Alternative Energy Stocks

by Paula Mints Walmart takes on Tesla Solar for Poor Quality Installations and Components Early in August, after several quarters of slowing sales, Tesla (TSLA) announced a restart of its residential solar lease, referring to it as solar system rentals. Around the same timeframe, Tesla stated that it had no timeline for the availability of its solar tiles. On August 20, Walmart (WMT) filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Tesla/SolarCity in the commercial division of the New York State Supreme court claiming “years of gross neglect” leading to several fires at its facilities. According to court documents, one fire took place after...

Note: The following is a handout written by AltEnergyStocks Editor Tom Konrad at the request of a leading local Realtor where he lives in Ulster County, NY.  It is intended as a handout that local Realtors can give to new homeowners who express an interest in reducing their home energy use and using renewable energy.  Some of the information and may not be applicable if you live in other areas because of varying climate, energy costs, and regulation.  While most of the locally specific has been removed from this version, and the remainer is broadly applicable, homeowners in other...

It’s almost always easier and cheaper to build an energy-efficient building in the first place than retrofitting existing structures. But humanity doesn’t always have that luxury. by Tom Konrad, PhD., CFA The sheer number of older, inefficient buildings means retrofits must be a critical part of decarbonizing the world’s building stock. There’s a pressing need, then, to develop new techniques for performing large numbers of energy-efficiency retrofits quickly and cost-effectively. The average age of a U.S. home is nearly 40 years, while nearly 40 percent of homes in the U.K. were built before World War II. Most building energy retrofits are one-off affairs...

by Debra Fiakas, CFA NuScale Power is in a new pact with South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction Co. to support development of NuScale’s small modular reactor (SMR).  In addition to direct investment of $40 million in NuScale, Doosan has agreed to provide parts and equipment for the innovative nuclear power reactor valued at a total of $1.2 billion. NuScale has been working on its power reactor for several years.  The new design is based on pressurized water reactor (PWR) technology that has been used to power nuclear submarines and naval vessels.  The design uses ordinary water as a coolant rather than ‘heavy’ water used by...

by Debra Fiakas, CFA In a series that began in March 2019, with the article titled “Vagants on the Earth,”  we looked companies offering products that address the building problem of top soil degradation and loss.  In the four articles that followed we explored forestation technology, environmentally-friendly timber harvesting, and modern soil fallowing programs.  Unfortunately, we found few companies where investors could get involved quickly as minority investors.  Another company has joined the movement to build topsoil.  This one has publicly traded stock! Last week Gevo Corporation (GEVO: Nasdaq) announced commencement of a trial for a soil treatment at its Luverne, Minnesota facility.  The treatment developed by Locus Agriculture Solutions (Locus...

by Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA July 2019 was “marginally” the warmest month on record. Meanwhile, the stock market was also inching to new highs, and the real, sweltering evidence of climate change continues to let clean energy income stocks turn in a blistering performance. While my broad income stock benchmark SDY was up 16.0% through the end of July (0.9% for the month), my clean energy income stock benchmark YLCO is up 23.4% through July (0.4% for the month,)  My 10 Clean Energy Stocks model portfolio is up 28.3% (1.3%) and my real-money managed strategy, GGEIP, is up 26.4% (1.2%) for...

The prepared remarks of Garvin Jabusch, Chief Investment Officer of Green Alpha Advisors before the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis in Washington, DC, July 25th, 2019. Chairwoman Castor, Ranking Member Graves, committee members, thank you for the opportunity to testify and contribute to this important conversation. Climate disruption and resource degradation present significant threats to and opportunities for American business. Every sector and industry are affected, and my industry of asset management, in its role deploying capital across the economy, is directly exposed to it all, risks and opportunities inclusive. First, risks. The purpose of investing is to preserve and...

