Agoracom Blog

Small-Cap Alternative Energy Co’s Heading To Germany

Posted by AGORACOM at 12:11 PM on Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

Show of hands … how many of you knew that Germany is the world leader in renewable energy technology, manufacturing, sales and employment? Not me, that’s for sure but it’s not surprising when you think about the German reputation for innovation.

Germany has hundreds of renewable energy companies. They make photovoltaic (PV) cells, wind turbines, solar thermal panels, biofuels and technology for biomass plants and geothermal energy. The impact on the economy has been huge:

  • 240,000 jobs in the renewable energy industry, 140,000 of them since 2001.
  • Renewable energy technologies make up 4 to 5% of Germany’s GDP.
  • Germany expects the figure to rise to 16% by 2025.
  • Renewables generated 14% of the country’s electricity last year, significantly ahead of the 12.5% target set for 2010.

Germany has accomplished much of this by offering great incentives to foreign companies to set up shop in Germany.

SMALL-CAPS HEADING TO GERMANY

All of this information came from this story at GlobeInvestor.com, which talks about the German experience of Arise Technologies (APV: TSXV), a Canadian small-cap that was floundering in oil-rich Canada but quickly accelerated its business plan when the Germans “tracked him down and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse – free money, and lots of it – as long as Arise promised to build a PV factory on German soil.”

Today, Arise’s first factory is about a month away from completion. A two story, 100,000 square foot building will employ 150 people and produce enough PV cells each year to power the equivalent of 60,000 houses. The value of the annual output, based on today’s prices, will be $375-million, or more than three times the company’s current value on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

“I couldn’t build this in Canada,” said CEO Ian MacLellan. “Germany is a very high-quality environment for us. I have nothing to worry about.”

This is a great article. Highly recommended reading for investors…and mandatory reading for CEO’s of small-cap alternative energy companies in both Canada and the United States.

Regards,
George

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