All told, the $789 billion economic stimulus bill contains about $50 billion for renewable energy projects, electric utilities, and other green companies. It’s possible to look at this sum in at least a couple of different ways.
First, the stimulus package is aimed at creating jobs. Some 3-4 million jobs according to President Obama.
There’s a fair amount of interest from green energy market watchers in the battery market. Many see this as the next big thing for energy investors. There are allowances for advanced battery technologies in the new stimulus package. Some of the companies involved in this are established players and some are very speculative.
Some of the companies we have looked at in this sector are Altair Nanotechnologies (NASDAQ:ALTI), privately held A123 Systems Inc., Active Power Inc. (NASDAQ:ACPW), Beacon Power Corporation (NASDAQ:BCON), Exide Technologies (NASDAQ:XIDE), EnerSys (NYSE:ENS), C&D Technologies Inc. (NYSE:CHP), and Axion Power International, Inc. (OTCBB:AXPW).
Read More
Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENER) reported its second quarter earnings before the market opened this morning. The company has net income of $14.2 million (EPS of $0.33) on revenue of $103.1 million. Analysts had expected EPS of $0.31 on revenue of $101.82.
Read More
Barclays Capital initiated coverage of several stocks in the solar energy sector this morning. Most of these ratings are cautious, although there was at least one positive call in the solar sector.
Yingli Green Energy (YGE) was rated overweight. Solarfun Power (SOLF) was started as underweight. China Sunergy (CSUN), LDK Solar (LDK), ReneSola (SOL), and Trina Solar (TSL) were all started as equal weight.
Jon C. Ogg
February 9, 2009
Today, energy industry sage T. Boone Pickens was opening his new facilities for LNG conversion to fuel in California for his Clean Energy Fuels Inc. (NASDAQ: CLNE). He came on CNBC and predicted "$100+ oil" and called for higher prices to be the norm from here on.
General Electric (NYSE:GE) announced orders for 20 Jenbacher Gen-Sets, 4 LMS 100 Gas Turbines for Latin American power companies, and 333 wind turbines in two U.S. states.
Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (NYSE: YGE) priced its offering of US$150,000,000 zero coupon convertible senior notes due 2012 and the pricing of a concurrent offering of 5,600,000 American depositary shares by certain shareholders of the Company.
Amtech Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASYS) received a $3.9 million follow-on solar order for diffusion processing systems from an existing solar cell customer based in Taiwan.
Yesterday, Gulf Ethanol (OTC: GFET) signed definitive agreements to acquire its new cellulose feed-stock processing technology for ethanol plants.
Just yesterday, Lazard Capital Markets reiterated its SELL rating on LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) despite it being up large on a questionable supply order.
Active Power, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACPW) announced yesterday that the S.E.C. has completed its investigation into the company’s past stock option granting practices and is not recommending any enforcement action.
Yesterday, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) invested in a $200 million staged solar project fund in Recurrent Energy to provide financing for $100mm of Recurrent Energy’s solar electric power projects in 2008 and an additional $100mm in 2009.
Jon C. Ogg
December 11, 2007
Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
After yesterday’s close, there was quite an interesting IPO filing with the buzz that may ring in many ears: enter Gushan Environmental Energy Limited….. Gushan Environmental is biodiesel player for the alternative energy investors, and based in China for the China-investors.
The nominal amount of the filing is for $250 million and the company will take the proposed ticker "GU" on the NYSE. Merrill Lynch has been tapped as the lead underwriter in the syndicate and co-managers are listed as CIBC World Markets and Piper Jaffray. So, take a look at the description and you will see what the potential excitement is:
We frequently discuss more detailed and IPO previews with back door plays for our open email distribution list if you wish to join.
Jon C. Ogg
December 4, 2007
Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
If you watch our daily hits on stocks that are hitting 52-week lows, then you know by now that ethanol stocks get kicked almost daily. Today is no different as Goldman Sachs has cut earnings estimates out of three usual suspects on corn-based ethanol and now projects some actual EPS losses instead of positive earnings in 2008.
The cut estimates reflects a continued cautious rating on the sector as Goldman Sachs believes a long anticipated oversupply has arrived. They note that ethanol capacity growth needs to come to a halt and existing capacity needs to run at lower utilization rates.
Goldman Sachs says its earnings projections are now significantly under First Call estimates. Does that mean even more downgrades on the way from other research firms that have already cut them? We have had a serious concern for some time about corn-based ethanol in the US. Other ethanol is profitable elsewhere and without the subsidy this sub-sector of the industry would likely have some viability issues. This is also a very political topic and the argument could be tossed up that if Iowa primaries weren’t so important that this would be deemed as snake oil.
Articles of interest:
Jon C. Ogg
September 27, 2007
Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE: WMI) announced a major national initiative to expand its roster of landfill gas to energy (LFGTE) facilities. The program will result in the creation of an additional 60 renewable energy facilities across the country — including the potential of two additional facilities in South Carolina — over the next five years.
