Morgan Stanley is opening a new investment banking group focused on clean energy. The move comes after the firm handled ten transactions in the cleantech space worth $2.9 billion last year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

To date, Morgan Stanley has handled more clean energy initial public offerings (IPOs) than any other investment bank, and is now adding financiers with extensive experience in the space to their global team. Robert Mansley, based in London, and Schuyler “Skip” Grow, based in New York, will become managing directors of the new group, and other clean energy bankers will join Morgan in Mumbai and Hong Kong.

This important step by Morgan Stanley marks a strong vote of confidence for the long term profitability of the clean tech space. Many investment banks treat clean tech as a nagging child of an industry, doubting its legitimacy and lumping it in with their Power & Utilities banking groups. Standard practice could easily mean one or two senior bankers specialize in clean tech within a fifty person army of power bankers. A group solely focused on clean energy within a major financial institution, however, could mean much greater awareness of the discrepancies in subsidies for clean energy and conventional fuels. And it will definitely spur acceptance of renewables as financially viable energy options in a community much larger than those of us who read blogs about solar energy.

We’re happy to see positive momentum in such a conservative industry. The times they are indeed a changin’.