Westport Fuels Natural Gas Conversion
Earlier this week Westport Fuel (WPRT: Nasdaq) reported financial results for the quarter ending September 2018. Based on British Columbia, Westport is a developer and manufacturer of clean fuel systems for both fossil and renewable fuel sources. It has taken some years, but Westport management has worked hard and overcome a number of obstacles to bring a mix of engines and systems capable of handling various fuels such as natural gas, hydrogen and liquid petroleum gas.
Revenue jumped to $65.5 million in the September 2018, quarter delivering $4.3 million in cash earnings. The company’s relationship with truck engine manufacturer Cummins (CMI: NYSE) is proving to be...
Oil & Alt Energy Redux
Charles Morand Last week, I conducted an analysis showing the lack of evidence supporting claims that oil and alt energy returns are strongly correlated (claims that sometimes come from outfits as reputable as Bank of America Merrill Lynch). I don't want to belabor this topic but I thought I would post the results of another, similar analysis I conducted following comments I received on how to improve the first one. In a nutshell, the comments suggested I do the following: 1) Look at daily correlations or even smaller periods, as "common knowledge" market...
HydroPhi: Turbocharging Trucks With Hydrogen
by Debra Fiakas CFA Casting about for alternatives to burning fossil fuels for energy, hydrogen is a logical candidate. It is the most abundant chemical on the planet and the energy density of compressed hydrogen is about 5.6 milli-joules per liter. This compares to 32.4 mj/l for gasoline and 4.3 mj/l for a lithium ion battery. That is where the romance ends and the realities of hydrogen begin. Hydrogen poses a safety risks, particularly in transportation and distribution. Hydrogen gas leaking into the air may spontaneously ignite. Extremely low temperatures will turn it into a liquid, but that...
Low Carbon Fuel Rules: From CAFE to LCFS and Everything In Between
The Whole Darn Low Carbon Landscape. How they Work, How they Work Together, and How they Might Work Better
by Joanne Ivancic, executive director, Advanced Biofuels USA
The Trump Administration is taking a new look at Obama Administration era Co2 regulations. On the transportation side, these include reviewing Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards; threatening to take away California’s authority to set their own mileage and pollution controls, including CO2 (carbon dioxide) emission reduction standards; and quarreling with the petroleum and biofuels industries over implementation and enforcement of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
Thus, the Clean Air Act (CAA), California’s unique authority...
Energy Storage: Q-2 2012 Review and Analysis
John Petersen While I jumped the gun last week and published my third quarter outlook for the energy storage and vehicle electrification sectors early, it's worthwhile to take a look back and see how my tracking list of companies performed over the last quarter and examine the past to see what the tea leaves in the bottom of the cup portend for the coming quarter. So without further delay I'll present my price performance table for the second quarter that ended on Friday. Q-2 was a dreadful quarter for Maxwell Technologies (MXWL) and ZBB Energy...
Electic Vehicle Subsidies May Clear A Lane In Chinese Traffic Jam
Bottom line: Traditional car makers will suffer from weak sales growth and plunging margins in China in 2015 and into 2016, while EV makers will start the new year slow but could see improvement by the end of 2015. A flurry of headlines this week are sending ominous signals for the car industry in the year ahead, with both traditional and new energy vehicle makers likely to face an uphill road as China’s economy slows. The problem could be compounded as big new capacity comes online from many major automakers that have invested billions of dollars on expansion over...
Crude Oil & Alt Energy: The Non-Relationship That Just Won’t Go Away
Charles Morand The relationship - or lack thereof - between oil prices and the performance of alt energy stocks has been a long-time interest of mine. I discussed it last in late March when I looked at correlations between the daily returns of alt energy and fossil energy ETFs. At the time, I found that only a weak relationship existed between the two and that if someone wanted to make a thematic investment play on Peak Oil, alt energy ETFs were not an ideal way to do so. Seeing as the popular press and countless "experts"...
Plug-in Vehicles, Unconscionable Waste and Pollution Masquerading as Conservation
John Petersen For eighteen months I've been blogging about the energy storage sector and discussing the current and potential markets for batteries and other manufactured energy storage devices. A recurring theme that I've discussed many times is the unrecognized but undeniable truth that while plug-in vehicles masquerade as conservation measures at an individual level, they're incredibly wasteful at a societal level. The conclusion is counter-intuitive and my articles on the subject invariably draw heated criticism from self-anointed defenders of the faith. Their arguments, however, do not change the inescapable truth that plug-in vehicles are one of the most...
UQM Technologies Receives Order for Generators and Motor Controllers to Retrofit an Additional Ten...
