Renewables and Alternative Energy - Energy and Capital

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) Leading the Energy Storage Movement

Let's be honest here... we already knew Tesla was the front-runner in this industry.

Yet, the company isn't alone in its innovations; many car companies have had electric vehicles on their dockets and off-grid batteries in the works for years.

But check out these numbers quoted by Tesla's optimistic chief technology officer, JB Straubel: the 60,000 or so cars Tesla already has worldwide provide about 5 gigawatt-hours of energy storage.

That could grow to 70 gigawatt-hours just in electric vehicles in just a few years!

But cars aren't the only market Tesla's technology is changing.

Tesla's business and home-sized Powerpack and Powerwall batteries are already in use, and are advertised as back-up batteries that can store solar energy to use at night, in emergencies, or just when grid electricity becomes expensive during the day.

Straubel spoke at Intersolar's opening ceremony about the possibility of making solar and wind power available on demand for times such as these.

Another possibility coming to fruition is the use of such large batteries to store non-renewable energy for use by utilities who could use them to meet new energy regulations or simply run their grid systems more reliably.

One Greentech Media Research report noted that $128 million worth of energy storage was installed in the U.S. last year, amounting to 61.9 megawatts of power—which they're expecting to potentially quadruple by year-end to approximately 220.3 megawatts (obviously bolstered by Tesla's popular demand.)

The key to keeping that demand is to bring efficient, affordable energy storage to consumers. Straubel says, “we are within grasping distance of that goal.”

To continue reading...

Click here to read the Forbes article.

Coal Investing Destroyed After Centuries of Dominance

Evidence suggests that coal mining has been around for thousands of years.

In China, coal has been mined — primitively at first — since 3500 BCE, while in the Americas, the Aztecs used coal for fuel.

The Romans and Greeks also used coal for fuel and metalworking.

But it wasn't until the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century in Britain that coal became the most important natural resources the world had ever seen.

The use of coal in steamships and locomotives created the fastest international trade to date and ushered us into the globalized economy we have today.

Of course, the 20th century transformed coal power from a godsend to a pariah as concerns grew around the smog and carbon emitted from smoke stacks.

Trillions of dollars have been invested in the coal industry over the last few centuries, and for a long time, coal miners and utilities have benefited on the open market.

Recently, though, coal has become the last thing investors want to buy, as prices for coal stocks of all stripes lose value by the day.

With an increasingly powerful environmental movement that sees coal as a detriment to the air we breathe and global temperature averages, governments throughout the world are working to transition from coal power into renewable fuels and natural gas.

Later this year, from the end of November and into December, world leaders will meet in Paris to negotiate a global climate treaty. The goal of this is to force nations all over the world to develop plans to lower greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep temperatures from rising any more than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Of course, many liken this to driving 100 miles per hour in the fast lane and trying to cut across five lanes of traffic to make it to your exit... not impossible, but drastic and, quite possibly, dangerous.

For a long time, the dangers of transitioning out of coal so quickly were economic. Coal is cheap, and renewable energy, still new, hasn't been for a while.

But that's all changing...

Renewables Are Cheap(er)

According to Bloomberg and its energy research team, the cost of solar power is crashing and will continue to do so for a while.

Over the next 25 years, the cost of utility-scale solar will be halved as new research and technology promotes more efficient generation and storage.

Even in China, where coal has fueled decades of economic growth, solar and wind will be cheaper than coal and natural gas:

Over the next 35 years, solar and wind costs will dive lower than fossil fuels on a per-megawatt-hour basis in China and throughout the world. Right now, these renewables are more expensive without subsidies, but with a new climate agreement on the way, don't be surprised to see even cheaper wind and solar.

Also, as these new forms of energy shed prohibitive costs, the potential for stranding natural gas and coal resources grows.

If solar and wind are less expensive than coal and natural gas for power production, you can kiss any investment in those fuels goodbye. Companies invested in fossil fuels would go bankrupt, and old power plants would be shuttered for good.

While this may give you pause, remember that it will take a long time for this to happen, and it's important to get invested in the right energy now.

~~solar_2~~

Solar and Wind Trillions

Between now and the year 2040, economists expect somewhere around $3.7 trillion to be invested in solar.

The renewable resource will dominate the global energy landscape more than any other fuel including nuclear, gas, coal, and wind.

$2.2 trillion of this massive investment will go directly to rooftop solar. Most of that will be in the developing world, as it's simpler for smaller-scale solar to hit rooftops than for whole countries to build expensive utility projects.

Solar and renewable energy will become the market favorites for many decades as investors look for gains out of this massive cash pile.

Some of these investments are already happening, and a great way for income investors to play this trend is through yieldcos.

A yieldco, like an MLP, is a company created to generate predictable cash flow from long-term operated assets.

As an example, a solar company has four massive utility plants already contracted to provide energy for the next 20 years. The company won't need any financing for expansion, so it “sells” these assets to its yieldco, and that company manages maintenance and the collection of payment.

For this reason, yieldcos pay great dividends and also have the opportunity for capital gains as the parent companies develop more assets.

One worthwhile yieldco is TerraForm Power, Inc. (NASDAQ: TERP).

The company has a large portfolio of solar and wind assets provided by industry leader SunEdison (NYSE: SUNE), its parent company.

TerraForm trades around $40 per share and pays a 3.3% dividend — not the highest yield you'll find in the industry, but a nice sum compared to most solar and renewable companies.

Of course, a yieldco is just one way to play this coming bull market. Over the next few months, we'll be showing you plenty of ways to invest in renewables and make a lot of money.

~~alexm_signoff~~

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) Boosted By Popular Opinion and More

Have you ever heard the word zeitgeist? It refers to the popular opinions and social mood of a period of time.

And this time's zeitgeist is bullish on renewable energy and Tesla.

Of the 10 most popular stocks on the market, Tesla Motors has the youngest fan base, followed by Alibaba, Amazon, and Apple. Those young fans have a huge impact on how well a company does.

And it's not just in the U.S. that Tesla has such popular support. As many countries move away from coal and put more restrictions on emissions from oil and natural gas, renewable energies take center stage. Even religion is stepping in as the Pope recently called for a reduction of fossil fuel use to save the planet.

This popularity attracts the 'ethical funds' which are growing in number. One such fund is Triodos Sustainable Pioneer Fund, which invests in both Tesla and its sister company SolarCity. Funds like Triodos are encouraging other investors to drop their fossil fuel portfolios in favor of more clean energy investments.

