Jim Lane

Obama unveils an “all-out, all of the above” energy strategy. But is it really “all of the below”? Just election talk? Is ginning up a bioeconomy shelved for a year, or just a week?

Meanwhile, hopeful news from Novozymes (NVZMY.PK) and the World Economic Forum.

In Washington, President Barack Obama gave his State of the Union speech, and dashed hopes and expectations of a revival strategy for US industry through encouraging growth of the bioeconomy. His annual presidential address became the first in a number of years to avoid any mention of biofuels, ethanol, the bioeconomy, or biotechnology.

In a speech which mentioned jobs 32 times, the high-export, high-productivity US agriculture sector also failed to score a single mention. The closest the president came to mentioning biofuels was in touting that US oil imports were at their lowest point in 16 years – without mentioning that the key factor in that import achievement was the rise in domestic biofuels production.

Instead, the president proceeded to embrace an “all out, all of the above” energy strategy – focusing on an intense increase in domestic oil and natural gas production, and borrowing the “all of the above” phrase which, until recently, was most closely associated with conservative Texas Republican, Gov. Rick Perry.

The centerpiece of his strategy? Natural gas. “We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly 100 years.  And my administration will take every possible action to safely develop this energy.  Experts believe this will support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade,” the president said.

Clean energy? The president opted to give up on hopes for legislation (except for a one-line exhortation for Congress to renew the Section 1603 tax credits that are used for wind and solar development), and focused on authorizing permits for 10 GW of renewable power production on federal land – that’s equivalent to about 1% of US power production capacity.

The focus on oil & gas production was surprising as Obama Administration policy, but unsurprising as re-election strategy: removing a line of attack that the President’s opponents were planning for the 2012 election campaign.

Has the Obama Administration shifted from an “Action News” to an “All Talk” strategy – shifting from policy implementation to framing the election conversation? We think so. We expect to hear a lot more about Mitt Romney’s 14 percent tax rate this year, than about policies and programs to revive manufacturing, or deploy clean energy.

For now, whither goes biofuels?  The word from Washington is that the President will unveil his Blueprint for a Bioeconomy next week – we’ll see then what the Administration has in mind for industrial biotechnology.

And now, a word from Davos: “Moving towards a next-generation ethanol economy”.

From Davos, where the World Economic Forum is gather this week, came something a little more weighty and specific than the State of the Union speech.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance launched its report “Moving towards a next-generation ethanol economy”. Commissioned by Novozymes (NVZMY.PK), the report estimates the socioeconomic prospects of deploying advanced biofuels in eight of the highest agricultural-producing regions in the world, i.e. Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, EU-27, India, Mexico and the USA.

“An estimated 17.5 percent of the agricultural residue produced could be available today as feedstock for advanced biofuels. With this amount, enough advanced biofuels could be produced to replace over 50 percent of the forecasted 2030 gasoline demand,” said Steen Riisgaard, Novozymes’s CEO.

The report shows that the eight regions analyzed have the potential to diversify farmers’ income, generate revenues ranging from $1 trillion to $4.4 trillion between today and 2050 and create millions of jobs. Including 1.4 million jobs in the USA, according to the report.

Why the Obama shift in the State of the Union?

Why the shift towards fossil fuels? The President is aiming for re-election, by appealing to swing state voters with the hope of economic gains from increased domestic oil production. The focus of the President’s speech – which pinned hopes economic growth on a revival of American manufacturing and energy production – generally focused on reducing inequality between rich and poor through revision of the tax code.

The real all-of-the-above: advanced biofuels as it approaches commercial-scale

As an example of all-of-the-above energy development that works, look these eight projects we profiled recently in the Litmus Test. First commercial projects from newly-minted public companies Solazyme (SZYM), Gevo (GEVO) and KiOR (KIOR). Two trash-to-biofuels projects from INEOS Bio and Enerkem, located in Florida and Alberta. Europe’s largest biosuccinic acid project, scheduled to be opened by DSM in France. The world’s largest cellulosic ethanol project to date, being readied by Beta Renewables in Italy. And a large-scale renewable diesel project from the Darling (DAR)-Valero partnership that is expected to be ready just as 2013 gets underway.

Eight different technologies, a range of feedstocks, deployment around the globe. It’s a flowering of innovation.

