Green energy sales seen quadrupling in decade�|�Reuters.com: " Global annual sales of renewable energies such as wind, solar and biofuels could more than quadruple in a decade to nearly $170 billion if oil prices remain high and technology costs fall, according to a study.
Global sales of green sources of energy more than doubled in 2005 to $39.9 billion, according to California research and publishing firm Clean Edge.
Sales could grow to a $167.2 billion by 2015, according to Clean Edge, whose forecasts on renewable energy have been met or exceeded by the market for the past four years.
If green sales grew to that size, it would still be tiny compared to the conventional energy market.
But green energy is the fastest growing energy sector, especially after oil prices hit a record of nearly $71 a barrel in August as a wave of hurricanes hit the Gulf of Mexico. Nearly a quarter of crude output in the United States, the world's top energy consumer, is still out after the storms.
The biggest green energy sector is biofuels --ethanol and diesel from renewable resources -- particularly on rising numbers of flex-fuel vehicles, cars that run on both conventional and alternative cars.
'Flex-fuels was a term that was rarely uttered even a year ago,' Joel Makower, a co-founder of Clean Edge told reporters on a conference call about the study. 'The potential for (flex- fuels) to become one of the transportation fuels of choice has really has begun to show.'
A few million flex-fuel cars are rolling on U.S. roads today, but building a widespread biofuel distribution system for them is one obstacle the industry faces, the report said. Continued...
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