Alternative Energy Daily: Nuke Slowdown No Long-term Help for Solar Makers (CREE, VECO, AIXG, RBCN, LEDS, EXC, ETR, NRG, FSLR, JASO, TSL, LDK, SPWRA)

It’s time for our “Alternative Energy Daily” report covering solar, nukes, utilities and more. Utilities with large nuclear power generation assets are also seeing pressure as more concerns surface related to the reactors that were damaged in Japan’s earthquake and tsunami disaster. Exelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC), Entergy Corp. (NYSE: ETR), and NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NRG) are all trading slightly lower today following a statement from NRG’s CEO that two proposed reactors in Texas could be delayed or canceled following the problems in Japan. Financing problems, lack of a buyer for the power, and no approval yet on loan guarantees from the US government might have done the $7 billion project in any way.

The LED lighting suppliers are getting bashed on lower guidance from Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE).  Expected revenues have been revised downward and margins are also forecast to fall. The carnage has spread to other LED makers like Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO), Aixtron AG (NASDAQ: AIXG), Rubicon Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: RBCN), and SemiLEDS Corp. (NASDAQ: LEDS).

And, as expected, nuclear power is not getting more popular in the US. A recent survey commissioned by the Civil Society Institute indicates that 53% of Americans would support at least a moratorium on new US nukes if “increased energy efficiency and off the shelf renewable technologies such as wind and solar could meet our energy demands for the near term.”  Some 74% of Americans also support a shift in loan guarantees away from nukes and toward wind and solar power.

That support probably does not include Wisconsin’s embattled governor, who recently took on public employee unions and is now getting heat from alt energy groups for causing the cancellation of a 150-megawatt wind farm project due to uncertainty in the state’s regulatory structure. The governor has proposed strict rules that would have made it more difficult for wind power generation.

Solar PV makers like First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR), JA Solar Holdings, Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: JASO), Trina Solar Ltd. (NYSE: TSL), LDK Solar Co. Inc. (NYSE: LDK), and SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWRA) got a share price boost following the nuclear accident in Japan, but that rise is almost certainly going to be short-lived as investors come to understand that solar PV is not a short-term replacement for nuclear generation. Too much of the demand for solar generation depends on government subsidies, and the trend has been for the subsidies to fall as more solar generation comes on-line.

But solar PV makers do know how to make headlines. A solar PV start-up has proposed to replace the south-facing windows of Chicago’s Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower) with enough solar PV glass to generate 2 megawatts of electricity. No cost estimates for either installation or maintenance, or even if the technology really works.

Our final item of interest for today comes from the State of Washington, where burning biomass to generate electricity has a solid history that is now being challenged.  A 2010 research study in Massachusetts has shown that biomass burning emits 45% more carbon dioxide than burning coal to generate electricity, and nearly 300% more CO2 than burning natural gas. Burning biomass has long been thought to be carbon neutral, and this new challenge is likely to cause some hot discussion.

Paul Ausick