Economically, Tesla is looking good too. Credit Suisse has raised their target price to $325, and their recent record Model S sales aren't a bad show of growth either.

As 'ethical' and 'green' investments grow, and popular opinion supports the theory that they will, Tesla will be set to grow along with them.

To continue reading...

Click here to read the Seeking Alpha article.

Bill Gates Doubles Renewable Energy Support

The world's richest man is putting his money where he believes it's needed most.

For Bill Gates, that means investing $2 billion into renewable energy innovation.

This increase in support comes with a call for Gates to divest his $1.4 billion currently in the fossil fuel industry. He refused, reasoning that it would be to no avail – because fossil fuels are still a majority in power production all over the world.

But Gates believes he can help move the renewable energy sector in the right direction. To reach projected needs by 2030, he says there must be “high risk” investments and major efficiency advances.

His statement to the Financial Times was that emissions could only be reduced with current technology at “a beyond astronomical price.”

Now, if the world's richest man thinks it's too expensive of a venture with our current assets, it's definitely time to upgrade them.

And he's got plenty of upcoming technologies to focus on. One is called “solar chemical” power, which could mimic the process of photosynthesis in machines. Gates likens this process to the reliability of oil pipelines and gas tanks in cars, “one of the few energy storage things that works at scale.”

Gates holds an investment opinion we support as well: the small companies, those “high risk” startups, are often the best for growth and hold the most potential for success in the future.

To continue reading...

Click here to read the Financial Times article. (May require a subscription.)

General Electric (NYSE:GE) Supporting Australia's Renewable Market

After a year of stalled income for the renewable energy sector, Australia has finally reopened its doors to investors.

Last year, the government cut the country's Renewable Energy Target (RET), which shut down a lot of funding in the market.

This year, however, the Australian government passed a law assuring subsidies for renewable energy farms, and several companies took full advantage of this new round of support.

General Electric (GE), along with two other Swiss and Canadian groups, offered funding for Australia's planned 240 megawatt windfarm. Together, they are contributing $348 million towards the project.

Wind power supplies 25% of Australia's clean energy, 2% of its overall energy. The new Ararat windfarm will add onto this number and power an additional 123,000 homes.

This new legislation for renewable support comes after Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott described windfarms as “visually awful” and potentially unhealthy. The decision, it seems, was a compromise between the windfarms' supporters and nay-sayers.

“It's important that the views of all groups are heard, and that any concerns are addressed with fact and science,” said Geoff Culbert, GE's president and CEO in Australia.

To continue reading...

Click here to read the Reuters article.

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) Powerwall Price Concerns

This morning, I mentioned a little bit about Tesla's Gigafactory being built in Nevada, right on top of the state's lithium basin. And the news loves to harp on Tesla's products: the current and future electric vehicle models and their incoming Powerwall and Powerpack batteries.

Even as the Gigafactory is still being built, Tesla's battery pre-orders reached $800 million, mostly for the business-sized Powerpacks. What business wouldn't want to cut energy costs by running on renewable solar energy?

However, homeowners have a few concerns.

The main questions here are when these fabulous devices will become available to the general public and how much they will cost when they do.

Currently, the home-sized Powerwall runs $3,500 for a 10 kilowatt-hour model and $3,000 for the 7 kilowatt hour model. And even these are only being described as a “battery backup service” by Tesla's sister company SolarCity.

So, it all comes down to whether or not Musk and friends can make this technology more efficent and affordable in the future.

The founder of DBL Investors, who have invested in both Tesla and SolarCity, asserts that the solar plus battery revolution “isn't that far away.”

“Remember your cellphone,” she says, “how unfunctional and expensive and huge it was in those early days.” These large, expensive lithium batteries will be the same: as time goes on, they are sure to evolve quickly past these early stages.

To continue reading...

Click here to read the Washington Post article.

Alternative to Silicon Could Save Tens of Billions in Energy Costs

About 10% of the energy consumed in the U.S. is not actually used. It's lost in transition from power outlet to electric device. That's about $40 billion annually in extra energy costs for energy no one is even using!

Transphorm Inc, a growing startup, is developing a silicon alternative that will make the energy transition smoother, and reduce the energy loss up to 90%.

The new semiconductors are made of gallium nitride (GaN) and can be made into power converters for devices and solar panels for electric vehicles. It can also handle higher voltages than silicon and is able to switch from alternating to direct currents much faster.

And while gallium nitrate cells are more expensive to make than silicon ones, they pay off in the amount of energy saved. And Transphorm is improving upon the design. They recently introduced transistor models that are $0.36-$0.38 less than similar silicon models.

The technology is still in its early stages of development however, as the company is working on individual transistors to begin with rather than placing billions of them at once. But they have the money and support to keep moving forward. Since 2007, the startup company has raised $190 million for its projects from investors such as Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).

And with big names like Panasonic (OTC: PCRFY) also looking into gallium nitrate cells, it's only a matter of time before this silicon alternative is ready for the market at large!

To continue reading...

Click here to read the Wall Street Journal article. (May require a subscription to read in full.)

Tesla Brings on Lithium Ion Expert

In an attempt to bring the best quality at the lowest costs, Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) has partnered exclusively with lithium battery expert Jeff Dahn.

Dahn is a development pioneer for lithium ion batteries and has worked with 3M Co., Intel Corp., and Rayovac and Medtronic PLC. He is also a professor at Dalhousie University, teaching both chemistry and physics.

The reason for this partnership is cost-cutting. Tesla, big on batteries for homes, businesses, and cars, wants battery designs that will be efficient enough to sell at low costs to the public. To meet demands of the public in 2020 (when many of the Powerwall and Model 3 cars will be on the market) the current cost of their lithium ion batteries will need to be cut in half.

“We are definitely on a road map to achieve half the cost,” says Tesla's chief technologist JB Straubel.

A new partnership between the world's forerunner in lithium ion technology and a previously established lithium battery expert: it can only mean good things for both parties.

To continue reading...

Click here to read the Wall Street Journal article. (May require subscription to read in full.)

California's Renewable Revolution

Wind power, solar panels, and Tesla, oh my! After their energy crisis 15 years ago, California has rebounded with a powerful vengeance.

This state has a few goals set for the future: have 33% of their energy come from renewables and cut emissions to 40% under the 1990 level. And they are ready to reach them. Right now, just under a quarter of their energy comes from renewables, 5% from solar power and 7% from wind.

