| By Lisa Pham, Dan Murtaugh, and Ishika Mookerjee Investors this week see trade wars delivering a blow to the energy transition in the US — yet there is still hope for opportunities in China as it pursues its renewable ambitions. The decoupling of trade ties between the world's two largest economies "cements challenges for US companies to import components key to decarbonization-related technologies," according to analysts at UBS Group AG's global wealth management arm. "Ultimately, tariffs are likely to push clean tech costs higher at a time when clean tech already costs significantly more in the US compared to other countries," UBS Wealth analysts including Amantia Muhedini and Tiffany Agard wrote in a note to clients dated April 4. Read More: Clean Energy Already Has Big Trade Barriers. Now Comes Trump Stock indexes with clean energy themes initially weathered the shock of President Donald Trump's tariff announcement on April 2. But UBS notes that was likely due to the presence in those indexes of US utilities, which were briefly treated as a haven by investors. That trade has since unwound, and clean energy stocks have been dragged down along with the wider market. Is there any safe harbor in this market? Wind generator China Longyuan Power Group Corp. and hydro-dam operators China Yangtze Power Co. and Huaneng Lancang River Hydropower Inc. were three of just 20 firms on the CSI 300 whose shares were up from the start of trading Monday through midday Tuesday. The index as a whole is down over the past two sessions. The utilities have the benefit of low-cost, tariff-free inputs like sunshine, wind and water, and Chinese developers rely mostly on domestic supply chains to build out solar, wind and hydro plants. "The China power sector remains one of the most defensive, and we prefer hydro to other power operators given lowest generation costs, valuation support and decent fundamentals," Jefferies analysts Alan Lau and Johnson Wan said in a research note Tuesday. Investors are also expecting more clean energy equipment to be bought and sold within Asia. "Asia selling back to Asia will be a big theme," said Khan Yow, managing director at Singapore-based Seraya Partners, a $1.3 billion private equity firm that invests in Asian infrastructure. "It will be somewhat shielded from tit-for-tat measures." Yow said investors see Asia as a good long-term bet for clean energy growth. "One of the strongest hedges is to double down on our focus on Asia as a region in renewables, energy transition and digital infrastructure," he said. Meanwhile, the market mayhem may inspire more investors to take clean energy companies private. "It makes sense that there would be an uptick in take-private deals in the clean energy space as public market valuations come under pressure," said Armina Rosenberg, co-founder of Minotaur Capital, a Sydney-based hedge fund. Read More: Green Investors Are Finding Bargains in Trump's Big Oil Era Rosenberg noted there could be some good opportunities in companies focused on energy management software, grid optimization or smart energy systems "that have solid underlying tech but face market volatility." | 
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