by Debra Fiakas, CFA The U.S. Administration took a swing at the uranium ball, but it is not clear if it was a miss and strike out or just a walk.  Some in the uranium industry are applauding a decision by the Trump Administration on the January 2018 petition by U.S. uranium producers Energy Fuels (UUUU:  NYSE) and Ur-energy (URG:  NYSE), requesting protection from uranium imports. The U.S. Commerce Department had investigated the petition under Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act.  No new trade restrictions are being implemented at this time, but the Administration is establishing a working group to analyze U.S. nuclear fuel production.   A report...

by Jim Lane In another small but sharp blow to the Trump Administration’s strategy for American manufacturing revival, news arrives from Texas of a second smaller biodiesel shuttering owing to “ challenging business conditions and continued federal policy uncertainty,” as Renewable Energy Group (REGI) phrased it in announcing the closure of its15 million gallons per year New Boston, Texas biorefinery.  The company is currently working with plant employees on relocation opportunities within the production network. The tax credit issue The forces impacting the US biodiesel industry at present are complex, but REG in this case is pointing the blame at the biodiesel tax...

by Debra Fiakas, CFA A reserve split is in the works to keep shares of Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises(B&W) listed under the symbol BW on the NYSE.  The stock price of this storied environmental engineering had slipped below the Exchange’s minimum price requirements.  Ten shares will be melded into one beginning July 23, 2019. Reverse merger math alone will not solve B&W’s problems.  One hundred and fifty two years in business, B&W has been providing environmental technologies and services for energy and industrial customers since the company’s first boiler was sold right after the American Civil War.  The company boasts that Thomas Edison was one of...

by Jim Lane Wandering the halls at the BIO World Congress and later to be seen again at ABLC NEXT this November, we ran across one of the most interesting technologies relating to ethanol production and markets we have seen in a month of Sundays, perhaps two months’ worth. The problem First, let’s revisit the problem. There’s simply too much ethanol being produced for the markets to absorb, given the Trump Administration’s massive cutbacks in US ethanol targets —In the resulting massively oversupplied market, the inevitable has happened, ethanol producers, growers and the Midwestern economies are being crushed. And they thought they...

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...

At ComCap19, I drank from a firehose of information about local investing, securities law, crowdfunding, and democratizing capital. And had a great time! by Evelyn Wright I just returned from spending four days in Detroit at one of the most inspiring and informative conferences I’ve attended in a long time: Community Capital 2019. This was the fourth gathering of this network of entrepreneurs, lawyers, financial professionals, economic development practitioners, and community organizers dedicated to democratizing and localizing finance and investment. I went because — after several months of researching the opportunities and challenges for cooperatives — I’ve seen that access to...

by Debra Fiakas, CFA Published by the Climate Accountability Institute, the Carbon Majors Reportlays bare the truth about which companies are responsible for industrial greenhouse gas emissions.  One hundred fossil fuel producers are linked to 71% of global industrial greenhouse gases emitted since 1988.  Something like a line in the sand for climate scientists, 1988 is the year human-induced climate change was official recognized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Fossil fuels in the form of coal, crude oil and gas are by far and large the culprits.  Rolling forward three decades later, we can observe in the charts below that fossil fuel production...

by Debra Fiakas, CFA As well derricks cast oily shadows across the landscape, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (APD:   NYSE) has installed Saudi Arabia’s first hydrogen fueling station.The set up is tucked safely into APD’s new technology center in a science park, but the significance of this incursion into oil and gas country can be felt across the region.The fueling station, which incorporates APD’s SmartFuelhydrogen fueling technology, will service six Toyota Mirai fuel cell electric vehicles. Undertaken in cooperation with Saudi Aramco, the project is intended to demonstrate the potential for hydrogen as transportation fuel. Hydrogen has potential advantages over conventional fuels, including Saudi Arabia’s oil and...

I missed my regular monthly update in early June because of vacation. In hindsight, early June looks like it was a good buying opportunity. The broad market of dividend stocks (represented by my benchmark SDY) falling six percent in May, only to rebound a similar amount in June. At the time, I would have continued to advise caution: “Sell the peaks” rather than “Buy the dips.” Particularly volatile stocks like European autoparts supplier Valeo (FR.PA) from this list would have generated even greater short term gains. But it would take more than a six percent market decline to transform this bear...