But even with this accomplished, it will take a lot of work to reach their raised emissions and energy goals in their 15 year timeframe.

A few big names are getting in on this renewable action. Since California has such large spaces where renewable energy sources can thrive, Apple and Google have both begun developing systems to take advantage. Apple's plans include a solar farm to power its California stores. Google is joining an already-in-place wind project and plans to replace a lot of the older, more dangerous turbines with high-efficiency machines.

This is a big step, but it will take a lot of time to expand these energy strides. Renewables are still not at the capacity they need to be — even a full 25% of needed power won't cut it. Weather is uncooperative, and open spaces are far away from energy storage units, requiring extra wire infrastrucutures.

But this is a huge amount of progress in a decade and a half. We'll just have to watch and see what comes of it in the next 15 year cycle!

To continue reading...

Click here to read the Huffington Post article.

Invest in the Lithium Revolution

This tale starts with two companies: one a household name for decades, the other a growing firm that many people — especially investors — are thrilled about.

A month or so ago, the latter firm, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), announced its new energy storage system, the Powerwall.

Within a week, the company saw $800 million in pre-orders for its new product, which isn't even available yet. And now that it has nearly $1 billion in potential revenue, I assume the company will have a serious backlog for some time.

The Powerwall is meant for use in homes and will go well with Tesla CEO Elon Musk's other business venture, SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY), which provides solar panels for homeowners at little upfront cost.

Residential battery storage allows homeowners with solar panels to store excess electricity from when the sun shines for use when the sun isn't shining and the need for electricity is greater.

It's much the same story for grid-scale storage projects. Solar and wind farms can't create power at the drop of a hat — they need the wind and the sun.

So when the wind and the sun don't cooperate, batteries take over and supply excess power to the grid, as well as prevent flickering caused by slight lapses in electricity.

But as of right now, Tesla isn't producing grid-scale storage — although I wouldn't be surprised to see it in the future.

This instead takes us to our next company: General Electric (NYSE: GE).

GE announced a month or so ago that it sold its first utility-scale storage system to a unit of Consolidated Edison (NYSE: ED) for use in California.

This battery system will store as much as eight megawatts worth of power that can be used to support the intermittent wind and solar technologies prevalent in the state.

Eight megawatts is enough to power about 6,000 normal homes, and it's only the beginning of battery storage in California and the rest of the United States.

Storage Goes Boom

Now, don't get me wrong — GE is not the only company manufacturing utility storage. Several other companies do the exact same thing, and it's for good reason.

Battery storage capacity for residential, commercial, and utility-scale power is absolutely booming.

California has enacted requirements for the state's three largest utilities to install 1.3 gigawatts of storage capacity by 2020. Other states, like Oregon, are working to make similar moves.

In the first quarter of 2015, 5.8 megawatts of storage capacity were added (nearly 20% higher than the same period last year), while analysts anticipate 220 megawatts will be added in the U.S. by the end of 2015.

For reference, that's well above the 62 megawatts added in 2014.

Most of this demand comes from commercial and residential installations, while utility-scale storage lags behind.

Businesses, schools, factories, and public facilities better manage the power they use on a day-to-day basis when they install battery storage systems.

But while the utility-scale battery industry has so far lagged behind, it's only a matter of time before it eclipses the residential market thanks to new power production from innovative sources...

Namely renewable energy, which has fueled the production of battery storage in a big way.

As my colleague Jeff Siegel has mentioned before, of the $7.7 trillion to be invested in new power plants worldwide by 2030, $5.1 trillion will be used for renewable plants.

Mostly wind and solar, these new renewable energy plants will need thousands upon thousands of megawatts of storage capacity provided by GE, Tesla (if it gets involved in utility-scale storage), and other battery producers.

For these reasons, it's imperative for investors of all stripes to pay attention to lithium, and quickly.

~~lithium~~

Lithium Bottleneck Will Send Prices Soaring

Lithium-ion batteries have become the gold standard for all types of rechargeable batteries during the last decade.

Every smartphone, every tablet, just about every laptop computer, every electric car from Tesla to Nissan, and, as mentioned, utility, residential, and commercial battery storage units all use lithium-ion batteries.

Because of this, the lithium market has gone exponentially higher...

Indeed, the 21st century has been a boon to lithium investors, as production has had to keep up with surging demand.

Of course, many value investors will look at the chart above and be wary of a top in the lithium market...

Normally, they would be right. But the projected demand for the batteries I've been talking about is enough to show a long-term growth in demand for the commodity.

Plus, I have barely mentioned electric cars, Tesla's “Gigafactory” under construction in Nevada, and other uses for lithium (like phones, tablets, etc.).

As the multi-pronged demand for lithium grows, prices of lithium-based stocks will grow, too.

This is a revolution not seen since the booming nuclear power industry in the 1980s or the salad days of the oil and gas industry in the early 20th century.

The greatest fortunes of all time were made back then, and investors who wait too long on lithium will sit on the sidelines for this next wave of fortune and prosperity.

~~alexm_signoff~~

Investing in Renewable Yieldcos

One of the biggest problems for solar power and other renewables is intermittency.

Put simply, a solar panel doesn't generate power at night, and wind turbines can only spin if it's windy outside.

So a large challenge for renewable companies has been to find a way to combat the intermittency of their technologies. And one of those ways is with batteries.

Last week, SunEdison (NYSE: SUNE) acquired a company called Solar Grid Storage that produces and maintains battery storage systems for solar projects. The systems allow customers to store solar energy and even transport it back to the grid.

By doing so, companies that develop photovoltaic solar panels won't have to purchase solar inverters, lowering overall cost.

Just for reference, a solar inverter converts direct current from the solar panel into alternating current that can be shipped back to the grid. Solar Grid Storage's batteries already had these installed in them.

By combining on-site battery systems with solar panels, companies are able to significantly lower per-kilowatt-hour costs for solar energy. The Department of Energy has been researching this and wants to make combined storage and panel projects as cheap as $0.14 per kWh.

However, the big question from our point of view is whether or not this movement makes solar a good investment...

My Renewable Philosophy

If you read my columns with any regularity, you may have noticed that I don't often talk about renewable energy.

It's not that I hate the technology. In fact, on the contrary, I think solar and wind companies are innovative risk-takers that make great stories. My problem is that, as a value investor, I am anything but a risk-taker.

My goal is to find long-term, high-yielding companies with good track records, and as far as renewables are concerned, very few stocks with histories of profit growth pay high yields.

