| The second edition of our renewable energy roll call
Low Carbon Accelerator
 London, UK
Mark Shorrock
PUBLIC
The only specialist, low-carbon listed private equity fund, Low Carbon Accelerator's (LCA) stock is a classic play for investors who want the exposure to a promising sector but not the risk. LCA raised £44.5m (€65.5m) when it floated on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM). CIO Steve Mahon says: 'This sector looks hot because it is hot – but if you don't have specialist experience, you only see what others see.' He adds that LCA's stock is 'fairly tightly held'; 'We foresee no significant exits in the first two years,' he says.
Acciona
 Madrid, Spain
José M. Entrecanales
PUBLIC
Acciona CEO José Entrecanales is profiled in this issue (see The energy conquistador, p54). Acciona is a diversified group with strong infrastructure and real estate divisions, but the renewable energy division is also growing strongly. The division incorporated billion-euro purchase CESA – one of Spain's largest wind energy players – last year, increasing wind power capacity by 78%. Revenues at the energy division rose 60.3% to €851m. Acciona's share price gained 49.39% in 2006, with a market cap of €10.24bn by 24 February.
Impax Group
 London, UK
Ian Simm
PUBLIC
Certainly a pioneer in this field, Impax was launched in 1994. Funds under management grew from €338m to €600m between November 2005 and August 2006. Impax also has a thriving corporate finance arm devoted to the environmental sector. Director of investments Bruce Jenkyn-Jones says that 2006 was a 'breakthrough' year for the sector – this can be seen in the outperformance of the Impax-created ET50 index, which soared above benchmark indices over the course of the year.
Vattenfall
 Stockholm, Sweden
Lars G. Josefsson
PUBLIC
Trading under the slogan 'Climate protection through innovation', Europe's fourth-largest power generator is at the forefront of carbon capture and storage (CCS) research and will by mid-2008 have a 30 MW pilot plant operating near its lignite-fired power plant at Schwarze Pumpe, Germany. Given the world's continuing addiction to coal, whoever leads the way in CCS technology is set to be honoured by the environmental lobby and investors alike. It's a huge market, and Vattenfall is in a good position to lead it.
Sterecycle
 London, UK
Duncan Grierson
PRIVATE
Sterecycle recycles waste that would typically be landfilled and thus emit methane into the atmosphere, and converts organic waste into a renewable energy biomass. The company has raised €15m of equity finance to date and expects to float in 2007. It is negotiating several major contracts with local authorities for sales of over €29m. The market opportunity is vast – a typical Sterecycle plant will process 100,000 tonnes of household waste a year, while the UK landfills 20 million tonnes.
Aixtron
 Aachen, Germany
Paul Hyland
PUBLIC
Aixtron is a leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry. Its technology is used to build advanced components for electronic and optoelectronic applications based on compound, silicon or organic semiconductors. Aixtron was founded in 1983 by one of the present board members, Dr Holger Juergensen. In 1997, the company went public. Sales revenues of €171.7m were generated in 2006. Environmental protection and the responsible use of resources are essential elements of Aixtron's business strategy.
Greenstone Carbon Management
 London, UK
Dr Belinda Howell
PRIVATE
Previously director of sustainable solutions for Europe at URS Corporation, Belinda Howell left to head up Greenstone, a start-up carbon management consultancy founded last March. With an MBA as well as a PhD in biochemistry, she sees ample room for business growth. Howell and her talent-packed board are developing a sophisticated piece of software to enable large organisations to accurately measure, track and reduce their carbon footprints, making Greenstone another one to watch.
TEG Group
 Preston, UK
Mick Fishwick
PUBLIC
TEG converts green waste into compost to reduce landfill. The company has had two major breaks this year – firstly, winning a role as sole supplier to a consortium expected to provide recycling facilities for the whole of Manchester in the UK, and secondly, the UK budget in March, which effectively guaranteed a massive hike in the price of these sorts of services owing to the £8 per tonne increase in landfill tax that begins in 2008. This doubling in costs is sure to spur recycling, and AIMlisted TEG is likely to attract investor interest in 2007.
