$3 Billion For Cleantech & Alt Energy
Charles Morand The DOE made public earlier today the amount of money that will awarded to clean power projects in lieu of the usual tax breaks: $3 billion. This will allow project proponents to receive a direct cash grant now instead of a Production Tax Credit or an Investment Tax Credit later on. The guidance document notes the following: "Section 1603 of the Act’s tax title, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act, appropriates funds for payments to persons who place in service specified energy property during 2009 or 2010 or after 2010 if construction began...
Ocean Power Technologies Bobs Into The Big Apple
by Debra Fiakas CFA Mid-June 2015, Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT: Nasdaq) announced final permits had been secured to deploy one of its power buoys off the coast southeast of New York City. The company has lost no time in laying down mooring lines for the buoy. The next step is to watch the skies for the best weather conditions to deploy the buoy. Over the next year, Ocean Power will collect data the power buoy’s performance. Ocean Power Technologies is a developer of ocean wave energy technology. The company has been...
Ocean Power Technologies: Alot Under the Water
by Debra Fiakas, CFA
After years of promises Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT: Nasdaq) is finally realizing revenue from its ocean wave power innovations. Sales in the quarter ending January 2020, was $725,000 - more than double the same quarter in the previous fiscal year. Driving the top-line is the sale of one of the company’s signature PowerBuoy ocean wave power generation system to Enel Group (ENEL: BIT; ESOCF: OTC), Italy’s premier energy company.
Some investors might find Enel an unlikely customer for a renewable energy device like the PowerBuoy. Designed to convert the mechanical energy in ocean waves to electrical energy, the PowerBuoy has been years under development. Ocean Power has long touted the potential in...
Ocean Power Technologies Riding The Waves
by Debra Fiakas CFA Shares of Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT: Nasdaq) have traded off over the past two weeks, after setting a new 52-week high in early March 2013. Investors had bid the stock up in the weeks before the fiscal third quarter earnings announcement, but those gains almost have been erased. The new negative trend has put OPTT on our list of small-cap energy stocks sinking into oversold territory. Is the sell-off a chance to pick up shares of this ocean power developer at a bargain? A better question might be what was...
The Price Of Ocean Power
by Debra Fiakas CFA
For Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT: Nasdaq) the sea is more a utility than Whitman’s source of romantic miracles. The company has developed a wave turbine to capture the energy in ocean waves and turn it into electrical power. Last month the company was successful in convincing investors of the merits of its ‘ocean utility’ technology, raising $8.2 million through the sale of common stock.
Branded as the ‘PowerBuoy’, Ocean Power’s product line is headed by its PB3system that has the capacity to generate up to three kilowatts of peak power. An onboard power storage system has the capacity to store up...
Hydrogen Fuel Is Not Dead
John Lounsbury With the furor over the potential for hybrid, plug-in hybrid and all-electric cars recently, one might think the hydrogen car was dead. Nothing could be further from the truth. Feasibility at an affordable price appears to be established and market availability of hydrogen powered cars may come sooner than you think. Many issues remain to be addressed and this article will try to cover them. The problems to be overcome are not insurmountable, but are also not trivial. These problems include the economics of hydrogen production, transportation, distribution and...
Three Marine and Hydrokinetic Stocks
by Debra Fiakas CFA Three public companies end our series on wave and tidal power development. Marine and HydroKinetic energy has only recently received enough interest from scientists and engineers to merit an acronym - MHK. It is an all-encompassing category, stretching across ocean tides and waves and reaching into the currents of inland rivers and straights. It is separated from hydropower, which involves the construction of dams to create elevation differences in water levels that can be used to turn turbines. Still this promising source of renewable energy is populated mostly by small, private companies...
#2 Finavera Renewables (TSX:FVR or FNVRF.PK)
When I first got wind (no pun intended) of Finavera Renewables (TSX:FVR or FNVRF.PK), I did not make too much of it because my view was that commercial exploitation of wave power - which is the banner under which Finavera has decided to promote itself to the investor community - was a few years away at best. Then, upon hearing that the company had managed to get a prototype in the water (PDF document), I decided to do a bit more digging. After all, if the technology worked, the economics of the business model would closely resemble those...
