Wind

Tom Konrad CFA Monday morning, Finavera Wind Energy (TSXV:FVR, OTC:FNVRF) announced that it had finalized its agreement with Pattern Energy Group  to sell two of its four Canadian wind energy projects for $28 million.  This should come as a relief to shareholders, who had been concerned when the original date by which they had expected to ratify the deal, March 31st came and went. Since the start of March, when shareholders would reasonably have expected to have heard an announcement of the meeting date and the circulation of proxy materials, Finavera’s stock had drifted down 15% (from C$0.20...

Western Wind Energy (WND.V) is pleased to announce the execution of a formal power purchase agreement with the Southern California Edison Company ("Edison") for the procurement by Edison, from the Company, of up to 120 megawatts of wind powered electrical generation. The agreement is for a period of 20 years. The location of the wind energy facilities will be the famous Tehachapi Pass Wind Park. Tehachapi Pass is the site to over 4,600 wind turbine generators delivering over 1.4 trillion watt hours of energy from 670 megawatts of name-plate capacity.

Tom Konrad Finavera's Wildmare Wind Energy Project is one of three projects in Bristish Columbia to be sold to Pattern Renewable Energy Holdings Canada for C$40M. An earlier sale to of Wildmare Innergex Renewable Energy fell through in September.  Photo source: Finavera. On October 1st, following the failed sale of Finavera Wind Energy’s (TSX-V:FVR, OTC:FNVRF) 77 MW Wildmare Wind Energy Project to Innergex Renewable Energy Inc (TSX:INE, OTC: INGXF), Finavera announced that it was in talks with three potential bidders and would review all offers for the company.  Finavera...

Tom Konrad CFA On July 23rd, Finavera Wind Energy (TSXV:FVR, OTC:FNVRF) announced a deal to sell its 77 megawatt Wildmare Wind Energy Project to Innergex Renewable Energy (TSX:INE, OTC:INGXF.)  The sale will come as a great releif to Finavera’s long-suffering shareholders, who have seen the stock halve in value since the start of the year. I included Finavera in my annual list of clean energy stocks this January because, even at the time, Finavera was trading at a fraction of the value of its wind projects, despite a weak balance sheet.  Since then,...

The Carballeira wind farm, constructed by ENDESA (ELE) subsidiary, Endesa Cogeneracion y Renovables (ECYR), has been connected to the grid. This completes the construction of the group's largest wind farm complex, which also includes the Bustelo and Faladoira plants, located in the area of As Pontes (A Coruna) and Xermade (Lugo). The wind farm complex has total installed capacity of 161 MW and is connected to the grid through via the Tesouro substation in As Pontes. The Carballeira wind farm, the last to be completed, has installed capacity of 24.42 MW, with 37 660kW wind turbines expected to...

A recent study by Emerging Energy Research confirmed what we have been saying about wind power for some time - namely that growth prospects look very strong for the North American market. The study, entitled "US Wind Power Markets and Strategies, 2007-2015", is not available free of charge but you can access a summary here (PDF document). The US: The World's Top Dog Here are some of the key takeaways from the summary: a) The US wind power market is expected to grow from 11,000 MW in 2006 to around 49,000 MW by 2015...

Three weeks ago, I wrote on the year ahead for the US wind sector and said I would analyze the two new wind ETFs now available to US investors: the First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy Index Fund (FAN) and the PowerShares Global Wind Energy Portfolio (PWND). While I don't currently have a position in either ETF as I expect headwinds in the US (no pun intended) to place downward pressure on some of the global wind stocks in the next few months (the US accounted for 27% of global installed capacity in '07), I still intend to...

Tom Konrad CFA American Superconductor (NASDAQ:AMSC) dropped 52% since their profit warning on April 6th.  Is it a screaming bargain, or does it have farther to fall? Two readers asked me to take a look at American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) after the company issued a profit warning on April 6th.  Although the stock was included in my list Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2011, (which has produced more buying opportunities than profits so far this year) I did not own the stock in any of my managed portfolios, and so the research had to take...

Tom Konrad CFA What is AMSC stock worth? American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) investors panicked yet again on June 1st when the company said it would delay filing its annual report, needing additional time to review its recognition of revenue from Sinovel Wind Group (601558.SS) in the last three quarters of their fiscal 2010 (July 2010 thru March 2011.)  The stock promptly dropped another 20+% and is trading for around $8 as I write, down over 70% since the start of the year.  The Story So Far The delayed annual report...

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...

The political climate for many of the western states are slowly starting to change to see the need for conversion to renewable energy sources. These test installations for Solar, Geothermal, and Wind energy are now producing real power for these areas. The key for us is to find the vendors that supply these installations. As the funding increases in these test beds, our growth will increase. Here is a good article from the sfgate.com about the various western states initiatives. "California's goal is to produce 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2017. New Mexico...

Tom Konrad CFA Canadian weather data shows the variability-smoothing potential of a robust continental electric grid. Intelligent skepticism is valuable to me as an investor when it makes me question my assumptions.  When I'm wrong, it makes me find out sooner (and hopefully get out of a bad trade sooner, or never get into it.)  When I'm right, I emerge with my thesis tested, which leads to the confidence needed to stick to a trade when the stock market voting machine moves against me in the short term, before it comes around in the longer term. ...

Dedicated legislations have been at the core of some of the most impressive regional growth stories in alternative energy, most notably in Germany with the Renewable Energy Sources Act or in California with the various legislative solar initiatives. On Monday, the Canadian province of Ontario became the latest jurisdiction to join the fray as lawmakers introduced the Green Energy and Green Economy Act. Why should investors care? Because such legislations have been at the core of some of the most impressive regional growth stories in alternative energy.  As a bit of a backgrounder on Ontario, there...

Scottish Power plc (SPI) was granted final planning approval to construct Europe's largest on-shore windfarm, the 322MW Whitelee project south of Glasgow. The 140 turbine project would provide enough green energy to power 200,000 homes. Scottish Power is currently the largest provider of wind generated electricity in the United Kingdom.

Charles Morand Tom and I recently received complimentary copies of a new book called "Investment Opportunities for a Low Carbon World", edited FTSE Group's Director of Responsible Investment Will Oulton*.  The book is a compendium of articles by 31 different authors broken down into three main categories: (1) environmental and low-carbon technologies; (2) investment approaches, products and markets; and (3) regulation, incentives, investor and company case studies. While Tom will provide a comprehensive review of the book once he's finished reading it in its entirety, I will instead review a few selected chapters over...