The Rodney Dangerfield of Cleantech

David Gold Wind turbines stand tall and mesmerize with their motion. Solar cells bask in the sparkling sun.  Meanwhile, hidden down in the dark dirty underworld, a compelling technology sits quietly and gets no respect.  Once installed it largely goes unseen and, it seems, it’s equally invisible in the world of clean technology press, venture funding and government R&D funding.  Yet this technology provides some of the most intriguing economic returns available for reducing a building’s net energy consumption and I would welcome the right opportunity to fund an exciting business in this category. What is this Rodney Dangerfield...

US Geothermal Fizzles

by Debra Fiakas CFA Geothermal power generator US Geothermal (HTM:  NYSE) came up short in reporting financial results for the first quarter ending 2017  -  at least from the perspective of the four analysts with published sales and earnings expectations for the company.  Operating revenue of $8.4 million slipped slightly from the same period a year ago, but produced slightly lower net income of $1.1 million.  The company’s share was $260,000 or a penny per share.  Not good enough say the analyst’s who were collectively looking for two pennies per share in earnings! Missing earnings expectations has...
Puna Geothermal Venture

Geothermal Power: Business in a Tough Neighborhood

Geothermal power producers use Earth’s internal heat to power electrical generators.  It is the quintessential renewable energy source.  Most geothermal plants are located adjacent to underground pockets of super hot water.  Developers look for locations where these thermal reservoirs are near the earth’s surface, providing availability of the super hot water at a reasonable cost.  Unfortunately, those locations are often in tough neighborhoods. Ring of Fire The overwhelming majority (85%) of current geothermal power installations in the world are located along the Ring of Fire that circumvents the Pacific Ocean.  More a horseshoe than a circle, the Ring of Fire is a geographic anomaly that is...

Three Top Geothermal E&P Companies

Tom Konrad CFA Last week, I was on a panel at the Inside Commodities Conference, and spent some time talking with Tyler Mordy, director of research at Hahn Investment.  He's a top-down analyst (and CFA Charter holder) who had recently grown enthusiastic about Alternative Energy in general because the sector is so beaten down. We agreed that the most-beaten down sector of alternative is geothermal power stocks, which Tyler finds frustrating because Hahn works with managed ETF portfolios, and there simply is no geothermal ETF.  Nor is there likely to be, since one publicly traded company dominates the industry (Ormat Technologies...

Ormat’s Enhanced Geothermal Project Now On Line

Meg Cichon   Ormat's 21.8 megawatt Desert Peak 2 plant in Nevada. Photo Source: Ormat A major challenge for the geothermal industry is reducing the risk of its exploration and drilling phase – there is a 40-60 percent chance that each $5-7 million well is ultimately deemed unproductive. But that statistic may soon change. In what many in the industry are calling a game-changer, the nation's first enhanced geothermal system (EGS) to supply electricity to the grid came online last week. ORMAT's Desert Peak 2 project is producing an...

$3 Billion For Cleantech & Alt Energy

Charles Morand The DOE made public earlier today the amount of money that will awarded to clean power projects in lieu of the usual tax breaks: $3 billion. This will allow project proponents to receive a direct cash grant now instead of a Production Tax Credit or an Investment Tax Credit later on. The guidance document notes the following: "Section 1603 of the Act’s tax title, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act, appropriates funds for payments to persons who place in service specified energy property during 2009 or 2010 or after 2010 if construction began...

Nevada Geothermal Power Inc.: Further Blue Mountain Temperature Drilling

Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. (NGLPF) is pleased to report that a temperature gradient drilling program is near completion at the Blue Mountain project in Nevada. Eight holes have been drilled to depths up to 1020 feet using an air rotary rig to map the subsurface thermal anomaly outward from the central thermal zone. At three valley locations where the depth of overburden exceeded the capability of the air drilling equipment, additional drilling with a mud circulation rig may be conducted after the initial results have been compiled. Results from the current drilling combined with earlier temperature gradient data and...

Waterfurnace 7 Series vs. Climatemaster Trilogy Geothermal Heat Pumps: The Best of the Best

UPDATE: I just looked into the 7 Series vs the Trilogy 40 in more detail here and came to a slightly different conclusion. Tom Konrad CFA Geothermal heat pump diagram via Bigstock Waterfurnace Renewable Energy (TSX:WFI, OTC:WFIFF) launched its new highly efficient 7 Series geothermal heat pumps (GHP) today.  The 7 Series commercial release beats Climatemaster’s (a division of LSB Industries (NYSE:LXU)) Trilogy 40 as the first commercially available GHP with a variable speed compressor.  The Trilogy 40 is currently available as part of a pilot program, and is expected to be commercially available...