Unique Mobility Inc (UQM) announced that it has received an order from the Denver Regional Transportation District ("Denver RTD") for UQM® generators and motor controllers to retrofit an additional ten hybrid electric mall shuttle buses. Each 45 foot hybrid electric mall shuttle bus will be retrofitted with a 35 kW UQM® generator and two UQM® power electronic motor controllers to control the operation of the electric propulsion motors currently installed in each bus. Last summer the Company received an order for seven systems that were delivered during the last eight months.
Quantum Awarded Fuel System Production Contract for General Motors’ 2006 Natural Gas Sierra and...
Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc (QTWW) will provide the engineering effort to accommodate the model year changes for the fuel system. Quantum will also produce the alternative fuel systems and provide the specialty vehicle assembly of the fuel systems into the new trucks. In addition to integrating roughly 250 components into the vehicle, Quantum was also responsible for the powertrain and systems engineering to ensure that the system is optimized for performance, durability, safety and emission compliance over the life of the vehicle. Quantum's engineering effort extends to the vehicles being validated through a wide range of operating...
A123 Systems vs. BYD and Other Irrational Battery Investments
John Petersen Mother always taught me that if you can't say something nice, it's usually better to say nothing. While regular readers might question my ability to follow Mom's advice, this is an article I had really hoped somebody else would write. The quick summary is that while the shares of A123 Systems (AONE) may be a reasonable investment at current prices, the shares of BYD Co. Ltd. (BYDDF.PK) are an irrational value proposition, the shares of Ener1 (HEV) are even worse, and the shares of Valence Technologies (VLNC) are beyond understanding. Since many readers find detailed tables...
A123 Systems Files Price Range Amendment
John Petersen This morning A123 Systems filed another registration statement amendment for its planned IPO. The amendment specifies a preliminary price range of $8.00 to $9.50 and a preliminary offering size of 25 million shares (28.85 million shares with over-allotment option). Amendments like today's filing occur during the late stages of an IPO and it's not unusual to see the price range or offering size increase in later filings. Both of the preliminary values are about half of what I expected. The price range surprises me because of its rough parity with the $9.20 per share...
Storm Warnings For Lithium-ion Batteries and Electric Vehicles
John Petersen Before moving to Switzerland in 1998 I lived and worked in Houston, Texas, a place that teaches you the importance of keeping an eye on long-term weather forecasts, particularly during hurricane season. Most of the time it turns out to be wasted effort because Mother Nature is fickle and highly unpredictable, but when it's important it's really important. The same logic holds for investments in energy storage and electric vehicle technologies. You have to keep a close eye on the industrial and regulatory climate and be ready to change your plans when conditions change. For...
Car Insurers Can Help Community Solar Find EV Customers
By Joe McCabe, P.E.
The insurance industry has lots of exposure to climate change. But as Warren Buffet has explained, not so much for companies that do annual policy adjustments, like Berkshire Hathaway. Their exposure is limited because the trends are baked into the premiums. But there is an opportunity for reducing insurance risk due to climate change, and it comes from the insurance industry itself. The business model is to have car insurance salespeople provide leads to virtual electric car charging services. This has perfect demographics because electric vehicle owners are very receptive to solar electricity. Who wouldn't want...
The Best Peak Oil Investments Meet the Strong Grid: CVTech Group
Tom Konrad CFA CVTech Group (CVT.TO, CVTPF.PK) operates in two of my favorite clean energy sectors: electricity transmission and distribution and efficient vehicles. Here is a look at the company's fundamentals. In "The Strongest Strong Grid Stocks" of my 2010: The Year of the Strong Grid? series, I took a quick look at CVTech Group's financial ratios, and decided not to look deeper because they had considerably more debt in comparison to income than the other electricity transmission ("strong grid") stocks I covered in that article. I came across CVTech again while looking at companies involved in...
List of Efficient Vehicle Stocks
Efficient vehicle stocks are publicly traded companies that produce technologies allow cars, trucks, aircraft and ships to travel the same distance and carry the same loads using less fuel. Includes electric and hybrid electric vehicles, as well as other improvements that reduce fuel use. Similar to Alternative Transportation stocks, which reduce overall fuel use by shifting passengers or freight to more efficient types of vehicles.
This list was last updated on 8/24/21.
AeroVironment, Inc. (AVAV)
Aptiv PLC (APTV)
BorgWarner (BWA)
Blink Charging Co. (BLNK)
BYD Company, Ltd. (BYDDY)
CDTI Advanced Materials, Inc. (CDTI)
CPS Technologies Corp. (CPSH)
Enova Systems, Inc. (ENVS)
EEStor Corporation (ZNNMF)
Elio Motors, Inc. (ELIO)
Evolve Funds Automobile...