Vestas Wind  Systems
Randers, Denmark
Ditlev Engel
PUBLIC
Vestas' core business comprises the development, manufacture, sale, marketing and maintenance of wind power systems to generate electricity. The company started to manufacture wind turbines in 1979 and by 1987 was focused exclusively on wind energy. Since then, Vestas has developed from a pioneer with a staff of around 60 to a global, market-leading group with more than 11,900 employees (September 2006). Over the years, Vestas has built up a global sales and service network.
Energetix Group
 Chester, UK
Adrian Hutchings
PUBLIC
Founded in 1997 by Adrian Hutchings and floated on AIM in August 2006, Energetix has developed several alternative energy products such as the Pnu Power, a compressed air battery that reduces the demand for lead acid batteries and the environmental impact of their production and disposal, and the Genlec domestic CHP, a boiler that also produces electricity and is estimated to save a tonne of CO2 per year. Part of Energetix's ongoing business is the development of further energy efficient products.
NIBE Industrier
 Markaryd, Sweden
Gerteric Lindquist
PUBLIC
NIBE Industrier, founded in 1989, currently employs 5,500 people and has annual sales of some €536m. The company consists of three business areas – NIBE Heating, NIBE Stoves and NIBE Element – all of which are engaged in product development, manufacturing and marketing. Products include heatpumps and wood-burning stoves, which reduce electricity and oil use. A strong economy and good market conditions in Europe, combined with brisk demand for energysaving products, are aiding NIBE's growth.
New Earth Solutions
Wimpole, UK
 Bill Riddle
PRIVATE
Bill Riddle is a classic entrepreneur with a proven business in the rapidly growing biowaste processing sector. 'It's no longer 'fill a dustbin and tip it in a hole',' he says. '68% of household waste is biodegradable – compost it and you anchor the carbon. The remaining 32% has many other uses.' Riddle's raised over €70m to roll out processing plants across the UK, and has already won his first big contract. Like all true winners in this sector, he is not new to it – he started with a landfill site in 1982.
Carbon Capital Markets
 London, UK
Lionel Fretz
PRIVATE
Carbon Capital Markets (CCM) doubled turnover in the past year to €180m. Its principal investor is Portugal's Horácio Carvalho, whose Grupo HLC is involved in renewable power. 'If you buy a carbon credit from us, you can be sure that it would have arisen from a real investment in a real project,' says CCM head of asset management Karen McClellan. 'What we do is still consistent with Kyoto's aim to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the developing world towards sustainable development. It's not easy, of course, but CCM is playing its role.'
VaCom
 California, US
Doug Scott
PRIVATE
VaCom helps clients optimise energy usage using modern control techniques for vapour compression technologies. The company designs and implements high-payback industrial refrigeration systems that usually qualify for regional utility incentives. VaCom, a privately held corporation formed in 1992, is currently helping to implement the Savings by Design programme, in which California utilities offer financial incentives for efficient refrigeration construction
Epistar Corporation
 Hsinchu, Taiwan
Charles Chen
PUBLIC
Formed in 1996, Epistar develops, manufactures and markets high-brightness lightemitting diode (LED) products, applying its own proprietary metal organic vapour phase epitaxy technology. Currently, the company has a paid-in capital of around €32.5m. LEDs, which are compact and have low power consumption and long operational life, are widely used in fax machines, scanners and indicators for various consumer electronic devices, and will eventually be used as more general light sources.
Novera Energy
 London, UK
David Fitzsimmons
PUBLIC
Novera Energy is an established, UK-focused energy company that generates electricity from renewable sources using a portfolio of three businesses: Wind, Waste & Water, and Landfill Gas. The company owns and operates mature, proven and low-risk renewable energy-generating assets, and 98% of its output is sold under 15–20-year contracts to investment-grade customers including the UK government's Non-Fossil Purchasing Agency. It has been listed on AIM since 2005.
