The solar market is still going strong, despite the financial crisis, and turmoil in some of its key markets. But that doesn’t mean all is well on the venture financing end. As a number of longtime Silicon Valley solar darlings start to demand even more serious money to build plants for commercialization, the financing picture [...]
By John Addison. Solar is powering more vehicles. American’s have reduced their use of petroleum 5 percent this year. So far, petroleum reduction is the result of fewer miles traveled solo as people cut travel to deal with high gas prices and a slowing economy. At the margin, however, solar power is replacing oil. There [...]
by Marguerite Manteau-Rao Two weeks and 77 tweets later, the Twitter “green_watch” project has come to an end. Lots of insights, problems raised, and beginning of answers. The goal was to use Twitter as a real time, online reporting tool for my personal energy consumption, round the clock. Lessons learned from the project: #1. The [...]
by Marguerite Manteau-Rao This week, I started a new experiment, this time using Twitter to monitor my energy consumption 24/7. A Web 2.0 version of my earlier Daily Footprint Project, when I kept a diary of all my carbon footprinting activities for 30 days. The project is called “green_watch” and you can follow it on [...]
by Marguerite Manteau-Rao Green or sustainability? Clean tech or environmental conservation? If you want to get a sense for what topics generate the most buzz at any point in time, Nielsen BlogPulse is the place to go: ‘Green’ is a word understood by all. Sustainability is still a concept for the business elite. I [...]
Author: Mark Henwood EAFA fell 2.2%; Emerging Markets, S&P500, and commodities (DJP) treaded water. The two key strategies, Renewable Electricity and Solar, posted gains for the week. Solar’s 4.1% gain reduced the index’s loss for the year to 31.7%. This highly volatile strategy saw some big gains with Day4Energy (DFE.TO) leading the way with a [...]
I’ve been saying for a while, that with enough money, someone is bound to crack the CIGS nut in thin film, and deliver the cleantech sector another First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) like renaissance for the always around the corner technology. That’s not because it’s easy, or even because it’s a good idea to try, but when [...]
Following on the 2006 and 2007 announcements of technology giants Applied Materials and IBM moving into the solar sector, Intel has joined the fray in 2008 with the spinout of SpectraWatt, its newly created solar division. I had a chance to chat with Andrew Wilson, a longtime Intel guy who is the CEO of Spectrawatt, [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi Last week, the International Energy Agency released a study entitled Energy Technology Perspectives 2008, in which the agency estimated the shifts in the world’s energy system required to reduce CO2 emissions substantially. In their so-called “BLUE” scenario (I haven’t figured out what “BLUE” refers to), a 50% CO2 reduction from 2005 [...]
Author: Mark Henwood Broad market indices (Emerging Markets, EAFA, S&P500) all rose significantly this week. Camino’s PurePlay™ indices, with the exception of Fuel Cells, were up. Commodities (DJP) retreated slightly. Solar was the story of the week with our 34 member index increasing 10.8%. Six constituents rose more than 20% with the top three, SolarFun [...]
Author: Mark Henwood Broad market indices were mixed this week and so were Camino’s PurePlay™ indices. The Solar index followed last week’s 7.0% gain with a small 0.2% decline. The index members were also mixed with 15 stocks increasing and 19 stocks declining. Most notable in the group was Centrosolar (C3O.DE) which gained 26.2% for [...]
Author: Mark HenwoodSustainable energy stocks followed the broader markets down this week with only Renewable Electricity able to show a gain.The Solar index followed last week’s 14.5% advance with a 4.7% decline. The retreat was broad-based with only 4 stocks increasing and 30 stocks declining. Aloe Solar SG (AS1.DE) led the declines falling 13.1% for [...]
Author: Mark Henwood The Dow traded in a 569 range this week reflecting negative credit market news and strong intervention by government institutions. Global results were mixed with EAFA advancing and the S&P and Emerging Markets declining. The final changes were not dramatic. This translated into mixed results for the Camino indices with three indices [...]
Cleantech Blog had a conversation last year with Stuart Hemphill, now the newly appointed Vice President for Renewables and Alternative Energy at Southern California Edison, a subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE:EIX), one of the largest purchasers of renewable power in the US. We caught up with him again today in a lively discussion around his [...]
By Mark Henwood Continuing concerns with economic conditions drove all the broad stock indicators into negative territory for the week. With one expectation our sustainable energy indices followed suit with three indices retreating and one, Renewable Electricity, advancing. The Solar index suffered another large drop of 5.9% bringing the YTD decline for the sector to [...]
I have long had a respect for GE (NYSE:GE), and how it runs its business. In cleantech, I am very, very jealous. They have made themselves into the company to beat. Whether by plan, luck, or simply applying sound business discipline, GE has made itself into a top 3 global cleantech player no matter happens. [...]
By John Addison (3/4/08). When something must absolutely, positively, arrive the next day, people increasingly turn to FedEx. Shipped is everything from million dollar loan documents to birthday presents. FedEx is also integral to the just-in-time supply chain that allows businesses to grow, even as they shrink inventory. FedEx generates over $35 billion annually. FedEx [...]
By Mark Henwood Neal says “keep going”. So let’s start with the big picture. Stocks were down – S&P, EAFA, emerging markets. Commodities advanced. The broad based ETN tracking the DJ AIG commodity index (DJP) increased 3.1% for the week. This was the week of oil history. Our sustainable energy indices were mixed with one, [...]
Neal asked me if I would comment on the markets for sustainable energy stocks in the last week. It’s an area I follow closely so he hopes I will occasionally stumble across some nuggets. Let me start by saying I believe there is potential for good returns in sustainable energy stocks over time. In the [...]
(11/28/07 by John Addison) Gene Coan does not worry about the price of gasoline, nor is he concerned with his gas and electric bill. Gene powers his home and car with solar photovoltaics (PV) and also uses solar hot water heating. With his Zenn electric-vehicle (EV) Gene rides on sunlight. Gene is following his beliefs. [...]
