{"id":29531,"date":"2012-05-08T23:24:50","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T03:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/forex-news\/2012\/05\/why-europe-will-ditch-green-energy\/"},"modified":"2012-05-08T23:24:50","modified_gmt":"2012-05-09T03:24:50","slug":"why-europe-will-ditch-green-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/2012\/05\/08\/why-europe-will-ditch-green-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Europe Will Ditch Green Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By <a href=\"http:\/\/www.MoneyMorning.com.au\" target=\"_blank\">MoneyMorning.com.au<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You may think Europe is the last place you should invest.  <\/p>\n<p>If you think that, you&#8217;re wrong.<\/p>\n<p>The European economy is in a huge hole and there&#8217;s only one way to get out of it&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>In fact, in the latest <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.portphillippublishing.com.au\/research\/vp\/ASI\/n04puntparareg-tp.php?code=W9AAN304\" target=\"_blank\">Australian Small-Cap Investigator<\/a><\/em>, we argue that some of 2012&#8242;s biggest gains could come from Europe. And one industry in particular&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><H3><center>Japan&#8217;s Green Energy Lesson for Europe<\/H3><\/center><\/p>\n<p>But before we head back to Europe, let&#8217;s make a quick stop in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailyreckoning.com.au\/not-so-big-in-japan\/2012\/04\/02\/\">Japan<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This week Japan switched off its last nuclear reactor.  Before last year&#8217;s earthquake and tsunami, nuclear power accounted for about 15% of Japan&#8217;s electricity generation&#8230;<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/images\/mm20120509b.jpg\" alt=\"share of total electricity in Japan\" border=\"0\"><\/div>\n<p><em><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">Source: Forbes<\/div>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Most of the rest was from coal, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/20120216\/the-two-best-ways-to-profit-from-rising-oil-and-natural-gas-prices.html\">oil and natural gas<\/a> (about 70%).  <strong>Green energy<\/strong> (solar and wind power) made up just 1%&#8230;and that&#8217;s <em>after<\/em> a 295% increase from the year before!<\/p>\n<p>The reason we mention Japan is this: it has no <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/20120119\/the-scramble-for-natural-resources-in-central-asia.html\">natural resources<\/a>.  It doesn&#8217;t have coal, oil or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/20120423\/why-natural-gas-is-still-my-favourite-resource-opportunity.html\">natural gas<\/a> deposits. And there isn&#8217;t a uranium mine in sight.<\/p>\n<p>If ever a country needed to secure a domestic <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/20120414\/energy-beats-volatility.html\">energy supply<\/a>, it&#8217;s Japan.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, here&#8217;s Masayuki Naoshima, vice president of the Japanese parliament&#8217;s upper house telling the <em>Sydney Morning Herald, &#8216;Australia is one of the most important countries for Japan in terms of natural resources supply.&#8217;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>What about wind, wave and solar energy?<\/p>\n<p>Not a peep.<\/p>\n<p>Japan is one of the world&#8217;s most advanced countries, and it has been for more than 50 years.  And yet Japanese boffins and firms still haven&#8217;t come up with a home-grown and self-sufficient green energy supply.<\/p>\n<p>Japan realises &#8211; and Europe will too &#8211; that it needs to look elsewhere&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><H3><center>The European Energy Frontier<\/H3><\/center><\/p>\n<p>While Japan has all but ignored green energy, Europe has thrown billions of euros at it.  But our bet is the outcome will be the same &#8211; rejection of green energy. Like Japan, Europe will turn back to fossil fuels. In particular, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailyreckoning.com.au\/natural-gas-the-big-transition-in-energy\/2012\/02\/06\/\">natural gas<\/a>.  Except Europe has one up over Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Where Japan is barren of natural resources, Europe is rich with them.  As the <em>Economist<\/em> noted last November:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8216;The old continent has nearly as much technically recoverable shale gas (natural gas trapped in shale formations) as America.  