130: Clean Energy

Welcome to The Invested Dads Podcast, simplifying financial topics so that you can take action and make your financial situation better. Helping you to understand the current world of financial planning and investments. Here are your hosts, Josh Robb, and Austin Wilson.

Austin Wilson:

All right. Hey hey hey, welcome back to The Invested Dads Podcast, the podcast where we take you on a journey to better your financial futures. I am Austin Wilson, Research Analyst at Hixon Zuercher Capital Management.

Josh Robb:

And I’m Josh Robb, Director of Financial Planning at Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. So Austin, how can people help us with our podcast?

Austin Wilson:

Yeah, we would love it if you would subscribe if you’re not subscribed. We drop new episodes every single Thursday on a wide variety of current news and financial planning topics to help you out-

Josh Robb:

That’s right.

Austin Wilson:

So yes, we’d love it if you’d subscribe on whatever platform you’re listening to us on, we’re available on all of them-

Josh Robb:

Everything.

Austin Wilson:

Also, we would love it if you would leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the three people in the world that use Google Podcasts-

Josh Robb:

I left a review.

Austin Wilson:

Then leave one there. I mean, no, one’s going to read it-

Josh Robb:

I will.

Austin Wilson:

But go ahead and leave one there. And that brings us to today.

Josh Robb:

Yes. What are we talking about?

Austin Wilson:

Today we’re going to be talking about the clean energy movement.

Josh Robb:

Oh good. So, we don’t need a disclaimer that this is a dirty episode.

Austin Wilson:

This is not dirty, we’re not going to check the explicit box-

Josh Robb:

Good.

 

[1:15] – The Difference Between Clean Energy and Renewable Energy

Austin Wilson:

On this clean energy episode, but I thought I would start with a bit of a history lesson. So put on your thinking caps.

Josh Robb:

Yep. Maybe you’ll get to this because I don’t read your notes ahead of time because I like to be surprised. Clean energy, renewable energy, are those interchangeable words or is there a little difference?

Austin Wilson:

There is a little bit of a difference, we don’t actually talk about that, but we can right now, so clean really is determined based on the output of whatever you’re doing. So if you’re burning something and causing some sort of exhaust or greenhouse gas emissions or something like that-

Josh Robb:

That’s not clean.

Austin Wilson:

That’s not necessarily clean, but there are cleaner versions of even that kind of thing, things like natural gas which we’ll talk about, but then you have renewable energy, which is straight up based on what you already have. So, whether that be wind or solar or hydro-

Josh Robb:

Would nuclear energy be considered clean energy?

Austin Wilson:

It’s really water vapor-

Josh Robb:

Yeah. But you have left over-

Austin Wilson:

The only issue is that you have leftover uranium that you have to deal with.

Josh Robb:

You just bear that amount and forget about it.

Austin Wilson:

That’s what they do in Russia, I’m pretty sure.

Josh Robb:

Now, wood burning would be renewable-

Austin Wilson:

True.

Josh Robb:

Because you can grow new trees-

Austin Wilson:

Kind of, I mean-

Josh Robb:

Is that clean?

Austin Wilson:

It’s not necessarily renewable or clean because technically that is a finite resource that you’ve burned, even though it grows back-

Josh Robb:

You can make a new one.

Austin Wilson:

It’s kind of in the middle, so yeah. We’re specifically talking more about all of these in conjunction.

Josh Robb:

So an example, pedaling a bike attached to a belt powering a generator-

Austin Wilson:

So for our Amish listeners-

Josh Robb:

So that would be clean and renewable because you could just do that as long as you want.

 

[2:41] – The History of Clean Energy

Austin Wilson:

I don’t know, does the operator emit some methane? All right. So, let’s take it back, time machine, get in your DeLorean… 1882.

Josh Robb:

That’s not renewable.

Austin Wilson:

Does the term Pearl Street Station ring a bell?

Josh Robb:

Is that a music group?

Austin Wilson:

No. Thomas Edison in September ’82, he achieved his vision of a full-scale central power station with a system of conductors to distribute electricity to end users in the high profile business district in New York City.

Josh Robb:

So that’s when people started getting power sent to their homes-

Austin Wilson:

In the US.

Josh Robb:

1882.

Austin Wilson:

In New York City specifically.

Josh Robb:

New York City. Interesting.

