Bush’s State of the Union
"America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world" Thanks to Mr. Bush's state of the union address last night, we should see some nice gains across the board in the Alternative Energy sector. Some of the big winners may be the Ethanol companies like Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (PEIX). The EnergyStockBlog.com has a nice write up on the potential for ADM. GreenCarCongress.com has a nice summary of the important parts of the speech. In his State of the Union 2006 address, President...
A Brief Hiatus
I have been on a brief hiatus from posting to the website. My other projects and real job have been taking a large portion of my time. I was also recently down two employees at my company, so I was doing triple the amount of my normal work. I’m making an offer to one person today so I'm able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I will be trying to catch up on many of the missed press releases today. I will also be switching the intra day graphic to the new Alternative Energy ETF...
PowerShares to Launch Water Resources ETF
PowerShares (the maintainers of the Alternative Energy ETF) are coming out with a new exchange traded fund that focuses on a Water Resources Portfolio. The PowerShares Water Resources Portfolio is based on the Palisades Water Indexâ„¢. The objective of the Palisades Water Indexâ„¢ is to capture the substantial economic value of water that will inevitably be unlocked as the global population adjusts to the linkage between human health, economic development and resource sustainability. This new ETF is set to launch sometime in December and is expected to trade with the ticker symbol PHO. While this EFT...
Water Utilities Keeping The Flow In Cash Flow
Fiakas Water Utilities Keeping The Flow In Cash Flow by Debra Fiakas CFA After a long series of posts on suppliers of water infrastructure, from fire hydrants to filters and from taps to treatments, it is now time to look at the companies selling water. The majority of water utilities is owned by municipalities and is beyond the reach of investors. However, there is a clutch of publicly traded companies that peddle water as a business. Which water utilities make sense to return hungry and risk wary investors? A short...
Canadian and Tanzanian Graphite Connections
A list of graphite companies covered in this series can be found here.
Like performance test results, customer relationships are critical stepping stones for graphite developers. In June 2018, Northern Graphite (NGC: TSX-V) announced a memorandum of understanding with a European trading company to sell 100% of the output from Northern’s Bisset Creek resources in Ontario, Canada. China-based manufacturers are the intended end-users. Northern management is using the arrangement as leverage with prospective investors to finance mine infrastructure and processing equipment. Capital costs are expected to exceed CA$145 million.
Northern claims a proprietary purification technology the company intends to use to upgrade its graphite output. Its Bissett Creek deposit...
Water Gleaner Stocks: Value In Sludge
by Debra Fiakas CFA There are well over 3,000 companies around the world that are involved in some element of wastewater treatment, providing a broad mix of technology, equipment or engineering services to generators and collectors of fouled water. A small group in this wide field is gaining visibility - the ‘water gleaners.’ Like the peasant women picking up stray grains of wheat left behind in the empty field of Millets famous painting, some see value in effluents, sewage and run-off. In this post we look at three small-companies with novel technologies to harvest water. New Sky...
G7 Rumors and Speculation
There are several newsletter editors that are floating the idea that the next G7 conference will have some significant announcements concern the requirement for its members to use alternative energy. The next scheduled meeting is on Friday with a meeting of the G7 finance ministers and central bankers. I doubt anything will be announced at this time. But any announcement by the G7 concerning alternative energy will help to propel the AltE stocks.
EnviroStar: A Clean Laundry Stock For Your Portfolio
Saj Karsan EnviroStar (EVI) is a distributor of laundry equipment that has developed a proprietary dry-wet-cleaning machine that avoids the use of perchloroethylene (Perc), a harmful chemical that the International Agency for Research on Cancer has deemed a carcinogen. Perc is also classified as a hazardous air contaminant by the US Environment Protection Agency, and its use will become illegal in the state of California in the year 2023. EnviroStar's patented Green-Jet process uses an environmentally-friendly, water-based solution that is both non-toxic and requires less energy consumption than traditional dry-cleaning methods. This is currently a tiny company, with...
