Neither the author of the Small Cap Strategist web log, Crystal Equity Research nor its affiliates have a beneficial interest in the companies mentioned herein. Posted by Debra Fiakas at Crystal Equity Research has a Hold recommendation on GTATQ. Many people still think of green technologies as costly. But cost is never the main barrier to efficiency measures, which often can boast internal financial returns far higher than even risky junk bonds.

The barriers against energy efficiency and legion, but cheif among them are the small size of the investments and split incentives, where the person making the investment is not the same person who reaps the rewards. A Colorado based NGO, the International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Technology ICASTrecently launched a charity-finance hybrid to overcome this problem of split incentives.

The hybrid includes a charity and crowdfunding platform, Project Sunlightas well as a new community development financial institution, the Triple Bottom-Line TBL Fund.

By combining donations and social-impact investments, ICAST hopes to increase the pool of low-interest money available to fund these retrofits. The idea of making affordable housing energy efficient is an alluring one. After all, more efficient apartments not only save tenants money, but also can improve their health, safety and comfort. And, of course, everyone benefits from reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Many energy-efficiency upgrades also pay for themselves in energy savings over the long run: Many low-income apartments suffer from a classic split-incentive problem: The catch is that ICAST needs both a loan loss reserve and money to fund its operations.

Together, these cost about 2. In other commercial settings, a host of government programs and utility incentives exist to bridge the gap, but the unique nature of commercial property for residential use leaves most low-income housing to fall through the cracks. Only a handful of US utilities offer rebates for low-income housing, Malhotra says. The solution, according to Malhotra, is to sell loans that are essentially subsidized by charity instead of by government.

The underwriting process includes screening applicants against risky borrowers, as well as due diligence aimed at preventing upgrades that do not provide real benefits. Even before its official launch, the TBL Fund is already catching the attention of some impact investors. It remains to be seen if other investors will step up — and if Project Sunlight will receive enough donations to match the demand for investment in the TBL Fund.

Tom Konrad is a freelance writer and portfolio manager specializing in clean energy and income investments. An earlier version of this article was first published on The Guardian, and is republished with permission. Further reprints require permission from The Guardian. Posted by Tom Konrad at Three volatile alternative energy stocks release earnings reports.

Two of the stocks jump, one drops. Individuals involved with the Roen Financial Report and Swiftwood Press LLC do not own or control shares of any companies mentioned in this article. It is also possible that individuals may own or control shares of one or more of the underlying securities contained in the Mutual Funds or Exchange Traded Funds mentioned in this article. Individuals should seek advice from their investment professional before making any important financial decisions.

See Terms of Use for more information. Posted by Harris Roen at April 23,marked the first anniversary of HASI's initial public offering IPO and we are pleased to continue our success with the accomplishments of the second quarter of This includes acquiring a portfolio of long-duration lease streams for solar and wind projects as well as the rights to finance additional transactions from this new platform client.

As we have demonstrated over the past few quarters, we continue to execute on high credit quality transactions that should translate well into dividend growth for our shareholders. Opportunities for HASI continue to be robust.

HASI is well positioned to capitalize on these opportunities and will continue to seek projects generating attractive risk-adjusted yields. Hannon Armstrong remains one of my top long-term picks in the alternative energy space. Posted by Jeff Siegel at This has long been how I've approached wealth creation, and it works quite well.

Even as I denounced the continued reliance on outdated and economically inferior energy and transportation systems i. Of course, when I'm given the opportunity to profit from new developments in cleaner energy, well, that just puts another smile on my face.

While I'm no cheerleader for the Obama administration, I'd be lying if I said some of his policies haven't made me rich. From his early initiatives in renewable energy to the tragedy that is Obamacareif you're ever looking for an easy way to make some cash, just follow the trail of lucre from K Street to the White House.

Now last Friday, President Obama announced a new series of commitments and executive actions he plans to use to advance solar deployment and energy efficiency measures.

The PR alone reads like a crib sheet for energy investors. You see, one section in the follow-up press release instantly caught my attention. Essentially, it looks like a loose mission statement for a company that's already been landing fat government contracts for energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives.

