Finavera Wind Energy: Slow Progress
Tom Konrad CFA Without a press release since June, and the stock price in the doldrums, investors have been looking for updates on Finavera Wind Energy (TSXV:FVR, OTC:FNVRF. Disclosure: I own this stock.) In fact, there has been an update: Finavera’s second quarter interim report, filed on August 28th on SEDAR, but without a press release or news articles, many investors seem to have missed it. Despite the lack of updates, progress continues behind the scenes, although Jason Bak, Finavera’s CEO is yet not able to say much about the ongoing initiatives. On Friday, he told...
Alaskan Electric Cooperative Expands Wind Turbine Fleet
Distributed Energy Systems Corp (DESC) has been awarded a contract to install and commission three additional NorthWind 100® wind turbines for Anchorage-based Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC). The contract brings the total number of turbines AVEC has purchased from Northern Power to 10, representing what is believed to be the largest investment in wind turbines made in Alaska in a single year. The Northern Power Products division will also supply and install wind turbine Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems for the villages of Toksook Bay and Kasigluk. These systems will leverage Northern Power's SmartView® software, which...
List of Wind Power Manufacturing Stocks
Wind power manufacturing stocks are publicly traded companies whose business is involved in the development or manufacture of wind power equipment.
AB SKF (SKF-B.ST, SKFRY)
Broadwind Energy (BWEN)
China High Speed Transmission Equipment Group Co., Ltd. (0658.HK, CHSTF)
General Electric (GE)
Helix Wind, Corp. (HLXW)
Inox Wind Limited (INOXWIND.BO)
Nordex AG (NRDXF, NDX1.DE)
Sauer Energy, Inc. (SENY)
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (GCTAF, SGRE.MC)
Sif Holding NV (SIFG.AS)
Suzlon Energy Limited (SUZLON.BO)
Toray Industries, Inc (TRYIF, 3402.T)
TPI Composites, Inc. (TPIC)
Trinity Industries (TRN)
Vestas (VWS.CO, VWSYF, VWDRY)
Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co., Ltd. (2208.HK)
If you know of any wind power manufacturing stock that is not listed here, but which should be, please let us...
SALT: Buying the Balitc Dry Dips
by Tom Konrad, Ph.D. CFA
The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is a shipping and trade index created by the London-based Baltic Exchange. It measures changes in the cost of transporting various raw materials, such as coal and steel.
Since the BDI is a measure of the income which firms that own dry bulk cargo ships can earn, changes in the BDI tend to drive changes in the stock prices of such companies.
Stock Price Correlation
Until recently, one such company was Scorpio Bulkers (SALT), one of my Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2021 picks. The chart below shows the last 5 years, with...
China Plans Aggressive Renewables Deployment But Falling Incentives
Doug Young Lofty targets contained in a new report show that China intends to push ahead with ambitious plans to build up its renewable energy sector. But perhaps the most interesting thing about this new report is word that Beijing finally intends to sharply reduce the inflated state-set fees now paid for solar and wind-produced power, in one of the sharpest indicators that it expects the industry to stop depending on government support and become commercially viable on its own. Such state support through a wide array of measures, which also include export credits and low-interest loans,...
Google Buying Pattern Energy Wind Farm
By Jeff Siegel Google announced yesterday that it has ponied up $75 million for a wind farm in Carson County, TX. In it's lock box of wind farm assets, this is number 15 for the Internet giant. Patterson Energy Group (NASDAQ:PEGI), one of my top picks for 2014, is developing the project, which provides enough juice to power 56,000 homes. As I wrote last year, Pattern Energy Group is an independent power company that owns and operates eight wind power projects in Canada, the United States, and Chile. Total owned capacity...
What A Portfolio Approach To Climate Policy Means for Your Stock Portfolio
Portfolio theory can lend insights into which carbon abatement strategies policymakers should pursue. If policymakers listen, what will it mean for green investors? Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA Good Info, Not Enough Analysis I've now read most of my review copy of Investment Opportunities for a Low Carbon World. The quality of the information is generally excellent, as Charles has described in his reviews of the Wind and Solar and Efficiency and Geothermal chapters. As a resource on the state of Cleantech industries, it's generally excellent. As an investing resource, however, it leaves something to be desired. Each chapter is written...
#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...
New Wind ETF FAN Cools Off Sunburned Portfolios
Update:You can find a comparison of FAN with PWND. a more recent wind ETF here. Since I last covered clean energy mutual funds and ETFs, the sector has seen the launch of two solar ETFs (KWT the Market Vectors Solar Energy ETF from VanEck, and TAN, the Claymore/MAC Global Solar Energy ETF.) Continuing in the tradition of cute ticker symbols, First Trust's new global wind energy ETF is FAN. I recommend that investors stay away from the (very expensive) green energy mutual funds, and invest either in one of the ETFs, or if they have...
Financial Innovation is Blowin’ in the Wind
Tom Konrad CFA Owning a wind farm is about to become a lot less risky. Wind power is cheap, clean, uses no water, and emits no pollutants. Yet wind is far from a perfect source of electricity, since the wind blows when and where it will. While wind power will never be as constant as baseload power, geographic diversification and better dispatch procedures can go a long way to mitigate the problems to utilities caused by wind's variability. Yet wind farm developers and financiers are at the mercy of the weather in their...
Big California wind farm wrestles with bird deaths
California's push to add more renewable electricity to the state's power grid is pressuring wind power developers to reduce the number of birds killed each year at one of the biggest wind farms in the United States. Wind companies like FPL Group Inc (FPL) , wildlife groups and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are trying to agree on ways to lower the risk for birds flying into big spinning turbine blades at the 584-megawatt Altamont Pass wind center in rolling hills about 50 miles east of San Francisco.
Renewable energy touted in new study
Nearly 36,000 jobs could be created in Texas if an increase in the national renewable energy standard were adopted, according to a new study released by the Union of Concerned Scientists. A national standard would require that 20 percent of the country's electricity come from clean, renewable sources like wind, biomass and solar.
Dark Clouds Threaten German Clean Energy Ambitions
John Petersen During the fourteen years that I've lived in Switzerland, the Germans have been the world's staunchest supporters of green power and alternative energy. Their aggressive development of wind power was breathtaking, as was their warm embrace of photovoltaic power. Over the last few weeks, however, there has been an ominous change in the mainstream German media's tone as the political class finally comes to grips with the unpleasant reality that rooftop solar panels are worthless on short, grey winter days and "For weeks now, the 1.1 million solar power systems in Germany have generated almost no...
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...
Rare Earth Element Shortages Threaten Global Wind Power Development
by Kidela Capital Group In spite of the recent global economic slowdown, the growth of new wind energy developments has so far continued unabated. Wind turbine technology has evolved considerably in the last decade, and new wind farms are steadily popping up across the globe. To meet rising demand for renewable, clean sources of energy, the push for more efficient wind energy technologies has moved from a proverbial light breeze just a few years ago, to a steady gale today. The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) recently predicted that the world’s wind power capacity will increase by...
The Grid Impacts of Net Metering
Net metering describes the requirement that an electric utility buy electricity from any of its customers that generate their own electricity (usually with some sort of renewable energy, such as solar or wind) at the same price that they sell it to the customer. That seems fair, doesn't it? The Utility Perspective It doesn't seem fair to the utility. Utilities do more than just generate and sell electricity to customers. They also are responsible for transmission (delivering the electricity) and reliability (making sure that the lights work when you flip the switch.) Taking just the reliability requirement, suppose that...