State of America’s biofuels industry

For even more perspective, this week, leaders some of the top biofuels companies in the country are offering their thoughts on the state of the advanced biofuels industry, in a special episode of the Advanced Biofuels Association’s Better Fuels Moment online video series.

The episode features Joel Velasco, senior vice president of Amyris (AMRS); Jack Huttner, executive vice president, commercial and public affairs of Gevo; and Michael McAdams, president of the Advanced Biofuels Association, ABFA.

McAdams noted that the special episode emphasizes that, “Washington now has a real opportunity to invest in clean energy fuels, smarter investments based on performance, not a lifetime of subsidized handouts from Washington.  This opportunity can strengthen America’s energy security while creating jobs here at home, today.”

The Bottom Line

The good news – the release of the “blueprint for a bioeconomy”, expected next week, may offer more substantiation of an “all of the above” strategy. And, for sure, commercialization is rapidly moving out of the realm of government support and towards the private sector. Note that both KiOR (KIOR) and POET-DSM dropped their DOE loan guarantees, saying they were unnecessary for their projects.

For industry – it is a reminder that Obama Administration is likely to support in the form of purchase rather than development – government-as-customer rather than government-as-investor. Those that get themselves off the government dope may well find themselves with a significant first-mover advantage, not to mention some hefty government contracts for drop-in diesel and renewable jet fuel.

Disclosure: None.

Jim Lane is editor and publisher of Biofuels Digest where this article was originally published.  Biofuels Digest is the most widely read Biofuels daily read by 14,000+ organizations.  Subscribe here.

Posted by Guest Contributor at 10:01 AM | Obama’s “All of the Below” Energy Strategy | Comments (0)

Garvin Jabusch

Americans, rightly, prefer specifics and plans, as opposed to rhetorical vision and platitudes, from their president in their State of the Union addresses. We couldn't agree more, so here are our thoughts about President Obama's 2012 address, with respect to our area, the next economy and investing therein. Garvin Jabusch is co-founder and chief investment officer of Green Alpha ® Advisors, and is co-manager of the Green Alpha ® Next Economy Index, or GANEX and the Sierra Club Green Alpha Portfolio. He also authors the blog “Green Alpha's Next Economy."

Posted by Garvin at 08:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John Petersen

During the fourteen years that I've lived in Switzerland, the Germans have been the world's staunchest supporters of green power and alternative energy. Their aggressive development of wind power was breathtaking, as was their warm embrace of photovoltaic power. Over the last few weeks, however, there has been an ominous change in the mainstream German media's tone as the political class finally comes to grips with the unpleasant reality that rooftop solar panels are worthless on short, grey winter days and "For weeks now, the 1.1 million solar power systems in Germany have generated almost no electricity." Three recent and highly negative articles from Der Spiegel Online include:

• Solar Subsidy Sinkhole; Re-evaluating Germany's Blind Faith in the Sun;
• Solar Subsidy 'Insanity' Will Cost Consumers; and
• Solar Energy Row is an 'Undignified Spectacle'

As recently as last year, articles like these would have been unthinkable. Today they're viewed as reasonable discussions of critical issues as the laws of thermodynamics and economic gravity assert their absolute primacy.

The Germans have been trailblazers in all things green since the emergence of the Green Party in the 1980s. In fact, it's hard to name an alternative energy technology that Germany hasn't welcomed with open arms. When it comes to green power and alternative energy, the Germans have been on the far left of the technology adoption curve for a very long time.



If the tone of the recent Der Spiegel articles is a reasonable indicator of public sentiment, the innovators are getting ready to throw in the towel on green panacea solutions and get down to the serious work of conserving energy instead. They're weighing the costs and benefits, and reaching an entirely predictable conclusion that it's impossible to depend on variable and inherently unreliable power sources as the backbone of an industrial economy. As Germany goes, so goes the world.

If the world's standard-bearer for green power and alternative energy abandons the quest and chooses a more sensible path of conservation and energy efficiency, the backlash against the solar power industry will be immense and risks to the wind power industry will skyrocket. After all, it's hard to argue the merits of "One for the Price of Two" power solutions; which is exactly what you get when wind and solar power have to be fully backed up by conventional power plants. If the solar and wind power dominoes fall, they'll almost certainly take out the emerging electric vehicle industry that demands huge amounts of money and natural resources to simply substitute one fuel source for another.