Austin Wilson:

So 1921, that was actually where the first pulverized coal plant was created and used in St. Francis, Wisconsin. And that used coal to boil water, to generate steam and turn turbines. So that was the first pulverized coal exclusive power plant in 1921. 1949, GE, General Electric installed the first gas turbine built in the US for the purpose of generating power at the Bell Aisle Station.

Josh Robb:

Bell Aisle.

Austin Wilson:

Bell Aisle, and that was owned by Oklahoma Gas & Electric. Go forward even a little before that actually… 1942 world’s first nuclear reactor was called Chicago Pile One. It was an exponential pile. So that’s like of nuclear reactor, it’s a bunch of nasty grams that we’re not going to get in the details of. But we are going to talk a little bit more about-

Josh Robb:

I hadn’t realized it was that long ago though.

Austin Wilson:

Yeah. So that had at least 29 exponential piles constructed in 1942 under the West sands of the University of Chicago’s stag. So, then we talk about water a little bit here. So, the first modern, renewable energy generation got started in the late 1800s, hydro power was first to transition to a commercial electricity generation source and advanced very quickly in 1880. Michigan’s Grand Rapids Electric. That’s called the GR for those who don’t know.

Josh Robb:

That was two years sooner than Thomas Edison over there.

Austin Wilson:

Yep. So, their Grand Rapids, Electric Light and Power Co. generated DC electricity using hydro power at the Wolverine Chair Company, a belt driven dynamo powered by a water turbine at the factory, lit 16 arc street lamps.

Josh Robb:

Interesting. So, 16 lamps, they’re lighting those up with a little turbine-

Austin Wilson:

With a hydro.

Josh Robb:

So, hydro not to be accused with Hydra, the evil villains in the Marvel movies-

Austin Wilson:

So bad.

Josh Robb:

So not the same.

Austin Wilson:

Yeah. Pretty much their take on Nazis, but worse, maybe… Is that possible? Then we’ll talk about wind a little bit. So, about the same time that hydro power was getting popularity, inventors were also figuring out to use windmills. So, they used to use windmills to pump water out of the ground and all that stuff, but they were trying to use them then to generate electricity. So, in 1888, Charles Brush an inventor in… Ohio.

Josh Robb:

Ooh, there you go.

Austin Wilson:

Homeboy. He constructed a 60-foot wind turbine in his backyard. Think about building something 60 feet tall in 1888-

Josh Robb:

On your own.

Austin Wilson:

On your own in your yard. So, the windmills wheel was 56 feet in diameter and had 144 blades.

Josh Robb:

That’s a lot of blades.

Austin Wilson:

Inside there was a shaft and that turned pulleys and belts, which spun a 12 kilowatt dynamo, which was connected to batteries in the dude’s basement.

Josh Robb:

Interesting.

Austin Wilson:

Craziness. So interestingly enough, other areas of renewable energy had their sources even before that. So in 1839, a French scientist started looking at what was called photovoltaic power. And that’s really what happens when the sunshine really causes little charges to create electricity. And then by the 1880s, you were able to, you know, create solar cells, which was crazy. And since then, they’ve really gotten more and more popular and more and more advanced and more and more efficient. Back then, very inefficient, even today they’re not super efficient, but we’re getting there slowly but surely. So, whew. That was a whirlwind, some interesting.

Josh Robb:

Honestly, I didn’t realize those clean energy, I always think clean energy as a newer concept, but we’re talking 1800s of, this is stuff coming out before Edison’s moving all his power around. So interesting.

 

[6:38] – Why Discuss Changing Power Sources Now?

Austin Wilson:

Yeah. So that leads us to the question of why discuss changing electric sources, power sources now because yeah, we started kind of with-

Josh Robb:

Hydro, wind.

Austin Wilson:

Yeah. It was more renewable focused at the beginning.

Josh Robb:

That’s what we had.

Austin Wilson:

Then we worked on burning fossil fuels, coal, all of these things-

Josh Robb:

We found them in the ground, we were excited.

Austin Wilson:

Now we’re phasing out of those and back into old school renewable energy. So why? Why three answers?

Josh Robb:

You have three.

Austin Wilson:

Number one is climate change. So there are this temperatures, it is changing every single year. It’s been in a warming cycle for a couple hundred years, at least. Many scientists believe this is due to greenhouse gases, keeping temperature in the atmosphere and warming it up over time. These greenhouse gases could be from the burning of fossil fuels or methane from animals or combination of the two. And we know that the Earth’s climate has been changing from millennia, but today’s scientists specifically fear that higher temperature could melt polar ice caps, raising oceans and destroying wildlife. So that’s step one, of reason why.