Climate  Exchange
London, UK
Neil Eckert
PUBLIC
Since its last mention in CNBC European Business, Climate Exchange's profile has risen further owing to Goldman Sachs' near-doubling of its share in the company from around 10% to 19%. The bank paid just €23m for its initial 10.1% stake last September, yet some believe that global carbon trading could be worth over a trillion dollars within five years. Formerly an insurance man, CEO Neil Eckert has cornered 80% of the European carbon trading market.
Geothermal International
 Coventry, UK
Brian Davidson
PRIVATE
Founded in 2000, Geothermal International designs and installs ground-source heating and cooling systems for commercial and residential buildings. It has installed over 5 MW of heating and cooling systems in the past two years, and is set to double this rate in the coming 12 months. Ground source heating and cooling is a tried and tested renewable technology, and has been widely adopted in countries such as Sweden; the UK and other major European countries are sure to follow.
Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company
Abu Dhabi, UAE
 Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber
PRIVATE
The Abu Dhabi government launched the $250m (€187m) Masdar Clean Tech Fund in September 2006, in conjunction with UK company Consensus Business Group and Credit Suisse. The company is focused on solar opportunities and carbon capture solutions that take advantage of exhausted oil wells, both natural investments in the Gulf. The Middle East might be set to play a specialist role in clean-tech applications due to its oil-driven private equity renaissance and emerging specialist applications in anti-flaring technology.
Zenergy Power
Rheinbach, Germany
 Jens Müller
PUBLIC
Zenergy is currently focusing on high-temperature superconductor (HTS) technology. HTS was discovered in the late 1980s, and its large-scale commercialisation is nearly upon us. Some estimates have suggested that the market for HTS will be €3.7bn by 2010 and €28.4bn by 2020. This projection may depend on the price of copper, which HTS effectively replaces in the process of transmitting large amounts of energy very efficiently. Zenergy's share price has risen 40% since the company floated last August.
Ocean Power Delivery
 Edinburgh, Scotland
Dr Richard Yemm
PRIVATE
Ocean Power Delivery (OPD) is the developer of Pelamis, a wave energy converter. Pelamis is the result of extensive testing, modelling and development by OPD and utilises technology and techniques developed for the offshore oil and gas industry. OPD is currently installing the world's first wave farm in Portugal and has recently announced a €15m project with ScottishPower. OPD was started in 1998 to commercialise the Pelamis concept and has since raised more than €30m of investment.
Acta
Pisa, Italy
 Paolo Bert
PUBLIC
Acta is a manufacturer of platinumfree catalysts for the portable electronics and renewables markets with a market capitalisation of around €60m. Acta's products are aimed at two core markets: the portable electronics fuel cell market, expected to be worth €9bn in 2011, and the fast-developing renewable energy market, expected to be worth €15bn in 2015. Acta's catalysts can be used to provide high performance at reduced cost in many different applications within these markets.
RPS Group
Oxfordshire, UK
 Dr Alan Hearne
PUBLIC
Founded as Rural Planning Services Ltd, the UK's first environmental consultancy, in 1970, RPS offers consultancy on planning and development, environmental management and energy resources. RPS moved from the USM to the London Stock Exchange's full list in 1995, and has since enjoyed a period of sustained and impressive growth. Annual turnover in 2006 was €437m. The company employs more than 3,000 staff based at 60 offices throughout the UK and 31 international offices in Europe, North America and the Far East.
Q-Cells
Thalheim, Germany
 Anton Milner
PUBLIC
Founded in 1999, Q-Cells is now the second-largest producer of solar cells worldwide, with sales in 2006 amounting to €539.5m. Solar energy has a lot of advantages: the production of electricity using photovoltaic technology is carbon-free (if production is added, it is still a low-carbon technology), and solar power is perfect for decentralised off-grid use in developing countries. By focusing on cell production, Q-Cells uses its R&D capacities to optimise its products and processes.
Climate  Change Capital
London, UK
Mark Woodall
PRIVATE
Climate Change Capital (CCC) chairman James Cameron recently said: 'I really like the idea of making money and doing good, and I'm perfectly happy if it happens in that order.' This will be music to the ears of investors if the company ever goes public, but our high estimation rests on the fact that CCC works both as a niche consultancy in the low-carbon sphere and as a sharp tool for dissolving obstacles to a free, low-carbon global marketplace.