New Poll Finds Most Favor Nuclear Energy To Meet NJ’s Rapidly Increasing Electric Demand
American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC), a leading energy technologies company, today introduced a Static VAR Compensator (“SVC”) product line. AMSC also announced that it has received its first transmission-level SVC order from Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), operator of 75 percent of the high voltage transmission grid in the Pacific Northwest.
Costco (NASDAQ:COST) and PermaCity team to deliver 2.4 Megawatts of Solar Electric Power to La Habra, Westlake Village, Simi Valley and Culver City Costco Warehouses.
Encore Energy Systems, Inc. (OTC: ENCS) issued a stockholder update: Jack Tarry, CEO said: "We remain on a rapid and strong path of growth and expansion. We will continue updating stockholder on our progress. We have many exciting developments to report in the coming days and weeks. This update further demonstrates our ability to set goals and deliver accordingly." This sounds more like noise rather than news.
BP (NYSE:BP) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced a major research partnership around energy conversion technologies. The program will explore the conversion of low-value carbon feedstocks such as petcoke and coal to high-value products such as electricity, liquid fuels and chemicals while minimizing carbon dioxide emissions.
Baard Energy, L.L.C. has acquired a technology license from Shell U.S. Clean Coal Energy Inc., part of Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS), to use its Coal Gasification Process in the gasification portion of its proposed $5 billion coal-to-liquid fuel (CTL) project located in Columbiana County, Ohio. The project will produce over 50,000 barrels per day of jet and diesel fuel, and other liquid products from coal and biomass feedstock.
Green Private Equity Fund, With A Hockey Twist
Jon C. Ogg
September 25, 2007
As a reminder, whether you prefer the term "Global Warming" or"Climate Change" is not the issue as far as 24/7 Wall St. covers it.Green business has become big business, and this affects many publiccompanies today.
Michael Richter, former All-Star goalie for the New York Rangers, has announced the formation of Environmental Capital Partners, LLC as a private equity firm focused exclusively on the environmental industry. "ECP" has formed a relationship with New York Private Bank & Trust to invest $100 million in middle-market green companies.
Sectors of particular interest for the firm include:
ECP is actively seeking growth and buyout transactions that require equity investments of $10-25 million, but the firm has the ability to complete larger transactions.
The firm will be led by Managing Partners William Staudt, an entrepreneur with extensive private equity and operating experience, and Robert Egan, formerly of J.P. Morgan Partners, LLC. The firm’s Partners include Dr. Stephen Kellert, a senior professor at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and former New York Ranger, Michael Richter, a recognized figure in the environmental community and frequent speaker at environmental events. Mr. Richter was considering a run for Congress when he was first approached about forming ECP. If you watch hockey you might find the greening or environmental efforts somewhat amusing considering the fights.
New York Private Bank & Trust Company is the largest privately owned bank in the nation. Howard Milstein, President and CEO of NYPB&T, and Barry Friedberg, a Director of NYBP&T, and the former chairman of the Investment Banking Division and member of the Executive Management Committee at Merrill Lynch & Co., will serve on ECP’s Investment Committee along with Messrs. Egan and Staudt.
If you are interested in our daily coverage in alternative energy you can set your RSS feeds to:
http://www.247wallst.com/alternative_energy/index.html
If you’d like to see our coverage in the sector for a quick review visit the following:
Jon C. Ogg
September 25, 2007
CMGI (NASDAQ:CMGI) is set to report earnings after the market close on Tuesday, September 25, 2007. As a reminder, one of the recent quarter earnings did actually come out ahead of the market close. So this will be one to watch on Tuesday from about 2:00 PM EST on.
This is going to boil down to the results from ModusLink, its logistics operations. If you want to trust the one stated estimate it is $0.02 EPS on $256.6 million. Here was what the company offered for guidance at its last conference call.
There is always a chance that Wall Street will look at the alternative energy investments, but right now it seems that the focus will be on the actual results if other companies are a decent bogey here. We recently noted its new launch in Europe with more geographies promised.
Sometimes the obvious is all that matters, and that seems to be the case going into this earnings report. In the past there have been many similar ties to Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE:SFE) and to Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ:ICGE), although there have been very indirect ties on news and relative price moves over the last year.
Other articles of Interest:
Shares closed down $0.03 at $1.59 today on only 5.465 million shares, and the 52-week trading range is $1.03 to $2.60. Average trading volume is back down to well under 10 million shares, far short of when the buzz machine was surrounding this every day.
Jon C. Ogg
September 24, 2007
Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
We noted ourselves today how some of these ethanol stocks are trading at new 52-week lows again. Some of these are hitting new stock lows each day. Some Ethanol Names Drowning In Their Own Tanks (USBE, PEIX, VSE, AVR)
American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) subsidiary Appalachian Power Co. has signed a long-term power purchase agreement for renewable wind energy with Camp Grove Wind Farm LLC, a wind project majority owned by Orion Energy Group LLC.
American Security Resources Corporation (OTCBB:ARSC) subsidiary, American Hydrogen Corporation (“AHC”), has shipped samples of its proprietary ammonia catalytic electrolyzer (ACE) to a European company specializing in catalysts for the fuel cell industry.
