How to Build a Cleantech Company Without Huge Investment Capital: A Case Study
David Gold While many cleantech companies require very large amounts of capital in order to get to market, there is a quiet group of cleantech companies bucking that trend. Companies like Heartland Biocomposites (Green Building Materials), RealTech (Water Testing) and TerraLUX (LED Lighting) all built significant and growing businesses with compelling intellectual property and did so initially without multi-millions in capital from venture funds (let alone tens or hundreds of millions). Because TerraLUX is one of our portfolio companies and I therefore know them best, their story is one I am able to share. TerraLUX boasts...
Ten Solid Clean Energy Companies to Buy on the Cheap: #9 Koninklijke Philips Electronics...
Readers of this blog are well aware that I'm a fan for energy efficiency in general and efficient lighting in particular as good investments as more and more people and companies reduce their energy use in order to lower costs and green their image. With the exception of niche players such as Cree and Lighting Science, efficient lighting is dominated by General Electric (GE), Osram Sylvania (a division of Siemens (SI)), and Koninklijke Philips (PHG.) I'm a fan of all three of these companies, and both GE and Siemens are honorable mentions in this series. While Siemens and GE...
Ameresco (AMRC): Clean Energy One-Stop Shop
Tom Konrad CFA Contrary to common belief, the greatest barrier to the adoption of clean energy is not the cost. In many cases, cost is not a barrier at all: it's an advantage. That's because energy efficiency measures are usually so cost-effective that they not only pay for themselves, they can often pay for the addition of flashier clean energy technologies such as solar and wind. For institutions in the Federal and MUSH (Municipalities, Universities, Schools, and Hospitals) sectors, the main barriers are lack of capital and expertise. Lack of capital arises because such institutions traditionally consider...
ABB: Improving Transmission and Distribution Efficiency
Diamond in the Rough Alternative energy stocks are usually exciting, development stage companies with break-through technology which just might to totally transform the way we live. Unfortunately, that's a better description of a speculative lottery ticket style company than a solid investment which will provide solid, long-term capital gains. So it's always a pleasure to find a company whose products are so commonplace that we don't even notice them, even when we see them every day, and yet is involved in essential work to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. I took this picture in...
Who’s a Fat Cat?
Tom Konrad CFA A Fat Cat. Photo of "Cauchy" by author. Friday, in a generally positive article about Lime Energy (NASD:LIME), I noted that the top five executives at the company seemed overpaid in comparison to one of their nearest rivals, Orion Energy Systems (NYSE:OESX). Since this was not based on in-depth research, and is a pretty serious allegation about a company I’m otherwise enthusiastic about, I decided to do some more digging. Who is a Fat Cat? Using data on executive pay from Morningstar, I compared executive pay at...
Wise Energy Use Stocks: Efficient Lighting
Opportunity On Friday, October 10, 2008 , I stopped being bearish for the first time since the 1990s. My long term expectation of a crash that didn't come had been undermining my self confidence. Even the decline in 2001 and 2002 had not seemed severe enough, given the financial imbalances in the system. I had begun to worry that I might be genetically bearish, and that my worries had nothing to do with a market that was greatly overvalued. I am relieved to say that I am not a permabear, and that the market as a...
Three Stock Alerts: CREG, EFOI, OPTT
By Harris Roen Three volatile alternative energy stocks release earnings reports. Two of the stocks jump, one drops. China Recycling Energy Corp (CREG) More Info Latest earnings report for China Recycling Energy Corp shows a huge jump in revenues and net income. Insider selling, however, has led to stock losses. CREG is down 75% from where it was trading just this March. Seeking Alpha Energy Focus, Inc (EFOI) Profits...
The Alternative Energy Fallacy
John Petersen In 2009, the world produced some 13.2 billion metric tons of hydrocarbons, or about 4,200 pounds for every man, woman and child on the planet. Burning those hydrocarbons poured roughly 31.3 billion metric tons of CO2 into our atmosphere. The basic premise of alternative energy is that widespread deployments of wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles will slash hydrocarbon consumption, reduce CO2 emissions and give us a cleaner, greener and healthier planet. That premise, however, is fatally flawed because our planet cannot produce enough non-ferrous industrial metals to make a meaningful difference and the prices...
