Green energy is on the rise, but fossil fuels are far from obsolete just yet.
In this clip from Industry Focus: Energy, Motley Fool analyst Taylor Muckerman makes his case for why long-term investors might want to consider General Electric (GE +2.24%) to get diversified exposure to renewables and fossil fuels. Also, he talks about what GE's upcoming merger with Baker Hughes (BHI +0.00%) will mean for the company.
A full transcript follows the video.
This podcast was recorded on Feb. 9, 2017.
Taylor Muckerman: For investors looking to get into the energy space, and industrials, I guess, GE. You might have heard of that one.
Sean O'Reilly: Did Thomas Edison start that?
Muckerman: It's somewhat boring, maybe. It's not a new company like 8point3.
O'Reilly: Founded in 2015.
Muckerman: But it's making a lot of money and it's diversified. And when I'm thinking about energy as we move forward in the world, we're not done with fossil fuels yet, but it's not far off. So I'm hedging my bets. I'm going to profit from fossil fuels now and renewables later. Even a little bit now. So when you look at GE, I think the big story with them right now is the combination of GE Oil & Gas with Baker Hughes, probably going to finalize itself here in 2017. What you're basically looking at is GE owning 62.5% of the joint venture, and Baker Hughes owning 37.5% of the joint venture. GE already is making over $15 billion in the oil and gas space. That was in their 2015 revenues. Up slightly in 2016. Very well diversified across five different business units within oil and gas. Carved out a niche in turbo machinery and the digital solutions space that you're looking at with this company. Turbo Machinery, actually the biggest of its five oil and gas divisions, also lends itself nicely to wind power generation. Looking at this company, it's going to have some cost synergies, it's going to be the second largest equipment and services company in the world when it comes to oil and gas, right behind Schlumberger, ahead of Halliburton, a company that I have owned for several years -- Halliburton, I mean.
So, that's what I'm looking at with GE in the moment. But we're long-term investors here at the Fool, so I'm looking at it kind of where Sean's investment thesis came from with 8point3, we're talking about renewable energy. GE offers you exposure to wind, hydro, and solar. Right now, they had a record onshore wind year in 2016, booked 7 gigawatts globally, which was up almost 20% from 2015. Total installed base globally now stands at 57 gigawatts. They're working with countries all around the world, Japan, India, Germany, Greece, Saudi Arabia. Basically, their stated mission is to make clear that renewable energy is an unstoppable force. So I agree. You look at solar in the United States creating more jobs last year, in terms of percentage growth, than any other industry in the United States, that's basically my pitch. It has great exposure to oil and gas now, and it's building a very impressive portfolio of renewable energy for the future.