This isn't because the companies are bad or unprofitable — it's just that the technologies are newer than oil, gas, coal, and nuclear energy, thus making them riskier.

Again, I'm not a risk-taker with my money. If you are, I applaud you — but you've probably already clicked out of this editorial.

Of course, there are some developments on the horizon for renewables that make investment much more appealing to me.

I'm talking about yield companies.

Typically, a yield company (yieldco) is a publicly traded spin-off of a larger company designed to manage operational assets and generate consistent cash flow.

Essentially, for renewables, a yieldco is akin to an MLP for natural resources or a REIT for real estate.

The only difference is that yield companies pay a corporate tax, which means the dividends are still much greater for MLPs and REITS.

Yield companies have been picking up steam recently, as the renewable energy industry has started to build and maintain more projects and infrastructure.

SunEdison, for example, has a yieldco spin-off called TerraForm Power (NASDAQ: TERP), while major solar companies First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) and SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR) announced last week that they are joining forces to form a yieldco.

This one will be called 8point3 Energy Partners and could have up to 1,131 MW of power projects.

Now that's something I would be interested in buying. However, it's not a traded company yet, and it won't have a historically proven track record for some time after its IPO.

But other yieldcos that have been publicly traded for a little while are potentially moneymaking investments.

~~eac_alt_energy~~

Two Yield Companies Worth Watching

The first yield company I like is called Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners (NYSE: BEP).

Now, I know I've talked a lot about solar in today's editorial, but Brookfield doesn't actually run any solar panels.

Instead, the company operates about 6,700 megawatts of wind and hydroelectric plants in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and Europe.

Brookfield pays a 5.6% dividend at current prices and has a market cap of $8.25 billion, so it's not just some speculative company without good financial standing. In fact, my favorite thing about Brookfield is that it's been raising its dividend.

It did so most recently in February, and if it continues to do so, I would suggest that potential investors pull the trigger.

The second yield company I like is NRG Yield (NYSE: NYLD).

NRG Yield is a spin-off of NRG Energy and has a diversified portfolio of assets, which I like because it lowers the risk.

According to its website, the company has four natural gas facilities, four thermal generation facilities, 11 solar and wind facilities, and two distributed solar facilities.

The best part about these assets is that they are designed under long-term fixed payment agreements. This allows the company to receive a steady stream of income it can pay out to investors.

Not only that, but it also incentivizes NRG to lower the cost of production for solar and wind and grow profits.

NRG Yield pays a slightly smaller dividend (3.2%) than Brookfield, but it has a less-risky base of assets.

Investors who want to find high yields from renewable energy would do well to look at these two stocks. Beyond that, I suggest you keep your eye on the coming expiration of the renewable energy tax credit in 2017.

If allowed to expire, the credit would make solar and wind much more expensive to produce and would easily send stocks lower. But as far as long-term trends go, renewable is the best in the energy industry.

~~alexm_signoff~~

Ballard (NASDAQ: BLDP) Soars on $80M Volkswagen Deal

Volkswagen has dropped diesel!

Just kidding.

I don't think the German giant will never officially say goodbye to their beloved kerosene cars.

But, just how they've turned diesel engines into road trip wonders, the automaker's next move could also be a major efficiency game changer... and put some serious dough in your pockets.

You see, the company just signed an $80 million contract (and potentially hundreds of millions more) with Ballard Power Systems (NASDAQ: BLDP), a major player in the fuel cell world, to produce a new line of autos for both the Audi and VW division.

Here's how the stock responded:

VW is revamping its green line, yet again!

I know. Gas prices are currently at rock bottom prices. So low that Suzie Homemakers are buying up SUVs like it's 2004. But it isn't going to last. And VW – along with nearly every other automaker – knows it.

They know oil prices can't and won't stay this low forever. That it's all Saudi price suppression. And this little lull will soon be over faster than a Viagra pill in a senior citizen, driving oil – and gas – prices back to the $4 range and beyond.

But why are they moving to fuel cells vs electric cars? Aren't electric cars already gobbling up the alternative transportation market share?

Yuppie Joe and his Volt

Personally, I think electric cars will play their part. Around Baltimore, plug in stations already take prime parking, pushing the handicap spots back to make room for yuppie Joe and his Volt.

But their day came a little too early. And with a few too many problems... things like short battery life, long charge periods, and limited ranges. Although, in all fairness, Elon Musk and Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) are changing that paradigm.

And while electric cars might still be the true future, fuel cells and fuel cell makers are still thriving on high expectations for fuel cell vehicles.

It's certainly something investors should be following.

In fact, my friend, Chris DeHaemer, the investment strategist behind Crisis & Opportunity, saw this coming and helped readers knock out 609% on the fuel cell company Plug Power (NASDAQ: PLUG).

Meanwhile, according to Business Wire, the fuel cell industry is projected to balloon at least 19% as a whole through 2019.

So, for now, I say don't ignore electric, but get more focus on fuel cells in 2015.

One Ethanol IPO Squashed...Another Ethanol IPO Soars!

On Monday, Ethanol producer Hawkeye Holdings postponed its $350 million IPO. The company concluded that the factors were “not conducive at this time to achieving appropriate valuation.”

Had Hawkeye continued with its launch, it most likely would’ve fallen victim to the recent ethanol pullback…just like we’ve seen with Verasun Energy Corp. (VSE:NYSE) and Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings (AVR:NYSE). Both of which have seen a slide in stock price this month.

Of course, the entire ethanol market hasn’t been a total wash.

If you look beyond the hype of the ethanol market as a whole, and focus on the individual ethanol companies within the fold that are not only producing ethanol…but producing it cheaper and more efficiently than the rest of the flock – you’ll find your winners.

Granted, they are few and far between. But they’re there. And Green Chip Investors are loading up!

The most recent…

Ethanex Energy, Inc. (EHNX.OB)

Last year I spent a few hours talking to an R&D guy at the National Ethanol Conference about fractionation technology.

Essentially, an ethanol process that utilizes fractionation technology can produce 17% more ethanol than conventional processes, while using less water and energy.

In a nutshell, the technology puts a more concentrated feedstock into the plant, so the waste material is separated out before the process begins.

Of course, after learning about fractionation (and knowing full well what it could do for the industry), my attention immediately turned to finding a publicly-traded company using it.

I found it!

The company is called Ethanex Energy, Inc. (EHNX.OB) – and you’re not going to find any other publicly-traded company out there with this kind of technology integrated into its production facilities – yet.

