By Ehren Goossens
Blomberg
If you’d like to discuss energy issues, contact Court Rich, Co-Chair of Rose Law Group’s Renewable Energy Department at crich@roselawgroup.com
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), the top arranger for renewable-energy stock offerings last year, is accelerating its funding efforts as it anticipates a rebound in an industry that’s slumped every year since 2009.
Goldman overtook Morgan Stanley as the biggest lead manager for share offerings with three deals valued at $405.6 million, according to an annual ranking by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
The investment bank is backing renewable energy that it expects will gain favor in a global shift it says is inevitable. That’s why short-term volatility will be trumped by long-term gains as emerging technologies first become commonplace and then become indispensable, according to Stuart Bernstein, the Goldman partner overseeing its renewables unit.
“It feels like the worst is behind us,” Bernstein, 49, said in an interview from his office in San Francisco. “I’m a contrarian, so when everyone else is capitulating, I think it’s time to invest.”
Goldman may boost its financing efforts this year as it seeks to meet a pledge made in May to invest and finance more than $40 billion in the industry in the next decade. Worldwide, more than $395 billion will be invested annually in renewable energy by 2020, he said.
Also: Renewable Energy Provides Half of All New US Electrical Generating Capacity in 2012
