Green Package: The Stimulus Plan’s Big Winners

Analysts and the clean-tech sector itself are just coming to grips with the implications of the recently-passed stimulus package for clean energy. The short summary? Over the next two years, energy efficiency will hog the limelight, HSBC says in a new report, “represent[ing] by far the most compelling investment opportunity,” while low-carbon energy production takes a distant second. The stimulus package’s embrace of energy efficiency shows up in the scale of the money being handed out—efficiency takes about 60% of the stimulus package’s $37 billion earmarked for greenery. What’s more, the bulk of that, about 82%, will be doled out in the next two years, HSBC figures, making it more attractive in the middle of the downturn. That’s especially true for improving energy efficiency in buildings, HSBC says, which will get federal money totalling ten times the entire market capitalization of the U.S. companies operating in that segment. (Energy efficiency is really the flavor of the day: The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy just upped its estimates of the economic benefits of more stringent efficiency laws to $168 billion through 2020.)...WSJ