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...
Ocean Power’s Stock Offering
by Debra Fiakas CFA The first two lines of the prospectus for the April 2017 public stock offering by Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT: Nasdaq) say all investors need to know about the market opportunity for the company’s wave power generation products. First, the earth’s surface is covered 70% by water. Second, over 40% of the world’s population lives within 150 miles of a coastline. If the earth is dominated by water and a good share of our energy-hungry population lives near that water, doesn’t it make sense to turn the ocean into a renewable energy source? If...
If I Could Own Only One Alternative Energy Stock, It Would Be . ....
Bill Paul My friend Consuelo Mack, host of "Consuelo Mack's Wealthtrack" on PBS TV, asks her guests for their "one investment pick." What's my one alternative energy stock pick? A year ago on Consuelo's show, I recommended LED lighting developer Cree Inc. (Symbol CREE), because the LED lighting market (part of the burgeoning energy efficiency sector) is expected to hit upwards of $5 billion by 2013 v. $600 million in 2008, according to investment banking firm Merriman, Curhan, Ford, and because Cree was then an attractive takeover candidate. It still is; however, since the stock has since risen something...
Ocean Power Nets A Discerning Buyer
by Debra Fiakas CFA Earlier this week shares of Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT: Nasdaq) soared as the company announced its first commercial order for its PowerBuoy hydrokinetic devices. The order represents a modest $975,000 in potential revenue, but the customer, Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., provides extra value as a discerning buyer. PowerBuoys are built to capture the energy in ocean waves to drive an electrical generator. Power output can be delivered to nearby ocean or terrestrial installations. With worldwide interests in the numerous marine markets, Mitsui could develop into a large and long-standing customer. OPTT...
Ten Alternative Energy Speculations for 2008: Geothermal, Wind and Wave, and Thin Film Hype
This article is a continuation of my Ten Alternative Energy Speculations for 2008, with picks #8, 9, and10 published last Thursday. If you haven't already, please read the introduction to that article before buying any of the stock picks that follow. These companies are likely to be highly volatile, and large positions are not appropriate for many investors. My least risky picks are part of that same article linked to above; the moderately risky picks are here. This article contains the most speculative three picks. #3 Nevada Geothermal Power (OTCBB:NGLPF or Toronto:NGP.V) US$1.29 or CAD$1.26 Geothermal first started catching...
Is Ocean Energy More Than “A Very Expensive Hobby”?
Jennifer Runyon Powerful Ocean Wave photo via Bigstock That was the question posed to industry experts at the EnergyOcean International conference and exhibition that took place in Danvers, Mass., this week. Referring to three levels of development Epoch 1, 2, and 3 Andrew Tyler, CEO of Marine Current Turbines (MCT), a company now owned by Siemens (SI), gave a few key pointers to companies interested getting beyond the “very expensive hobby” stage of ocean energy development. While his tongue-in-cheek...
The Choppy Waters Of Ocean Power Investing
by Debra Fiakas CFA The last post introduced Atlantis Resources Ltd. (ARL: LN), a developer of tidal power generation technologies. Atlantis has been working on a project called MeyGen ofthe coast of Scotland, which is to become the world’s largest tidal stream energy project. It is a distinctive location where tidal action reaches up to five meters per second. Atlantis will supply the underwater turbines for the 400-megawatt project, which has received regulatory consent. Atlantis is not the only tidal power developer to hear the call to the high seas off the coasts of Ireland and...
Atlantis Resources: Pure Play Ocean Power
by Debra Fiakas CFA Atlantis Resources Ltd. (ARL: LN) is among the most recent additions to the Ocean Group in Crystal Equity Research’s Earth, Wind and Fire Index of companies using the dynamic forces of the planet to generate energy. Atlantis is a developer of tidal power generation technologies. Atlantis has been working diligently for over a decade to developer underwater turbine technologies. A project in San Remo, Australia using the company’s Aquanator tidal current turbine was among the first in the world to deliver ‘ocean’ power to an established electric power grid. The Aquanator has since been...