Raser to Acquire Power Generation Technology Company

Raser Technologies (RZ) announced a definitive agreement to acquire Amp Resources ("Amp"), a private company with technologies focused on geothermal heat and power generation. The deal is for about $260 million in cash and stock. Raser will acquire Amp and its portfolio of technologies for heat transfer and renewable power generation. Raser will also assume ownership of multiple, long-term geothermal energy sales contracts with public and private utilities. These contracts call for an aggregate of $966 million from gross energy sales over 20 years. It is anticipated that these power generation projects will be developed and placed...

Geothermal Stocks Overview

Tom Konrad CFA Geothermal power generation has several advantages over higher profile alternative energy such as wind and solar, but gets much less attention.  Part of the lack of recognition for Geothermal power arises from a confusion with the technology variously called Geoexchange, Ground Source Heat Pump, or Geothermal Heat Pumps.  Geoexchange uses the near constant temperature of the soil a few feet to a few hundred feet below the ground to heat and cool a building.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Geoexchange is the most efficient way to heat and cool a building, and...

Raser Technologies (RZ): A Bargain, or Just Cheap?

Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA Raser Technologies (NYSE:RZ) stock has fallen almost 50% since the company announce an offering of shares on June 30.  Although the round quickly filled, the stock continued falling, and it seems like a screaming deal.  Is it? On July 7, Raser Technologies sold $25.5M of stock and warrants in a secondary offering.  According to press reports, this amounted to 13% of Raser's stock, thereby valuing the company at (very approximately) $200M, or $175M pre-money.   The units, each consisting of 1 share and 1/2 a warrant exercisable at $4.62 was offered at $2.98. ...

Book Review: Investment Opportunities for a Low Carbon World (Geothermal + Efficiency)

Charles Morand Last Thursday, I reviewed two chapters from the recently published book "Investment Opportunities for a Low Carbon World"*. This post reviews two more.  Geothermal Energy Alexander Richter, Glitnir Bank (now Íslandsbanki) Geothermal is one of the most interesting forms of clean power generation there is. As noted by the author, the most convincing argument for geothermal electricity is the fact that it operates at capacity factors in the upper 90s. This makes it the only renewable technology suitable for baseload power with the exception of dam-based (i.e. large-scale) hydro. However, as...

Pumpernickel Valley Geothermal Project: Inovision to Spend $5,000,000 to Earn 50% Joint Venture Interest

Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. (NGLPF) announced that Inovision Solutions Inc. (ISI), a TSX-V listed company, will fund up to C$5,000,000 in exploration and development expenditures for the Pumpernickel Geothermal Project under an option agreement to earn a 50% joint venture interest. In order to earn its interest, ISI must complete C$5,000,000 in project expenditures, make C$120,000 in cash payments and issue 600,000 shares to NGP over a five year period. In the first year, ISI must fund a C$400,000 work program, issue 100,000 shares and make a C$10,000 cash payment to maintain its option. NGP will be project...

Ormat: Cash Generation Justifies Earnings Multiple

Ormat Heat exchanger at GKW Landau. Geothermal water evaporates the carrier medium. Preheater and the evaporator. The steam line above connects to the turbine. Photo by Claus Ableiter via Wikimedia Commons by Debra Fiakas CFA Shares of geothermal power producer Ormat Technologies (ORA:  NYSE) are trading at 29.2 times the 2014 consensus estimate of $0.93 per share.  That multiple looks fair compared to growth expected at Ormat in the next year, but more dear against the company’s long-term growth prospects.  The stock has been flying off...

Oil Money Needed for Geothermal Projects

By Dana Blankenhorn Despite America's leadership in geothermal the industry remains in the “and” category. As in, “solar, wind, tidal, biofuels AND geothermal.” It's an afterthought. (Picture from Evergreen State University.) Why are geothermal companies having to organize politically to gain crumbs from the capital table? The answer is pretty obvious, but no one seems willing to state it plainly. The oil industry is holding back. A recent Time Magazine article on renewables and oil investment makes it pretty plain. Total's bought into solar, Shell and BP into biofuels. Chile's state oil-and-gas company sold-out its geothermal interests...

The Efficiency Tango: A Deeper Look at Geothermal Heat Pump Efficiency

Tom Konrad CFA Geothermal heat pump diagram via Bigstock A couple weeks ago, I compared the efficiency of the two most advanced geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) recently launched by Waterfurnace Renewable Energy (TSX:WFI, OTC:WFIFF) and Climatemaster, as division of LSB Industries (NYSE:LXU).  Like most things in life, it turns out that heat pump efficiency is a lot more complicated than just comparing a couple numbers. Since I concluded that Waterfurnace’s 7  Series heat pumps were slightly more efficient than Climatemaster’s Trilogy 40 pumps, one of Climatemaster’s district managers pointed me...
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