Clean Energy Businesses Booming

Clean energy business is booming.

Biofuel, wind power, solar photovoltaic, and fuel cell revenues each rose 40%, to a total of $77.3 billion in 2007, according to a new report by Clean Edge. Their value is expected to triple in the next decade, to $254 billion.

"Clean energy has moved from the margins to the mainstream and the proof is in these numbers," Clean Edge Co-founder and Principal Ron Pernick was quoted as saying. "Amid last year's plummeting housing prices, rising foreclosure rates, and record high oil prices, clean energy continued to provide a bright spot in an otherwise sluggish economy."

Here's how the San Francisco Chronicle put it into context:

"For a sense of scale, look no further than the oil industry, which many alternative energy enthusiasts would love to replace. Exxon Mobil, the world's largest international oil company, reported $404.5 billion in sales last year - more than five times the entire alternative energy industry combined. And that's just one company."

There's still a ways to go.

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