Currently all eyes are on Germany as the epicenter of European efforts to restore fiscal balance in an age of profligate and unsustainable government spending. The apparent German surrender on green power and alternative energy may just be an unfortunate victim of that broader effort. Until the dark clouds dissipate and we have a clearer view of the landscape, I'd minimize my exposure to solar, wind and electric drive and focus instead on less costly energy efficiency technologies that work with the laws of thermodynamics and economic gravity instead of fighting them.

Disclosure: None

Posted by John Petersen at 08:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

By Jeff Siegel

Solar Competes With Natural Gas

From 2005 to 2008, I made an absolute fortune in solar.

And it was insanely easy, too.

Hell, back then you could pretty much just pick any random company with the word “solar” attached to it, and watch your money double, triple, even quadruple.

Yes, those were three great years. And I live very comfortably today because of those three years.

But the solar market isn't what it used to be.

Last year, solar stocks got slammed. And while most expect to see a recovery in the space this year, the sector remains as volatile as ever.

Now just a few weeks ago, solar stocks were soaring after some new data came out that indicated a rise in solar installations in Germany in Q4.

The result was a quick run on solar stocks, and certainly traders made out...

But then there were those poor souls who didn't read the fine print, ponied up a few thousand, and are now wondering what happened to the solar run all those analysts on television were talking about.

Yes, a few weeks ago there was some positive data, which apparently cast a shadow over the fact that cell and panel prices were still continuing to fall.

And it didn't take long for the sector to shed its recent gains, then fall even further after Germany's Energy Minister announced that the country's Feed-In Tariff should be adjusted every month instead of twice a year.

In a matter of minutes, we watched solar stocks fall off 10%, 15%, even 20%.

While I continue to remain bullish on the long-term growth picture for solar, unless you can stomach the risk and volatility, the solar space is no space to be right now.

Truth is until we see next quarter's forecasts, I'd be very hesitant about playing solar.

Natural Gas is Still King

There's no doubt that there's still plenty of money to be made in solar.

You just have to know where to look, and of course, not get caught up in all the hype generated by those know-nothing media buffoons who couldn't even tell you the difference between solar thermal and solar PV, much less know how to play the solar market...

Hell, these are the same guys who were telling us just a few years ago that natural gas would never fall below $5.00.

Last Friday, it fell below $2.30.

And now they're scrambling to dig up any bearish news they can find. But nothing they say can stop the natural gas boom.

I've said it a thousand times before, and I'll say it again: Natural gas is king.

And right now, it doesn't take much to make money from this sector. In fact, it reminds me a lot of the solar sector from 2005 to 2008. It's just so easy to make a killing.

Just ask my colleague Keith Kohl, who was touring today's biggest natural gas properties back when the word “hydrofracking” was a term only used by insiders and roughnecks.

This guy's made me — and his readers — some serious coin in the natural gas space...

Especially with his latest find at the Three Forks location in North Dakota. I know it may not look like much.

And I know it may not sound as sexy as solar...

To a new way of life and a new generation of wealth...

 

Jeff Siegel is Editor of Energy and Capital, where this article was first published.

Posted by Guest Contributor at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John Petersen

I have a new favorite word — AGGREGATION!

At the risk of sounding like a reporter, I’m going to summarize a pre-holiday news story you might have missed but need to know about.

In late November the PJM Interconnect, the largest of nine regional grid system operators in the US, announced that it had begun buying frequency regulation services from small-scale, behind the meter, demand response assets in Pennsylvania.

The first resources brought on-line by PJM were variable speed pumps at a water treatment plant and a 500 kW industrial battery array at a factory. Each of these resources has been configured to respond to PJM’s signals within four seconds and provide 100 kW of frequency regulation capacity.

In the water treatment plant, the operator will change pump speeds as necessary while keeping average throughput at 80% of nameplate capacity. For the industrial battery array, the operator will shift loads to the battery when the grid needs power and charge the battery when the grid has excess power.

The contract operators for both installations envision portfolios of flexible industrial loads that can be aggregated and operated as a distributed virtual utility that responds instantaneously to supply and demand conditions on the grid side of the meter. They’re literally turning grid loads into grid assets.

How cool is that?

I learned about the development because my old team at Axion Power International (AXPW.OB) built the battery array and is using its New Castle plant in Pennsylvania as the test-facility. But this was more than just an Axion event because it opens a world of opportunity for all manufacturers of industrial power quality and reliability systems.

