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...
FLIR: Another Dividend-Paying Energy Efficiency Stock
Tom Konrad CFA FLIR Systems' (FLIR) IR cameras save energy not just by spotting leaks, but by spotting intruders in the dark. When I published my list of dividend paying energy efficiency stocks in January, I missed one, and it is a long-time favorite. FLIR Systems (FLIR) business is focused around thermography, and I picked FLIR as a stock likely to benefit from the stimulus in March 2009 because FLIR's cameras are used by energy raters. FLIR did benefit from the stimulus, rising 56% by the end of 2009 from the $21 price when I...
The Pure Technologies Takeover of Pressure Pipe Inspection Company
Tom Konrad CFA In February, I published an interview with Sam Healey portfolio manager at Lamassu Holdings about Pure Technologies (PUR.V, PPEHF.PK), a company that can find and repair leaks in water systems without shutting down the system. Last week, Pure Technologies announced that it intended to acquire Pressure Pipe Inspection Company for cash and stock worth as much as C$34.9 million. The market's reaction was initially positive with PUR.V gaining C$0.29 on Wednesday, the day following the announcement, but most of these gains were given back on Thursday and Friday. My initial feeling is that this...
FLIR: A Red-hot Energy Efficiency Stock
On Monday, I wrote that I wouldn't buy a house without an energy audit. For now, I'm in the minority, but I don't expect that to last. Each of these trends is likely to lead to more homes getting energy audits: Rising energy costs: as energy prices rise, knowing what to do to improve your home's energy efficiency will become more valuable. Weak real estate market. Now that the boom is past us, new home builders need to put more effort into providing and advertising a quality product in order to attract buyers and stay in business. ...
Hannon Armstrong’s Strong Q2 Keeps It In My Top Picks
By Jeff Siegel Hannon Armstrong (NYSE:HASI), one of my top picks for 2014, just made me very happy. Yesterday, the company announced its Q2 Core Earnings of $4.7 million or $0.22 per share. On a GAAP basis, the Company recorded net income of $2.9 million. Here are some other highlights. . . Raised approximately $70 million in April, 2014 in a follow-on offering. Increased the flexibility and expanded the capacity of its existing credit facility by $200 million. Completed more than $200 million worth of transactions, including the acquisition of a $107 million portfolio of land...
PFB Corporation (PFB.TO,PFBOF.PK)
Tom Konrad, CFA PFB Corporation is a manufacturer of energy efficient building materials, including SIPD and ICFs, based on expanded polystyrene. The company's sales have fallen in response to the housing downturn, but less so than most of the housing industry, despite a strong balance sheet and cash flow. I consider the stock a buy below C$6. NOTE: I'm taking a break in order to take a trip to California for some vacation and to moderate a panel at the San Francisco Moneyshow. This article was written in January 2010, but I delayed publication for seven months because...
Investors: Concentrate on This Alternative Energy Sector and You Should Make a Lot of...
Bill Paul For my money, energy efficiency (aka, the “fifth fuel”) is the best alternative energy sector for investors because it’s primarily about saving money, only secondarily about saving the planet. The energy services industry reportedly has grown by more than 20% per year every year since 2004 and efficiency service providers now pull in an estimated $5.6 billion a year just on U.S. commercial buildings. Pike Research says there is a reservoir of untapped projects worth $400 billion. “There’s this huge untapped potential” for energy efficiency, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson was recently quoted as saying....
Ten Solid, Clean Companies Ready For Stimulus, and Five That Aren’t
by Tom Konrad Last February, I wrote " I expect the Fed-induced reprieve to be fairly short lived, ten solid companies I'd be happy to buy more of if and when the bottom really falls out of the market." When I wrote those words, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was over 12,700. Now, it's around 8,500, and I doubt anyone remembers the "Fed-induced reprieve" I was referring to. The "bottom fell out" in September and October. On October 12, with the DJIA at 8451, I wrote "I don’t know where the market will go from here, but I...
Lime Energy Sells ESCO Business to PowerSecure
Tom Konrad On March first, Lime Energy (NASD:LIME) announced the sale of its Energy Service Contracting (ESCO) business to PowerSecure International, Inc. (NASD:POWR). The deal will provide Lime with approximately $1.9 million in cash, plus the assumption of $9.9 million in liabilities associated with various ongoing projects, offset by $6.3 million in assets transferred to PowerSecure. This makes the effective purchase price of the business approximately $5.5 million (not the $11.9 million I earlier reported). The deal should be good news for both Lime and PowerSecure shareholders. From Lime Energy’s Perspective After nine months of worrying about misreported and potentially fictitious revenue, it’s...