I'll tell you the name of the company in just a moment. But first, let me share with you the section to which I'm referring. Folks, last year I told you that the Obama administration was setting the stage for this kind of thing. Heck, it was in October of when I commented on the new Energy Secretary's first speech, which included the following statement:. Efficiency is going to be a big focus going forward.

I just don't see the solutions to our biggest energy and environmental challenges without a very big demand-side response. That's why it's important to move this way up in our priorities. To put that in perspective, the federal government owns and occupies aboutbuildings. There's no doubt this initiative has long been in the making.

I suspect some of this is going to trickle down to Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Capital NYSE: I first told you about Hannon Armstrong last year in my Alternative Energy Stock Predictions piece.

In it, I wrote Hannon Armstrong is basically a specialty finance outfit that offers debt and equity financing for modern energy and sustainable infrastructure projects. HASI focuses primarily on infrastructure projects that have high credit quality obligors, fully contracted revenue streams, and of course, inherent economic value.

Some of these obligors include U. The company is actually the leading provider of financing for energy efficiency projects for the government. Hannon Armstrong released Q1 earnings on Monday. Results were pretty much in line with estimates, although the company's pipeline of projects in the second half was impressive enough to placate investors looking for bigger numbers. The stock continued to charge along nicely. While HASI is not immune to broader market moves, I remain convinced that increased spending on the federal level will result in some very lucrative deals for this financing firm.

Unfortunately, many people take it literally. GHPs have all the hallmarks of a better mousetrap: They do the job of heating and cooling a building more efficiently than any other option.

Despite the larger up-front cost, they are a mature technology and usually the most economic option for buildings that can accommodate them. These advantages have earned GHPs a small but dedicated cult of true believers, but not broad market acceptance. The world has not yet beaten a path to the GHP door. Instead, GHPs have a slim and only modestly growing market share. Unfortunately, growth in installed base is not comparable to industry sales. For a young industry with a low installed base, sales are approximately the increase in the installed base.

Are other factors holding the GHP market back? Except in moderate climates, super-insulated homes, or situations where the installation of a geothermal heat pump GHP would be particularly difficult, GHPs have the better economics.

This is despite recent advances in air source heat pump ASHP technology, which led me to ask the question in the first place. Also, as the recent heavy snows in the Northeast demonstrated, there are some advantages to having a heat exchanger which is not exposed to the elements see pic.

Given all these advantages, why the raw nerves? They found that it was cheaper to expand the solar system to power the ASHPs than it would have been to pay the extra installation costs of a GHP.

Furthermore, the price of solar has fallen significantly since the Putney Field House was built; the price of the ground loop for a GHP has not. Net Zero buildings are the exception, not the rule, and have a far lower market share than geothermal heat pumps.

When the heating load is very low, the operating cost advantage from the greater efficiency of GHPs is not enough to repay the additional installation costs.

That is not the case in My own home, a farmhouse built inis much less efficient and requires a lot more heat than a Net Zero home, despite my own significant improvements. I opted for four ductless minisplit ASHPs rather than a GHP system, but it was because the minisplits allowed me to do the install without adding air ducts. Adding air ducts to my 85 year old home would have significantly increased the cost and disruption of installing a GHP system. ClimateMaster, a division of LSB Industries NYSE: Unfortunately, the efficiency ratings are low for GHPs with a COP of 3.

The added efficiency at low temperatures would probably not have been sufficient to pay for the ground loop, but I would have been interested to get a quote. Waterfurnace Renewable Energy TSX: The relative complexity of a geothermal system is one likely suspect. GSHP systems are, at least where I have practiced, essentially custom engineered and installed, usually by several entities who have a shared responsibility to make sure the systems perform.

Given the large up-front cost of a GHP system, the risk of a poor installation is likely to deter nonprofessionals from using GHPs even more than it deters experienced professionals like Rosenbaum. The cure for installation risk would be a way to validate the performance of GHPs in the field, and track problems back to their source. When contractors lose the ability to blame others for their mistakes, they quickly stop making those mistakes or they go. Ground Energy Support provides GHP monitoring to GHP owners and contractors, as well as data and analysis to support the development of the industry.

Ground Energy Support recently published a 14 page Homeowner Guide to Geothermal Heat Pump Systems. While I found the guide easy to understand, it makes clear that GHPs are not for everyone.

