Battery Investing For Beginners
John Petersen I've been blogging about the energy storage sector since last July because batteries, single purpose devices that most of us take for granted unless they need to be recharged or replaced, are an essential enabling technology for cleantech, the sixth industrial revolution. With this week's impressive launch of A123 Systems (AONE), the tsunami of investor interest I've been predicting since last fall has finally arrived. Since the A123 Systems IPO has introduced an entirely new class of investors to the energy storage sector, this seems like a particularly good time to go back to square...
Axion Power: Improving on the Conventional
by Debra Fiakas CFA While the rest of the battery industry is trying to perfect new technologies, Axion Power International (AXPW: OTC/QB) has been working on a fix for conventional lead acid batteries. Low cost made the lead acid batteries popular even from the early days when a French scientist first introduced the configuration in the mid 1800s. Lead-acid technologies represent about half of batteries made today. Unfortunately, lead-acid batteries have low energy-to-weight and volume. Storage times are limited. They also have corrosion problems. The active materials in lead-acid batteries change physical form during charge...
Fear, Loathing and Extraordinary Opportunity in Energy Storage
John Petersen 2011 has definitely been one for the record books; a dreadfully wonderful year for the energy storage sector that reminds me of the opening paragraph from A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before...
Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff
John Petersen We all love to whine and complain about oil prices because we buy gasoline regularly and that makes the price changes obvious. To solve this overwhelming problem, myopic visionaries with rose colored glasses propose a simple solution – convert personal transportation from vehicles powered by oil to vehicles powered by clean, free and renewable electricity from the wind and sun. Like most fairy tales, it can't happen in real life which means it won't. This is not a technology issue. It's a raw materials issue and electric vehicles cannot solve the problem. In the first...
PEM Fuel Cells – Hoping to Challenge Internal Combustion
The first article in this series introduced the two prominent types of hydrogen fuel cells - alkaline fuel cells (ALKFCs) and proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Fuel cells are devices that convert stored hydrogen into usable energy, and constitute an essential part of the hydrogen economy. Subsequent articles shall focus on various characteristics of these two cells.
The graph above shows the power costs ($/kW) of PEMFCs and ALKFCs as the technology has advanced over time. In other words, they show the initial capital cost for every 1 kW of fuel cell capacity (note that this axis is in the...
Electro Energy Delivers Silent Watch Battery System
Electro Energy Inc (EEEI) announced the delivery of a Bipolar Battery System to the U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command (CECOM), to be tested and demonstrated under the Silent Watch Program. The EEEI bipolar battery system was built under the Company's contract with the U.S. Army Manufacturing Technology (Mantech) Program. The EEEI system, comprised of three 1kW modules, could be operated individually or as a complete system with a 3kW power capability, which would provide on-board vehicle electrical power to operate in Silent Watch Mode for three hours compared to the existing lead acid capability of 45 minutes....
Axion Power: Is There Light At The End Of The PIPE?
Tom Konrad, CFA A light at the end of the PIPE? Photo by Tom Check In my last article, Axion Power’s Potential For Explosive Growth, I outlined a number of near-term business opportunities for Axion Power International, (OTC:AXPW) any one of which could catapult the company into profitability in 2014, and more than one of which could produce significant revenue growth this year. While I’m quite bullish about Axion’s prospects, I concluded with a skeptical comment about Axion’s stock: f I owned the stock today, I would be a seller at the current...
Understanding Manufacturing Economics for Grid-Scale Energy Storage
John Petersen I have a new favorite word AGGREGATION! At the risk of sounding like a reporter, I’m going to summarize a pre-holiday news story you might have missed but need to know about. In late November the PJM Interconnect, the largest of nine regional grid system operators in the US, announced that it had begun buying frequency regulation services from small-scale, behind the meter, demand response assets in Pennsylvania. The first resources brought on-line by PJM were variable speed pumps at a water treatment plant and a 500 kW industrial battery array...
Yankee Graphite
Several graphite developers have made plans to integrate forward into the hottest segment of the market - battery-grade graphite. According to Industrial Minerals, spherical graphite suitable for lithium ion battery anodes is priced in a range of $2,700 to $2,800 per metric ton in China where many battery manufacturers are located. This compares quite well to the range of about $655 to $790 per metric ton for flake graphite concentrate.
The integration strategy has sent the sector into a frenzy of activity to prove their graphite meets expectations of battery manufacturers. The only graphite deposit in the U.S. mainland is under development by Westwater Resources...
