LED Stocks Get Some Respect
Cree's Wild Ride On May 21, I noticed a big up-move in Cree, Inc. (CREE), a company I've been adding to most of my managed portfolios for the last year, at prices averaging around $18. Checking recent news stories, I noted two articles on TheStreet.com which had recommended it over the weekend (as a beaten down stock and chart of the day.) It turns out this was just the beginning of a feeding frenzy among the media which has gone on for the last couple weeks, bringing a lot of attention to what I call "the next compact fluorescent:"...
Is Cree, Inc. (CREE) Likely to Burn Out?
Tom Konrad, CFA Pioneering light-emitting diode (LED) maker Cree, Inc. looks overvalued. Light-Emitting Diodes, or LEDs, can be made to shine more brightly by increasing the power to them. This has the unfortunate effect of overheating the leads and shortening the lifespan of the LED. A similar effect may soon hit the stock of LED maker, Cree, Inc. (CREE.) Since I began the tradition, Cree has been a mainstay of my annual portfolio of ten stocks for the next year, published each January (See the 2008 and 2009 lists. The Cree-free 2010 list is here.) LEDs have been among...
Lime Energy’s Long Dark Year Of The Soul
Tom Konrad The last year has been hard on Lime Energy (NASD:LIME Disclosure: I own this stock.) The company discovered problems with its internal reporting over a year ago, and the effort to restate the books and establish proper controls took much longer than anyone expected, in large part because the internal investigation uncovered additional problems as it proceeded. While the company was in danger of delisting, creditors were reluctant to provide funding, and this led the company to sell its two most capital intensive businesses: its asset development business, and its ESCO business. The ESCO business required backing...
Investing in Efficient Homes: Energy Star, Built Green, and Beyond
This article is part of a series on the WGA Energy Efficient Buildings Workshop. Sam Rashkin One highlight of the conference was Sam Raskin's (the National Director a.k.a. "Scary Man" of the US EPA Energy Star program.) I recommend his presentation for graphic infrared images of poorly sealed homes, showing how little the insulation is doing to retain heat or cold if the building envelope is not tight. It will make you think twice about buying a home that hasn't been checked to be tightly sealed. Rashkin believes that the growing affordability of infrared cameras will allow...
Energy Recovery Offers Savings to Gas Industry
by Debra Fiakas CFA
In early December 2014, Energy Recovery (ERII: Nasdaq) staged an analyst and investor event in New York City principally to introduce its most recent technology innovation, VorTeq. The product is a hydraulic fracturing solution for the gas industry. Unlike its other products, the VorTeq is a colossal apparatus requiring a semi-tractor to transport it into place as a replacement for the ‘missiles’ now found at natural gas well sites.
VorTeq Animation
In the current configuration, high pressure pumps are used to drive a blend of fracturing sand, water and chemicals down into the well hole. Pump components,...
Two Dividend-Paying Energy-Efficiency Companies
Charles recently recommended a few dividend paying alternative energy companies as safe havens in the current turmoil. Since I've been thinking along the same lines, I thought I'd add my own picks. I currently like energy efficiency companies with solid balance sheets, because I believe that Obama's fiscal stimulus will contain significant money for green, energy-efficiency related jobs. That said, here are two I'd add to Charles' list. These two also have the advantage of being pure-play (or nearly pure-play) bets on clean energy. Name Ticker Yield Focus Related Articles Waterfunace Renewable Energy WFI.TO, WFFIF.PK...
Lime Energy: Delivering Energy Efficiency
Tom Konrad CFA The high upfront cost of efficient buildings (and efficiency in general) is more than offset by the significant long term rewards, as you can see from the McKinsey chart below. Despite the long term benefits, the upfront cost is often a barrier, especially to government entities in today's tight budgetary environment. Performance contracting offers them a way to square the circle between the long term budget benefits of efficient buildings and the often significant capital cost. This works by funding the capital improvement with debt secured by future energy savings. An...
The Challenge of Scaling Up Building Energy Retrofits
It’s almost always easier and cheaper to build an energy-efficient building in the first place than retrofitting existing structures. But humanity doesn’t always have that luxury.
by Tom Konrad, PhD., CFA
The sheer number of older, inefficient buildings means retrofits must be a critical part of decarbonizing the world’s building stock.
There’s a pressing need, then, to develop new techniques for performing large numbers of energy-efficiency retrofits quickly and cost-effectively. The average age of a U.S. home is nearly 40 years, while nearly 40 percent of homes in the U.K. were built before World War II.
Most building energy retrofits are one-off affairs...
