I can call on my past careers to point to a couple of potential reasons that renewable energy does not receive the same support from government and finance that nuclear does. I spent my early career in telecommunications and the last couple of years before coming back to school in banking. In the end, it all comes down to managing risk. Nuclear runs the risk of cost overruns and has extremely high fixed costs, however upon completion, offers an extremely reliable and inexpensive method of generation. When compared to newer renewable energy sources, nuclear offers a much better chance of return on investment both in private financing and in government guarantees. It was stated in the lesson video that the companies constructing pay for the risk that is associated with their construction projects. They pay for the risk in the form of increased interest rates. These increased rates make lending for these projects extremely profitable for both private and government lending. The relatively low risk as compared to renewable energy sources make it a much more calculated gamble and much better investment long term. When I worked in banking, some of our most profitable customers were those that possessed credit scores low enough to require higher rates but scores that were high enough to get through underwriting. I am sure the funding for nuclear and lack of funding for renewable is very similar to this.

I can draw on my telecommunications experience to identify a good niche and opportunity to take advantage of when it comes to renewable energy. This will probably sound terrible but some of the best opportunities will come from taking advantage of others failures. Any time there is a new industry with the opportunity for gigantic paydays, you will see a flood of new entries into the market. Unfortunately, a very high percentage of these new companies will fail. This is where the opportunity lies for the opportunistic entrepreneur who also possesses the access to a little financial capital. When I was in telecom, I worked for a CEO who told us that he would never spend a ton of money to build a network, he would let competitors build it, go bankrupt from the expenditure and he could then buy it for pennies on the dollar. While I was there, we were able to purchase a company that had over the previous 5 years invested over half a billion dollars in their network for under 70 million due to a huge downturn in their stock. We were able to take advantage of their misfortune to purchase an already built network for less than 20 percent of what it would have cost to build it. This same principal could and most likely will be employed within the renewable energy industry. Why spend 100 million dollars to build a wind farm when you can let someone else spend the money, go bankrupt and then you can purchase the facility in a liquidation for 10 million? Why spend 10 million for R&D into new solar technology when you can buy the patents for 1 million when the company goes under?