A123’s Elegant Financing Transaction
John Petersen On Friday A123 Systems (AONE) announced a direct registered offering that's an elegant example of a well-structured financing transaction in a difficult market. A123 had a solid financial base before the offering and the stock was starting to turn a critical corner into an upward trend. The new financing should add momentum to that trend. The first stage deal terms are pretty straightforward. The investors will buy units consisting of one share of common stock and one common stock purchase warrant for $2.034 per unit, a 10% discount from the closing price of A123's common...
List of Hydrogen Stocks
Hydrogen stocks are publicly traded companies whose business involves the use of hydrogen as energy storage or a transportation medium. See also fuel cell stocks.
This list was last updated on 8/27/2021.
AFC Energy (AFC.L)
Ballard Power Corporation (BLDP)
Bloom Energy Corporation (BE)
Cell Impact AB (CI-B.ST)
Defiance Next Gen H2 ETF (HDRO)
FuelCell Energy (FCEL)
Fusion Fuel Green PLC (HTOO)
Green Hydrogen Systems A/S (GREENH.CO)
Hazer Group Limited (HZR.AX)
HydrogenPro AS (HYPRO.OL)
HydroPhi Technologies Group, Inc. (HPTG)
HyperSolar, Inc (HYSR)
Hynion AS (HYN.OL)
ITM Power PLC (ITM.L, ITMPF)
MagneGas Corporation (MNGA)
McPhy Energy SA (MCPHY.PA)
myFC Holding AB (MYFC.ST)
Nel ASA (NEL.OL)
Nikola Corporation (NKLA)
PowerCell Sweden AB (PCELL.ST, PCELF)
Plug Power (PLUG)
PowerHouse Energy Group plc (PHE.L)
Proton Power Systems (PPS.L)
Quantum...
An Overlooked Christmas Gift For Energy Storage Investors
John Petersen Monday morning a reader sent me a link to a December 23rd press release announcing that the OM Group, Inc. (OMG) had agreed to buy EaglePicher Technologies LLC, a well regarded name in the battery industry, for $171.9 million, or roughly 1.4x sales. While I overlooked the release during the build-up to Christmas, the transaction is important because it provides a current bright-line reference point for energy storage investors on the difficult question, "what is a battery company worth?" EaglePicher was previously a unit of Eagle Picher Holdings, a public company that filed a...
ZAP Displays Advanced Battery Solutions at CeBIT Digital Technology Trade Show in Germany
ZAP (ZAPZ) is currently exhibiting its unique multi-function portable battery to the global marketplace at the CeBIT trade show in Hannover, Germany, March 10-16, 2005. ZAP's Portable Energy division has developed a flexible, multi-use battery for electronic products that deliver up to four times the power of typical batteries, to charge or power a variety of devices, including cell phones and laptops. ZAP is a worldwide technology leader in efficient transportation, offering gas-powered vehicles such as the Smartcar, as well as electric cars and personal transportation products.
ELBC 2010 – Automakers Discuss Their Battery Requirements For Stop-Start Systems
John Petersen Last week I spent three days at the 11th European Lead Battery Conference in Istanbul where I learned that I've been far too conservative in earlier articles that discuss the likely impact of stop-start idle elimination systems on the battery sector. To put things in perspective, the 10th ELBC in 2008 had 500 participants and two papers on stop-start systems. The 11th ELBC in Istanbul had 700 participants and 15 papers on stop-start, including three from major automakers. The stop-start papers took a full day of the 2-1/2 day conference program. The high-level overview...
Hydrogen in Oil’s Back Yard
by Debra Fiakas, CFA
As well derricks cast oily shadows across the landscape, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (APD: NYSE) has installed Saudi Arabia’s first hydrogen fueling station.The set up is tucked safely into APD’s new technology center in a science park, but the significance of this incursion into oil and gas country can be felt across the region.The fueling station, which incorporates APD’s SmartFuelhydrogen fueling technology, will service six Toyota Mirai fuel cell electric vehicles. Undertaken in cooperation with Saudi Aramco, the project is intended to demonstrate the potential for hydrogen as transportation fuel.
Hydrogen has potential advantages over conventional fuels, including Saudi Arabia’s oil and...
New Arotech Technology Allows Electric Bus to Run on Commercially Available Zinc
Arotech Corporation (ARTX) announced today that its Electric Vehicle unit has developed technology that will allow its zinc-air batteries to use commercially available zinc, eliminating the need for the special dendritic zinc used to date. Arotech's technological breakthrough for utilizing readily available zinc will boost commercialization plans for the zinc-air hybrid bus, which until now required heavy investments in zinc producing infrastructure.