Is There Life After the Bulb?
When incandescent light bulbs are phased out in the United States between 2012 to 2014, managers of utility Demand Side Management (DSM) programs will be between a rock and a hard place. At the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project's 5th annual Energy Efficiency Workshop, this fact seemed to be the elephant in the room that most of the utility executives in attendance did not want to talk about. One Trick Pony It's not for nothing that the compact fluorescent bulb, or CFL, has become the international symbol of energy efficiency. While it is true that we're not going to stop...
Stock Picks with a Whole Systems Approach
Tom Konrad CFA Picking the best energy services stocks. Fossil fuels are getting more expensive, but so are the industrial metals and other commodities used in the wind and solar farms with which we hope to replace them. Meanwhile, government and personal budgets everywhere are under strain. These economic imperatives make energy efficiency the one clean energy sector that may benefit despite rising denial about the existence of climate change among the US political elite and continued economic weakness. Energy efficiency represents the sort of true win-win-win in that it saves money, reduces the use...
Why the Financial Crisis is like Energy Inefficiency
Tom Konrad, Ph.D. I have a regular column called Greener Money in Smart Energy Living Magazine. The Spring issue just printed, and I'd like to highlight this column, because it discusses ideas I have not written about elsewhere. The column begins: As people become more aware of how we use energy, many become amazed and appalled at the sheer waste of it. Why are homes built without attention to insulation and sealing that would not only make them more comfortable, but also mean they cost less to live in, even with the slightly larger mortgage payments? Why do...
Selling Pressure Comes Off Lime Energy
Tom Konrad CFA When Lime Energy (NASD:LIME) reported accounting problems, including the possibility of fictitious revenue on July 17th, investors abandoned the stock, unwilling to own a company in which they knew the financial statements to be misstated. Over the next two weeks, Lime found a floor around $0.90 (down from over $2 on July 16th), as those investors who would sell at any price were replaced by those who, like me, feel that $0.90 is less than any reasonable estimate of LIME’s true value even in liquidation. Volume then dried...
LSB Industries And Activist Fund Position Themselves For Board Election
With the resignation of four non-independent directors and reduction in the size of LSB’s board, the company has managed to appear to be making a step towards reform while making it harder for the activist fund to gain influence. Gaining influence in a tightly controlled family firm is never easy. It looks like the task just got significantly harder for Engine Capital in its quest to unlock shareholder value at LSB.
Ten Solid Clean Energy Companies to Buy on the Cheap: #1 Johnson Controls, Inc....
Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI) has long been one of my favorite energy efficiency picks, with an added bonus coming from their joint venture with Saft to produce batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles. They have also shown some energy saving innovation making parts for auto interiors. Building EfficiencyEfficient buildings are much more complex than simply replacing inefficient HVAC and lighting with more efficient versions. Quite often, the most cost effective measures come from using systems more efficiently. As an analogy to the home, look at any list of quick tips for energy saving around...
List of Energy Efficiency Stocks
Energy efficiency stocks are publicly traded companies using a wide range of technologies to deliver the same energy services using less energy in the built environment. This includes efficient lighting such as LED lighting stocks, insulation, efficient motors, efficient appliances and appliance replacement services, sensor and control technologies, the internet of things, efficient power conversion and generation, and energy efficient design, construction, and retrofits.
See the list of efficient vehicle stocks and alternative transportation stocks for companies reducing energy used in transportation.
This list was last updated on 7/20/2022.
Acuity Brands(NYSE:AYI)
AIXTRON SE (AIXA.DE)
Ameresco, Inc. (AMRC)
Appliance Recycling Centers of American (ARCI)
Aspen Aerogels, Inc....
Five Alternative Energy Stocks I’ll Research “One of These Days”
I have more ideas than I have time to explore them, and it's getting out of hand. I still need to write the promised articles on Evergreen Solar (ESLR) and Lithium Technology Corp (LTHU), but there are many others that have caught my attention over the last six months or so. Since the list keeps getting longer, I thought I'd just give you a taste of some of the companies in my inbox, and why they seem interesting. Since I may or may not ever write articles about any of these, I thought I'd give people the opportunity to...