Number two is finite resources. So the use of fossil fuels has really always been finite, meaning limited supply. Now, when I say limited supply, keep in mind that experts have varying opinions on this, but more recently, it’s been estimated that the U.S. has a hundred plus years of our own oil demand easily in untapped resources. But generally, 50 to 200 years is where we’re sitting as a world, on all of that.

But you couple that with the fact that dependence on oil from places like Russia has put crazy pressure on oil prices and you have some incentive to look for alternatives – specifically in Europe at this point.

Josh Robb:

Cause’ you don’t find oil everywhere.

Austin Wilson:

No. It’s only where the fossils are, the dead fossils fuels. Number three, the political landscape is definitely causing some of the push for this. So, if you look at the general election results popular vote in 2020, 51% of American voters voted for Joe Biden, so Joe Biden, Democrat. And if we look at pew research study that they published, there’s a sharp divide between political party affiliation and level of support for climate change action. In fact, even believing that climate change is occurring at all is extremely polarized. So liberal and moderate Democrats alike are both much more likely to believe climate change exists, trust the scientists and care a great deal about the issue and vice versa, moderate and conservative Republicans are less likely to be as concerned with it as an issue in general.

So, think about where we are in a political landscape right now, currently, as it sits right now, the House and the Senate are Democratic controlled, and the White House is Democratic controlled. So, it really shouldn’t be surprising that we’re getting a lot of discussion around pushing things towards a cleaner, greener energy source.

 

[9:27] – Types of Clean Energy

Austin Wilson:

So that’s where we stand on the, why we may consider changing now. But we should probably talk about some of the definitions of the types of clean energy. And there’s some great articles from energy.gov that I will link in the show notes, but let’s talk about solar first. Solar energy, so the amount of sunlight that strikes the Earth’s surface in an hour and a half is enough to handle the entire world’s energy consumption for a full year.

Josh Robb:

If you just harness that.

Austin Wilson:

If you can only just harness that. Solar technologies for sunlight into electrical energy, through either photovoltaic panels or through mirrors that concentrate solar radiation, this energy can be used to generate electricity or be stored in batteries or thermal storage. That’s number one, solar energy.

Josh Robb:

So if I set up solar at my house, I would have my own solar system then.

Austin Wilson:

Mmm. You’re like the center of the universe.

Josh Robb:

Construction of it I would probably need a planning.

Austin Wilson:

That’s right. You’d need to plan it.

Josh Robb:

I would need to plan it.

Austin Wilson:

Next step, wind. So, wind turbines work on a simple principle.

Josh Robb:

Yes simple.

Austin Wilson:

Instead of using electric to make wind like a fan, like we usually think of, plug it in and get fan, you reverse it and you use a wind turbine to make electricity. So, wind turns up propeller like blade of a turbine around a rotor, which spins a generator and creates electricity. And these, especially up here-

Josh Robb:

They’re huge.

Austin Wilson:

Middle of nowhere, flat land Ohio, they are everywhere. If you drive down from Findlay, Ohio down 68, so South, before you get to Kenton, there are bajillions of these things off to the West of you. And if you’re on 30-

Josh Robb:

Heading West.

Austin Wilson:

Going West-

Josh Robb:

They’re all over.

Austin Wilson:

They’re everywhere-

Josh Robb:

By Vernon area.

Austin Wilson:

If you’re driving at night, they all flash their little red lights at the same time. And it is crazy to see, thousands of these.

Josh Robb:

Do they have them synced up though?

Austin Wilson:

Pretty close. Yeah. Some of them it seems like you get one that’s just a little far off. So that’s wind, water is another one, so hydropower or hydroelectric power is a renewable source of energy that generates power by using a dam or diversion structure to alter the natural flow of a river or another body of water. That relies on the endless, constantly recharging system of the water cycle to produce electricity, using a fuel, which is water that is not reduced or eliminated in the process.

There are many types of hydro power facilities, though they are all powered by the kinetic energy of flowing water as it moves downstream. Hydropower utilizes turbines and generators to convert that kinetic energy into electricity, which is then fed into the electric grid to power homes, businesses, industries, all the above.

