In the Middle(sex) of the Organics-to-Power Sector
by Debra Fiakas CFA A post in June featured Middlesex Water Company (MSEX: Nasdaq) as an unlikely player in the waste-to-energy game. However, Middlesex has proven a capable project integrator, capitalizing on its collective knowledge of process engineering to launch a turnkey alternative energy service. A successful waste-to-energy project in the Village of Ridgewood, New Jersey has placed Middlesex squarely in the middle of the organics-to-power sector. Ridgewood taps its waste water for methane to power an electric generator. The power is used at the Ridgewood Water Pollution Control Plant, making the plant self-sufficient for electricity. The...
The Pros Pick Two (Correction:Four) Offbeat Cleantech Stocks for 2014
Tom Konrad CFA Green 2014 image via BigStock Among the dozen stocks picked by my panel of professional green money managers for 2014, most followed three themes: Solar stocks, IT stocks, and income stocks. Two didn’t, and they are included here. This Cash-Rich Water Company Could Produce a Big Dividend The first is a Japanese water utility, picked by Rafael Coven, the Managing Director at the Cleantech Group, and manager of the Cleantech index (^CTIUS) which underlies the Powershares Cleantech ETF (NYSE:PZD.) Coven likes...
Darling’s Renewable Diesel Diamond
In July 2013, Darling Ingredients (DAR: NYSE) and its joint venture partner Valero Energy (VLO: NYSE) commissioned the largest facility in North America to convert waste animal fats into renewable diesel. The facility was strategic located adjacent to Valero’s petroleum refining installation in Norco, Louisiana.
At the time the facility was capable of pumping out 12,000 barrels of renewable diesel per day that could be dropped directly into Valero’s distribution network and blended with fossil fuel. Even at that production level the facility showed promise to deliver strong dividends back to its owners. The partners named their venture Diamond Green Diesel and celebrated the unparalleled achievement.
The two partners in Diamond Green...
Focus On Clean Power Income Trusts
Last week, Tom brought you a piece on the Algonquin Power Income Fund (AGQNF.PK), in which he opined that shift in investor attention away from capital gains toward yield might eventually provide a catalyst for the prices of yield-focused securities such as income trusts to rise. So-called utility trusts, or income trusts where the underlying corporation is engaged in utility activities such as power generation, are a common feature of the Canadian income trust sector (the mother of all income trust sectors). A sub-set of utility trusts is the clean power utility trust, where the power generation...
Covanta Turns Ash Collector
Well into the early 1900s ash collectors plied the streets of America’s cities, picking up ash buckets left at curbs and stoops by households and businesses. The ash collectors sold as much as possible for brick making and soil improvement. The rest went to the handiest dumps.
Since then large utilities have taken over the job of heating and lighting buildings. Coal-fired power plants have become the largest producers of ash. The American Coal Ash Association reports that 53 million metric tons of coal cash were generated in 2013, of which 23 million metric tons were re-used for cement and bricks. The rest was stored...
Earnings Roundup: Metals Prices Boost Covanta and Umicore
By Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA
You don’t have to own mining companies to benefit from rising metals prices.
This is a roundup of first quarter earnings notes shared with my Patreon supporters over the last week. Waste to energy operator Covanta and specialty metals recycler Umicore are both benefiting from skyrocketing metals prices.
Just as renewable energy and energy efficiency stocks have long shown that investors don’t have to own fossil fuel companies to benefit from rising prices of fossil fuels, recyclers like Covanta and Umicore are showing that you don’t have to own environmentally damaging mining companies to benefit from rising...
Turning Potato Peels To Power
by Debra Fiakas CFA The series on waste-to-energy continues with Blue Sphere, Inc. (BLSP: OTC/QB), a relatively new entrant to the biogas power generation market. Blue Sphere is focused on converting principally food waste to power using anaerobic digestion technology. In May 2014, Blue Sphere started construction on a bio-digester and power generation facility near Charlotte, North Carolina, that will turn potato peelings and apple cores into 5.2 megawatts of power. Duke Energy (DUK: NYSE) has been lined up to buy the power when the plant goes operational sometime before the end of 2015. Management expects to...
N-Viro: Sludge Into Fuel
by Debra Fiakas CFA After ethanol producers figured out that pricey feedstock could rapidly erode profits, the renewable energy industry began casting about for alternative feedstock. What is cheaper than ‘free?’ Waste of all kinds - sewage, mixed municipal trash, animal manure, food and agriculture waste, wood pulp, exhaust gases, steam - can be virtually free. Sometimes waste generators are even willing to pay a fee to anyone willing to accept their nasty stuff. N-Viro International (NVIC: OTC/PK) is one of those renewable fuel producers with its arms wide open. The company has lengthy experience in treating...