If GHPs are to become commonplace, the process of financing and purchasing a reliable GHP system have to be simplified to the point where it becomes a matter of calling a name in the phone book. The success of SolarCity Corporation NASD: SCTY in providing solar to homeowners who are more interested in the green in their checking account than the green of their electricity shows the potential. All the homeowner needs to do is pay the monthly bill for electricity production.

The value proposition is simple: Geothermal heat pumps also have the economic potential to deliver that same value proposition: But if the industry is to achieve this potential, several things have to come together:. We already have the corporate and financial structures to bring the solar lease model to GHPs. In fact, it takes little stretch of the imagination to see a solar lease company acquiring or partnering with GHP installers and offering a geothermal lease along with the solar lease to its customers.

In cold climates not known for their sunny winters such as the Northeast US, the underlying economics of GHPs are far superior to those of solar photovoltaics. These economics should enable very attractive GHP leases, as soon as the other pieces are in place. First, the homeowner and the geothermal lease company would have to have a reliable, objective way to monitor the performance of the GHP system.

Ground Energy Support is tackling this problem with its GXTracker, which monitors the heat output of the ground loop and monitors or models the electricity consumption of the pump itself. Heat production monitoring lets everyone know if a system is operating as designed, and helps diagnose the problem when it is not. Most of these were minor maintenance issues or improper settings which caused only minor drops in performance, but which would have gotten worse if undetected.

A third of these were oversized systems which can lead to higher energy costs but were likely the result of homeowner preferences. Another third were easily fixable and not the fault of the installer: One other way proper monitoring of GHPs might help the industry is enabling the implementation of incentives for renewable heat production from geothermal ground loops, analogous to the incentives for photovoltaics.

The Massachusetts legislature currently working on a bill to allow heating and cooling with renewable fuels to benefit from the same incentives the state give to renewable electricity. Advocates of geothermal heat pumps should spend less time discussing the well established attractive economics of GHPs in theory, and more time delivering those economics.

The key to this is making the buying process simple for the customer while providing verification and taking responsibility if those economics fail the be acheived. While GHPs are not the best fit for every home, in many climates the majority of such homes will benefit more from a GHP system than a new conventional heating and cooling system.

The solar lease is an excellent model for taking a renewable energy system and making it attractive to the general public. The GHP industry can follow down this path, but first it has to adopt reliable monitoring as a standard feature.

This will hold installers to account for their design and implementation, while giving customers confidence that they will get what they pay for.

Adopting monitoring could start with customers wanting to know that their systems are operating as designed. It could also begin with states like Massachusetts giving incentives for verifiable renewable heat production, or an installer deciding to break open the market by offering a geothermal lease. New homes are a natural starting point for residential geothermal leases because of the lower installation costs and greater ease of design. It seems to me that the group that has both the most to gain and the most power to affect change is GHP manufacturers.

If they were to include monitoring as a standard feature, they might be able to catalyze this market themselves. I own this stock. MOD currently offer any sort of energy monitoring. Waterfurnace seems farthest along in this regard. According to the company, the thermostat retains 13 months of energy usage data. I suspect the extra costs of making such monitoring standard would be more than compensated by greater customer satisfaction and increasing sales.

Is this the start of a move by manufacturers towards better monitoring, or will change come from the bottom up? If geothermal heat pump sales are going to soar, change will have to come from somewhere.

This article was first published on the author's Forbes. Past performance is not a guarantee or a reliable indicator of future results. This article contains the current opinions of the author and such opinions are subject to change without notice. This article has been distributed for informational purposes only.

Forecasts, estimates, and certain information contained herein should not be considered as investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy or investment product. Information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but not guaranteed.

The poster child of energy efficiency has long been changing a light bulb. First, it was swapping out an incandescent for a compact fluorescent, now the swap is to an LED. This is a good example of household energy efficiency measures: But efficiency does not have to be small scale and simple. Efficiency can also be an industrial scale engineering project. At any scale, however, it tends to be profitable, often very profitable.

Combined Heat and Power CHP is just such an industrial-scale energy efficiency opportunity. CHP, also called cogeneration, involves capturing the waste heat from a power plant and delivering it to an industrial or other customer.

