“Clean Energy Sector is Dead”
“The whole sector — solar, wind, hydrogen, fuel cells — anything clean is dead for now”, says Nishant Gupta, founder and chief investment officer at London-based Kanou Capital LLP. First published by Jo Nova.
Nishant Gupta set up a green energy hedge fund last year managing about $100m in assets, but he probably wishes he hadn’t.
His words are about as blunt as any hedge fund owner could possibly get.
Hedge Fund Built on Energy Bets Says ‘Clean Is Dead for Now’
Bloomberg
“The whole sector — solar, wind, hydrogen, fuel cells — anything clean is dead for now,” said Nishant Gupta, founder and chief investment officer at London-based Kanou Capital LLP.
Against a barrage of political headwinds in the US, a war-fueled energy crisis and stubbornly high interest rates, large parts of the clean-energy industry are stalling. In the past year, the S&P Global Clean Energy Index has lost 20%, a period during which the S&P 500 Index gained 16%. And with the Trump administration shredding climate policies in the world’s largest economy, many green investors are taking a timeout.
Over the last year clean energy stocks have lost 20% of their value, whereas stocks in fossil fuels are up 13%.
So after the last year, skeptical investors are 30% richer than their believer friends. As it should be.
Gupta now says that ““The fundamentals are very poor”. Which is true if you were fundamentally betting on government handouts. The truth is the electrical fundamentals of Green investment were always awful, as were the “carbon” fundamentals. Investors should have got better advice from friends who were engineers who saw that unreliable renewables were an expensive fantasy that were doomed years ago.
He still claims there is some long term need for a clean energy transition, but his big plan is to find the “corners” of the market where he can identify “supply-chain bottlenecks as core investment opportunities”. Apparently that means he’s moved into companies that make compressors, vacuum systems and switches and fuses. Which sounds a lot like a man who’s stepped right out of the clean energy space.
The fall for clean energy shares started at the end of September last year, presumably as it dawned on green investors that Kamala was not going to win and keep the subsidies rolling.
The great unravelling of the Green delusion continues. Amazing that there is still 80% of the clean energy sector value left on the chopping block.
more news
Dutch Climate ‘Hero’ Donald Pols Had Far-Right Past; Friends of the Earth Knew
Donald Pols was one of the most recognisable figures in the Dutch environmental movement. In 2021, he achieved a landmark victory when a Dutch court ruled that Shell must accelerate its emissions reductions. Following his highly controversial move to Tata Steel last month, it has now emerged that Pols was chairman of the Afrikaner Student Front (ASF) during his youth—a far-right student organisation that opposed the dismantling of apartheid. Friends of the Earth Netherlands, his former employer, has been aware of this part of his past for at least five years.
Can US and India Forge a ‘Big, Beautiful’ Energy Deal?
India has never seriously embraced the fantasy that wind and solar technologies can sustain an industrial economy. A U.S.-India alliance would strike at the heart of the corrupt climate lobby, says Vijay Jayaraj.
“Friends of the Earth sounded like a spoiled child in court appeal against Shell”
Friends of the Earth Netherlands recently filed an appeal with the Dutch Hoge Raad against Shell and the Mens en Milieu Foundation in a last effort to force the company to implement significant worldwide emissions reductions. Lucas Bergkamp, a physician and attorney in Brussels, assisted Mens en Milieu in the proceeding and reported on the hearing: “Friends of the Earth looked tired and sounded like a spoiled child.”
