The colour of money

With the technology investment sector buckling under the strains of the credit crunch, Anne Harris discovers that renewable energy continues to flourish. With the financial markets seemingly crumbling around our ears, it would appear to be an inopportune time for the renewable energy sector to begin its huge growth push to meet the UK government's testing 2020 targets. But the good news is that the green energy sector is one of the few that is forging ahead despite the current climate. "The clean energy sector is one that is bucking the trend because there is so much demand for new solutions and new technologies in that space," Peter Linthwaite, managing partner at Carbon Trust Investment Partners, explains. "Companies that have good technologies and ideas in that space will be able to raise capital and continue to grow. Where the credit crunch may have an effect is on the large-scale project financing such as large offshore wind farms." Recent weeks ahve seen US institutions Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch join the list of ailing financial houses, and it seems certain that there are more to follow as the financial freefall continues and the credit crunch tightens its steely grip.