What do a beef cattle feedlot, an ethanol distillery, and some heatable, bacteria-filled tanks have in common?

They are the underpinnings of E3 Biofuels’ Mead, Nebraska Genesis bioethanol plant, an alternative energy provider with the first “closed-loop system” capable of extracting–in the distillery, using the methane gas–from the feedlot waste, processed in the heated bacteria-rich tanks, enough–twenty-five million gallons–of alternative energy ethanol to be commercially profitable. And from start to finish, not a drop, nor whiff, of fossil-based fuels is involved.

The plant will also remove the pollution potential of the feedlot wastes, and the grain residue left after distilling the ethanol will–you guessed it–be used as cattle feed.

The feedlot will not only lose the expense of manure disposal; it will actually be turning a liability into an asset.

And the financial markets are noticing. E3Biofuels is just one of many new alternative energy suppliers whose profit potential is raising eyebrows on Wall and Fleet Streets.

Both public and private sector investments are flooding into the alternative energy sector at a rate not seen since the first OPEC-induced energy shortage in 1973.

In the case of oil prices, what goes up has not, and does not appear likely to, come down. And with China and India making increased demands on fossil fuel resources, the instability in the Middle East, and mounting evidence of fossil-fuel based global warming, the alternative energy sector is booming.

Investment house Jeffries & Co, in October 2006, hosted the first European Alternative Energy and CleanTech Conference in London.

Jeffries’ managing director, Jeff Lipton, indicated that investment dollars are finding their way into many alternative energy technologies–not just the more established ones like solar or ethanol. Wind farm development, fuel cells, and alternative energy infrastructure are getting their share of support.

In the first half of 2006, U.S. investors put more money into the alternative energy sector than in all of 2005.

There’s no better way than being in the next big thing, before it gets really big, to make a fortune. Alternative energy is getting bigger every day.