Lunch With Warren Buffett
Tom couldn't attend to his usual Monday column this week so he asked me to step in. My own investing has been partially on hold over the past couple of months as I have been watching developments in the markets, so I figured I would open the week with something a little lighter albeit not entirely unrelated to alt energy and cleantech investing. Deflating Valuations = Happy Value Investors One of the good things about the current state of equity markets for alt energy investors is that several great company's stocks that had been trading at...
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...
Iluminated LED Bathtub
This has nothing to do with energy efficiency or anything else pertaining to this website. But while doing some additional research on LED's this morning I stumbled onto this amazing use of LED technology. These are manufactured by Generate and they have several LED based products for the home. (Thanks to Strange New Products)
Water Treatment With a Latin Beat
by Debra Fiakas, CFA
The post “Water: Invisible Crisis” on December 6th highlighted the building problem of inadequate supplies of quality water in Latin America. The World Water Council’s Comision Nacional Del Agua reports that As much as one-third of the Latin America population lacks access to safe water. Unabated pollution and lack of water treatment have been identified as culprits. In South America, for example, 40% to 60% of water comes from aquifers that are subject to increasing pollution from untreated run-off from mining and agriculture operations.
Our survey of Latin America water sector in South America found an interesting mix of pollution abatement and water treatment...
GMOs and Hain Celestial
50 Shades of Green Garvin Jabusch As I've written before, "human economies are still so far from real sustainability that even a highly idealized portfolio of our most sustainable enterprises necessarily falls short. Ultimately, the best any portfolio can do is mirror the reality of the world, and today, still, even the best representatives of sustainability can be found wanting compared to what will be required if we would like to keep society thriving indefinitely." There's no better example of the various conundrums swirling around sustainable economics than GMOs. As one institutional client, Timothy Yee of...
Water Infrastructure: Opportunity Coming Down The Pipe?
by Debra Fiakas CFA The most recent report by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gives a grade D+ for U.S. infrastructure as of the end of 2013. Not a very good grade, but an improvement over the plain D grade that had been handed out four years earlier. With the travesty of the water contamination in Flint, Michigan during 2014 to 2015, the ASCE report should carry special interest. The threat to the health of the Flint community could be found in anywhere in the U.S. The executive summary of the ASCE 2013 report does...
Tall Neighbor Coming to Arizona Desert Community
by Debra Fiakas CFA The citizens of a San Luis, Arizona are about to get a new, very tall neighbor. Solar Wind Energy, Inc. (SWET: OTCQB; formerly Clean Wind Energy Tower) recently secured 600 acres in the area to build a solar wind tower. This is a unique design that takes advantage of air heated by the sun’s power utilizes. Fast cooling of the air creates a powerful downdraft that drives turbines at the chimney base. Solar Wind expects the generators attached to its turbines to produce up to 1,250 megawatts of electricity that can be...
Water Supply with a Latin Twist
by Debra Fiakas, CFA
Depending upon how you string the words together, it is possible to make Latin America sound like the world’s water fountain or the location of a putrid pond out of which hapless citizens ladle their drinking water.
Try these lofty words.
Four the world’s largest rivers and four of the world’s largest freshwater lakes can be found in the Latin America region with a run-off area encompassing 5,470 cubic miles. The rainwater and snowmelt running into these water bodies represents 20% of the world’s run-off. By itself Brazil is home to 20% of the water resources of the entire world.
Here...
Water Quality Stocks
by Debra Fiakas CFA Pipes, pumps and values are only part of the drinking water story we began telling last week. The Ecological Society of America estimates that the U.S. spends more than $2 billion annually on clean water projects in an attempt to prevent pollution and clean contaminated water. Water quality is a diverse market, beginning with projects to promote natural ecosystems which are the ultimate ‘water filter.’ The market extends to water treatment facilities, filtration systems and purification technologies among other solutions to ensure that our drinking water is safe. The market for water quality...
MIT, Columbia Begin New Energy Experiment: Half-ton Levitating Ring Is Key To Work
MIT and Columbia University students and researchers have begun operation of a novel experiment that confines high-temperature ionized gas, called plasma, using the strong magnetic fields from a half-ton superconducting ring inside a huge vessel reminiscent of a spaceship. The experiment, the first of its kind, will test whether nature's way of confining high-temperature gas might lead to a new source of energy for the world.
Water Treatment Stocks
by Debra Fiakas CFA In a game of word association many investors might respond Veolia Environmental SA (VIE: P or VEOEY: OTC/PK) at the mention ‘water reclamation.’ General Electric (GE: NYSE) and Siemens (SIE: DE or SIEGY: OTC/PK) might be next choices. These three companies have been ‘go to’ sources for water treatment by municipalities and industry. Indeed, it may take a behemoth to address water issues. In January 2015, the World Economic Forum declared water as the number one crisis impacting the world, recognizing the dire circumstances of water supplies. Over 660 million people - one...
Princeton’s Plasma Physics Laboratory to lead U.S. fusion research project
The U.S. Department of Energy chose Princeton's Plasma Physics Laboratory to lead the United States' participation in an international fusion energy project known as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). "We wanted to do it because it gives us an intellectual role in planning this experiment and making sure it succeeds," said Robert Goldston GS '77, director of the plasma physics lab. "This is very important for the future of fusion energy." In what Goldston described as an "amazing step" towards the development of nuclear fusion, ITER aims to construct the first device capable of producing self-sustaining...
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SatCon Receives $1.8 Million Order for Rotary Uninterruptible Power Supply
SatCon Technology Corporation (SATC) announced that it received a $1.8 million purchase order for an initial installation of a 2.2 megawatt Rotary Uninterruptible Power Supply (RUPS). Included in the purchase order is an option for a second UPS for $1.5 million. Baldwin Technologies in College Park, Maryland served as the engineering and manufacturer's representative for this sale and the final customer is the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado. Delivery of the first unit is expected in the first calendar quarter of 2005.
Away Last Week
I was away on holidays last week with self-imposed lack of access to email - thanks to Tom for holding the Alt Energy fort alone! Several of you sent me emails to which I haven't gotten around to responding yet. I apologize for that. I will get on that tonight and you can expect a response in the next few days at the latest. Best, Charles
GE’s Mark Vachon: “Gas is massive”
Marc Gunther How’s GE’s ecomagination going? I put that question today to Mark Vachon, who is vice president for ecomagination at General Electric (GE). He replied by talking about natural gas. “The large macro trend of gas is massive,” he said. “Our oil and gas business will be a huge beneficiary.” An abundance of shale gas in the U.S., and methane gas reserves in Australia present a wealth of opportunities for GE, which plays all along the supply chain for natural gas. “We’re a massive player in gas exploration,” Mark said. “We have a water business that can deal...
