Call me a crazy populist, if you will, but when I hear banks say a sector needs ‘creative financing’ to recover, I think bubble financing and a crash, packaging the bonds together and tranching them, banks shorting what they sell to the muppets, and so on.
But if banks co-operate efficiently with investors, and come up with new ways of financing projects – including community finance and bonds – the Dutch bank said EU renewables will start to see a recovery.
The primary reason renewables have crashed is because subsidies have expired. Complicated, risky financing will not improve the situation and instead will probably make things worse.
Yes, some banks are ethical and committed to renewable energy. Far too many aren’t and instead view renewables as a resource to exploit, suck dry, then move on.
Renewable energy operates in an environment of temporary and uncertain subsidies. It competes against fossil fuels, which have a well-established (and therefore reasonably certain) system of subsidies. It’s not a level playing field.