James Shaw is an Atlanta, Georgia-based investor and a philanthropist. Throughout his career, Jim Shaw has worked with businesses and charitable organizations in Atlanta and across the United States. One of Jim Shaw’s major investment interests is clean energy, including solar power.
Solar power is a growth industry, though its stock prices don’t always represent that. Solar technologies have greatly improved in the last few years, and its market acceptance is consistently gaining ground. In 2016, solar power capacity almost doubled in the United States, and the industry employs more than 260,000 people across the country.
Stock markets tend to reflect a relationship between falling oil prices and demand for solar energy, but the two do not have a direct correlation. Solar energy is generally used for electricity, while oil is mostly in demand for transportation fuel. While low oil prices may affect stock prices for solar energy in the United States to a degree, the demand for one type of energy does not actually compete with the need for the other. Further, even if investing in solar energy doesn’t look too attractive in the United States right now, it is a global industry needed all over the world, where the demand for clean energy is constantly increasing.
