I don't know about you, but I'm starting to forget what life was like before the Internet.
I can't even remember the last time I went to an actual bank instead of just using my HSBC online savings account … went to my local video store instead of just using Netflix … or looked up a stock quote in a newspaper instead of on Yahoo! Finance.
In a lot of ways, that's sad. But it's also incredible to think that a technology that evolved out of the U.S. government's reaction to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik has come to dominate our lives.
Even more incredibly ...
Investors who foresaw how profoundly the Internet would change our world have been able to make an absolute fortune from it.
Take those who understood the potential of e-commerce, for example. Most people scoffed at the idea of buying retail goods "online," but early investors in Amazon.com have grown their money by as much as 4,700%.
Needless to say, the Internet revolution turned out to be an unprecedented source of wealth creation. That's why I was blown away when I read that a well-respected venture capitalist now sees a megatrend on the horizon that he says could be ...
"Bigger than the Internet by an order of magnitude"
In case you're unaware, an order of magnitude is a multiple of 10.
That's right. Venture capitalist Ray Lane recently told The Wall Street Journal that he has found something he thinks could be 10 times as big as the Internet. And he would know.
After all, he's a partner at the famed venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He was also an early backer of Internet companies such as Amazon and Netscape.
And he's not the only one who's taking notice
In a recent shareholder update, Fidelity Magellan manager Harry Lange outlined several reasons why his fund has begun to focus more on "cleantech" in general, and on solar energy in particular.
The next great bull market?
All of these factors contributed to Wall Street's love affair with solar energy in 2007:
Stock
Gain in 2007
Suntech Power
142%
SunPower
251%
First Solar
795%
In fact, by the end of 2007, it looked as though Ray Lane might actually be understating the case. But then 2008 hit, and the market began selling off steadily, before heading into an all-out tailspin. The solar sector was particularly hard-hit, and while those who snapped up shares at the March lows have been handsomely rewarded, long-term shareholders have been crushed.
Stock
2007/2008 High
2009 Low
Current Price
JA Solar (Nasdaq: JASO)
$25.74
$1.90
$3.91
Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) Continued... |