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Solar Stocks Break From Oil

Although solar is generated from electricity, not oil, the stocks have tended to track the rise and fall of oil prices. That changed last week – oil prices dropped significantly but solar stocks went up. The solar sector performed well as a group, even as oil dropped another 5.38%. Leading stocks in the group continue to include Sunpower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR), up 16.93% for the week. Wedbush Morgan upgraded it to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ with a new price target of $52 (from $38) because of the Powerlight acquisition. Silicon producer MEMC Electronics (NYSE: WFR) closed up 12.48% for the week and Suntech Power Ltd. (NYSE: STP) closed up 6.75%. Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ: ESLR), which has been slow to move up over the past months, finally rose 3.68% for the week.

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Analyst Cautions Investors On Ethanol Stocks

URL: http://www.forbes.com/2007/01/12/ethanol-pacific-aventine-markets-equity-cx_jl_0112markets05.html?partner=yahootix Website: http://www.forbes.com/2007/01/12/ethanol-pacific-aventine-markets-equity-cx_jl_0112markets05.html?partner=yahootix     

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American Superconductor Achieves Commercial-Grade Superconductor Performance

American Superconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: AMSC), a leading superconductor manufacturer, has demonstrated world-record-level production rates for 344 superconductors that have commercial-grade electrical performance. The company said the demonstrated production rates exceed the levels required to meet commercial cost targets and that this is a critical step in the process of qualifying its proprietary manufacturing process for 344 superconductors. AMSC also reports it is on track for initial volume production of commercial-grade product in December 2007, as planned. AMSC’s 344 superconductors conduct over 150 times the electricity of copper wires of the same dimensions with 100% efficiency when cooled with environmentally friendly liquid nitrogen. “Although we have previously achieved commercial-grade electrical performance, that alone is not sufficient to meet market needs; we need to be able to produce high-performance wire day-to-day at costs that allow us to offer attractive prices and achieve attractive margins,” said Angelo Santamaria, vice president and general manager of the AMSC Wires business unit. “We now have a clear pathway to produce HTS wire with price-performance ratios equivalent to copper.” Santamaria noted that AMSC already shipped 6,800 meters of 344 superconductors to customers and was on track to ship an additional 3,200 meters of this wire by the […]

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Spire Receives NASA Thermo PV Contract

Spire Corporation (NASDAQ: SPIR) has received a $600,000 contract from NASA’s John Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio to further develop a new type of thermo photovoltaic, TPV cell that produces electricity from heat. TPV cells have potential applications for NASA to generate electricity from heat produced by radioisotope sources for long duration space missions. Commercial applications of TPV cells include electricity generation using heat from combustion. The work will be carried out in part at Bandwidth Semiconductor, a Spire subsidiary. Bandwidth already offers GaAs concentrator PV cells for converting the sun’s energy to electricity. These TPV cells use InGaAs, a variation of GaAs. Bandwidth Semiconductor has over ten years experience providing similar TPV cells to customers for special applications. Bandwidth Semiconductor is a compound semiconductor foundry, specializing in wafer epitaxy, thick and thin film products and device fabrication for defense, biomedical, telecommunications and consumer markets. Website: http://www.spirecorp.com     

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EIA Finds Mandatory Climate Legislation Won't Harm U.S. Economy

An analysis released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) concludes: mandatory steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved at very low cost to American households and without harming the U.S. economy. According to EIA, proposed climate legislation by Senator Bingaman would have the following impacts: O A meaningful start towards reducing emissions. Compared to projected emissions without the program, emissions are lowered by 5% in 2015, 11% in 2025, and 14% by 2030. O Economic effects that are almost non-detectable. Costs to the U.S. economy would total 0.1% of GDP through 2030. Cumulative GDP is projected to double from 2006 to 2030. O No substantial increase in electricity prices. Electricity prices would rise by less than 11% by 2030. O A continued vital role, but reduced role for coal in the energy mix. Coal use would grow by 23% by 2030 compared to 53% without the program. O No substantial shift to natural gas in generation. Natural gas demand is projected to increase by a mere 1% by 2030. O A meaningful boost for renewable energy. Non-hydro renewable electricity generation would rise by 53% by 2030. EIA, created by Congress in 1977, is a statistical agency of the […]

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