Josh Robb:

I always – Whenever I think of that, I think of the Hoover Dam-

Austin Wilson:

Yeah, it’s big.

Josh Robb:

Which I’d love to go see sometime, I have not seen it.

Austin Wilson:

Have you seen the videos that people drop a ball off it?

Josh Robb:

Yeah. And this spin, this huge, crazy, it’s insane. And they built that so long ago. That’s what I mean, that to me is, the cool fact of it, it’s just the-

Austin Wilson:

It was built in the 30s, right?

Josh Robb:

Yeah. The engineering and the mind to figure that out and to take care of it. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.

Austin Wilson:

So next up geothermal. So this is a production where a production well is drilled into a known geothermal reservoir. Typically, an injection well is also drilled to return use geothermal fluids to the geothermal reservoir. Hot geothermal fluids, this is a mouthful, flow through pipes to a power plant for use in generating electricity. Hot pressurized geothermal fluid, or a secondary working fluid is allowed to expand rapidly and provide rotational or mechanical energy to turn the turbine blades on a shaft.

Rotational energy from the turbine shaft is used to directly spin magnets inside a large coil and create electrical current. The turbine and generator are the primary pieces of equipment used to convert geothermal energy to electrical energy. Electrical current from the generator is sent to a step-up transformer outside the power plant, voltage is increased in transformer and the electrical current is transmitted over power lines to homes, businesses, and buildings.

Josh Robb:

I did not understand any of that.

Austin Wilson:

But think of it like this, the Earth’s temperature, I’m thinking, as example, my parents have geothermal, my parents sit in their house. So, the Earth’s temperature is like 50 some degrees under the surface. So, when it is cooler than 50 some degrees outside, you are able to run water and stuff through that 50 some degree Earth and essentially bring your temperature up, to that temperature. And then anything above that you’ll use natural gas or propane or electric. When it goes the other way, you can cool things down to that temperature as well, by running that fluid through the Earth’s temperature and then cooling it that way. So that’s the way I think of it, in a much more layman’s terms, because I’m a layman.

Josh Robb:

You’re using the natural temperature, stability of being underground, a certain depth to say, it’s pretty much 50 degrees all the time and if it’s a hundred degrees outside, you can cool very efficiently. Or if it’s freezing outside, you can warm very efficiently. So it cut your cost down. Now, this also then is generating electricity using magnets.

Austin Wilson:

Yes. So yeah, it does all of the above.

Josh Robb:

Crazy.

Austin Wilson:

So one of the coolest examples of this and it’s hometown bias, but have you ever been to Ohio Caverns?

Josh Robb:

Yes.

Austin Wilson:

That’s from my hometown. So West Liberty, Ohio – Ohio Caverns, some of the biggest, if not, I think the biggest caverns in Ohio, they have, you actually legitimately go into caves underground-

Josh Robb:

It’s cold.

Austin Wilson:

A long way down and in the summer it’s cold and in the winter it’s warm. It’s 50 some degrees all the time in these caves. It’s crazy, so that’s the best example of geothermal in general.

Josh Robb:

You got it. So I could just carry my energy in there, cool it down-

Austin Wilson:

Leave it there and then take it home and be good to go. Bio energy is next and this is essentially just the burning of plant based-

Josh Robb:

Biomaterial.

Austin Wilson:

Biomaterials. It could be wood energy, algae, grass, wood, anything. You could burn it and then turn that into steam or whatever turn turbine, you can do all kinds of stuff with it. You can burn biomass. Nuclear, it’s considered a pretty clean energy as well. So, they contain and control nuclear chain reactions that produce heat through a physical process called fission, not fusion-

Josh Robb:

Fission.

Austin Wilson:

But fission is where atoms split and release energy. And that heat is used to make steam, which turns a turbine to create electricity. There are more than 440 commercial reactors worldwide, including 94 in the United States, is one of the largest resources of reliable carbon free electricity available.

Josh Robb:

Interesting.

Austin Wilson:

And ironically, it’s not where the big push is – Because I think there has always been a fear of it because there have been some issues, Chernobyl, there was one in Japan, bad things have happened due to bad designs, bad technology-

Josh Robb:

Or earthquake.

Austin Wilson:

Human error, earthquakes, all the above. And that’s limited the excitement on nuclear energy, but it is awesome. It’s super-efficient at what it does-

Josh Robb:

And clean, from exhaust.