Traditionally, the battery industry’s pitch on industrial energy storage systems focused on ensuring the highest possible level of power quality and reliability for industrial customers. More recently manufacturers have refined their pitch to include other behind the meter benefits like time of use and demand charge management.

This latest twist creates a whole new set of opportunities to reduce the net cost of a customer’s power quality assets by aggregating incremental revenue from grid-side ancillary services. The battery industry is at a tipping point because energy prices have finally reached a level where waste isn’t always cheaper than storage.

It’s still a tough cost-benefit equation because customers hate anything that eats into margins, but as energy storage system (ESS) developers find new ways to aggregate benefits and use their facilities more efficiently, the potential market grows exponentially.

Now it’s time to shuck the reporter’s fedora and give my horns a little room to breathe. Let’s drill deeper into the inherently confusing metrics ESS developers use to describe grid-scale storage systems.

In a recent report on grid-scale ESS costs, the DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories took a bifurcated approach to pricing that separated the costs of the power control subsystem from the costs of the energy storage subsystem. Their summary table of generic ESS costs using the principal battery chemistries breaks down like this.



The problem arises when battery manufacturers focus on a power metric in their public statements, instead of an energy metric, and fail to give readers any clues about who contributes what share of system value.

To highlight the problem I’ll use Sandia’s numbers to estimate the prices of Axion’s PowerCube and A123 Systems’ (AONE) Laurel Mountain wind farm project.



ESS buyers aren’t stupid. They won’t let battery manufacturers earn the same margin on the power control subsystem that they earn on the energy storage subsystem.

That leads to the inescapable conclusion that a $2 million ESS sale that’s 70% power control systems and 30% batteries is not the same as a $2 million battery sale. At some point the failure to clearly distinguish between purchased components and proprietary components will give rise to stakeholder confusion that could have been avoided. If market participants can’t find a way to effectively communicate the difference between power control subsystem sales and energy storage subsystem sales, they run an enormous risk that investors, analysts, bankers and other stakeholders will over-estimate the relative impact of ESS sales on the bottom line and then be disappointed when their inflated expectations aren’t met. Losing credibility with stakeholders is a luxury that no company can afford.

Life was simpler when UPS systems integrators built their products and bought batteries as necessary components. It gets far more difficult when battery manufacturers sell ESS products where the bulk of the added value comes from upstream component suppliers.

While my cup usually overflows with sage advice for anybody who’ll listen, I don’t see any easy answers to this conundrum. I suppose the industry could take the easy way out and claim that the batteries just keep the turbines turning when the wind dies down, but that’s really not an acceptable answer either.



NOTE: This article was first published in the Winter 2012 issue of Batteries International Magazine and I want to thank editor Michael Halls and cartoonist Jan Darasz for their contributions.

Disclosure: Author is a former director of Axion Power International (AXPW.OB) and holds a substantial long position in its common stock.

Posted by John Petersen at 09:42 AM | Understanding Manufacturing Economics for Grid-Scale Energy Storage | Comments (0)

John Petersen

On Friday A123 Systems (AONE) announced a direct registered offering that's an elegant example of a well-structured financing transaction in a difficult market. A123 had a solid financial base before the offering and the stock was starting to turn a critical corner into an upward trend. The new financing should add momentum to that trend.

The first stage deal terms are pretty straightforward. The investors will buy units consisting of one share of common stock and one common stock purchase warrant for $2.034 per unit, a 10% discount from the closing price of A123's common stock on Thursday. The warrants will be exercisable at $2.71 per share, a 20% premium to Thursday's close, during the 24-month period beginning six months after the closing date. The net proceeds will be approximately $23.5 million after costs and expenses.

An elegant second stage gives A123 the right to require the investors to buy up to 12.5 million additional shares next summer at a 10% discount to the 10-day average market price if A123 calls on the standby commitment and exercises what's effectively a put option. The only substantive limitation on A123's right to require the investors to buy additional shares is that they can't be required to invest more than $100 million, or $8 per share, in the second stage.

The thing I find most fascinating about the transaction is the tension between A123's current sacrifice and the investors' longer-term commitment. 

Last April I wrote that the market over-reacted to an attractive financing transaction and A123's stock was undervalued in the $6 range. The market disagreed with my conclusion and over the next eight months A123's stock price crumbled to an all time low of $1.51 in mid-December before turning to the upside. At Thursday's close, A123 was trading at a 19% discount to its September 30th book value of $2.80 per share. That makes a sale of additional shares at a 10% discount to market painful because the new investors will enjoy a modest accretion to book value while the existing stockholders will suffer a slight dilution, as summarized in the following table.