Here’s the deal…

First off, Ethanex is on track to have three ethanol plants on line by 2008, with a combined capacity of 300 million gallons per year. All three will employ fractionation technology to boost efficiency and minimize costs.

This company’s technology has ethanol producers foaming at the mouth because they know that this is the kind of technology that can quickly fatten their revenues without adding a dime to feedstock, energy and water costs.

It’s a no-brainer.

Everybody's talking about Ethanol! But nobody's talking about...

ETHANOL'S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET!

A crisis is on the horizon - and it could be worth an 857% return in as little as 12 months!!! . Click Here to Learn More.

Look at it like this:

The ethanol industry will produce over 4.2 billion gallons of ethanol this year. And with current prices at $2.40 per gallon or higher, that’s a minimum $10.08 billion.

Now, with the integration of Ethanex’s fractionation technology…that 4.2 billion gallons becomes 4.91 billion gallons – totaling $11.78 billion.

That’s an extra $1.7 billion Ethanex’s technology could’ve added to the bottom line for 2006!

But with the renewable fuel standard increasing ethanol production to at least 7.5 billion gallons – these numbers are just going to get bigger.

At 7.5 billion gallons, you’re looking at fractionation adding an extra 1.275 billion gallons to the mix.

That’s another $3.06 billion – all from this one technology which Ethanex controls.

Ethanex just went public. But it didn’t opt for the big PR push that we’ve seen with so many other ethanol producers.

It doesn’t need it!

Because those on the inside…those who understand the technology angle here, are already set to push this thing up.

Listen. Over the next year or so, you’re going to start to see a number of other ethanol companies seek out and integrate this fractionation technology that Ethanex owns. And every time this happens, inevitably, more attention will be drawn to the stock.

In fact, it’s already started.

Just a few days ago, Ethanex announced that it had entered into a joint venture with Star Ethanol, LLC for the construction and operation of an ethanol facility in Franklin County, Illinois that will incorporate Ethanex’s fractionation technology.

The joint venture will be 85% owned by Ethanex and 15% Star Ethanol.

This, my friends, is the first indication of what I expect to see as a developing trend for Ethanex and the ethanol industry well into 2007 and beyond.

As far as ethanol stocks are concerned…hell, as far as stocks in general, Ethanex is definitely one to buy now – while it’s still this cheap!

3,451% Gains from Plug Power

Ten or so years ago, I visited the Ballard Power (NASDAQ: BLDP) factory up in Canada where they made hydrogen fuel cells.

They had a hydrogen-powered bus there and made a big to-do about offering me a glass of water that had dribbled out of the tailpipe. It tasted like water.

Hydrogen-powered fuel cells have been around a long time and have lost much of their gee-whiz factor. In fact, over the past few years, they have become the redheaded stepchildren of the alternative energy field — mostly because it costs more in terms of BTUs to produce hydrogen than you get from burning it.

But there are some real benefits to hydrogen fuel cells, and the costs have dropped dramatically in the past decade.

I'll tell you more about that today.

Fuel Cell

As you know, a fuel cell is simply a device that converts fuel such as hydrogen into electricity.

The most widely used type is the proton exchange membrane (PEM) cell. PEM fuel cells have a high power density and weigh a lot less than a traditional battery or an internal combustion engine, which makes them promising for vehicles.

In a PEM cell, hydrogen and oxygen gas are fed to catalytic electrodes at opposite sides of a membrane. This membrane is porous to protons but not to electrons.

The protons and electrons are separated by the action of a platinum catalyst in the electrodes. The protons can diffuse directly through the membrane, but the electrons have to make their way through an external circuit to reach the other side, and this movement provides the power for an electric motor.

One nice benefit is that there are zero damaging emissions in this process — just pure water.

Game On, Man

Hydrogen fuel cells have been used in cars, buses, and other transport vehicles. Most interesting, however, is that they are starting to become cost effective.

One company I told you about back in May of 2013 was Plug Power (NASDAQ: PLUG). At the time, it was trading at just $0.33 a share.

A year after my recommendation, it hit a high of $11.72. You could have seen a 10-month gain of 3,451%.

Plug Power makes hydrogen-powered forklifts and other yellow gear. The benefit is that they don't stink up factories like diesel forklifts, and they don't have to be recharged every shift like battery-powered forklifts.

Plug supplies a number of companies including Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), and BMW (DE: BMW). It most recently got an order from Golden State Foods.

The company saw its orders triple in 2014 to $150 million. It will announce third quarter earnings on November 12.

Big in Japan

In other hydrogen news, Japan's latest Basic Energy Plan suggests hydrogen will be a key energy carrier for that country in the future. All the big automakers are working on hydrogen-powered cars.

Hyundai has a fuel cell-powered SUV called the ix35. A test drive review from October 9, 2014 called it exceedingly normal with the exception of a silent engine.

Toyota (NYSE: TM) claims it has cut the cost of building fuel cell vehicles by 90% and could sell its first hydrogen vehicle for $50,000 in 2015.

The company thinks it can further reduce the cost of a fuel cell by 50% in the next few years. Most of the savings come from reducing the amount of platinum, which is used as a catalyst. Toyota's goal is to sell the cars at cost.

Of course, this means there will have to be places to fill up your car. And they are coming...

Hawaii just announced it will build a hydrogen fill-up station, as did a group from Sainsbury, UK. California will have 54 hydrogen filling stations opened to the public in 2015.

~~eac_alt_energy~~

Beaten, Battered, and Left for Dead

After the big run-up in hydrogen stocks such as Plug Power, we've seen them come back to earth.

Plug is now trading at just over $4. In my investment trading service Crisis and Opportunity, I've taken profits a number of times, and we are back in it now. We are looking to double our money yet again.

Though Plug Power will continue to grow and investors will make money along the way, that is not where the big blockbuster opportunity lies.

You see, the market is looking at hydrogen power in the wrong way. The world thinks it is a solution for cars, trucks, and buses — and maybe it is. But where hydrogen really shines is in solving one of the world's greatest problems: storing energy.

Windy

There has been tremendous growth in the use of wind and solar power in the past few years. Wind power now produces about 2.5% of all electricity and has been growing at 25% per annum. Solar has been growing at 30% per annum.

The problem with wind power is that it is intermittent. The wind doesn't blow when it is most needed, and it blows a lot when it isn't needed at all. You have the same problem with solar.

