Conducted
on: August 7, 2008
In Part 4 of his exclusive interview with EnergyTechStocks.com, veteran electric utility financial analyst Dan Scotto says that when it comes to investing in alternative energy, investors need to apply counterintuitive thinking.
Translation: the best way to make money on solar, wind, geothermal and other green energy sources is to buy shares in Big Oil companies.
Scotto, who has spent over 30 years on Wall Street and now heads his own Greenwich, CT-based firm, Whitehall Securities, said that with their billions in ready cash, Big Oil companies are going to act like energy investment banking firms, buying up the best “intellectual capital” firms.
Asked which Big Oil company he liked the most, Scotto said, “Right now I like Chevron,” because of its geothermal and biofuel investments. Second on Scotto’s list is Shell, again for geothermal, which Scotto believes is being “grossly overlooked” as a clean power source.
Asked which alternative technology companies are most likely to get bought by Big Oil firms, Scotto mentioned First Solar. He added that while there are a lot of other solar firms which eventually could get bought, most haven’t yet sufficiently proven themselves technologically to be candidates for acquisition by a giant oil company.