Alternative Energy Stocks

Calpine Corp. (CPN) shares are down another 20% again today and are now down in the 20-30 cent range. They were given notice today by a Delaware judge that they have until January 22 to repay $313 million owed to bondholders. Moody's has also downgraded their corporate bonds to junk bond Ca stauts (10 levels below investment grade.) Calpine was kicked out of the S&P 500 recently and now they are looking like they will declare bankruptcy. Boy the hits just keep on coming.

I read several financial sites and feeds throughout the day and I have an entire section devoted to various stock blogs in my Bloglines feed reader account. A post on Andrew Tobias's website today really caught my attention where he was talking about his $100,000 “idea� contest. In response to the $100,000 “idea� contest, Alan Q writes: “Here’s mine and it’s a damn fine idea. Building on the success of the X Prize in reusable spacecraft: Expand government funded X Prizes in areas where innovation is vital to the nation's economic future and national security. For...

Ormat Technologies (ORA) said it has agreed to buy a 50.8 percent partnership interest in Orzunil I de Electricidad Ltd., owner of a geothermal plant in Guatemala, for $14.8 million. The Zunil project includes one power plant with a capacity of 24 megawatts that is expected to generate $12.5 million in revenue next year and boost Ormat's net income by $1.9 million in 2006.

Distributed Energy Systems Corp (DESC) announced that they received its third award from the University of Nevada Las Vegas Research Foundation (UNLVRF) to continue its work on hydrogen fueling stations for automobiles and other motor vehicles. The fueling station's design is expected to incorporate a high-capacity electrolyzer, capable of generating up to 12 kilograms per day of hydrogen enough to fuel at least two fuel cell light duty vehicles.

Evergreen Solar Inc (ESLR) shares were down yesterday since an SG Cowen analyst said that the Evergreen partnership deal announced this week will reduce the expected profits for 2006. The analyst diluted his estimates for per-share losses in 2006 by a penny to 18 cents and reduced his 2007 earnings estimate by 6 cents to 19 cents per share. Many of the analysts still think this partnership deal is very positive for the company, they just expect that it will postpone profitability out another year. The stock was down over 5% yesterday and it is trading lower this...

PowerShares (the maintainers of the Alternative Energy ETF) are coming out with a new exchange traded fund that focuses on a Water Resources Portfolio. The PowerShares Water Resources Portfolio is based on the Palisades Water Indexâ„¢. The objective of the Palisades Water Indexâ„¢ is to capture the substantial economic value of water that will inevitably be unlocked as the global population adjusts to the linkage between human health, economic development and resource sustainability. This new ETF is set to launch sometime in December and is expected to trade with the ticker symbol PHO. While this EFT...

A couple of weeks back the Treehugger.com website had a link to a company called Green Field paper that makes recycled holiday cards. Well I needed to purchase some cards to send out to clients. So I decided to give them a try. I went to the website and was amazed at all the different choices in recycled card stock. But the cards that suprised me the most are the Grow-a-Note cards. These cards are made from handmade paper and are embedded with a variety of wildflower seeds. So the receipient of the...

Hoku Scientific, Inc. (HOKU) maintained an "outperform" rating and $12 target price from a Piper Jaffray analyst. "Hoku will continue to record substantial revenue growth driven by accelerated technology development in preparation for commercial markets," Piper analyst Jesse W. Pichel wrote in a recent report. I'm still waiting for Marketocracy to add this ticker to the stock universe so I can buy it for the mutual fund. If I had additional money in my personal portfolio, I would purchase more at this level.

Ballard Power (BLDP) Chairman and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, John Sheridan, was in Beijing, China today, along with representatives from Ballard's Alliance partner, DaimlerChrysler, and Chinese industry and government officials, to attend the launch of three Mercedes-Benz Citaro fuel cell buses. The buses, powered with Ballard® heavy-duty fuel cell engines, will enter revenue service in the city as part of a two-year demonstration project being led by the Chinese Ministry of Science & Technology, with support from both the Global Environment Facility and the United Nations Development Program. This is the latest in a series...

Evergreen Solar Inc (ESLR) and Q-Cells AG (QCE.DE), the world's largest independent manufacturer of crystalline silicon solar cells, today announced a partnership with Renewable Energy Corporation ASA (REC), based in Hovik, Norway. The world's largest manufacturer of solar-grade silicon and multicrystalline wafers, REC is joining EverQ, a strategic partnership between Evergreen Solar and Q-Cells that is currently building a 30-megawatt solar wafer, cell and module manufacturing plant in Thalheim, Germany. This is another piece of good news and the market seems to think so as well. Shares of ESLR are trading up almost 3% this morning compared...

Shares of Calpine Corp. (CPN) suffered a greater than 20% loss yesterday and is now down almost another 13% today. All of this was caused by a court ruling stating that they will be unable to use the $395 million in cash they received from the sale of oil and gas fields earlier this year for the purpose of buying natural gas to run its power plants. The dispute stems from the Bank of New York's decision in September when, acting as trustee for Calpine bondholders, it withheld proceeds from Calpine's sale in July of North...

Xantrex Technology Inc. (XTX.TO) has been awarded US $873,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) under its Photovoltaics Manufacturing Research and Development Initiative. Xantrex will match the funding from NREL during the course of the project for a total budget of $1.74 Million. This program will take place at the Xantrex facility in Livermore, California. Xantrex PV inverters are America's leading choice for large-scale solar installations. Presently, utility-interactive, three-phase inverters are available in models ranging from 10 kW to 225 kW, and multiple inverters can be paralleled for larger power installations. ...

SatCon Technology Corporation (SATC) announced that two of its utility grade Powergate® solar inverters are being utilized as the power conditioning units for the new 502-kilowatt solar electric system installed at New Jersey American Water's Canal Road Water Treatment Plant located in Somerset, NJ. I have been taking a close look at SatCon recently for a possible addition to my portfolio. The stock price has been under pressure recently and seems to be retesting the lows of the last six months. The news of some sales and installations above and also some recent work they are...

Altair Nanomaterials (ALTI) announced that it has been awarded a $250,000 grant from the Indiana Advanced Energy Technologies Program (AETP) initiative. The grant funding must be used to manufacture products containing products that are not currently in the U.S. market, and that are above industry standard in terms of energy efficiency (e.g. hybrid automobiles, fuel cells) and/or incorporate an innovative technology, such as nanotechnology, that allows the product to save energy. The grant money will be used for test equipment for the manufacturing of lithium ion cells, batteries, and battery packs. The stock gapped open this...

Some companies have send out stock promotion faxes that people think are coming from Alt Energy Stocks. We don't send out any faxes. If another company is using our name, they are they are doing so without our knowledge or permission. If you did receive a fax, please use the following information so that you can report the company. How the FCC Can Help The FCC has taken numerous enforcement actions, including the issuance of citations and fines, against companies for violations and suspected violations of the TCPA’s prohibition against unsolicited faxes. If you...

As I mentioned yesterday I had a limit order to purchase SunPower Corporation (SPWR). The stock was scheduled to start the day at $18 and I expected that the stock would be up big in the morning, so I set a limit order at $20. Well when the stock started trading it opened up at over $27. Mid-day the stock seemed to rest around the $25 level and that is when I entered the stock with a 1/3 position in my personal portfolio at a price of $25.70. The stock is not available for purchase at Marketocracy, so it...