On Monday, the Boston Globe told us about a new report that sheds some doubt on contentions that cleantech is the new darling of venture capitalists. Thanks to the WSJ’s Energy Roundup for this one. Red Herring also published an article on this report last week. On Monday, Eli Hoffman at Seeking Alpha told us about Barron’s latest five cleantech stock picks. Of those, I am particularly familiar with SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) and Fuel Tech (NASDAQ:FTEK). Both are a bit rich at the moment but I like Fuel Tech’s exposure to China, especially at a time when the country trying hard to clean up its act. On Monday, Stockerblog at Seeking Alpha provided us with an extensive list of fuel cell stocks. I remain skeptical as to whether fuel cells will ever be a technology of significance in the transportation or large-scale energy storage industries. Nevertheless, some interesting opportunities exist in certain niche applications such as forklifts. On Thursday, Neal Dikeman reported on an interview he recently conducted with with Stuart Hemphill, the Director of Renewable and Alternative Power for Southern California Edison (NYSE:EIX). This is a very interesting piece. Hemphill and us are in agreement about where some of the biggest growth area – and, incidentally, challenges – in alt energy lay: transmission and efficiency. The article also indirectly identifies another major opportunity area: independent power producers focused on renewables. On Thursday, the WSJ’s Energy Roundup informed us that T. Boone Pickens was traveling to China to explore opportunities related to natural gas as a transportation fuel. Natural gas does seem to hold great promises as a bridge solution between gasoline and whatever will be powering our cars in a few decades. Energy Tech Stocks, however, warns us to keep a cool head when appraising the desirability of switching from oil to natural gas – the outcome of such a shift could be politically undesirable. On Friday, Dallas Kachan at Inside Greentech gave us an overview of a new report claiming that the market for fuel cells should grow substantially in the next nine years. The list of fuel cell stocks discussed above may come in handy after all. The Week in Cleantech is a weekly roundup of our favorite cleantech and alt energy blog posts and stories from across the web. If you know of a good piece that you think should be included here, don’t hesitate to let us know!
