Warm Wind For Vestas
by Debra Fiakas, CFA
A stream of impressive news has been delivered by wind turbine producer Vesta Wind Systems AS (Copenhagen: VWS.CO, US OTC: VWSYF, US ADR: VWDRY) over the last few weeks. Over the last two months the company has received orders for wind power turbines totaling 3,781 megawatts. Customers in the U.S. appear to be quite shy, withholding their names and the final destination of the power projects. Nonetheless, the more transparent European, Chinese and Brazilian customers provide a good view on how well regarded Vestas has become.
Business has been so good Vestas is opening a new nacelle and hub assembly factory in...
Western Wind Expects Full Cash Grant for Windstar
Tom Konrad CFA The Windstar Wind Farm. Photo credit: Western Wind Energy On July 10, shares of Western Wind Energy (TSX:WND, OTC:WNDEF)plummeted because of a $12.2 million shortfall in the 1603 cash grant from the US Treasury for the company’s Windstar wind farm compared to the application. In order to reassure skittish investors, the company held a conference call on Monday, July 16. On the tenth, I thought that investors should write off the 1603 cash grant shortfall, despite the fact that the company intended to send a delegation...
Magnetek Reorganization Centers on Alternative Energy Products
Magnetek Inc. (MAG) announced a reorganization of the Company's operating structure to accelerate growth in alternative energy markets. "Alternative energy products currently account for less than 5% of our quarter-billion-dollar annual revenue," said Magnetek chief executive Andrew Galef. "But that revenue has the potential to increase exponentially over the next few years, based on double-digit growth rates in alternative energy markets and proprietary power conversion products that we are now introducing for solar and wind power markets."
Maxwell Technologies Receives 1.5 Million-Unit Ultracapacitor Purchase Order From Enercon for Wind Energy Systems
Maxwell Technologies (MXWL) announced that Enercon GmbH has placed a 1.5 million-unit purchase order for ultracapacitors for wind turbine blade pitch systems. Enercon currently uses BOOSTCAP® ultracapacitors for backup energy storage and power delivery in wind turbines models ranging in output from 300 kW to 6 MW. Ulrich Neundlinger, Enercon's managing director of switching units, said that the company is expanding its use of ultracapacitors for blade pitch system backup power after initial deployments confirmed their significant advantages over traditional battery solutions.
Op-Ed: Vote Against Vestas’ Proposed Board
Vestas' (VWDRY.PK) Board of Directors intend to grant management share options at a strike price one-third BELOW book value. The Board of Directors is rewarding management for its mismanagement and past profit warnings. This will not help restore investor confidence. Given Vestas' valuation, it is time for shareholders to stand up for their interests: Investors should vote against all nominees for Vestas Board of Directors at the AGM on March 29th. The strike price of Vestas' share option scheme is only the latest in a series of decisions disregarding shareholder interests. Vestas needs to change! Vestas needs a...
Offshore Wind Blows Into The US: Seven Stocks To Catch The Breeze
Tom Konrad CFA The Growth of Offshore Wind Offshore wind has finally gotten a toe hold in the United States. The United States' first offshore wind farm, the 30 megawatt (MW) Block Island Wind Farm, is under construction. A new project, the South Fork Wind Farm will be three times the size of Block Island (90 MW), is set to be approved by the Long Island Power Authority. This project will be located 30 miles East of Montauk, NY and Southeast of Block Island in a wind energy area designated by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy...
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...
Gamesa Blows Siemens a Valentine
by Debra Fiakas CFA Spain’s wind turbine manufacturer, GAMESA Corporation (GTQ1: Berlin; GAM: Madrid; GCTAF: OTC/PK), has been under pressure lately to spread profits over a hefty debt load. The November post entitled The Wind in Spain is Mostly in GAMESA, noted the expanding product line and building customer base. Backlog at the end of September 2015 was 3,034 megawatts, representing a 43% increases over backlog a year ago. Robust sales and higher profit margins have generated strong cash flows and GAMESA has been able to pay down debt. During the first nine months of 2015...
