Is Ocean Energy More Than “A Very Expensive Hobby”?
Jennifer Runyon Powerful Ocean Wave photo via Bigstock That was the question posed to industry experts at the EnergyOcean International conference and exhibition that took place in Danvers, Mass., this week. Referring to three levels of development Epoch 1, 2, and 3 Andrew Tyler, CEO of Marine Current Turbines (MCT), a company now owned by Siemens (SI), gave a few key pointers to companies interested getting beyond the “very expensive hobby” stage of ocean energy development. While his tongue-in-cheek...
Offshore Wind Blows Into The US: Seven Stocks To Catch The Breeze
Tom Konrad CFA The Growth of Offshore Wind Offshore wind has finally gotten a toe hold in the United States. The United States' first offshore wind farm, the 30 megawatt (MW) Block Island Wind Farm, is under construction. A new project, the South Fork Wind Farm will be three times the size of Block Island (90 MW), is set to be approved by the Long Island Power Authority. This project will be located 30 miles East of Montauk, NY and Southeast of Block Island in a wind energy area designated by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy...
#2 Finavera Renewables (TSX:FVR or FNVRF.PK)
When I first got wind (no pun intended) of Finavera Renewables (TSX:FVR or FNVRF.PK), I did not make too much of it because my view was that commercial exploitation of wave power - which is the banner under which Finavera has decided to promote itself to the investor community - was a few years away at best. Then, upon hearing that the company had managed to get a prototype in the water (PDF document), I decided to do a bit more digging. After all, if the technology worked, the economics of the business model would closely resemble those...
Ocean Power Technologies: Alot Under the Water
by Debra Fiakas, CFA
After years of promises Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT: Nasdaq) is finally realizing revenue from its ocean wave power innovations. Sales in the quarter ending January 2020, was $725,000 - more than double the same quarter in the previous fiscal year. Driving the top-line is the sale of one of the company’s signature PowerBuoy ocean wave power generation system to Enel Group (ENEL: BIT; ESOCF: OTC), Italy’s premier energy company.
Some investors might find Enel an unlikely customer for a renewable energy device like the PowerBuoy. Designed to convert the mechanical energy in ocean waves to electrical energy, the PowerBuoy has been years under development. Ocean Power has long touted the potential in...
Hydrogen Fuel Is Not Dead
John Lounsbury With the furor over the potential for hybrid, plug-in hybrid and all-electric cars recently, one might think the hydrogen car was dead. Nothing could be further from the truth. Feasibility at an affordable price appears to be established and market availability of hydrogen powered cars may come sooner than you think. Many issues remain to be addressed and this article will try to cover them. The problems to be overcome are not insurmountable, but are also not trivial. These problems include the economics of hydrogen production, transportation, distribution and...
Ocean Power’s Stock Offering
by Debra Fiakas CFA The first two lines of the prospectus for the April 2017 public stock offering by Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT: Nasdaq) say all investors need to know about the market opportunity for the company’s wave power generation products. First, the earth’s surface is covered 70% by water. Second, over 40% of the world’s population lives within 150 miles of a coastline. If the earth is dominated by water and a good share of our energy-hungry population lives near that water, doesn’t it make sense to turn the ocean into a renewable energy source? If...
Ocean Power Technologies Deploying Wave Power Device
by Donna Salmons When we think of the ocean, it is often in the context of romantic travel and sand filled beaches. But the ocean, or more exactly the waves from the ocean, may soon be a source of power that a wave power device uses to create energy. At least that is the plan from Ocean Power Technologies . The Oregon Coast Project OPTT is planning to deploy its PowerBuoy project in 2011. The 150KW device, known as the PB150, is slated to be launched off the coast of Reedsport, Oregon....
Three Marine and Hydrokinetic Stocks
by Debra Fiakas CFA Three public companies end our series on wave and tidal power development. Marine and HydroKinetic energy has only recently received enough interest from scientists and engineers to merit an acronym - MHK. It is an all-encompassing category, stretching across ocean tides and waves and reaching into the currents of inland rivers and straights. It is separated from hydropower, which involves the construction of dams to create elevation differences in water levels that can be used to turn turbines. Still this promising source of renewable energy is populated mostly by small, private companies...