Book value per share at September 30th	$2.80
Estimated fourth quarter loss	($0.46)
Estimated book value per share before offering	$2.34
Estimated book value per share after offering	$2.30
Accretion to new investors	$0.27
Dilution to existing stockholders	($0.04)

When you factor in 100% warrant coverage at a 20% premium to Thursday's close, the first stage terms are attractive for the new investors. The second stage terms, however, are very attractive for A123 because they give the company six months to execute on its business plan and require the investors to standby with up to $100 million of additional financing if A123 decides it wants the money. The standby commitment may not be needed, in which case A123 will have no duty to sell the additional shares, but it sure is nice to have a second stage transaction locked, loaded and ready to go if more money is needed.

Earlier this month I picked A123 as a break out stock for 2012. As the following graph shows, A123's 10- and 20-day moving averages have turned up nicely and a simple reversion to the 200-day moving average would suggest a value in the $4.25 range as the stock reverts to a mean.



Since stocks that are significantly undervalued tend to over-correct as they revert to the mean, I would not view a six- to twelve-month target in the $6 range as unreasonable.

Like all battery technology developers, A123 faces a myriad of execution, market acceptance and business risks that each investor will have to assess assess in light of his own expectations and risk tolerance. It is, however, the clear sector leader in the lithium-ion battery space and likely to significantly outperform the market this year.

Disclosure: None.

Posted by John Petersen at 03:53 AM | A123's Elegant Financing Transaction | Comments (0)

Jim Lane

In Iowa, the Renewable Energy Group IPO priced last night, and the company’s shares began trading Thursday on NASDAQ under the REGI symbol.

The company sold 7.2 million shares at $10 per share, well below its midpoint target of $14 per share announced last week, with total proceeds of up to $82.8 million if all over-allotments are covered by underwriters. Without over-allotment sales, the offering will raise $72 million.

UBS Securities LLC and Piper Jaffray & Co. are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated and Canaccord Genuity Inc. are acting as co-managers.

Of the shares of common stock in the offering, Renewable Energy Group is offering 6,857,140 shares and selling stockholders are offering 342,860 shares. In addition, Renewable Energy Group has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,080,000 additional shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any.

Disclosure: None.

Jim Lane is editor and publisher of Biofuels Digest where this article was originally published.  Biofuels Digest is the most widely read Biofuels daily read by 14,000+ organizations.  Subscribe here.

Posted by Guest Contributor at 07:18 PM | Renewable Energy Group Raises $72 Million in Biodiesel IPO | Comments (0)

John Petersen

On November 15th I suggested a paired trade where investors would buy 11.5 shares of Exide Technologies (XIDE) and short one share of Tesla Motors (TSLA). Over the last two months, investors who made the trade on November 15th would have realized the following gains.

	15-Nov-11	13-Jan-12	Net
	Entry	Exit	Gain
Buy 11.5 Exide	-$30.59	$36.69	$6.10
Sell one Tesla	$33.93	-$22.79	$11.14
Pair trade total	$3.34	$13.90	$17.24

A conservative trader might very well call it a day and close both positions at this juncture. A less conservative trader might be inclined to push his luck a little further. I'm squarely in the second camp.

Almost half of the gain on the Tesla short came on Friday afternoon when Tesla collapsed in the last 45 minutes of trading and closed at $22.79, down $5.46 from its Thursday close pf $28.25. The apparent reason for the collapse was the loss of two engineering executives over the last month. While no small company likes to lose important employees, I have a hard time imagining any circumstances where the loss of two employees would justify a $570 million market cap beat down. While I've never seen a company schedule an emergency conference call to discuss something this trivial, that's exactly what Tesla has done. The market reaction, or over-reaction if you prefer, coupled with management's extraordinary effort to calm the market strikes me as clear proof that Tesla's unrealistically high share price has become brittle. This is a stock that wants to fall and is looking for almost any excuse to do so. My tracking chart that plots 10-, 20-, 50- and 200-day volume weighted moving average prices is looking just plain ugly as the 10- and 20-day averages have plummeted down through the 200-day average.