Waste Management: Biogas with a Dividend
by Debra Fiakas CFA The biogas industry has attracted a number of new entrants. Blue Sphere (BLSP: OTCQB) described in the recent post “Turning Potato Peels to Power” and RDX Technologies (RDX: TO, described here) are both newcomers to the biogas power generation. Both companies show much promise and will likely grow dramatically over the next few years. Shareholders are counting on the stock prices to follow. Investors who are less interested in the big growth play and more interested in stability and current income are not left out. There are larger, more...
The Light On Blue Sphere’s Horizon
by Debra Fiakas CFA The stakes were high at the beginning of its fiscal year 2015, as Blue Sphere, Inc. (BLSP: OTC/QB), a developer of waste-to-energy projects, was facing deadlines to fulfill its contractual commitments to the sellers of its two ‘front burner’ waste-to-energy projects in North Carolina and Rhode Island. In the four intervening months it appears Blue Sphere has won all bets. Blue Sphere had purchased a biogas project from original owner Orbit Energy and had received an equipment financing commitment from Caterpillar. Unfortunately, an equity financing source withdrew its interest as...
China Recycling Energy: Profiting From Murky Air, But How Much?
by Debra Fiakas CFA Shanghai at sunset as the sun fades into the smog. Photo source: Suicup China’s industrial pollution problems are mounting. Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) increased by 3% in 2011, reaching an all-time high of 34 billion tons. China contributed a whopping 29% of that carbon dioxide - nearly twice that of the second worst polluter, the U.S., which spit out 5.4 million tons or 16% of the total CO2 emissions. Policy makers in China have been slow to move against industrial polluters...
Advanced biofuels pioneer Terrabon files for chapter 7 bankruptcy: One-off or trend?
Jim Lane Closely-watched green gasoline producer collapses as Waste Management (WM) declines next financing round. What does it mean for companies like Fulcrum Bioenergy, Enerkem, Agilyx, Agnion, Renmatix, Genomatica, and InEnTec? The Digest looks at the inside story. In Texas, Terrabon filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection; the company’s operations will cease and a trustee will be tasked with liquidating the company’s assets for the benefit of creditors. The complete Chapter 7 announcement is here. In a statement, Terrabon’s leadership said that company could not obtain additional corporate funding to finish developing and engineering its...
Casella Back In The Dumps, But Ready To Pick Up?
by Debra Fiakas CFA Casella Plants Flag in Waste-to-Energy The solid waste collection and disposal industry has been transformed by the building enthusiasm for waste recycling. Founded in 1975, Casella Waste Systems (CWST: Nasdaq) has been around to experience a lot of change and has been quick to get on the bandwagon. The company is a self-described recycler and resource manager as well as a solid waste collector. Granted the company is still heavily focused on its conventional solid waste business. Casella management has outlined a four-point plan to grow the company and increase profits. Top on...
Clean Energy Stocks Shopping List: Landfill Gas and Geothermal
Stocks seem expensive now, but that may not last. Here are two Landfill Gas stocks and three Geothermal stocks I'm hoping to buy if the market falters. Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA This article continues my Clean Energy Stocks Shopping List series. So far I've brought you: Five clean transport stocks, I looked at why it makes sense to wait for better prices, Five Energy Efficiency stocks (always my favorite sector), and Five Electric Transmission Stocks. This article takes a look at two of the most economical clean electricity generation technologies, landfill gas and geothermal. Kilowatts from...
Global Resource Corporation and Mobilestream Oil
This is the text of an email I received from a reader of my article on Global Resource Corporation (GBRC.PK). He has reason to suspect that things are much worse than just the weak governance issues I uncovered. I have been posting on Investors Hub as a result of family members being stung for a substantial purchase of Mobilestream Oil (MSRM.pk), now being converted to Global Resource stock. A poster gave me the link to your interesting article about Global and your problems contact Jeff Andrews. I am trying to contact Mr...
Covanta on a Mission to Up-cycle Municipal Waste
Debra Fiakas, CFA The Waste Hierarchy, with energy from waste highlighted Covanta Energy (CVA: NYSE) is a champion of renewable energy. So much so that Covanta commissioned an elaborate sustainability report in 2010, detailing the company’s three-year track record in elevating municipal waste from the landfill to a higher order of use. Compliant with standards set by the Global Reporting Initiative, the report is full of choice tidbits from Covanta’s municipal waste experience - at least through the year 2009. Let’s look at 2009, the last...