EDF Energies Nouvelles
 Paris, France
Paris Mouratoglou
PUBLIC
The half of Energies Nouvelles (EN) not owned by parent EDF was floated last November in a watershed move that is likely to result in further flotations of renewable divisions among the energy majors. EDF's renewable division installed gross capacity of 1,037 MW last year and recently announced the opening of a new 72 MW wind farm in Puglia, southern Italy, through Italian partner Fri- El Green Power. The four main activities of EDF EN are wind, hydro, biomass and solar, and its profits rose 36% in 2006.
Ecosecurities
Dublin, Ireland
 Bruce Usher
PUBLIC
Another carbon credit originator under the terms of the UN Clean Development Mechanism, Ecosecurities floated in 2005. Recently posted full-year results showed certified emissions reductions (CERs) up by 119% to 127 million tonnes, one of the largest portfolios in the world. Forward sales of CERs worth €287m were completed in 2006, but actual revenues were €3.1m and the group made an expected loss of €19m on account of expansion.
ZEDfactory
Wallington, UK
 Bill Dunster
PRIVATE
UK house builders are notoriously some of the most backward in the world, but ZEDfactory CEO Bill Dunster has been trying to change that since 1998. His 'zero energy development' company is today a 20-strong architectural practice with a rapidly growing, consumer-facing consultancy business. Dunster says: 'Our target is a zero carbon/zero waste society capable of running off the limited supplies of renewable energy available within our national boundaries.' We predict rapid growth from activist consumers.
ReneSola
Zhejiang, China
 Li Xian Shou
PUBLIC
AIM-listed since last August, ReneSola's share price trebled from £2 to £6 before coming down to a stable price point at around £5. Formerly called the Zhejiang Yuhui Solar Energy Source Company, ReneSola reclaims scrap silicon to make large quantities of solar panels, a classic low-cost Chinese manufacturing play. Production is set to reach 265 MW by the end of the year. This is China's largest solar player and will surely experience huge growth domestically and internationally.
SolarWorld
Bonn, Germany
 Frank H. Asbeck
PUBLIC
SolarWorld is a specialist in solar energy technology and components, from photovoltaic cells and integrated PV roof systems to inverters and assembly kits. The company now has advanced factories to comprehensively supply the expanding solar market and employs more than 1.300 people in Germany, Sweden, South Africa, the US and Asia. In the strategically important solar market of the future – the US – SolarWorld has now positioned itself as the only fully integrated solar group with its own production facilities.
CO2e
London, UK
 Steve Drummond
PRIVATE
A division of brokerage services company Cantor Fitzgerald, CO2e was founded in 2000 and today has 40+ staff and global offices. Recently it merged with Cantor Environmental Brokerage to offer finance, advice, technology and transaction services to clients engaged in managing emissions. CO2e recently did a deal with the UK government to offset the entire carbon emissions of the Foreign Office, and is strong in financial structuring and related carbon trading and brokerage activities.
WinWinD
Oulu, Finland
 Veli-Matti Jääskeläinen
PRIVATE
This is the leading Finnish wind turbine manufacturer behind the WWD turbine concept, which combines German engineering expertise with Finnish know-how in energy production. The turbine is based on a reliable planetary gear and a low-speed synchronous generator, and also reflects a partnership with fellow Finns Moventas Wind and ABB. Last year saw Indian investor Avis Ventures inject €20m in WinWinD, allowing Avis parent company Sterling Infotech Group to assume a 40% stake overall.
Argent Energy
Motherwell, Scotland
 Douglas Ward
PRIVATE
Sustained criticism of the likely effect of biofuel escalation on food prices will not faze Argent, whose business model rests on creating biodiesel from biowaste. Argent recently announced that it had signed a letter of intent with Shell New Zealand aimed at meeting mandatory biofuel targets due to begin in New Zealand next year. Argent already operates a plant in Scotland producing 50,000 tonnes of biofuel per year. There is a rumour that it may seek a listing this year to fund further expansion.