Exide, in comparison, is looking stronger today than it did in mid-November. I've recently explained how the liquidation of a hedge fund that owned over 30% of Exide's stock in January 2009 has been a big contributor to market volatility over the last two years. I've also speculated that a final push to liquidate the hedge fund's position before year end was the primary reason for the fourth quarter price decline. At this point my tracking chart for Exide is looking very strong as the 10- and 20-day averages push up through the 50-day average.



With Tesla's stock price looking increasingly frangible and Exide's price looking increasingly firm, I'd be inclined to keep the pair trade open until we have a third-quarter earnings release from Exide.

Disclosure: None.

Posted by John Petersen at 04:14 AM | Updating My Buy Exide and Short Tesla Paired Trade | Comments (0)

by Clean Energy Intel

Image Source: Tesla Motors, with permission.

"Having completed conceptual and design engineering work on Model S, Peter has decided to step away to tend to personal matters in the U.K.,..... Nick Sampson is no longer with Tesla. He had fully transitioned from any Model S activities by the time of his departure."

All of this would imply that the departure of these two players should have little effect on the launch of the Model S in the summer. However, the market may worry about this for a while longer- and that of course would be likely to be reflected in the price action.

Clean Energy Intel is a free investment advisory service produced by a retired hedge fund strategist. You can read more at www.cleanenergyintel.com

Posted by cleanenergyintel at 06:26 PM | Tesla Stock Collapses But Looks Massively Oversold | Comments (0)

Sean Kidney

Where did all the CREBs and QCEBs go? Mystery solved.

The US has for a long time used tax credits to promote the development of oil and gas and other industries. With tax credits the bond issuer still pays a coupon, but their payment is subsidized, effectively lowering the rate of interest paid.

The Obama administration brought in a big program of credits for renewable energy bonds. The plan was that States, large local governments, tribal governments and public power bodies would issue bonds to finance energy efficiency or renewable energy. The US Treasury states that some $5.6bn of allocations to over 1800 applicants have been made for these tax credits. This would seem to suggest that there were $5.6bn of bonds out there, but when we went looking we found we could only find out information about a few of them.

A report late last year by the US National Association of State Energy Officials has helped explain what’s happening. It seems that only a small part of the approved tax credits have actually led to a bond being issued.

The Government allocated $2.4bn for Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) and $3.2bn for qualified energy conservation bonds (QECBs). After some investigation, Bloomberg New Energy Finance calculates public issuance at $646m, although they believe there is also a private placement market of up to $400m. That would bring total issuance up to around $1bn. I.e. bonds have been issued for less than 20% of allocated tax credits – that’s a severely under-utilized public finance mechanism!

Renewable energy financing consultant and former Ernst & Young senior partner, Jonathan Johns, has previously written for Climate Bonds Initiative on the benefits of tax-exempt bonds. I asked him what was going on.

First, he said that he’s “not that disappointed”. He says that “these are nudge rather than demand pull measures and require participants to pull schemes together and go through various procedural hurdles involved.  In a way they illustrate the future challenges of the industry as it seeks new sources of capital from the bond markets.”

Jonathan says that nudge mechanisms are often undersubscribed. “It’s interesting to note that those states with a strong record in renewables, e.g. California have used very high percentages of their allocations (which are based on population) whereas some more equivocal states have not. For other states there will be a natural cap on appetite if there are state or local borrowing limits.”

“There are lessons to be learned for the US and other jurisdictions – future schemes need to be more streamlined and remove some of the barriers – and also be accompanied by focus on demand stimulation and distribution channels for the bonds themselves.”

“Tax exempt bonds are a cost effective form of support, as relief is limited to the interest on the capital and not based on the capital itself. There’s also a relatively high payback per job created, with that payback localised when there’s a strong energy efficiency component – that’s been the case in over 50% of QECBs issued.”

A relatively large number of bonds issued are for small schemes in the $1m to $5m range. In other jurisdictions this has been difficult to achieve, with bond issues confined to recycling of large scale project finance portfolios.

Johns thinks it’s important to build on the CREB/QECB story and take the bond market to its next stage of development through the Climate Bonds Initiative and other mechanisms. Positive thinking.

Sean Kidney is Chair of the Climate Bonds Initiative, an "investor-focused" not-for-profit promoting long-term debt models to fund a rapid, global transition to a low-carbon economy. 