If you have been following our posts for 52-week lows at the end of the day, one of the groups that keeps having some of its components hitting this list is the ETHANOL Stocks. With oil over $80.00 it will make you wonder. This morning FBR Capital Markets, of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey has downgraded some of the ethanol stocks today:
Aventine Renewable Energy (NYSE:AVR) was cut to Underperform. Closed at $11.68; 52-week range $10.61 to $26.49.
Pacific Ethanol (NASDAQ:PEIX) was cut to Underperform. Closed at $11.17; 52-week range $10.29 to $19.80.
Verasun Energy (NYSE:VSE) was cut to Mkt Perform. Closed at $12.02; 52-week range $11.00 to $26.90.
This follows another sector downgrade from Soleil just on Monday September 17. We have maintained that Ethanol in the manner the current system is set up is not all that economical and not as green on a net-net basis as it is intended to be, and this business got more crowded than it might have because of government subsidies. This is also a political issue and 2008 may be another volatile year for ethanol.
Jon C. Ogg
September 20, 2007
T. Boone Pickens was just a guest on CNBC this morning, but this was after he featured his alternative energy company called Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ:CLNE). This stock is now up over 10% on the day after he rang the opening bell for NASDAQ.
As far as overall oil and energy, T. Boone Pickens is still very bullish. He is still not going with formal targets but noted that oil production is now 85M barrels per day and there is a 88M production goal for Q4, "so production is going up." He also noted that as some fear Oil could go to $100, but he doesn’t think that will happen this year and he thinks that would take a geopolitical event. T. Boone Pickens created waves and a lot of scurrying when he predicted $80 oil before he’s 80, and that easily came to pass.
Recently we gave an extreme case that some outsiders think could yield oil at $200 per barrel, although keep in mind this is over quite a long time frame. Goldman Sachs also just lifted its theoretical oil "Super-Spike" band to a higher level of $135 per barrel and even $4.50 per gallon at the pump. You can also see their comments on individual stocks in the sector here.
Interestingly enough, on the very near term he thinks we should get a pullback here to maybe $78 per barrel. He still thinks the overall trend is up as demand is up and production is relatively flat. He noted that there will be less demand in second quarter of 2008, but supply is not going to get better. As far as where price kills demand, he won’t predict because it hasn’t happened yet at each milestone crossed.
He also noted that America is going green, and his company Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ:CLNE) is a green company that turns compressed and liquefied natural gas to run automobiles and the time has come for this. He noted that this is domestic, cheap, and clean and that it will happen.
As far as his stance on on gasification of coal, all kinds of alternative energy in coal and natural gas are there with oil at $82.00, but it all depends upon costs.
If you are interested in what goes on the Business World of "Global Warming" or "Climate Change," we now run a daily piece each afternoon on the business developments with public companies titled "The Business Day In Global Warming." We do not cover this under any political bend. Every major company out there seems to have some greener initiative, and as far as the Western World is concerned "Green Business Is Now Big Business."
If you would like to set up an RSS feed daily to our ALTERNATIVE ENERGY thread section you can link at the URL here:
http://www.247wallst.com/alternative_energy/index.html
Jon C. Ogg
September 19, 2007
Jon C. Ogg produces the 24/7 Wall St., LLC Special Situation Investing Newsletter; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
Safeway Inc. (NYSE:SWY) has announced a new environmental project to power 23 California stores with renewable solar energy. The company installed solar panels atop a newly renovated Safeway Lifestyle store in Dublin, California and plans to extend the program to nearly two dozen stores. Congressman Jerry McNerney joined on a tour of the store’s rooftop solar panel array. The unit is currently generating electricity to power the 55,000-square-foot retail facility.
NetJets, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A), unveiled details of a multifaceted initiative to address the environmental impact of the company’s flights and other operations and strengthen its response to climate change and other environmental challenges. The company retained the services of Esty Environmental Partners, a leader in corporate environmental strategy.
Chicago Tribune reported that The City of Chicago has signed an $8.7 million contract to buy up to 300 hybrid vehicles made by Toyota (NYSE:TM): 100 Prius sedans, 100 Camry models and 100 Highlander SUVs from Northside Toyota in the next three years.
SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ:SPWR), a Silicon Valley-based solar manufacturer, today announced a new partnership with GRID Alternatives, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization, to bring the power of solar energy to low-income families in need.
This is from earlier in the week, but worth a read. The Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan today announced that many companies who voluntarily participate in the U.S. Department of Energy’s program to report reductions of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions tend to have increased emissions but report reductions.
With oil hitting $80 a barrel, alternative energy is going to stay front and center regardless of any political issues around the topic.
Jon C. Ogg
September 13, 2007
As a reminder, whether you prefer the term "Global Warming" or "Climate Change" is not the issue as far as 24/7 Wall St. covers it. Green business has become big business, and this affects many public companies today.
| Today’s top tickerspy Indexes | |
| Platinum and Pall... | +2.9% |
| Cement Stocks | +2.5% |
| Canadian Mining S... | +2.4% |
| Department Store ... | +2.4% |
| Pollution Control... | +2.4% |
 | |
| |
RSS Updates
Email Updates