11 Wind Energy Stocks for 2015
By Jeff Siegel Something doesn't add up here... A recent Energy Department report has suggested that wind power will be cheaper than natural gas-generated power within 10 years. And that's without a federal tax incentive. Sounds good. Certainly I love hearing about renewable energy competing with fossil fuels in the absence of subsidies. Yet here's the weird thing... While the DOE report states that wind can be the cheapest, cleanest power option in all 50 states by 2050, the Obama administration is pushing to not just renew the wind energy production tax credit but actually make it permanent. That's...
Western Wind to Sell Company, Avoid Proxy Battle
Tom Konrad CFA Western Wind and the Toronto Hedge Funds Last October, Western Wind Energy (TSXV:WND, OTC:WNDEF) received an unsolicited takeover bid of $2.50 a share from Algonquin Power (TSX:AQN, OTC:AQUNF) to buy the company. Before the bid, the stock had been trading in the $1.20-$1.25 range, but President and CEO Jeff Ciachurski felt that it did not fully value the company’s projects and assets, including approximately $1 per share of US tax assets which the Canadian company Algonquin would not be able to use. Large shareholders at the time were in favor of the sale, including at least one shareholder...
ENDESA Completes Construction of the Fonsagrada-Punago Wind Power Complex with Installed Capacity of 75.9...
Spanish Energy producer ENDESA (ELE) will have 75.9 MW of additional wind power in Galicia, now that its subsidiary, ECYR, (ENDESA Cogeneracion y Renovables) has completed construction of the Fonsagrada-Punago wind power complex in the Province of Lugo. ENDESA currently has operative installed wind energy capacity totalling 999 MW, with an additional 163 MW under construction, giving it a national market share of 16.6 %. Year to date, the Company has brought 4 wind parks into operation, representing 77 MW, while it has commenced construction on 7 new farms, which will add 163 MW to current installed capacity....
Where’s Western Wind Energy’s Tax Grant?
Tom Konrad CFA On March 22, Western Wind Energy (TSX-V:WND, OTC:WNDEF) applied for a $90,556,707 tax-free 1603 grant from the US Treasury on behalf of the completed 120MW Windstar project. The press release stated that the grant is subject to approval by the Treasury and payable within sixty days. The Windstar Wind Farm. Photo credit: Western Wind Energy It’s now more than three months later, and no tax grant. The stock is down 24% since May 22, when the grant was expected, but management remains confident they will get...
Colorado Voters Approve Amendment 37
Colorado voters have approved an amendment requiring utilities to get part of their electricity from the sun, wind or plant and animal waste. The amendment requires the state's seven largest utilities to get a portion of their retail electricity sales from renewables, beginning with 3 percent in 2007 and climbing to 10 percent by 2015. Four percent of the renewables should be solar sources.
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...
Rarer Rare Earths Are Not Going To Sink The Wind Power Sector
Charles Morand Once the electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle frenzy fizzles out, as cleantech frenzies typically do when reality comes knocking (i.e. corn ethanol and solar PV), the next hot thing to hit the world of alternative energy investing could very well be rare earths, or the lack thereof. Rare earth metals are used in a number of technologies, most importantly for alt energy investors in NiMH HEV batteries and in permanent magnets for wind turbine generators and electric motors (made with the element neodymium). This article, as its name indicates, will focus on the wind sector. ...
Our Undiversified Wind Portfolio
Wind advocates like to say "The wind's always blowing somewhere" to counter concerns about the variability of wind power. This is true, and it means that wind can always be relied on to produce some power, but that does not mean that wind can always meet demand. In the United States' Great Plains wind belt, wind is typically anticorrelated with demand, meaning that, unless we can shift demand to times when the wind is strong, either through time of use rates or demand planning, overall energy production from wind will not be able to exceed 25-35% of overall demand...