Posted by Guest Contributor at 09:17 AM | The True Story of Clean Renewable Energy Bonds | Comments (0)

An Elephant Hunter's Theory About Axion Power's Price Surge

John Petersen

Over the last few days I've been inundated with questions from readers who want to know why Axion Power International (AXPW.OB) has smoothly surged from a low of $0.25 on December 30th to a closing price of $0.58 yesterday. The short answer is the stock is finally emerging from the mother of all supply and demand imbalances and the persistent sellers that punished the price over the last 20 months are almost out of the picture. Since I believe we're witnessing the beginning of an entirely new market dynamic, a detailed explanation seems appropriate.

In December 2009, Axion closed a private placement transaction where four large buyers and 47 small investors bought 45.8 million shares of common stock at a price of $0.57 per share. I was thrilled. At the time I wrote:

"To my way of thinking, the most impressive aspect of Axion's financing is sheer size. Axion had roughly 37 million common share equivalents outstanding before the placement and sold 46 million additional shares. Selling 55% of a company without surrendering control is extremely rare. The more telling fact is that the cumulative reported trading volume in Axion's stock for 2009 has only been 6.6 million shares. In other words, these private placement investors bought roughly seven times the annual trading volume in a single transaction. Nobody in his right mind buys that kind of weight with the expectation that he'll be able to resell at a profit in an illiquid market. That tells me this group of investors is taking a long-term view and swinging for the fences with Axion's other large holders. I'm delighted to have the company, even if they did get a better price."

Based on 30 years in the trenches as a small company corporate finance lawyer I believed the 2009 private placement would put a solid floor of $1.20 under the stock price. The market behaved about the way I expected it would for three and a half months and then all hell broke loose when:

• A busted hedge fund that owned 2.7 million shares began liquidating;
• A bankruptcy estate that owned 544,000 shares began liquidating; and
• Resale registration statements for 2008 and 2009 private placement shares went effective.

All of the sudden there were far more shares in the hands of willing sellers than the market could absorb. As the sellers started pushing their offer prices down in an effort to clear their books or turn a quick profit, the price fell from a 10-day moving average of $1.18 on March 30th to $0.80 on May 30th. By the end of July the 10-day average had fallen to $0.55. There were no problems with Axion's business, but there were a number of large shareholders who forgot the fable of the goose that laid the golden eggs.

A few days ago one of my followers on Seeking Alpha drew my attention to the daily short reports OTCBB market makers file with FINRA. The FINRA data is unusual because the market makers report all sales of shares that aren't under their control as short sales. Therefore, two types of transactions show up in the FINRA reports:

• True short sales; and
• Transactions where a selling stockholder has a physical stock certificate that must be converted into electronic form prior to delivery.

Other transaction types are reported from time to time, but they're rare. Since true short selling has never been an issue for Axion, it occurred to me that the FINRA daily short sale reports might provide an accurate and reliable way to track resales by private placement purchasers. On Tuesday my data-mining friend H. T. Love sent me FINRA short data going back to April 1, 2010, just before the resale registration statements for the private placement shares went effective. The accuracy of the FINRA data as a tracking tool for resales of private placement shares is astounding.

Since April 1, 2010, the total of short sales reflected in daily FINRA reports from market makers is 35,888,306 shares. During that period, my best estimate of the shares that have moved from physical certificates to electronic form follows:

Busted hedge fund	2,746,869
Bankruptcy estate	543,600
Deceased stockholder	8,245,614
The Quercus Trust	5,724,978
Special Situations Funds	7,433,411
Weak 2009 small investors	10,800,000
Total	35,708,594

My best estimate of the shares remaining in the hands of 2008 and 2009 private placement purchasers follows:

Blackrock	7,150,000
Manatuck Hill Partners	7,200,000
The Quercus Trust	2,846,451
Strong 2009 small investors	3,600,000
Total	20,796,451

The only numbers in the tables that are an outright guess are the shares held by weak vs. strong 2009 small investors, and that guess simply assumes that 3/4 the small 2009 investors were spooked by the market decline and decided to take their cash out of the game at a break-even price. While the data for Blackrock and Manatuck Hill is based on old SEC filings, both should file updated reports by mid-February.

If you look at the Axion chart for the last 20 months there is nothing that would attract a short-term trader, except for a brief run-up in January through March of 2010. In fact, the chart would terrify every trader I know. That means the only people who might have been attracted the stock were investors who attended an Axion presentation and decided to buy, or who've followed my blog for a long time, climbed a personal wall of worry and decided to swing for the fences in hopes of an elephant hunter's return.