Book Review: Investment Opportunities for a Low Carbon World (Wind + Solar)
Charles Morand Tom and I recently received complimentary copies of a new book called "Investment Opportunities for a Low Carbon World", edited FTSE Group's Director of Responsible Investment Will Oulton*. The book is a compendium of articles by 31 different authors broken down into three main categories: (1) environmental and low-carbon technologies; (2) investment approaches, products and markets; and (3) regulation, incentives, investor and company case studies. While Tom will provide a comprehensive review of the book once he's finished reading it in its entirety, I will instead review a few selected chapters over...
Crystalline Graphite
ZEN Graphene Solutions (ZEN: TSX-V) recently teamed up with the University of Manchester, seat of the two Nobel Prize-winning scientists who are credited with isolating graphene. ZEN management hopes to work with Manchester on commercialization of graphene for a variety of applications, including concrete, composites, membranes, and sensors.
ZEN’s Albany graphite project is located in southeastern Ontario. In March 2019, the company completed tests on a production process to purify graphite concentrate from its mine. The purified graphite was near 99.8% carbon per gram and will be used as a precursor material for ZEN’s graphene. The company plans to use a chemical exfoliation process to convert...
Kroger: Not All That’s Green is Environmentally Friendly
The Kroger Company (KR: NYSE) has been around since the late 1800s. It has developed into a major retailer of a broad range of food products in its supermarkets that also feature specialty sections such as pet centers, electronics, apparel, toys, and pharmacies. Kroger stock is selling at a bargain multiple of 6.6 times trailing earnings. The 2.0% current dividend yield is icing on Kroger’s cake.
Kroger is distinguished among other grocery retailers with its pledge to achieve zero waste. The company is aiming to recycle or reuse at least 90% of its waste. Sustainable product packaging is a central part of its zero waste plan. For example,...
Trex: While The Sun Shines
by Debra Fiakas CFA It appears to be the ‘summer of the small-cap’ as performance in the sector outpaces other sectors on the first day of summer 2016. In keeping with the adage “make hay while the sun shines”, we shifted into a higher gear to find promising small companies that might participate in the small-cap renaissance. Trex Company (TREX: Nasdaq) bubbled to the top of a couple different screens based on growth and return. There is much to like in a company delivering strong growth. A bargain price is just icing on the cake. With a ratio...
CleanTech Investing Still Needs To Make Money
A recent post by Tyler Hamilton at Clean Break brought a few things into focus for me. On cleantech investing, Tyler says: the fact remains if you want to get businesses to embrace a more sustainable way of operating and convince consumers to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle you've got to go back to basics: Will this lower costs/monthly bills? Will this improve operational efficiency? Will this lower risk? Will this give me an edge over rivals? I could not agree more. In my opinion, there is also an important analogy between the adoption of clean...
Graphite to Graphene Enhanced Gel Batteries
Saint Jean Carbon, Inc. (SJL: TSX-V) is adding value to its natural graphite resources by integrating forward into the graphene market. The company owns graphite resources in southern Quebec and eastern Ontario, Canada with historic mining track records.
The company is cultivating know-how cultivated for development of battery-grade graphite. Saint Jean can already supply low volumes of finished and semi-prepared anode or cathode materials. The company is developing a prototype for a graphene gel salt water battery that is expected to charge faster and perform longer than conventional batteries. In January 2019, Saint Jean management announced plans to have the battery design ready for sale by...
AltEnergy ETF Shares to start trading on Feb 4.
The new Alternative Energy ETF, which will be managed by PowerShares Capital Management, will track the WilderHill Clean Energy Index, a benchmark calculated by the Amex that was launched in August. The Amex collaborated with index provider WilderShares, LLC in developing the index. It will start trading on the AMEX on February 4th. The index contains 37 companies that use greener and renewable energy alternatives such as wind, solar, and hydrogen fuel cells. I'm searching for a ticker and will post it once I can find it. Post a comment if you find it before I do.
Alternative Energy Gadget Site
I stumbled onto an Alternative Energy Gadget site today. I personally love gadgets and frequent some of the well known sites like Engadget, Gizmodo, and Cool Tools. I just added Treehugger.com to my list of daily gadget reads. The article that sparked my attention is the review of the Power House from Mindware. This project looks like an great way to introduce my daughter into the world of Alternative Energy.
