The Green Business Plan -- Preface

This blog initially set out to document the fundamental and inherent weaknesses of wind power, which I had always considered as self-evident, from a technical and financial point of view. These weaknesses notwithstanding, and despite universal objections to wind power from NW Canada to Greece and New Zealand, wind projects seem to persist. In trying to understand the fuss behind what I consider a dubious energy or environmental venture, I digressed into other territories, including the possible financial interests behind wind power. In looking for financial interests, there are coincidences that are hard to ignore.

Most companies actively promoting “green solutions” to problems, ranging from light bulbs to power generation, are German. (Vestas, of course, is Danish). Most green blogs in the US (including the NYT green blog) appear to have been sponsored by Siemens in a cursory review during 2009, and have since been sponsored by mostly European utilities. Numerous NGO’s that are promoting Green causes have been sponsored by Siemens or Vestas. Deutsche Bank appears to worry about …global CO2! Prominent and wealthy German businessmen from unrelated fields are investing in and promoting Green ("Good") energy projects. The Siemens marketing brochures seem to be sharing a common language with environmental NGO’s in Europe and the US. German feed-in-tariff legislation is being forced upon EU countries. These observations prove absolutely nothing in and of themselves. However I will present various public documents that I have come across, and let the casual reader draw his or her own conclusions.

I have to state upfront that I have not been seeking, nor have I uncovered, some obscure or sinister grand plan. Nor do I consider shared financial gain as "conspiracy"; all commercial and business ventures are based on financial interests, some are simply more obtuse than others. I think, looking back at ten months of casual posts, that I discern a pattern which resembles an elegant, well-thought out, and masterfully executed business plan, straight out of a second-year Business Strategy course in any MBA program.

This is one of three or four posts that I am writing in English, for the sole purpose of sharing these thoughts and subjecting them to scrutiny by English speaking readers.