With unstable gas prices and increasing environmental awareness, an alternative solution energy business could put you on the path to success.
Got grease? Justin Carven of Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems LLC does. The 29-year-old founder’s Easthampton, Massachusetts, business makes conversion kits that allow diesel engines to perform on vegetable oil. "Ultimately, it is the rising fuel costs that are convincing visitors to get onboard," says Carven. Greasecar sales have become by a lot more than 200 percent every year over the past year or two and are likely to are as long as $2.5 million this season. And the business is jumping in to the commercial and municipal markets with enthusiasm.
Some major alternative energy growth areas include solar, hydrogen, bio-fuel, fuel cells and energy saving technologies. Development, installation and creative application of the technologies are possibilities for entrepreneurs. "It will not be just one single alternative energy source which will be the silver bullet to resolve our problems; it’ll be multiple options," says Nabil Nasr, director of the guts for Integrated Manufacturing Studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology in NY. Research firm Clean Edge expects the worldwide market for clean energy to attain $167 billion within ten years, up from $40 billion in 2005. Entrepreneurs must find their niches and build flexible companies that may react as the energy market changes. Nasr advises businesses to diversify their marketing and selling sources.