A related technology, Waste Heat Recovery, involves capturing waste heat from an industrial process and either using it to generate power, or for some other process. I expect Primary Energy Recycling TSX: MT and US Steel facilities in Northern Indiana. The company has 30 years of experience operating and improving these and other CHP facilities. This was only one of several challenges the company has faced in recent years.

Others were the changes in Canadian tax law which effectively removed the tax benefits of the income trust tax structure, and the recontracting of all but one of their five facilities. The contract for the final facility Cokenergy has been extended several times as the details of a long term contract are worked out. Analysts John McIlveen at Jacob Securities Inc. The contract is expected to be similar to the existing contract, but is likely to contain a variable component which will allow Primary Energy to profitably invest to improve the energy efficiency of the facility, as they have at their other facilities.

Primary Energy has already begun the upgrades to Cokenergy to improve its efficiency. The recontacting of the Cokenergy facility will also allow the company to borrow against its cash flows and invest in expanding its business without issuing new equity. They are currently evaluating a number of opportunities, but Mr. Prunkl emphasized to me that they would be emphasizing care in project selection rather than speed of execution.

They welcome complex projects where they can efficiently convert hard-to work with fuels into power and heat for their customers. I expect the stock price will increase somewhat when the Cokenergy contract is finalized, and more when definitive plans for expanding the business are announced. While a finalized contract is likely soon, plans for business expansion will take longer.

Punkl did not want to make any promises regarding timing. One downside is that the stock is very illiquid, with an average volume of only 6 thousand shares traded daily, and the average has been closer to two thousand since the start of the year. Hence, it should only be bought with limit orders or very small market orders to avoid paying over the odds. I hope a few readers already got a chance to buy after reading my Ten Clean Energy Stocks for Primary Energy Recycling is an independent power producer using the greenest form of fuel imaginable: It has a rock solid balance sheet, a healthy dividend, and four long term contracts with solid industrial partners.

With its fifth and final contract soon to be finalized, Primary Energy is on the cusp of several years of growth. Tom Konrad CFA Disclosure: On December 30th, hedge fund Engine Capital, LP. Now, only three board seats will be up for election indown from five, and only two down from four will be available in Of the other continuing board members, most are over 60 years old, and most have served on the board with the Golsens for over 20 years, with many having served since or Robert Henry, Donald W.

Munson, and Ronald V. Mr Henry was appointed to the Board in Perry is a 63 year old travel executive, and is also a relatively fresh face on the board, having served only two terms starting in Munson is 81 years old, and first become a director in He was an executive at Lennox NYSE: LII and Trane, a division of Ingersoll-Rand NYSE: IRbut he retired 22 years ago. This is likely to make them somewhat harder to defeat in proxy voting than the resigning directors: Steven Golsen and Tony Shelby are both employees of the company, and so clearly not independent even by NYSE rules.

Not only are they not independent, but, as employees, the board has access to their knowledge and expertise whenever it chooses to ask for it. In Octoberthe Pryor facility again was taken offline. The Company disclosed the issue only the following month during the Q3 earning call on November 6, It is now December 30,and shareholders have still not heard about the Pryor facility resuming production. It argued two main points:. Which candidates are most able to set company strategy and oversee management to protect our interests?

The current directors do not seem to have the qualities which would lead them to act independently. He has served in these capacities since he founded the company in The combination of Board Chair and CEO roles is always questionableas the role of the board is to oversee and provide strategic guidance to management, led by the CEO. It takes incredible objectivity to oversee oneself effectively. The fact that other members of his family also hold so many leadership roles in the company would make the task of emotional separation even more difficult.

Unfortunately this does not seem to describe the current board or the three members up for election this year. Perry, Robert Henry, and Donald W. Perry is 63 and the head of a travel firm.

Munson is an 81 year old retired executive from Lennox, and Mr. Henry is the 60 year old president and CEO of Oklahoma City University OCU.

Henry was appointed to the board in November 14th, to fill a vacancy left by the resignation due to ill health of an 86 year old former director who had served since As a former Attorney General of Oklahoma and US Appeals court judge, he seems likely to be able to exercise independent judgement despite any personal relationship with the Golsens and their charitable donations to his employer. Nevertheless, his appointment begs the question as to why the board did not appoint someone who had both industry expertise and independence?