Austin Wilson:

And super clean, you get steam. Steam is it and I can handle steam. Another one is hydrogen and fuel cells. So, hydrogen is a clean fuel that when consumed in a fuel cell produces only water. So like, you can literally buy in some parts of America, a hydrogen and fuel cell vehicle, made one a while back called the FCX Clarity, I believe. Literally, it burnt hydrogen and you had water exhaust-

Josh Robb:

Vapor.

Austin Wilson:

Vapor came out of your exhaust, that’s all that came out.

Josh Robb:

Where do you get it though? Not the car, but the hydrogen, that’s the problem.

Austin Wilson:

Well, you have to distill it down and get it from a couple different areas and then get it into a way that you can deliver it into the vehicle. And it’s very, very expensive and very hard to do. And actually, until recently wasn’t even available to be transported in liquid form, but now it can, but it’s still very expensive-

Josh Robb:

It’s explosive. Right?

Austin Wilson:

Yeah. It’s not good, but it’s very-

Josh Robb:

It’s unstable, I guess, it’s what you’re saying.

Austin Wilson:

We are breathing some hydrogen right now, I mean come on, H2O. And another one is natural gas. And this is one that specifically, as I talked about the political landscape, is a little less out of favor or a little bit more out of favor in the current political environment. But from a green energy standpoint actually probably should be focused on a lot, because it’s an extremely abundant resource specifically here in the US. New discoveries and extraction methods have led to a dramatic rise in shale gas development, so that’s like fracking and getting natural gas out of the earth. So, the US is actually the leading natural gas producer of the entire world. And it burns very, very, very cleanly.

Josh Robb:

Clean burning.

Austin Wilson:

So that is why any clean energy plan should have a heavy emphasis on that. Now, there is a finite resource as well, like we had talked about, but it is an abundant finite resource at least as of now.

Josh Robb:

Yeah. And there’s a debate in my house what natural gas actually means because the kids think it’s something different-

Austin Wilson:

It’s natural dad.

Josh Robb:

It’s natural.

Austin Wilson:

It’s natural.

 

[18:14] – Dad Joke of the Week

Josh Robb:

So, all right, let’s do a dad joke, do a quick break while you’re there. So we were talking about the wind turbines and I read a story about these wind turbines, were getting built right next to a baseball field and they were really excited because they’re big fans-

Austin Wilson:

Big fans. That’s awesome.

Josh Robb:

Big fans.

 

[18:33] – Government Action

Austin Wilson:

I need some big fans. So, let’s talk about government action because government action has had a big impact on how easily this transition occurs and how much money goes into it and all this stuff. So according to the US Energy Information Administration, which I’ll link in the show notes, federal state, and local governments and electric utilities encourage investing in and using renewable energy and in some cases, even requirement. So, there are many programs instead that are currently available at this point, I’m going to label a handful of them.

So, there are some government financial incentives, so several federal government tax credits grants and loan programs are available for qualifying renewable energy technologies and projects. The federal tax incentives or credits for qualifying renewable energy products or equipment include, there’s a handful, renewable electricity production tax credit, the investment tax credit, the residential energy credit, and the modified accelerated cost recovery system. Grants and loan programs may be available from several government entities, including the US Department of Agriculture, US Department of energy and the US Department of Interior.

Austin Wilson:

Most States have some financial incentives available to support or subsidize the installation of renewable energy equipment.

Josh Robb:

So, it’s like you put solar panels on your house, tax free-?

Austin Wilson:

Get a rebate or you get something like that. Yep. Another one is renewable portfolio standards and State mandates or goals. So a renewable portfolio standard typically requires that a percentage of electric power sales in a State come from a renewable energy source. Some States have specific mandates for power generation from renewable energy and some States have voluntary goals. Compliance with these policies will sometimes require or allow trading of renewable energy certificates. So if one area does better than the other, sometimes they can work together and net each other out. Another one is renewable energy certificates or credits, like I just mentioned. These are financial products available for sale purchase or trade that allow a purchaser to pay for renewable energy production without directly obtaining the energy from renewable energy sources.

Austin Wilson:

The most widely available products are often, but not always called renewable energy and certificates or credits, which may be used by electric utilities to comply with State renewable energy portfolio standards. Other products such as green tags or green certificates may be available to facilitate purchase of renewable energy production by consumers, in areas where local utilities do not offer a green power option. So those, you can actually, if you don’t meet the qualifications, you can buy the qualifications-

Josh Robb:

For somebody who has extra.