The holy grail of the utility industry has been a way to store electricity for use at a later time. There have been lots of failed or partial solutions, such as using batteries, pumping water uphill, or using flywheels.

None of these has been a game-changer due to problems such as cost and scalability.

Fuel Cells Are the Answer

But there is one company with a tiny market value of just $169 million that is on the cusp of changing the world.

It is building huge, 100MW fuel cell storage towers. The idea is to use the off-hours electricity from solar and wind turbines that is normally wasted, zap some water, separate the hydrogen, and store it in fuel cells indefinitely. This hydrogen can be used on site or transported in existing natural gas pipelines.

And the stock is set to launch.

The company reports earnings on November 10, and you want to be fully invested before it reports its first ever profits.

For your profits,

~~chris_signoff~~

Solar Cheaper than Natural Gas?

A startup company based in Durham, North Carolina says they have developed a technology that will make solar cells cheaper than natural gas.

The company is called Semprius, and they say that their revolutionary solar panels will – if mass produced – allow for solar energy prices lower than 5 cents per Kwh.

For reference, the EIA projects that new natural gas plants can produce electricity for around 6 cents per Kwh.

Their technology involves stacking compatible semiconductors that can absorb different frequencies of light. By doing so, they say that the efficiency of the panels could go well over 50%.

Traditional solar cells only have an energy conversion rate of 25%, so by doubling the output of the technology it seems that Semprius believes they could eventually solve solar's biggest problem...cost.

So far their prototypes have clocked an efficiency rating of 43.9% for the first one and 44.9% for the second one.

Not only do they do this by using different types of semiconductors, but they also make their solar panels out of a series of incredibly small solar cells.

These cells are only about 1 millimeter long, and allow for faster cooling and more light absorption which is how they project that once mass produced their technology could be cheaper than natural gas.

I'll believe it when I see it...

I don't mean to be a naysayer, but a lot of solar companies have made a lot of promises over the years, and if half of them came true it feels like we would never need to drill an oil well again.

Add to that that any startup company has to make a big promise like this or they won't get noticed by deep-pocketed angel investment firms who could help fund research and mass production.

But if their promises are true we would also be remiss if we hadn't kept our eye on them.

Of course, they are still a start up so we can't buy any shares yet, but they could become a great investment in the future if they ever go public.

As of right now though, solar stocks that are public are too volatile for my liking...

Above is the chart for the Guggenheim Solar ETF (NYSE: TAN). And as you can see, in the last six months the stock has been on a roller coaster ride.

Much of this comes from a collision between investor sentiment and a company's earnings...

Many people get excited about the potential that solar has, but the smart investor gets concerned when solar companies take on a large debt-load without enough profit.

In response you see the swings exemplified in the chart above.

Still there are some bullish signs out there for solar investors...

For example, Saudi Arabia recently announced that state run Saudi Aramco was taking over $109 billion dollar solar project.

And Germany has added over 36,000 megawatts to their grid as of June 2014.

So clearly there is a lot of potential, but until the big players like India, China, and the United States hop on the solar bandwagon there won't be much movement on the market.

Maybe if Semprius picks up enough funding to prove their claims true, we would see a solar bull market unlike anything we've ever seen.

Until that time, stay cautious when buying solar stocks.

Nuclear Ambitions: Breaking the Curse of Fukushima

“The nuclear sector is ripe for the picking...”

That's what I was told earlier this morning. I know plenty of people think that's a crazy notion — after all, I was one of them just a short while ago!

Fact is, nuclear power has a strong stigma attached to it. And even without the powerful images of mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there hasn't been a shortage of negative press since the incident at the Fukushima Daiichi reactor.

But I know at least one person with a different outlook on the matter.

So when I made a few decidedly neutral remarks on nuclear power earlier this morning, I knew it was only a short matter of time before I felt him tap my shoulder.

You see, my colleague Chris DeHaemer overheard my comments and decided to change my line of thinking.

Admittedly, I wasn't buying it at first.

Now, there's no question that nuclear power got off to a good start. Nuclear power's share of electrical generation quadrupled between 1973 and 1988.

But it's also accurate to say that that share has been relatively flat for the better part of the last 26 years.

I told Chris as much. “We've simply gotten too comfortable with coal during the last thirty years that people haven't called for a huge push for nuclear power. The bad press in 1979 didn't help much either.”

“Yeah, well,” he said, “comfort is the enemy of achievement, but it's going to be a catalyst for us.”

Can 66 Million Frenchmen Be Wrong?

With about 100 commercial reactors at 62 power plants, the U.S. produces almost twice as much nuclear electricity as France (which generates nearly three-quarters of its power from nuclear energy).

Still, the share of nuclear power generation has averaged around 20% since 1988. Meanwhile, we've become addicted to coal.

But it isn't a secret that the coal industry is on the ropes. Recently, the ongoing war on coal intensified after the EPA announced new regulations on carbon emissions.

Soon, our coal plants will become a relic of our energy past.

In turn, we're going to have to boost our nuclear power generation. And as it turns out, we're not the only ones looking to do so.

By the end of 2013, China had 17 nuclear plants online, which generated a trivial 2% of the country's power generation — but that amount is about to surge. Right now, China has 20 reactors under construction, which is not to mention the other 175 reactors either planned or proposed.

"Octopus" Technology Makes Drilling 8 Times More Powerful

This new technology will make America the most powerful oil and gas producing country in the world, toppling the mighty Saudi Arabia.

In fact, this technology will boost U.S. oil production to 12 million barrels per day.

Most importantly, it will create a new wave of oil millionaires and billionaires as it delivers gains of 890% or more...

To get in on this opportunity, click here for full details.

Tapping the Wonder Vein: The $3 Path to Nuclear Profits

Back in the office, Chris wasn't fazed by the decades-long plateau in U.S. nuclear energy. He even smiled when I brought it up.

“You of all people should see the potential here,” he said.

You see, he's been looking for the right opportunity inside the nuclear industry. And based on the knowing smirk he gave me this morning, I knew he'd found it.

Thing is, we're all forgetting one major part of the nuclear story: efficiency.

Actually, boosting a nuclear power plant's efficiency is only half of the story. Not only does the company he found help nuclear power plants increase electrical generation by as much as 30% for new reactors, but it also helps them reduce both waste and toxicity of spent nuclear fuel.

The real wild card, however, is further down the road...

