Tech

Starwood looks to clean up in green energy industry

By Zhang Qi (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-26 08:01

BEIJING - Robert F. Kennedy Jr, environmental advocate and senior adviser to Starwood Energy Group, said on Monday that the group is exploring investment opportunities in the Chinese utility-scale renewable generation industry in the booming green sector.

"We are seeking investment opportunities in wind farms and utility-scale solar power generation in the Chinese market, as we see increasing demand for renewable energy in China," Kennedy told China Daily in Beijing on his first trip to the country.

"While the regulatory framework and market dynamics are still evolving, the Chinese government has made a huge commitment to a green society, and that will increasingly attract offshore institutional investors."

Kennedy and Starwood Energy Group's vice-chairman, Madison F. Grose, have already spoken with some large renewable energy companies, including New York-listed Yingli Green Energy and provincial officials from Hebei province and Chongqing municipality about potential cooperative opportunities.

Kennedy - who is also a partner in VantagePoint Venture Partners, one of the world's premiere clean-tech investment firms - entered into the clean-tech investment sector three years ago as he perceived clean energy as a weapon against pollution from conventional energy sources after decades of fighting for the environment.

He said he is also exploring opportunities in China for VantagePoint's portfolio companies.

As chairman of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 environmental groups working to protect waterways, Kennedy said China has done great work in reducing emissions and energy consumption. Ernst & Young's latest report pointed out that China has overtaken the United States in terms of clean-tech investment.

China aims to increase the use of renewable energy to 15 percent of its primary consumption by 2020. It has also pledged to reduce its carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 from the 2005 level.

Li Junfeng, deputy director-general of the Energy Research Institute under the National Development and Reform Commission, said China has expanded with unprecedented pace in renewable energy industries such as wind and nuclear power, although compared with conventional energy sources, such as coal and oil, they are still small scale.

Many cities in China are banking on the development of green energy as an economic growth engine. Tianjin's new Binhai district has budgeted $19.4 billion this year for the establishment of environmentally friendly projects.

Wan Zhihong contributed to this story.

China Daily