Ten Alternative Energy Speculations for 2008: Geothermal, Wind and Wave, and Thin Film Hype
This article is a continuation of my Ten Alternative Energy Speculations for 2008, with picks #8, 9, and10 published last Thursday. If you haven't already, please read the introduction to that article before buying any of the stock picks that follow. These companies are likely to be highly volatile, and large positions are not appropriate for many investors. My least risky picks are part of that same article linked to above; the moderately risky picks are here. This article contains the most speculative three picks. #3 Nevada Geothermal Power (OTCBB:NGLPF or Toronto:NGP.V) US$1.29 or CAD$1.26 Geothermal first started catching...
Incremental Advances in Wave Power Technology Not Enough to Temper OPT Q1 Losses
Marsha Johnston “We’re still at the point where the car industry was of not knowing whether the engine should be at the front or the back,” quips Christopher Barry, chair of the Ocean Energy Technical and Research panel at the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. “At least a dozen companies are looking into …with at least half a dozen main ideas for getting the energy out that are distinctly different and many variants on those themes. There are lots of opportunities and we don’t know which will be the winner.” In contrast, he notes, turbine...
$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...
The Price Of Ocean Power
by Debra Fiakas CFA
For Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT: Nasdaq) the sea is more a utility than Whitman’s source of romantic miracles. The company has developed a wave turbine to capture the energy in ocean waves and turn it into electrical power. Last month the company was successful in convincing investors of the merits of its ‘ocean utility’ technology, raising $8.2 million through the sale of common stock.
Branded as the ‘PowerBuoy’, Ocean Power’s product line is headed by its PB3system that has the capacity to generate up to three kilowatts of peak power. An onboard power storage system has the capacity to store up...
Atlantis Resources: Pure Play Ocean Power
by Debra Fiakas CFA Atlantis Resources Ltd. (ARL: LN) is among the most recent additions to the Ocean Group in Crystal Equity Research’s Earth, Wind and Fire Index of companies using the dynamic forces of the planet to generate energy. Atlantis is a developer of tidal power generation technologies. Atlantis has been working diligently for over a decade to developer underwater turbine technologies. A project in San Remo, Australia using the company’s Aquanator tidal current turbine was among the first in the world to deliver ‘ocean’ power to an established electric power grid. The Aquanator has since been...
Grid Connected Ocean Power
by Debra Fiakas CFA The U.S. Navy is laying claim to the first electric grid connected wave power generator in the country. A test site has been set up near military facilities at Kaneohe Bay in the Hawaiian Islands, where wave activity is known to be exceptional. Yes, Hawaii is part of the United States. The project consists of two wave-power generation systems or ‘power buoys’ anchored about a half-mile off shore. The two buoys are connected by undersea cable to the Marine Corps base at Kaneohe and ultimately to Oahu’s electric power grid. The first of...
Navy Buoys Up Ocean Power Tech
by Debra Fiakas CFA The last post, Grid Connected Ocean Power, highlighted the claim by the U.S. Navy of the first grid connected ocean power generator in the country. Two wave power systems have been connected to the electrical system at the U.S. Marine Base in Kanehoe Bay, Hawaii. The Navy is gathering performance data as part of its on-going program to support renewable energy to perfect system designs, installation strategies on-going maintenance. That is apparently not enough for the nation’s sailors. Last week the Navy announced an award of $250,000 to Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT: Nasdaq) to...
Ocean Power Technologies Riding The Waves
by Debra Fiakas CFA Shares of Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT: Nasdaq) have traded off over the past two weeks, after setting a new 52-week high in early March 2013. Investors had bid the stock up in the weeks before the fiscal third quarter earnings announcement, but those gains almost have been erased. The new negative trend has put OPTT on our list of small-cap energy stocks sinking into oversold territory. Is the sell-off a chance to pick up shares of this ocean power developer at a bargain? A better question might be what was...
