investors are looking for a way to become involved in the growing field of alternative energy. ETF issuers have responded with a smattering of funds, designed to offer investors exposure to everything from the growth of energy alternatives to the reduction of fuel emissions. Together, these funds represent ways to invest in the future of energy.

Blackstone, one of the largest U.S. private equity firms, recently announced it's lobbing over $1.5 billion at a German offshore wind farm.

They're not doing it because they feel all warm and fuzzy inside. They're doing it to turn a profit. And I think that we should be heeding their advice.

Even before T. Boone Pickens stepped up to the podium, investors across America were well aware that energy alternatives would be important, perhaps necessary, to meet the country’s energy needs in the future. While gas prices have backed off of recent highs, the future of U.S. energy still hangs in the balance.

While investors seem to agree that oil supply is the problem, there is more than one way proposed to deal with unflagging demand. As ideas develop and multinational corporations are born, investors are looking for a way to become involved in the growing field of alternative energy.

Are you interested in wind energy, but don't have billions to invest like T. Boone Pickens? Are you afraid that you are going to pick the next pets.com, and not ebay.com? Don't fear. IndexUniverse.com is reporting that the PowerShares Nasdaq OMX Clean Edge Global Wind Energy Index (ticker: PWND - prospectus) is expected to begin trading next week.

It is actually not the first wind ETF. A few weeks ago, the First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy Index Fund (ticker: FAN - prospectus) hit the market. The PWND ETF will begin with 31 companies in its portfolio. The FAN ETF currently has 67 companies. Both have a high level of global diversification, which makes sense, given that I am not sure how they could even find 31 companies in the U.S., let along 67, with a significant exposure to wind energy. As a result of reaching out to global players, PWND is able to list that 90% of its companies are pure-plays. FAN has about 66% pure-plays. What is a pure-play? As defined, most of the business in the company must comes directly from wind energy - or specifically, the company must either produce 1,000 megawatts of energy, or generate $1 billion a year from wind-related power. Non-pure-plays include companies such as General Electric and Siemens, each which have significant interest in wind energy, but for which wind is still a relatively small profit center when compared to other business operations.

Infrastructure has become a major theme in the global investment community with spending expected to average $2-trillion annually through 2015. More than half of that is forecast to come from emerging economies. At the same time, the developed world is being forced to rebuild ageing infrastructure like airports, expand inadequate assets and respond to new demands like climate change.

In emerging markets, the public sector can tap large current account surpluses. But developed countries are seeing more private investment from sources like private equity, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, which means reduced vulnerability to slowing spending in the public sector, Edward Kerschner, managing director of U.S. equity research at Citigroup said in a report.

“Exxon (XOM) has taken the most skeptical line of any major oil company towards alternative fuels,” said Exxon's senior vice-president Stephen Simon, testifying before the Select Committee of Energy Independence and Global Warming in Washington, D.C. on April 2, 2008. “The company did not believe that existing technologies in this area were viable - and the company was hoping to ‘leapfrog’ to a new generation of techniques.”

Some scientists say that man is responsible for global warming, causing the atmospheric temperature to rise and glaciers and polar ice caps to melt. It has been estimated that the earth’s average atmospheric temperature has risen about 0.8 degree C over the last 200 years. The Arctic region’s temperature over the same period of time has risen about 1.5 degree C. Some scientists say this is attributed to the absorption of solar radiation caused by particulate in the snow. Instead of reflecting solar radiation, dirty snow is absorbing it. It has been estimated that this effect has contributed to about 19% of global warming or about 0.15 degree C. As more layers of snow melt, more particulate is exposed causing the rate of ice and snow to melt exponentially. Scientists say that if global warming is not reversed, all the world’s polar ice caps may melt over the next 500 years and the sea levels may rise about 90 meters. Many countries in the Caribbean along with USA eastern seaboard states, as well as Florida and Louisiana, Canada’s east coast, South Viet Nam and Bangladesh may be under water along with the majority of world cities currently located along ocean coast lines.

This week's piece was dedicated to the economics of wind power. Citing studies conducted in the Netherlands and Denmark, two wind power markets that are comparatively more developed than most North American markets (barring maybe Texas), the piece argues that, once a significant part of its initial costs have been paid off, wind power can reduce average power prices significantly because the marginal cost of producing it is close to zero (the fuel is free).