Experts refer to it as the “wonder vein” that will catapult the nuclear industry into the global spotlight. In fact, one ton of this nuclear fuel can produce more than 200 times the amount of energy as uranium.

Compared to coal, it's not even close. A single ton is equivalent to 3.5 million tons of coal.

The best part is that it is almost four times more abundant than uranium.

Right now, Chris's tiny nuclear player is trading under $3 a share, and he's on the verge of releasing his latest investment report that reveals all the details behind this up-and-coming nuclear powerhouse. Look for his report to hit your inbox on Thursday.

~~keiths_signoff~~

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) Mimics the Industrial Revolution

In a game-changing move last week, electric car company Tesla Motors announced it was open sourcing the patents to its quick-charging system for electric car batteries, as well as its related business model.

“We believe that Tesla, other companies making electric cars, and the world would all benefit from a common, rapidly-evolving technology platform,” an announcement from Tesla CEO Elon Musk said.

“Technology leadership is not defined by patents, which history has repeatedly shown to be small protection indeed against a determined competitor, but rather by the ability of a company to attract and motivate the world’s most talented engineers. We believe that applying the open source philosophy to our patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position in this regard.”

It only took a few days, but there are already a couple of major automakers reportedly interested in Tesla's charging technology.

According to the Financial Times, both Nissan and BMW are likely to meet with Tesla about developing a charging network that is compatible with electric vehicles from all three companies.

Competing Technologies

Quick charging for electric cars is not yet a standard. Some companies use one method, others use another. Nissan's Leaf, for example, uses the CHAdeMO quick-charging standard, and the BMW i3 uses the SAE Combined Charging System.

Tesla uses its own that has not yet been adopted by any other company.

However, Tesla has adopted an open position to sharing its charging tech. It has vowed to “not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.”

The move is nothing short of revolutionary.

For decades, the world of technology has relied upon patent litigation that entrenches market leadership. Samsung has been locked in an intellectual property battle with Apple since the Korean electronics company debuted its iPhone copycat Galaxy S smartphone back in 2010. Microsoft has made a career out of squeezing patent licensing fees from every tech company to rise to prominence with the aid of software in the last twenty years.

Tesla's approach hearkens back to the days when industrialists openly shared, copied, and stole technological developments in the name of advancement.

A year after the first U.S. patent was filed, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton famously submitted a report to Congress weighing the productivity of factories against the output of farms. In it, Hamilton put forth the idea that there could be a machine that could cut labor costs in half in some manufacturing field.

He then suggested that we already knew or had a reasonable facsimile of most machines, and if we didn't, they could be copied with ease.

He said: “To procure all such machines as are known in any part of Europe, can only require a proper provision and due pains... The knowledge of several of the most important of them is already possessed. The preparation of them here is, in most cases, practicable on nearly equal terms.”

This is just one of many historical examples.

Historian Peter Andreas discusses how co-opted ideas and outright theft were actually the foundation of America's success in his book Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America.

Beyond Smuggling

This is no longer about idea theft and piracy — two things American tech companies often slam China for doing.

Tesla is taking intellectual property to a new place.

It sees that it can actually build its business by letting go of some of its innovations rather than jealously guarding them or sinking them into a joint licensing patent pool.

The open-source model gives all competitors free access to a product design and allows anyone to improve upon it. It is goal-oriented rather than explicitly profit-oriented, and it has the ability to improve the value of all competitors instead of just one.

In the open-source model, the competition is no longer to get your idea to the patent office and then beat out competing ideas in the market.

It's to share your idea with your competitors and race toward making it perfect.

Offshore Wind Revolution

Last week, Americans got their first real taste of the next big thing in wind power projects.

With lots of promise and loads of potential for offshore wind development, the Department of Energy (DOE) pledged last Wednesday that it will give $47 million in grants to each of three projects it previously supported.

Those projects are off the coasts of New Jersey, Oregon and Virginia, and should be delivering electricity by 2017.
Rhode Island also got in on the act last week. Unaffiliated with what the DOE is preparing, the state government signed off on environmental permits that would give the U.S. its first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S. territories.

Last week initiated the next phase of the Energy Department’s push to promote wind power and put it in line with fossil electricity production. Until now, progress has lagged behind a far more advanced European offshore wind system because of engineering, permits and financing challenges, as well as political and some community opposition. Rhode Island’s ruling shows that there is also a willingness to go forward with wind on a state level.

Expected Growth

Wind power can no longer be ignored, especially after seeing what they’re doing with it across the pond. The largely untapped resource could create thousands more manufacturing, construction and supply chain jobs in the already vibrant energy sector. Along the way, it will drive billions of dollars in local economic investment.

The DOE announced back in 2012 that it would make $4 million grants to seven demonstration projects. The three projects in last week’s announcement have been chosen as the bread and butter of this revolution, receiving greater funding.

Fisherman’s Energy will operate five turbines of five-megawatts each off the waters of Atlantic City, New Jersey; Principal Power will do the same with five six-megawatt turbines off the coast of Coos Bay, Oregon; and Dominion Virginia Power of Dominion Resources (NYSE: D) will install two six-megawatt turbines off the shores of Virginia Beach.

The DOE is also closely working with projects for Maine and in Lake Erie.

Companies at Play

Deepwater Wind has all the permits it needs from Rhode Island to begin deployment of its Block Island wind farm. The 30-megawatt undertaking has momentum on its side and could see steel in the water any day now.

Once it’s up and running – slated for 2015 – it will generate enough power to meet the energy demands of more than 17,000 homes, according to UPI.

Last week also marked a move for Siemens (NYSE: SI), the German firm making a strong push for its wind power segment here in the U.S. It announced that it would be moving its power-generating operations over here, not only capitalizing on the oil and gas boom, but with an eye on the potential for offshore wind.

Siemens has already proven they have what it takes to mount a successful wind campaign. Its BorWin2 offshore platform in the North Sea was recently added to its already successful HelWin1, which was erected in August 2013. According to PennEnergy, the BorWin2 has a transmission capacity of 800 megawatts, or enough to meet the demands of some 800,000 German households. Once the system is fully online as promised by the first half of 2015, more than 1.3 million households will get electricity from this one Siemens wind farm.

On a sidenote, Siemens could also turn up in a deal gone bad that involved General Electric’s (NYSE: GE) bid to France’s Alstom (EPA: ALO) for its energy division.

France dismissed GE’s £10.2 billion (about $17.16 billion) offer as “not good enough”. Alstom had already approved the sale, but it was overturned for what is being hailed as “national interest” and a hope for better offers.