Solar Ventures
Milan, Italy
 Michele Appendino
PRIVATE
INSEAD-trained Appendino is a veteran of the dotcom boom, during which he launched seed capital vehicle Net Partners Ventures and subsequently AME Ventures. The latter has eight companies under its wing. Appendino's decision to enter the solar energy arena directly is highly significant, as is his vision for the technology in the whole Mediterranean/southern Europe region. Specifically, he wants Solar Ventures to be one of the leading developers of solar energy power plants in this part of the world.
Carbon Capital
London, UK
 Stuart Clenaghan
PRIVATE
In the 15 months to April 2006, Carbon Capital raised €375m; this is now invested in 30 carbon trading partnerships. Perhaps controversially in light of recent debate, Carbon Capital has focused on reforestation projects as a means of generating carbon credits under the UN Clean Development Mechanism. The type of trees grown and the planting density used heavily influence net carbon sequestration, so although the principle is not disputed, Carbon Capital's business model may evolve away from forestry projects.
CarbonNeutral Company
 London, UK
Jonathan Shopley
PRIVATE
This leading carbon offset and advisory company has positioned itself to grow fast within the voluntary carbon market sector while troubleshooting many of the objections to the non-regulated aspect of its originally forest-centred offset programmes. A large part of the company's revenues are derived from consultancy work with the private sector. Companies are voluntarily going 'carbon neutral' to overhaul their image, and CNC has a long list of blue chip clients to prove it.
Sindicatum
London, UK
 Assaad Razzouk
PRIVATE
Sindicatum is a specialist financial advisory and asset management firm led by a team of experienced professionals with, on average, more than 15 years of international investment banking or asset management experience, covering the equity capital markets, M&A, private placements, direct investments, fund management, and structured debt and equity businesses. It wholly owns Victoire Finance Capital and Sindicatum Carbon Capital, a developer of Clean Development Mechanism projects.
Eneco
Salt Lake City, US
Lew Brown
PRIVATE
A thermal chip converts heat energy to electricity, and waste heat is a massive potential market. Eneco has been privately funded since 1991 and is within a year of selling heat recovery equipment to large players such as steel mills. The devices are scalable from steel mills right down to laptops, where processor heat can produce additional power to reduce fan consumption for cooling purposes. 'We will list some day, not to raise money but to provide liquidity for some of our long-standing investors,' says CEO Lew Brown.
HTC Purenergy
Regina, Canada
 Lionel Kambeitz
PUBLIC
Also known as Hydrogen Technologies Corporation, this is one of the rarer, comparatively small companies directly involved in carbon capture and storage, although the more obvious application is still enhanced oil recovery rather than addressing global warming. Key markets include Australia, the US and China, and HTC is already in the process of proving its technology in Norway. Like all such companies, this one is pre-product and loss-making, so the risks are comparatively high for investors.
BioDiesel International
Graz, Austria
Wilhelm Hammer
PUBLIC
Listed on the Frankfurt exchange last September, this is Europe's top biodiesel plant manufacturer. It built the first biodiesel fuel pipeline at Lobau, Vienna. Orders for plants from Spain and Denmark since flotation confirm that the company is in a strong position to benefit from a rapidly expanding sector, and because the company provides multi-feedstock plants that can take different raw materials – such as vegetable oils, waste edible oils and animal fats – flexibility is guaranteed.
Ceres Power Holdings
London, UK
 Peter Bance
PUBLIC
AIM-listed since November 2004 and originally an academic spin-off, Ceres Power Holdings specialises in fuel cell technology. It already has revenue-generating contracts with British Gas, supplying combined heat and power units. The holy grail for Ceres is a future where the masses buy domestic fuel cells to absorb and then discharge otherwise patchy electricity from a micro-source such as a wind turbine; meanwhile, the same technology can be vastly scaled up and sold to energy producers. Of course, Ceres is a risky investment for the same reasons.
Prometheus
Seattle, US
 Kirt Montague
PUBLIC
The Americans are on London's AIM market as well, in this case since last September. Prometheus's share price initially sagged, then rose 20% over list price and has since settled into a fairly firm but narrow range around £0.95. The company hopes to clean up in the area of distributed fuel production, integrating purification and liquefaction systems that generate fuel near the end user – in particular from waste products producing methane – leading to distributed liquified natural gas production.