Europe&#8217;s reserves are 639 trillion cubic feet [tcf], compared with America&#8217;s 862 [trillion cubic feet], according to America&#8217;s Energy Information Administration&#8230;&#8217;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/20120309\/shale-gas-one-american-analyst%E2%80%99s-winning-aussie-investment-idea.html\">Shale gas has transformed US energy supply<\/a>.  Less than 10 years ago the US had an energy crisis.  Today, oil giant BP says the US will be energy independent and a net exporter of gas by 2030.<\/p>\n<p>But what about Europe?  Right now, it&#8217;s going through an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/20120330\/how-you-can-profit-from-an-unexpected-end-to-the-energy-crisis.html\">energy crisis<\/a>. Unless it does something, things will only get worse.<\/p>\n<p>A recent report by the European Union highlights the problem facing Europe:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8216;The security of the EU&#8217;s primary energy supplies may be threatened if a high proportion of imports are concentrated among relatively few partners.  Close to four fifths (79.1%) of the EU-27&#8242;s imports of natural gas in 2009 came from Russia, Norway or Algeria&#8230;&#8217;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>How is this possible when <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/20120505\/russian-exile-how-europe-will-end-the-kremlins-natural-gas-monopoly.html\">Europeans have 639 tcf of natural gas<\/a> right under their feet?<\/p>\n<p>The answer is the Western fad for green energy.  The belief that wind and solar power can supply energy to 300 million Europeans.<\/p>\n<p>The truth is that it can&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s why we&#8217;re backing Europe to ditch green energy, and instead drill for the 639 tcf of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/20120119\/building-your-wealth-from-shale-gas.html\">shale gas<\/a> under European soil.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, this won&#8217;t happen overnight.  It will take a long time.  But that hasn&#8217;t stopped a bunch of entrepreneurial firms having a crack at it now.<\/p>\n<p>And as we see it, even though investing in Europe may seem scary, taking a punt when all seems lost is one of the best ways to snag a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.portphillippublishing.com.au\/research\/vp\/ASI\/n04puntparareg-tp.php?code=W9AAN304\" target=\"_blank\">high-risk and high-reward return<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This morning, clogging the international headlines are stories on Spanish bank bailouts, Greek debt woes and French elections. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailyreckoning.com.au\/europes-road-to-nowhere-part-ii\/2012\/02\/25\/\">All seems lost in Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s exactly <em>why<\/em> we say that you should take a punt on it now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cheers.<br \/>\nKris.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Related Articles<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.portphillippublishing.com.au\/research\/After-America\/n1afterameravprm.php?code=F9ACN380\" target=\"_blank\">The Conference of the Year &#8220;After America&#8221; DVD<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/20120409\/why-you-must-speculate.html\" target=\"_blank\">Why You MUST Speculate<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/20120406\/disruptive-technology-stocks-for-smart-small-cap-investors.html\" target=\"_blank\">Disruptive Technology Stocks For Smart Small-Cap Investors<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?a=6BnRk5ZV0Ig:mgfwk4hVUvo:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?a=6BnRk5ZV0Ig:mgfwk4hVUvo:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?i=6BnRk5ZV0Ig:mgfwk4hVUvo:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?a=6BnRk5ZV0Ig:mgfwk4hVUvo:gIN9vFwOqvQ\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?i=6BnRk5ZV0Ig:mgfwk4hVUvo:gIN9vFwOqvQ\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/MoneyMorningAustralia\/~4\/6BnRk5ZV0Ig\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" \/><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/MoneyMorningAustralia\/~3\/6BnRk5ZV0Ig\/why-europe-will-ditch-green-energy.html\" target=\"_blank\">Why Europe Will Ditch Green Energy <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By MoneyMorning.com.au You may think Europe is the last place you should invest. If you think that, you&#8217;re wrong. The European economy is in a huge hole and there&#8217;s only one way to get out of it&#8230; In fact, in the latest Australian Small-Cap Investigator, we argue that some of 2012&#8242;s biggest gains could come &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/2012\/05\/08\/why-europe-will-ditch-green-energy\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Why Europe Will Ditch Green Energy&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}