Austin Wilson:

Yeah. Net metering is another one. This allows electric utility customers to install qualifying renewable energy systems on their properties and to connect the systems to an electric utilities’ distribution system or grid. The programs vary, but in general, electric utilities build their net metering customers for the amount of net amount of electricity that customers use during a defined period. So really if you have a renewable source that generates some electricity, solar panels, wind, who knows water, who knows, maybe you have a river-

Josh Robb:

Nuclear power plant.

Austin Wilson:

And yeah, you have a big old battery and a converter and stuff and you can store and essentially optimize how your house uses it, but you also have an abundance you can sell it back to the grid.

Josh Robb:

And some of them require you to send it up, you can’t even store it.

Austin Wilson:

Another one’s feed-in-tariffs. So several States and individual electric utilities in the United States have established special rates for purchasing electricity from certain types of renewable energy systems. These rates known as feed-in-tariffs are generally higher than electricity rates otherwise available to the generator. They’re intended to encourage new projects of specific types of renewable energy technologies.

So again, incentivizing the use of renewable energy. Another one is green power purchasing, consumers in nearly every State can purchase green power, this represents electricity generated from specific types of renewable energy sources. Most of these voluntary programs generally involve the physical or contractual delivery of the electricity generation resource to the customer or utility. Another one is ethanol and other renewable motor fuels. So this is something-

Josh Robb:

Like the E85?

Austin Wilson:

Yeah. Widely debated because as we’re having high oil prices and high gas prices, current administration’s discussing using the higher, what we use in the winter ethanol requirements even through the summer to bring down gas prices, which actually, since the mid-90s or so most US vehicles, gas vehicles have been built to use some sort of ethanol in their fuel system and been okay with it. As long as you’re driving them on a regular basis, probably not such a big deal, but if you have an older vehicle and especially a carbureted vehicle, they throw fits with ethanol.

Josh Robb:

Don’t like it.

Austin Wilson:

Ethanol has moisture and water in it that is not good for moving parts and if it sits too long, it gums things up and becomes a nightmare. So, word to the wise, if you have a something with a carburetor, try and find certain-

Josh Robb:

How do you know if you have a carburetor?

Austin Wilson:

Well, that would be if you have no fuel injection. So, if you have an older vehicle that generally probably from the mid-80s or before, probably have a carburetor instead of fuel injection. And this is older school, easy to adjust, but also much more finicky. Carburetors are pretty much, you have to set the jetting of how much fuel, at what levels goes into the intake to essentially get burnt, fuel injection automatically adjusts that electronically. So, every car’s different, but your mower, your dirt bike, your four-Wheeler, your whatever, anything small engine wise probably has a carburetor on it still. And you should probably do your best to find some ethanol free fuel, which in Findlay, we do have some, so check that out.

Josh Robb:

Good to know.

Austin Wilson:

Good to know. Another one is renewable research and development. So, the government has grants and funds to really encourage and incentivize further growth in this space.

 

[24:07]- How Can Someone Invest in This Trend?

Josh Robb:

Okay, Austin. That was a lot. I don’t care about any of that.

Austin Wilson:

Yeah, you do.

Josh Robb:

Well, the credits and stuff for the government, doesn’t matter to me. What I do want to know is how can someone invest in this trend if they weren’t interested in it? Which again, it’s not a recommendation, this is just some investment options out there for this trend.

Austin Wilson:

I’ve got some good ones.

Josh Robb:

What do you got?

Austin Wilson:

You might even like them.

Josh Robb:

Are there some good tickers?

Austin Wilson:

Good tickers.

Josh Robb:

It’s what I hope for.

Austin Wilson:

First of all, there are some individual stocks that are in the space. Number one is a company called NextEra Energy, ticker NEE, not saying buy it, but it is a Florida based utility company with a ton of focus on renewable energy-

Josh Robb:

Florida, they got sun, they got wind, they got water.

Austin Wilson:

They got sun, they got it all. So that’s one, another one’s First Solar, Solar Panels FSLR is a ticker there. And another one is unsurprisingly Tesla.

Josh Robb:

Tesla.

Austin Wilson:

Because Tesla has solar business, they have generator stuff that goes with that, they have electric vehicles. It’s pretty much the green energy focus company.