Camco International
Jersey, Channel Islands
 Tristan Fischer
PUBLIC
Camco CEO Tristan Fischer previously worked for Shell's wind division. Camco originates carbon credits via projects in the developing world, selling them to buyers in the developed world. The company floated last April and its share price promptly dived a third; since then it has traded in low volumes across a fairly narrow price range. This is a typical pattern in a sector that desperately needs post-Kyoto certainty for the longer term and a less indulgent setting of targets by national governments.
Greenvironment
Berlin, Germany
 Matti Malkamäki
PRIVATE
Greenvironment is a Germany-based Finnish company concentrating on bioenergy, specifically the harnessing and burning of locally sourced biogases. The main owners of Greenvironment are its founders, Finnish Seedcap, managed by Innofinance, Finnish Industry Investment, Midinvest and German TeamVenture. Relatively little information is available about financials, but the market for microturbines that can burn multiple fuels is a rapidly growing one and it is possible that the company will float to fund international expansion.
Thenergo
Brussels, Belgium
 Kurt Alen
PUBLIC
Copying the EDF Energies Nouvelles model, Theolia hived off its non-wind assets into Theolia Benelux, recently renaming the wholly owned subsidiary Thenergo. Theolia itself is a pure-play, independent wind farm developer hoping for government subsidies; it opened its first wind farm last year. Thenergo represents biomass, biogas and solar and recently paid €5.1m for Dutch biogas specialist Polargen. Currently you can only invest in Thenergo by investing in Theolia, which is listed on Eurolist B of Euronext Paris.
GoinGreen
London, UK
 Keith Johnston
PRIVATE
The G-Wiz electric car was launched in 2004. With no dealers, no showrooms, no advertising and no sales team, producer GoinGreen has sold over 850 vehicles in London alone. GoinGreen's operational model focuses as much on reducing the costs of emission-free cars as it does on taking pollution out of the air. The G-Wiz reduces the impact of emissions by 74% when charged with ordinary electricity, and by close to 100% when charged with electricity from renewable sources. There are no plans to float the business.
Porvair
Norfolk, UK
 Ben Stocks
PUBLIC
Porvair has a range of specialist filtration businesses with applications in the nuclear, aerospace, molten metals and liquid microfiltration fields. It is also involved in developing new porous and microporous materials for growth areas of the future, namely diesel particulate filtration, coal gasification and fuel cell technology. The company aims to develop a range of growth opportunities by capitalising on its market knowledge and technical expertise.
Living Villages
Shropshire, UK
 Bob Tomlinson
PRIVATE
Living Villages builds energyefficient new housing and encourages an ecofriendly lifestyle. It offers a development partnership that covers the following areas: initial eco-build concepts and objectives for development sites; achieving environmental and social benefits through appropriate design; assessing the viability of the project, producing a business plan and getting funding; presenting the case to local authorities and planners; and marketing the project, publicising it and making sure that it achieves its objectives.
The Tanfield Group
Tyne and Wear, UK
 Darren Kell
PUBLIC
The Tanfield Group is a holding company with a market capitalisation of more than €360m and more than 700 employees in the UK, US, China, Japan and Europe. Its subsidiary, Smith Electric Vehicles, manufactures commercial electric vehicles. The group was founded in 1996 and floated on AIM in 2003. Group sales figures for 2006 totalled over €60m and over €7m in operating profit. The company's share price has more than quadrupled over the past 12 months.
Windsave
Glasgow, UK
 David Gordon
PRIVATE
We're still keen on this as-yet unlisted maker of micro wind turbines, although since Windsave was last mentioned in CNBC European Business there has been a range of articles citing the difficulty of generating wind energy in most suburban locations owing to the break-up of steady wind around roofs. Remote farmhouses and holiday homes facing the seaside are best. Planning permission for turbines remains an uncertain issue in the UK and elsewhere, but if anyone can succeed, Windsave CEO David Gordon can.
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