Alstom’s energy division makes up roughly 70 percent of the French firm’s turnover. Now we wait and see if

Siemens will make an offer after expressing some interest. France supposedly is looking for an equal partnership that wouldn’t absolve of Alstom.

A final decision will be postponed for one month as other offers are considered, most notably from Siemens.

The End

Some opinions say Siemens has no real interest in buying Alstom’s energy sector. Either way, it will be a good indicator of the direction they will likely take on energy.

And just because the DOE is shelling out grant money for offshore wind, that doesn’t necessarily mean that offshore wind will succeed here in the states.

Not everything the DOE touches turns to gold. The Babcock & Wilcox (NYSE: BWC) deal from 2012 to develop a small reactor and match the company dollar for dollar in cost recently went south as the company backed off the technology and began laying off workers.

The U.S. already has a strong blueprint for success from Europe and with companies like Siemens making a home here; I see a very strong offshore wind revolution in our future.

First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) Numbers are Great, but...

Arizona-based solar energy company First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) posted its first quarter 2014 earnings, showing a year-over-year increase in net sales, profit, and net income. The company did better both sequentially and when compared to the same quarter last year, bringing the numbers closer to the peak spike First Solar enjoyed in the third quarter of 2013.

Overall, revenue and earnings growth for the company were solid, and the company raised its full-year guidance as a result. So why are shares dropping?

In raw numbers, here's how First Solar performed in Q1:

Net sales – $950 million (a quarterly increase of $182 million)
Net income – $112 million (a Y/Y increase of $52.9 million)
Income per share – $1.10 (a quarterly increase of $0.46)
Cash and Securities – $1.38 billion (a quarterly decrease of 22%)
Net Cash – $1.2 billion
Net Cash spent on Operating Activities – $318.2 million

Analysts had expected the company to pull down $0.56 per share on revenues of $837.95 million, so by most accounts it was a good quarter for the solar energy company. First Solar's revised guidance for 2014 is a range of $2.40-$2.80 per share, and analysts continue to expect $2.49 per share.

Still, First Solar CEO James Hughes said, “We are less focused on revenue as a metric, and more focused on margin per watt production. Module prices are stabilizing and our costs continue to fall.”

This is because significant changes in revenue and profit can be driven by payments rolling in from previously booked projects. In the first quarter, for example, revenue and sales were both positively affected by the Campo Verde project, which was first sold more than a year ago to Southern Power and Turner Renewable Energy.

With this in mind, First Solar is putting more emphasis on margin per watt, yet reportedly will no longer publish its cost per watt. This metric is being held closely to the chest as the company continues to compete with lower-cost Chinese solar companies.

Despite an ostensibly favorable quarter and strong outlook for the year ahead, FSLR actually opened lower on Wednesday after a slight bump in after-hours trading. Shares gained nearly three percent after the bell Tuesday, but in early trading on Wednesday, they were down almost two percent.

The fact of the matter is, if a company puts diminished importance on the financial data it releases while simultaneously obfuscating the data it does find important, investors are likely to retreat.

Financial markets are information markets, after all.

A Biofuel Blunder

A federally funded study released in this Sunday’s edition of Nature - Climate Change concluded that emissions from burning corn are worse for the environment and produce more carbon dioxide gases than the burning of traditional gasoline, as much as 7 percent more.

The study itself cost half a million dollars. That's on top of the billions of dollars the Obama administration has already poured into facilities and programs to promote the growth of biofuels in the fight against global warming.

D’oh!

If this is true, at least in the short term as the study indicates, then corn-derived biofuels are not the clean alternative to help in the fight against climate change that they were promised to be.

Biofuels are better in the long run, but if this information is correct, it means they won't even qualify as a renewable fuel under standards set in a 2007 energy law. According to the law, biofuel must release 60 percent less carbon pollution than gasoline to be considered renewable.

The new information completely contradicts a 2012 study performed by the Energy Department that said biofuels made with corn residue were 95 percent better than gasoline in the prevention of dangerous greenhouse gas emissions.

What are we supposed to believe?

This new study is most certainly a blow to what are known as cellulosic biofuels. This class of fuels has received over $1 billion in tax incentives, and loan and grant programs to help meet volume targets mandated by law. About half of mandated minimums are expected to be derived from corn residue.

Since Monday morning, both the biofuel industry and the Obama administration have been on clean-up duty. They've refuted the latest claims, saying the research is too simplistic in its analysis of carbon loss from soil, which can change from field to field.

They also say the study overestimates how much residue farmers would remove once the market gets rolling, saying that if they did what the study implies, it would ruin both the land and the long-term supply of feedstock. It makes very little sense.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has its own analysis that says half of corn residue would be removed from fields, and that stover (fuel made from corn residue) would meet the standards in the 2007 law.

Biofuel Stock Reaction

Clearly, everyone has their own ideas about just how beneficial biofuels are going to be down the road, and aside from Sunday’s latest findings, all other results aggressively point in the opposite direction.

So, what’s happening with some of the big-name biofuel stocks? As of mid-day Tuesday:

Rentech, Inc. (NASDAQ: RTK) is up.
FutureFuel Corp. (NYSE: FF) is up.
Green Plains Renewable Energy (NASDAQ: GPRE) is up.
REX American Resources Corp. (NYSE: REX) is up.
BioFuel Energy Corp. (NASDAQ: BIOF) is up.

The only stock I looked into that was down since the news broke was Renewable Energy Group (NASDAQ: REGI).

All the others seem to be completely unaffected by the new study.

The End

It seems to me like this latest study is nothing more than a waste of money. Sure, it raises some ire and doubt, but I don’t see it as creating much of a problem for biofuel investors. The government is still heavily invested in the future of biofuels, and until all other claims are disproven, it’s business as usual.

If further studies prove cellulosic biofuels don’t meet renewable standards, then we can talk about problems. That would mean they wouldn’t earn the $1 per gallon subsidy and they likely wouldn’t be able to turn a profit.

The brass tacks of it all: Sunday’s findings don’t provide any useful information relevant to the life cycle of greenhouse gas emissions from the production of biofuels.

At the very most, this study just goes to show that we still need to conduct further analysis that can give us the concrete facts and data we need to feel confident in continuing to move forward, using biofuel as a deterrent against climate change.

The Department of Agriculture (DOA) is working with farmers to make sure residue is harvested sustainably, and in time, the truth will come out.