Josh Robb:

There you go.

Austin Wilson:

There are some ETFs, and this is where Josh is going to get excited. So the iShares global clean energy ETF is the ticker, I-C-L-N, ICLN-

Josh Robb:

I clean.

Austin Wilson:

The first trust NASDAQ, clean edge green energy index fund. Woo, that’s mouthful. QCLN-

Josh Robb:

All right.

Austin Wilson:

Q-C-L-N. The Invesco Solar ETF, ticker T-A-N TAN. The Invesco MSCI sustainable future ETF ticker E-R-T-H, Earth-

Josh Robb:

Earth. There you go.

Austin Wilson:

First trust global wind energy ETF-

Josh Robb:

They were probably first to the game here.

Austin Wilson:

Ticker FAN, F-A-N.

Josh Robb:

They nailed it.

Austin Wilson:

Great.

Josh Robb:

Wind energy.

Austin Wilson:

The global X renewable energy producers, ETF RNRG, renewable energy, R-N-R-G.

Josh Robb:

They’re getting creative there. There you go.

 

[25:45] – Should You Invest in This Trend?

Austin Wilson:

They’re getting creative. So, Josh, the question you’ve been waiting for is-

Josh Robb:

I’ve been waiting.

Austin Wilson:

Higher time is, should you invest in renewable energy?

Josh Robb:

Well, that just depends, Austin. It really does. It depends, like always, on your long-term financial plans, what your goals are, what your objectives and your risk tolerance. But again, if you’re in fully diversified portfolio, chances are you have some exposure to this. Because the utilities are a sector of the S&P 500, so if you have some exposure here to the US Stock market, you probably have some exposure. And even if you look at AEP and energy, they have portions that are renewable. So, you have some exposure to clean energy, probably in a diversified portfolio already.

But in general, this is something that as we’re, as a world, trying to find the long-term sustainability of energy, that this is probably a space that over the long run will be around. So, do you need exposure to it? You probably already do, depending on your goals and trends, but yes-

Austin Wilson:

Specifically speaking, if you own an index fund, large Cap US index fund, you likely own, NextEra Energy is the largest publicly traded utility in the United States. So that is a part of that index fund.

Josh Robb:

You’re in there. Yep.

Austin Wilson:

Tesla is in the top 10 largest companies in the US. There’s a sizable position there as well. So no surprise that you probably already have some exposure to it.

Josh Robb:

Now, there is trends where people who are wanting their values, beliefs to line up with their investing, socially responsible investing. This is where this trend may overlap even more with your investment holdings if that’s how you lean on that direction.

Austin Wilson:

Well, Josh, what can listeners do for us?

Josh Robb:

Well, put in a giant solar nuclear powered wind turbine for hydro in your backyard-

Austin Wilson:

Over a river.

Josh Robb:

And you’re good to go. No, what they could do for us is, share this episode with your friends and family. And if you have any ideas, questions, or thoughts, or if you have a giant solar panel in your backyard, send us a picture.

Austin Wilson:

I don’t know.

Josh Robb:

Absolutely. Will be fun.

Austin Wilson:

We’ll tweet it.

Josh Robb:

Sure.

Austin Wilson:

We’ll tweet it on.

Josh Robb:

But yeah, high level though, we love interacting with our fans. We love talking with you about topics that you’re interested in. So, shoot us an email at hello@theinvesteddads.com and share with us ideas you’d like us to talk to.

Austin Wilson:

All right, until next Thursday, have a great week.

Josh Robb:

All right, we’ll talk to you later. Bye.

 

Thank you for listening to The Invested Dads podcast. This episode has ended, but your journey towards a better financial future, doesn’t have to, head over to the investeddads.com to access all the links and resources mentioned in today’s show. If you enjoyed this episode and we had a positive impact on your life, leave us a review, click subscribe, and don’t miss the next episode.

Josh Robb and Austin Wilson work for Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. All opinions expressed by Josh, Austin or any podcast guest are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for investment decisions. Clients of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast.

There is no guarantee that the statements, opinions or forecast provided here in will prove to be correct. Past performance may not be indicative of future results. Indices are not available for direct investment. Any investor who attempts to mimic the performance of an index would incur fees and expenses, which would reduce returns. Securities investing involves risk, including the potential for loss of principle. There is no assurance that any investment plan or strategy will be successful.