I believe my long-term readers have bought the substantial bulk of Axion’s float. Unless Manatuck Hill, Blackrock or the remaining 2009 small investors start selling in meaningful volume, it looks like the only reliable source of supply is the Quercus Trust which will probably sell the rest of its shares over the next few months. From this point forward, I believe the market price is in the collective hands of the investors who bought over the last 20 months.

The last 20 months have been a very trying time for Axion's stockholders because of a highly unusual supply and demand dynamic. In a  normal market I would have expected the floor of $1.20 to hold till the summer of 2010 when Axion announced an important development contract with Norfolk Southern that would normally have boosted the price into the $1.80 range. Last fall I would have expected Axion's disclosure of superior testing results with BMW to boost the price into the $2.70 to $3.60 range. At this point I don't know what an objective fair value for Axion's stock is, but I expect to find out over the next few weeks.

Disclosure: Author is a former director of Axion Power International (AXPW.OB) and holds a substantial long position in its common stock.

Posted by John Petersen at 06:30 AM | An Elephant Hunter's Theory About Axion Power's Price Surge | Comments (5)

L. Myron Clark

Solar energy stocks took a huge jump today in U.S. trading.  While the sheen faded slightly as afternoon skies turned overcast in the eastern U.S., as of the NYSE closing bell about half the sector was up 20% or better.  Absent major industry news or earnings blowouts, short covering is the most plausible explanation for the sudden sharp rise.  Among the biggest winners were:

• Hanwha SolarOne Co. Ltd. ADS (HSOL)  +36.80%
• JA Solar Holdings Co. Ltd. ADS (JASO)  +34.72%
• JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd. ADS (JKS)  +31.86%
• ReneSola Ltd. ADS (SOL)  +30.23%
• Trina Solar Ltd. ADS (TSL)  +29.18%
• Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. ADS (STP)  +25.78%

Recently lagging stocks moved to the head of the pack, evidence that short covering helped power the move up.  The graph below shows 3-month stock charts (since shortly after the broad market low in early October) for six stocks that made new 52-week lows in December 2011: FSLR, SPWR, WFR, SOL, HSOL, and JASO.  Three of these - Hanwha SolarOne, JA Solar, and ReneSola were  among the big winners in today's trading.  JinkoSolar nearly fits the pattern, as the stock's December minimum was barely above its 52-week low in September.  Though the big jumps today were not enough to catch up to the sector's better performers over the same interval, this lends credence to the old saw that every dog has its day in the sun. 



Few other catalysts are available to explain the dramatic move.  Last week LDK offered to purchase Sunways, another welcome milestone on the industry's long and tortuous road to consolidation. The announcement seemed to give solar stocks a boost early in the new year's trading.  But this deal by itself it not likely to take much production capacity out of an oversupplied market.  In a contrary vein on the M&A theme, the CFO of Jinko Solar was recently quoted as saying that Chinese solar firms would rather shutter production or operations than be acquired by a competitor.

Many solar stocks were trading well below book value and arguably primed for a jump on that basis alone.  Among today's big winners, several had recently traded at one-third of book value or lower.  The denominators are dubious because not all companies' physical plant and equipment will maintain its value through the end of the supply glut.  But the new year helps resolve some lack of clarity as the lower price for solar panels sustains growth in installations, even with fewer subsidies available.  So some reversion toward nominal book value is reasonable.

The solar sector has been extremely volatile lately, and today's jump somewhat resembles the spike in stock prices in late October, which accompanied (and extended by one day) a big run-up in the broader market.  Most of those gains faded before the recent recovery.  A partial replay of that pattern seems likely: prices for most stocks in the sector will pull back from current or slightly higher levels, and a few hardy short sellers will rush back in.  In the medium and longer term the heavens should smile upon solar stocks, but the industry remains sickly for now.

DISCLOSURE:  I am long TSL, LDK, YGE, ITRI, AMSC

L. Myron Clark is an independent industry analyst based in the Boston area.  He previously covered the technology services industry as an analyst with Gartner Inc.  He has an undergraduate degree from Cornell and also pursued postgraduate studies there.  Mr. Clark has traveled extensively and has a broad range of interests in energy and environmental topics.

Posted by Guest Contributor at 10:27 PM | Sunny Day for Solar Stocks and the Shorts Come Off | Comments (0)