Monthly Archives: October 2006
Hydrogen is a long-term story… and that’s exactly why I like QuestAir Tech
Ballard Power Systems (NASDAQ:BLDP or TSE:BLD) was arguably the first high-profile alternative energy story to hit North American markets since the oil shock of the 1970s, at a time when investors knew much less about the promises and pitfalls of fuel cells and the so-called “hydrogen economy��? than they do today. It was also an era of general euphoria about anything tech and Ballard got caught into it all. But today I will not focus on Ballard - I’m only giving this example to highlight the fact that the idea of hydrogen powering our whole economy cleanly and renewably...
Carbon Finance…The Next Bonanza
Few investors outside of Europe have ever heard of the term carbon finance. What some investors might have heard, however, is that Goldman Sachs took, on September 20, 2006, a 10.1% stake in a little outfit known as Climate Exchange plc (LSE:CLE) for approximately $23 million. Admittedly, by Goldman Sachs standards, that’s peanuts. Not to be outdone, Morgan Stanley unveiled a plan on Thursday October 26 to invest a whopping $3 billion in global carbon markets over the next few years…now that’s the kind of money that gets folks talking at the water cooler, especially when it’s in something...
Google and Solar Power
Yesterday, I came across an article about Google planning to intsall the largest corporate solar project. Here is a summary: 9,200 solar panels will be placed on six buildings at its Mountain View headquarters by next spring this will produce up to 1.6 megawatts of electricity - enough to supply 30 percent of the campus' electricity on a hot summer day a company spokesman said that concern about the environment as well as the rising price of electricity motivated the company to go solar company spokesman also made the comment: "'If we can dispel the myth along the...
Ammonia-Fueled Combustion Engines are Coming
A while back, Jeff, one of our readers pointed me to an announcement on ammonia fuelled irrigation pumps. Late last week, Jeff sent me another link to Market Watch's coverage of the Ammonia Conference in Algona, Iowa. In the article, Ted Hollinger, President of Hydrogen Energy Center (HYEG.OB), outlines the company's efforts to produce ammonia fueled engines. From the article: HEC projects their ammonia-fueled engines will produce 2.33 times more horsepower than a gasoline-fueled engine and plan to have finalized systems ready for sale in 2008. "Ted Hollinger's presentation was one of the highlights of the...
A Round-Up of Alternative Energy News
Here is a round-up of some news and information I have come across in my readings: Venture Capital in Alternative Energy Rob May at CleanTechVC made a great post about venture capital investments in energy technologies.Here are some excerpts from his post: US energy technology VC investments are at $1.7B so far in 2006 compare this with $0.9B for all of 2005 solar tech has received more than 10% of all energy technology VC investments so far this year. Interestingly, while investments in fuel cell technology have been generally flat or dropping over the past...