$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...
Covanta Rebounds
by Debra Fiakas, CFA
Waste handler Covanta Holding Company (CVA: NYSE) reported financial results for the first three months of the year at the beginning of May 2020. True enough the net loss might have been wider than published estimates for the quarter, but the consensus target did not reflect a one-time, non-cash charge for asset impairment. Indeed, Covanta’s sales climbed year-over-year to $468 million, of which $61 million was converted to operating cash flow. Waste handling is considered an essential service so Covanta operations remained at full operations even as many of its customers were subject to work stoppages and stay-at-home policies to...
Blue Sphere To Start Biogas Commercial Operations
by Debra Fiakas CFA The Blue Sphere, Inc. (BLSP: OTC/QB), stock price has weakened in recent months as investors registered their apparent frustration with fundamental developments. Proposed acquisitions of operating biogas power plants in Italy have taken much longer than expected and majority interest in planned biogas plants in the U.S. were sold into joint venture arrangements rather than held as 100% equity positions. Despite these developments, Blue Sphere management has doggedly moved forward on all fronts and there has been measurable progress toward first revenue. Commercial operation dates have been set for...
UTC Power Introduces the PureCycle 200 Power System: Recycles Waste Heat to Produce Electricity...
United Technologies Corp (UTX) states that their UTC Power division has announced the arrival of the PureCycle(TM) 200 power system, a unique heat-to-electricity technology that recycles waste heat as free fuel to generate electricity. The PureCycle(TM) 200 system operates without emissions and is completely pollution-free, employing a closed-cycle process using technology developed by UTC's Carrier division. In principle, the PureCycle(TM) 200 works like a reverse air-conditioner. Energy is absorbed into the system by a liquid refrigerant that vaporizes when heated. The hot vapor turns a turbine, which drives a generator to create electricity. Later, the hot vapor circulates...
Covanta on a Mission to Up-cycle Municipal Waste
Debra Fiakas, CFA The Waste Hierarchy, with energy from waste highlighted Covanta Energy (CVA: NYSE) is a champion of renewable energy. So much so that Covanta commissioned an elaborate sustainability report in 2010, detailing the company’s three-year track record in elevating municipal waste from the landfill to a higher order of use. Compliant with standards set by the Global Reporting Initiative, the report is full of choice tidbits from Covanta’s municipal waste experience - at least through the year 2009. Let’s look at 2009, the last...
Turning Potato Peels To Power
by Debra Fiakas CFA The series on waste-to-energy continues with Blue Sphere, Inc. (BLSP: OTC/QB), a relatively new entrant to the biogas power generation market. Blue Sphere is focused on converting principally food waste to power using anaerobic digestion technology. In May 2014, Blue Sphere started construction on a bio-digester and power generation facility near Charlotte, North Carolina, that will turn potato peelings and apple cores into 5.2 megawatts of power. Duke Energy (DUK: NYSE) has been lined up to buy the power when the plant goes operational sometime before the end of 2015. Management expects to...
MagneGas’ Industrial Plasma
by Debra Fiakas CFA Alternative chemicals developer MagneGas Corporation (MNGA: Nasdaq) is posting another guard at the gate. The company recently filed a patent application to protect new enhancements of its plasma arc technology and gasification system. Plasma is any gas taken to a whole new phase through extremely high temperatures. For perspective the sun is actually a very large ball of plasma. Here on Earth MagneGas is using its proprietary system to gasify carbon-rich liquids such as municipal wastewater to produce hydrogen gas for industrial applications and vehicle fuel. Many investors have probably heard about...
China Recycling Energy: Profiting From Murky Air, But How Much?
by Debra Fiakas CFA Shanghai at sunset as the sun fades into the smog. Photo source: Suicup China’s industrial pollution problems are mounting. Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) increased by 3% in 2011, reaching an all-time high of 34 billion tons. China contributed a whopping 29% of that carbon dioxide - nearly twice that of the second worst polluter, the U.S., which spit out 5.4 million tons or 16% of the total CO2 emissions. Policy makers in China have been slow to move against industrial polluters...
Plasma Arcs For Pig Waste
This week MagneGas (MNGA: NASDAQ) announced new work completed toward plans to enter the commercial pork sector with a proprietary manure processing and disposal solution. Management held a meeting with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to discuss MagneGas technology to treat agriculture waste and the state’s required environmental permit protocols. MagneGas aims to sell to pig farmers equipment based on its innovations.