Lighting Science Group Introduces R30 Led Floodlights with Breakthrough Performance in Energy Efficiency and...
Lighting Science Group Corp. (LSGP.OB) unveiled an LED R30 floodlight which provides the equivalent light output of a 65 watt incandescent floodlight but uses up to 80% less energy over a lifetime that is up to 50 times longer. The new floodlight, powered by Optimized Digital Lighting(TM) (ODL(TM)) technology, is designed for use both indoors and outdoors, in recessed cans and other applications that require a standard screw base socket. The R30 floodlight is one of the most widely used bulbs today, typically found in large quantities in commercial, industrial, retail, educational and hospitality facilities.
List of LED Lighting Stocks
LED lighting stocks are publicly traded companies involved in the manufacture or deployment of efficient LED lighting technology.
AIXTRON SE (AIXA.DE)
Acuity Brands (AYI)
Amtech Systems Inc (ASYS)
Applied Materials (AMAT)
Carmanah Technologies Corporation (CMH.TO, CMHXF)
Cree, Inc. (CREE)
Energy Focus (EFOI)
EPISTAR corporation (2448.TW)
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (PHG)
Lighting Science Group Corporation (LSCG)
Lime Energy (LIME: Nasdaq)
LSI Industries Inc. (LYTS)
Orion Energy Systems, Inc (OESX)
Osram Licht AG (OSAGF, OSR.DE)
Neo-Neon Holdings Limited (1868.HK)
Revolution Lighting Technologies, Inc. (RVLT)
Rubicon Technology, Inc. (RBCN)
SemiLEDs Corporation (LEDS)
Trans-Lux Corporation (TNLX)
Universal Display(OLED)
Veeco Instruments Inc. (VECO)
Zumtobel Group (ZMTBF: OTC or ZAG.VI)
If you know of any LED lighting stock that is not listed here and should be, please let us know...
It’s Energy Efficiency, Stupid!
It's no longer breaking news, Deloitte released earlier this week the results of two surveys, one of state public utility regulators and one of residential electricity consumers (both PDF documents). Deloitte's interpretation of the results can be found here. The results have also been interpreted by two prominent alt energy/environmental blogs: the WSJ's Environmental Capital and Grist. The former argues that policy-makers and 'smart-money' are out of whack with the little guy, because the little guy simply isn't willing to pay for solutions to climate change out of his electricity bill. The latter, looking at the same data,...
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:"...
Obama’s Next $2 Billion For Energy Efficiency: How To Take The Money And Run
By Jeff Siegel It's all about the money. I don't care how you slice it when it comes to investing, personal politics are irrelevant. This has long been how I've approached wealth creation, and it works quite well. Even as I denounced the continued reliance on outdated and economically inferior energy and transportation systems (i.e. the internal combustion engine and tar sands production), I make no apologies for profiting from new opportunities in fossil fuels. My gains in shale over the past few years alone are reason enough to stick to this strategy. Of course, when I'm given...
This ‘Green’ Sector May Grow 573% to $37.7 Billion by 2020 – And the...
Bill Paul Nobody knows the alternative energy landscape better than Clint Wheelock, whose firm, Pike Research, generates in-depth research on everything from smart meters to carbon capture and sequestration. Now here’s a forecast deserving of far wider attention than it has so far received: by 2020 total revenue generated by energy services companies (ESCOs) could hit $37.7 billion, up a monstrous 573% over 2009’s $5.6 billion. At a minimum, Wheelock expects ESCOs’ revenue to hit $19.9 billion by 2020, a 255% increase. In an exclusive interview last week, Wheelock explained that as much as demand...
Cleantech is a Bunch of Hot Air!
David Gold While renewable energy often captures most of the cleantech headlines, if anyone doubts why energy efficiency must play a significant part in the cleantech effort – as significant, if not more so, than the role of renewable energy just examine the energy flow graphic developed by McCall and Bassett and reprinted in the June edition of Technology Review. At least half of U.S. energy consumption goes to nothing more than creation of hot air through waste heat. And, when one realizes that much of the 13.9% of electricity output from power plants shown in the...