Both my Quick Clean energy Tracking Portfolio and my Ten Green Energy Picks for 2009 have shown strong out performance through Q3.
For a while, I thought I was on to something with the tracking portfolio (like mutual fund managers were smart, or something), but it turned out that they just put higher risk stocks in their top 5 holdings.
I’ll claim some skill for the 10 pick though. I recently published updates fro two of them: The Algonquin Power Income Fund, and New Flyer Industries.
I’ve recently said that the best way to invest in both Advanced Biofuels and Cellulosic Ethanol, and Biochar (aka terra preta) is to invest in Biomass. Here is one way to go about it: buying Forestry ETFs or Stocks.
I recommended the Algonquin Power Income Fund as a renewable energy income investment back in January, and as part of my ten clean energy picks for 2009.
Since then, both the stock and the ten picks have been doing well in comparison to the market, but Algonquin has entered into a couple deals, while I look into in a recent update on the Algonquin Power Income Fund.
Since I’ve recently been bearish on the market, but don’t want to wait on the sidelines, and expect that many of my readers feel the same way, I just published two articles on hedging strategies.
John Peterson wrote a series of three articles looking at the economic problems with Plug-in-Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) over the last month. He
and he
I thought it all went a little too far, and so I showed why it can make economic sense for someone to buy a PHEV anyway.
A month ago, I bought Raser (RZ) in a gamble that one of thier plans to get project financing would pay off quickly. Unfortunately, the one I thought was most likely of these, an application for a DOE grant gaurantee, was rejected last week, so I sold at a slight loss.
I’ll be keeping an eye on Raser (RZ) to see if I can pick it up again at a reduced price… there’s still a chance of a quick win if they get funding elesewhere.
My Ten Clean Energy Picks for 2009 continue to blow the indexes away, although the ten gambles for 2009 have only kept pace.
Part of the reason the gambles have not kept up is the big drop in the price of Raser Technologies (RZ). Raser has fallen so for I now think it’s a bargain, not a gamble, and I increased my stake 3-fold.
Looking for a list of Smart Grid Stocks? Try this.
I read a lot of Green Jobs reports over the last couple of months, and the research cumulated in three articles. One is for the next issue of Smart Energy Living, and will be published in the Fall ‘09 issue, but the other two are available now.
In the first, I look at the differences in the potential clean energy sectors to create jobs (they’re all a lot better than fossil fuels), while in the second I analyze the arguments against a green stimulus.
Predicting market moves is notoriouslly difficult, but I’m feeling pretty good about my recent efforts.
On October 11, 2008, I stoped being a permabear and said, “the market as a whole now seems to me to be fairly valued.” The S&P 500 closed the previous Friday just below 900; today it closed at 919.32. In the fear that abounded last October, it was a hard call to be even that bullish, bit it seems to have worked out.
On June 2, I said we were near a market peak/ The S&P 500 closed that day at 944.74, and is currently down 3% almost a month later, having only bearly exceeded that number by a fraction of a percent.
Since I’m currently short-term bearish, I’ve started a series of articles not to by now, but to buy when a market decline puts them back on sale. Here are may clean enrgy shopping list articles so far:
Last week, I attended the 2009 Fuel Ethanol Workshop and the Advanced Biofuels Workshop, writing two articles. The first is a commentary on what the corn ethanol industry needs to do to rehabilitate its image, and the second looks into how the stock investor can benefit from emerging advanced biofuel, cellulosic ethanol, and
algae technologies.
Here is a comparison of the costs of various renewable electricity generation technologies, based on a California transmission study.
Similarly, I also recently wrote two articles comparing the costs of various grid integration strategies: Electricity Storage such as Batteries, Thermal Storage, Compressed Air, and Pumped Hydropower, as well as Demand Response, Smart Grid, and Transmission. Both have some charts allowing visual comparison of the technologies.
In May, I went to Solar 2009.
One panel I attended led to a series of articles on Solar stocks:
I also particpated, with presentations on the best incentives for solar investments, and with an analysis of large scale electricity storage, as well as alternative renewable electricity integration strategies.
Charles also attended, and took a look at the implications of the removal of the $2000 cap on the residential Investment Tax Credit.
My Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2009 has been beating the market and the clean energy sector handily, although the riskier Ten Clean Energy Gambles for 2009 has only been performing in-line with the sector.
John Peterson’s cautious approach to the energy storage sector ("Cheap before Cool") has also been performing well.
In tough economic times, it goes to show that playing it conservative pays off, even when the clean energy sector is getting a political boost.
I recently interviewed several industry participants and research scientists about Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) and associated thermal storage.
Several articles came out of these interviews:
Why Concentrating Solar Power Should not Try to be Coal
The Solar Projects that Won’t be Built
What the Future of Concentrated Solar Power Might Look Like (This one made the folks at Ausra uncomfortable, and so they asked to respond.)
Chevron’s willyoujoinus campaign rubs me the wrong way. What is the message here?
To me, this seems to be saying:
These types of messages undermine energy efficiency. There are many ways to save energy which don’t involve inconvenience, and help your bottom line. For instance, you can now buy a power strip for your TV or computer which switches off all the peripherals when the main electronic device is switched off. If you just set it up to turn off your VCR and DVD players when the TV is off, that will probably be a savings of 50 watts. If the TV is off 18 hours a day vor a year, that’s over 330 kW, or a savings of about $60 in the Northeast, $47 in California, or $33 in Colorado… but the powestrips cost only $25-$40, depending on which version you get… more than a 100% return in one year.
Saving energy does not need to be about sacrifice. I ride the bus out of choice… I’m less likely to get in an accident, and I can get work or reading done in the process. One day they were doing maintenance on the standard diesel that serves my route, and instead the bus was one of the newer hybrids. The ride was much smoother… so RTD saving energy by using a hybrid not only saved the transit district money, it made the passengers more comfortable.
Energy Efficiency is a win-win. When Chevron equates it to sacrifice, everyone loses.
I’ll be referencing these notes in an article to be published on AltEnergyStocks.com as What the ARRA Means for Clean Energy: One State’s Example on March 15th.
For readers who found my comments about other stock analysts useful (Especially the one about Doug Casey) I’ve just published a review of Casey Research’s market newsletter Casey Energy Opportunities, which focusses on small energy companies, including alternative energy.
I’ve posted an updated and more in-depth look at clean energy and renewable energy mutual funds. Also of interest may be an article on how actively managed clean and renewable energy funds compare to the passively manged/index variety.
I’ve published an updated run-down of Clean Energy Exchange Traded Funds, as well as a look at those clean energy ETFs which have Exchange Traded options on them (and why you might care.)
On the subject of ETFs, I was shocked when I took a closer look at Doubleshort and Ultra ETFs, and this led me to do a couple reshuffles of ETFs in my portfolio.
 | JEFFREY JOHNSON on Investing in Biomass |
 | Tom on The Algonquin Power Income… |
 | J. Gary Taylor, Ph.D… on The Algonquin Power Income… |
| Tom on Visual Comparison of Electrici… |
 | Ari B. on Visual Comparison of Electrici… |
