Solar

Worldwater Corp (WWAT) announced that Saint Joseph of the Palisades High School of West New York, N.J., part of the Archdiocese of Newark, has contracted with WorldWater to purchase electrical energy for 10 years generated by a solar electric system. The solar panel array will be installed on the school's roof. Under WorldWater's Alternative Clean Energy Services (ACES) plan, St. Joseph's will not incur any start-up costs for the installation and the school will receives a 10% discount on their cost for power compared to their electric rate. The installation of the solar energy system at the school guarantees...

Honda Motor Co (HMC) plans to start mass-producing solar cells in 2007, eyeing growing demand for environmentally friendly energy sources. They will build a new factory for thin-film solar cells on the site of a car plant in Kumamoto. The company aims to generate annual sales of $40 million to $70 million from solar cells once the factory's output reaches full annual capacity of 27.5 megawatts, enough to power about 8,000 households. &mdash via Clean Break

I received an e-mail from a reader that had questions about holding DSTI. I had some concerns about DSTI. I was wondering if you still believe investment in this company or alternative energy stocks is worth it. If crude oil drops further (let say mid 50s) do you think it will have negative impact on alternative energy stocks particularly ENER and DSTI. I was very happy with the holding a couple days ago, but the performance of DSTI in last 2 days without any news has got me concerned. Let me answer your question with first a...

John Petersen Last week I had the pleasure of participating as a panelist in Infocast’s Storage Week and attending four days of presentations by industry executives, national thought leaders and policymakers. While most of the presentations were too detailed and specific for a blog about energy storage stocks, there were a few high-level discussions that may be interesting to readers and while I'll never qualify as a journalist I can at least share some of the thoughts I jotted down. Storage for Integration of Renewables Two of the most important presentations came from Dr....

Energy Conversion Devices Inc (ENER) announced today that it has signed a two-year distribution agreement with Conergy AG of Germany for 1.5 MW of photovoltaic (PV) products. Conergy AG, a supplier of solar systems based in Hamburg, will distribute UNI-SOLAR(R) products in France, Greece, Spain, and Switzerland through its main subsidiaries.

Aqua Dyne Inc. (AQDY.OB) and the Australian, Commonwealth Scientific and Industry Research Organisation (CSIRO), the Federal Government's Premier Research Organisation will be advancing the study and use of Solar Energy in thermal water desalination for the Coal Mining Industry. Aqua Dyne has received approval to deploy component modules of the JetWater Thermal Desalination system to a site adjacent to Lake Liddell in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia. The JetWater Thermal module will be tested and monitored over a three month trial program. The module will be connected to a solar energy system developed and...

XSUNX Inc. (XSNX) announced that it has expanded its business opportunities to include the product development of a new opaque solar cell device. This unique four-terminal solar cell design uses a combination of thin film transparent cell technology, derived from the company's Power Glass initiative, with that of a nano-crystalline solar cell. XsunX believes that the combination of these two technologies into a single device holds a promising opportunity to deliver low cost, high efficiency, flexible, and light weight solar cells providing performance characteristics commonly found only in various forms of expensive crystalline wafer technologies. The decision to...

Cleantech Blog had a conversation last year with Stuart Hemphill, now the newly appointed Vice President for Renewables and Alternative Energy at Southern California Edison, a subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE:EIX), one of the largest purchasers of renewable power in the US. We caught up with him again today in a lively discussion around his predictions for the renewable sector. Today they are announcing their sixth competitive solicitation for renewable energy. On peak delivery from the Tehachapi region is preferred, as they are currently building a massive transmission line to tap into the 4,500 MW of wind potential....

The London Accord took a look at what portfolio theory would suggest as the most effective ways to address Climate Change.  Knowing which technologies don't make the cut is at least as useful as knowing which technologies do. Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA I recently looked at a paper from the London Accord which used portfolio theory to recommend the best mixes of technologies to deliver different levels of carbon abatement.  The most useful technologies to achieve the needed levels of carbon abatement were Forestry, Hydropower, Biofuels, Wind, Efficiency, and Geothermal. I suggested stocks that investors might consider to invest in...

Privately held Konarka Technologies, Inc., announced the California Energy Commission is earmarking funds from its Energy Innovations Small Grant Program for Konarka. The grant will be used to accelerate Konarka's efforts to bring aesthetically integrated plastic photovoltaics to the roofing market. Over the next 12 months, Konarka will apply this grant to examining the potential for coating patterned power plastic roofing materials that mimic the appearance of traditional roofing products. Aesthetics and cost have been key hurdles in increasing market penetration for renewable photovoltaic power in the residential roofing market, but Konarka's materials will look like a conventional...

Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends has a good writeup on a new photovoltaic cell that doesn't need a battery for power storage. "Solar cells can convert solar energy to electricity, but that's about all they can do. You need batteries to store, and then release, this electricity. But this extra-step might soon no longer be necessary. Japanese scientists have developed a new type of solar cell which integrates an electricity storage device."

Shares of Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (STP) started trading yesterday and the stock closed with a 34% gain on the day. Suntech is a solar PV manufacture based in China's Jiangsu Province. They plan on using this cash infusion to expand manufacturing capacity and to research ways of lowering the cost of producing silicon solar cells. This stock is one way to purchase shares in two hot areas right now (Solar and China.) I'm not able to purchase shares in this company yet for the mutual fund since Marketocracy doesn't list this company yet. I'm currently...

ENDESA (ELE) reported a 52 percent increase in third-quarter profit Wednesday and said it will distribute almost 2.12 billion euros ($2.48 million) in dividends for the year. The company said it will pay out nearly 2 euros ($2.34) a share in dividends for 2005. The increased dividend is an attempt to ward off a hostile takeover attempt by Gas Natural. The stock way paying an almost 4% dividend yield and this move takes the divendend up near 12% with the special payout. Today I purchased the second third of my planned holdings for ELE in ...

Xantrex Technology Inc. (XTX.TO) has been awarded US $873,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) under its Photovoltaics Manufacturing Research and Development Initiative. Xantrex will match the funding from NREL during the course of the project for a total budget of $1.74 Million. This program will take place at the Xantrex facility in Livermore, California. Xantrex PV inverters are America's leading choice for large-scale solar installations. Presently, utility-interactive, three-phase inverters are available in models ranging from 10 kW to 225 kW, and multiple inverters can be paralleled for larger power installations. ...

GIRASOLAR INC (GRSR.PK) is pleased to announce its subsidiary DutchSolar BV has completed a 1MWp cells supply obligation to a major German solar industry partner. DutchSolar BV overachieved on its projected supply of 1MWp with 16% in surplus of its obligations. Supply had initially begun with delays in December 05 and was expected to take well into H2 of 2006. The revenue value now exceeds well over 3M$ and payments have been received in full. It is expected that DutchSolar will continue the supply of cells to German counterparts and further cooperation will be sought. DutchSolar BV has...

Equus Total Return (NYSE: EQS) is a closed-end fund that trades at a 42% discount to its net asset value (NAV). The fund invests primarily in both debt and equity instruments of small-caps and private companies. Each quarter, management must report the fair value of its net assets, but the stock market value of Equus is much lower than that of its net assets. Here's a chart showing Equus' discount to its net assets for the last five years: As we can see, Equus is used to trading at a discount to its NAV, but...