Eco-millionaires see boom times ahead

By Chris Wills

LONDON (Reuters) - Mankind's response to climate change will shift how the world gets its energy and is already making "green barons" out of early investors in renewable energy, clean technologies and carbon trading.

Reuters spoke to four entrepreneurs who are cashing in on the energy revolution and who say there is more money to be made.

BRUCE KHOURI, co-founder of Solar Integrated Technologies, based in Los Angeles, has at the age of 48 made $5 million by cashing in shares in the company.

He still has a $11 million stake in the company, which makes lightweight solar panels for commercial roofs. He saw the opportunity while running his own industrial roofing firm.

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Now, Even Those Temporary Wheels Can Be Greener

By BARRY REHFELD
Published: August 12, 2007
ROO ROGERS, who lives in Lower Manhattan, is helping to reduce auto emissions by not owning a car. But he still likes to take the wheel for occasional multistop spins around town, for hundred-mile drives to a vacation home on Long Island and for business trips when he’s in California.

When he rents a car or uses a car-sharing service, Mr. Rogers tries to help the environment a little more by driving only a hybrid vehicle, the Toyota Prius. And he has ridden to the airport by using OZOcar, a car service of which he was a founder; it has an all-hybrid fleet of Priuses and a few Lexuses.

“The Prius is the most practical and sustainable car with the best gas mileage,” he said. “And I don’t have the problems of parking, the insurance and even the gas whenever I go anywhere.”

In city driving, the Prius gets 60 miles for each gallon of gas — a dozen more than its main competitor, the Honda Civic Hybrid, and double the urban range of the highest-mileage gasoline-only cars, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

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Japan's Honda Motor to start selling hybrid cars in China

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japan's Honda Motor Co will start selling hybrid cars in China, where there is growing interest in energy-efficient vehicles to help combat severe pollution, the company said Thursday.

Dongfeng Honda (nyse: HMC - news - people ) Automobile, a joint venture between Honda Motor and Dongfeng Motor Group Co of China, will start selling Honda Civic hybrid cars in China by the end of 2007, a Honda Motor spokeswoman said.

'We will initially export hybrid Civics from Japan to China. Local production is one option for the future, but there is no specific plan for it yet,' she said.

Toyota Motor Corp (nyse: TM - news - people ) was the first foreign car maker to produce hybrid autos in China, in late 2005, with its Prius model.

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