Alternative Profits Blog
Investing in Water - Less Glamorous, More Basic
In all the hype we read about electric cars and solar powered handbags, it is easy for us to miss some less-glamorous but far more significant opportunities.Take water for instance. Did I say water? Yes, I did. You are justified in asking - so what has that got to do with alternative energy. And I say - lots.
Read this: (source)
"It's easy to overlook, but water and energy are very tightly linked.
Bottom line: Without water, it's impossible to generate energy. Whether it's nuclear, hydro, coal, or oil - abundant supplies of water are absolutely necessary when it comes to generating energy. Take a look:
* It takes as much as 2 billion gallons of water per day to refine just 800 million gallons of petroleum products...
* Oil shale extraction uses about 5 barrels of water for every one barrel of oil produced...
* 800 gallons of water are required to generate one megawatt-hour of electricity...
* Nuclear plants suck up more than 33 million gallons of water each day for cooling purposes...
* And a typical 500-megawatt coal power plant uses up about 2.2 billion gallons of water each year - enough to support a city of 250,000 people.
"
The bigger reason why water is an attractive investment is of course that going beyong energy, it is needed for us to live. And developed nations such as the US spend ginormous efforts to keep their water clean. Now, look at the $11.28 billion funding provided to water industry by the US government in order to ensure that its citizens get clean and healthy water (source):
* $3.9 billion for EPA Water Loan Programs
* $6 billion for EPA Clean Water State Revolving Funds
* $1.38 billion for the USDA Rural Water and Waste Disposal Program
And remember, in many parts of the world - and this includes many developed countries - water supplies are getting scarcer, and getting clean water to people is becoming more difficult than ever before.
As this article at Energy and Capital cleverly argues, all these funds will be reaching many companies operating in the water supply industry. So, it is not difficult to see how some of the companies benefitting from the funding could be doing very, very well indeed.
It is quite possible similar funding and investment support are happening in other rich countries worldwide.
So, add up the facts together on water, and you can clearly see attractive investment opportunities there.
posted by Ecacofonix at
10:11 PM
Sunday, June 14, 2009
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