The company wants to help pig farmers address environmental problems cause by manure accumulation with its proprietary waste sterilization process. Handling pig waste using conventional methods can be costly, but failure to...
10 Clean Energy Stocks for 2020: Updates on GPP, HASI, CVA
by Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA
Market Decline
Last week I warned "The risks in today's stock market outweigh the possibility of future potential gains." Looks like we're seeing those risks manifest in short order. The last couple days' decline have me looking at a few stocks to start adding to my positions again, especially MiX Telematics (MIXT) discussed on June 2nd and Green Plain Partners (GPP), discussed below.
Note that this pullback could easily be very early days of a much larger market decline. We might even see the market fall far enough to test the March lows... any of my buying...
RDX: Waste Water-to-Energy
by Debra Fiakas CFA Last week RDX Technologies, Inc. (RGDEF: OTCQX or RDX: TSXV) announced an agreement to supply renewable diesel to the Tyson Farms’ Temperanceville Facility in Virginia. The Energy Division of RDX sells three grades of methyl ester fuels that can be used in boilers and small generators. RDX did not disclose the value or size of the Tyson Farms contract. However, the contract apparently is for one year with a second year option. RDX operates renewable fuel plants in Missouri and California. Waste streams are aggregated at the two plants by truck and processed...
Covanta Turns Waste into Cash
Debra Fiakas, CFA The Waste Hierarchy, with energy from waste highlighted The self-styled “energy-from-waste” company Covanta Holding (CVA: NYSE) turns municipal waste into electricity and recycled metals. The operations also turned 21.9% of its revenue into cash in 2011. We note that the conversation ratio has declined over the last three years from 28.7% in 2009 and 27.2% in 2010, but we are still impressed with any cash conversion rate over 20%. The company operates forty-one mass-burn facilities around the U.S. that burn all manner...
Global Resource Corporation: Needed Technology; Unanswered Questions About Management
On July 3, The Energy Blog told us about a process of turning old tires back into valuable oil and gasses. Given the problems of Peak Oil and plastic waste which can mimic almost anything in the environment, I was intrigued, and I had the feeling that other watchers of the alternative energy space would be, too. After a quick review to make sure that the technology was based on sound science (I believe it is, although that is no guarantee that it can be commercialized), and a search for information about their governance policies and a board list...
Darling’s Renewable Diesel Diamond
In July 2013, Darling Ingredients (DAR: NYSE) and its joint venture partner Valero Energy (VLO: NYSE) commissioned the largest facility in North America to convert waste animal fats into renewable diesel. The facility was strategic located adjacent to Valero’s petroleum refining installation in Norco, Louisiana.
At the time the facility was capable of pumping out 12,000 barrels of renewable diesel per day that could be dropped directly into Valero’s distribution network and blended with fossil fuel. Even at that production level the facility showed promise to deliver strong dividends back to its owners. The partners named their venture Diamond Green Diesel and celebrated the unparalleled achievement.
The two partners in Diamond Green...
Covanta’s Q1: Ten Clean Energy Stocks For 2019
by Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA
Covanta Holding Corp. (NYSE:CVA)
12/31/18 Price: $13.42. Annual Dividend: $1.00. Expected 2019 dividend: $1.00. Low Target: $13. High Target: $25.
3/26/19 Price: $17.86. YTD Dividend: $0.25. YTD Yield: 1.9% YTD Appreciation: 33.1% YTD Total Return: 34.9%
Leading waste-to-energy operator Covanta's stock has been the second best performing holding in my 10 Clean Energy Stocks for 2019 model portfolio. While in many ways the company is similar to the clean energy Yieldcos that dominate the model portfolio, it is different in that it develops its own projects, while most Yieldcos depend on a sponsor to develop projects which...
Another Look at the Algonquin Power Income Fund
Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA The Algonquin Power Income Fund (AGQNF.PK) has been one of my star performers in an excellent year. Is it still a good investment at these prices? Since I recommended the Algonquin Power Income Fund (AGQNF.PK/APF-UN.TO) in January as a renewable energy income stock for 2009, the company is up 69%, in addition to the C$0.02 monthly dividend, worth approximately another 8% through August on the US$1.82 purchase price, making it the second-best performing of my ten picks (after Cree, Inc (CREE).) However, since the major basis for my recommendation at the time was the...
