Wind

Tom Konrad CFA The Windstar Wind Farm. Photo credit: Western Wind Energy Western Wind Energy (TSX-V:WND, OTC:WNDEF)recently announced that it had received the much delayed 1603 cash grant for its 120 MW Windstar wind farm, which was completed last year. Good News, Bad News The good news is that the grant was finally issued after over a month and a half after the Treasury’s normal 60-day cycle of considering the grants.   This will come as a relief to investors who may have been wondering if the grant might be denied, although I concluded...

A Bet on Wind Industry Growth Tom Konrad, CFA Wind Works Power Corporation (WWPW.OB) presents investors in publicly traded wind power stocks a new type of opportunity with the potential for high reward, and a complementary risk profile to existing plays.   In the past, I've lamented the dearth of choice in publicly traded wind power stocks on North American markets, but both the number and types of opportunities are growing, allowing investors to diversify risk or to make more narrowly focused bets on how they expect the sector to evolve. I classify wind stocks into three types: Wind...

First National Power Corporation (FNPR) in keeping with its commitment to becoming a leader in alternative energy sources is pleased to announce that on August 18, 2004, they conditionally agreed to work with an integral department of a large Northern Ontario city, with the intent being to collaborate on identifying alternative energy solutions. It is the intent that FNPR will joint venture with the City and possibly a local forestry concern on these projects. First National Power will act as a full partner, providing the funding, while the other partners will be the vendor of the equipment, the operator...

Steve Leone   Wind Tower photo: Samdogs via PhotoRee The United States Department of Commerce has once again ruled in favor of American companies who say Chinese manufacturers are receiving unfair government subsidies. American wind tower manufacturers filed a trade complaint in December against Chinese companies, and on Wednesday the DOC made its preliminary determination on countervailing duties. According to Wiley Rein, the lead counsel for the group that filed the petition, commerce found that mandatory respondents, Titan Wind Energy and CS Wind China, received countervailing subsidies...

FPL Group Inc (FPL) announced today that it has been recognized on the first, annual list of Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World. FPL Group, Inc. is one of only 100 companies chosen from 2000 of the world's largest corporations whose sustainability performance falls within the top five percent of their business sector. The company is part of a select group of only 20 U.S.-based companies included in this special recognition. FPL Group was selected based on its ability to manage the triple bottom line - society, environment and economy.

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...

Tom Konrad CFA Offshore Wind Farm photo via Bigstock Wind tower stocks having opposite day, or rather opposite week. When US-based wind power companies won a preliminary injunction to impose countervailing duties  in a trade dispute against China, their stocks fell.  They have continued to fall for the four trading days since the announcement.   In fact, as the chart and table below show, wind tower stocks Trinity Industries (NYSE:TRN) and Broadwind (NASD:BWEN, red) have fallen more than the wind industry stocks as a whole (NYSE:FAN, green) and Siemens AG (NYSE:SI), the German energy...

Tom Konrad CFA I published my rebuttal to John Petersen's recent article "Gone With The Wind – Debunking Geographic Diversity" on November 1st last year.  It was titled Alternative Energy: The Paradigm is the Problem.  That article had two parts.  The first part focused on electric vehicles, and argued that the problem with the electric car was not electric propulsion, but the car paradigm.  I concluded that electric propulsion makes considerably more sense for electric bikes, trains, and buses.  John clearly understood that section, because he published an article just last week "Lux Research Confirms that...

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....

by Debra Fiakas CFA Most investors with an interest in the alternative energy industry think first of the energy source  -  solar, wind, geothermal or biofuel.  There are other roads to access the returns promised by the shift from fossil fuel to alternative sources.  But do not waste time as these gems are in the sights of strategic buyers as well. Kaydon Corporation (KDN:  NYSE) produces components and sub-systems used in the alternative energy industry.  Its friction control products are critical for the efficient operation of wind turbines and blades.  These products include large diameter...

James Montgomery Google Doodle for Earth Day 2006 This week the Internet giant Google revealed that in December it invested $75 million in Pattern Energy's (NASD:PEGI) 182-MW Panhandle 2 wind farm in Carson County, Texas, northeast of Amarillo, expected to be operational by the end of this year. Pattern will hold an 80 percent stake in the project, whose owners also include Google and two institutional tax equity investors, with Morgan Stanley providing construction and equity bridge loans and a letter of credit. Google certainly has displayed a healthy...

Tom Konrad CFA Offshore Wind in the United States Last week, the long-embattled Cape Wind project got a break: Utility NStar(NST) agreed to buy 27.5% of the proposed offshore wind project's output.  Together with a previous power purchase agreement with National Grid (NGG), this gives Cape Wind a buyer for 77.5% of the project's total projected output.  Jim Gordon, Cape Wind's President speaking at Offshore Wind Power USA in Boston, called the NStar deal the "starting gun" for Cape Wind's financing round. Yet speakers and attendees at Offshore Wind Power USA agreed that the Cape Wind story...

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...

Scottish Power plc (SPI) is an electrical generation and distribution company primarily focused in the UK. They have two subsidiaries that are based in the US, PacificCorp and PPM Energy. They are currently in the process of trying to sell PacificCorp to Berkshire Hathaway. PPM Energy is a company with extensive wind energy development and generation. Scottish Power also has extensive wind farms in Scotland and Europe. They are also developing off-shore wind power of the Welsh coast. This stock has been moving strong recently and it looks like it is building a base at the $40...

Charles MorandLast week, I added a little to my position in AAER (AAERF.PK). I first took a long position in AAER, the Canadian-based MW-size wind turbine maker, over two years ago. I've since pared down it significantly, both because I wanted to take some profit after a meteoric rise in share price in Q4 2007 and later because of the company's seeming inability to get orders for more than a couple of turbines at a time. Although there was, before the credit crisis hit, a severe shortage of wind turbines and wind turbine components, barriers to...

by Michael Giberson American University’s Investigative Journalism Workshop has published reports detailing the extensive political connections in the United States developed by Chinese wind power company A-Power Energy (APWR) in its effort to build a 600-MW wind farm in West Texas. A-Power (APWR) and their Chinese and American partners were seeking $450 million in section 1603 grants and U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantees to help fund the project. New York senator Charles Schumer objected to the idea that stimulus funds would flow to Chinese workers and sought to block the project’s access to the funds. A-Power chose to fight...