Ewing Bemiss & Co., a boutique investment banker, is hot, hot, hot, having closed a string of major transactions this year in the alternate energy field. In January, the company's alternate energy practice represented Landfill Energy Systems, a Michigan-based operator of 14 landfill gas-to-energy projects, in its sale to Enpower Corp., of California. The next month, Ewing Bemiss helped raise $450 million to develop the Newberry Geothermal Project, a proposed 120-megawatt renewable energy power plant in Oregon.

In April, Ewing Bemiss announced a third alternate energy deal, representing Kansas City Landfill Gas, LLC, in the sale of its Johnson County Landfill Gas Project to Energy Investors Funds, a fund manager that invests in the U.S. energy and electric-power sector. 

Ewing Bemiss got its start in 1992 as one of many boutique investment banking firms in the Richmond region serving middle-market transactions between $5 million and $100 million -- a particular strength of the Richmond financial community. Partner Mary Bacon stumbled into the alternate energy field several years ago, back when wind farms and municipal biomass-to-gas projects were too small to interest the big players on Wall Street. She developed a reputation as an expert in the field and built a good team around her. When oil shot to $100 per barrel, Al Gore popularized scientific concerns about global warming and investors started pouring billions of dollars into alternate energy, Ewing Bemiss was in the right place at the right time.

Read a profile of the firm in "Financing the Green Revolution," in the Working Capital newsletter.