| 02/06/08 - America's renewable energy industries are thriving at a time of unprecedented market volatility -- and wind and solar companies in particular are among the few bright spots in the current gloom over Wall Street. Wall Street's JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs and the big utilities have been buying up renewable energy companies in a scramble to get a piece of the record-breaking growth. More than a half-dozen firms have been taken private, including names such as Noble Environmental, Zilkha and Community Energy. U.S. wind energy companies collectively invested $9 billion dollars in 2007 building 5244 MW of new wind power facilities -- a new record according to the American Wind Energy Association and enough additional energy to supply 1.5 million homes. U.S. solar companies are also growing at their fastest pace in history -- more than 324 MW of new capacity was added last year, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association. | 