Given the timing of the appointment, it seems likely that Engine Capital was already in discussions with LSB at the time. The fund highlighted the lack of board industry expertise in its letter. More importantly, the incentives for owners of preferred stock and common stock are not the same. Common shareholders have never received a dividend. They also have a Preferred Share Rights Plan which could allow the Golsen family to acquire a large number of common shares at no cost in the event of a takeover attempt.

This Plan seems only to protect preferred rights holders from loss of control, not to align their interests with common shareholders. Gaining influence in a tightly controlled family firm is never easy. That is why we hire the board to oversee management and provide or hire expertise to set strategy and oversee management. The board, as it currently stands, does not seem to have the independence to go against the wishes of the Golsen family, or the expertise to know when it should do so.

I would feel more comfortable that the board was making the right decisions if its members seemed independent and had relevant expertise. This article was first published in two parts on the author's Forbes. Both types of heat pumps use a refrigeration cycle to draw heat from the outside in winter to heat a building, and pull heat from the inside to cool it in summer.

GHPs use large loops of buried tubing to exchange heat with the ground, while ASHPs use an above-ground fan and heat exchanger assembly similar to the evaporator on a traditional whole house air conditioner see photo.

The improved technology has meanwhile made the efficiency of the best air source heat pumps equivalent to that of many GHPs, especially when used in less extreme climates. Although even the best ASHPs are still much less efficient than the best GHPs, the cost savings from dispensing with the ground loop and in some cases air ducts mean that ASHPs are an economic option in many cases where GHPs or conventional heating were previously the only viable options.

There are caveats, of course. Rosenbaum works exclusively on very high performance, super-insulated buildings.

He also teaches a course on designing net-zero energy buildings. And even with super-insulation, he uses other heat sources in larger buildings. I was able to have four Mitsubishi ASHPs installed in the most important rooms without having to give up interior space for ducting. The latter are easier to install, but the Mitsubishi systems can work with a Honeywell NYSE: HON wireless programmable thermostat.

This can be accessed via the web or mobile devices, which is useful in a building with multiple units. After discovering the limited programability of the factory controller for my Mitsubishi units, I installed the Honeywell thermostats in addition to a thermostat for my boiler which I now control them all through the same interface.

While variable speed air source heat pumps can be competitive with geothermal heat pumps in retrofit situations and smaller, better insulated buildings and less extreme climates, GHPs remain the most efficient way to heat and cool a building. If super-insulated, small buildings ever become the standard way to build a home, geothermal heat pump manufacturers such as Waterfurnace and LSB may have something to fear from air source heat pumps.

Fortunately for GHP manufacturers, but unfortunately for the rest of us, that day is still a long way off. This article was first published on the author's Green Stocks blog on Forbes. My panel of professional green money managers understands this. When I asked them each for their top three green stock picks forthere were as many picks focused on smarter resource use as there were solar stocks.

Here are three companies that help us use resources more efficiently by applying information technology to better target the resources we have already. Garvin Jabusch of Green Alpha Advisors. In this sense, that we as a society can thus squeeze ever more economic output out of fewer economic inputs, M2M technology is also a key, innovative, driver of sustainability. M2M is beginning to bring efficiency gains to dozens of applications including connected cars, smart energy metering, building automation and smart cities, microgrid infrastructure, energy transmission efficiency, security, traffic management, inventory management, food production and many more.

Looking forward, additional applications of M2M technology may encompass nearly every aspect of a modern economy. That macroeconomic picture is compelling. Almost limitless applications means great growth potential. The two main drivers are the rise of cloud computing and the gains in both coverage and speed of the mobile internet, both cell network and satellite enabled.

On the value side, DGII is trading at slightly under three times cash and at or just below its book value. Rafael Coven of The Cleantech Group.

The Company integrates its positioning expertise in GPS, laser, optical and inertial technologies with application software, wireless communications, and services to provide complete commercial solutions.

By using location based technologies, all of these industries and many others can deliver material more precisely, reducing both waste and mistakes. Trimble just announced the acquisition of a private agricultural information firm C3, which will allow the company to integrate more detailed and precise soil data into the solutions it provides to farmers and related industries.

Reducing waste has long been a central theme of my own green stock portfolios, and these companies seem to be trading at fairly reasonable multiples of earnings.

After the close on Thursday, November 7th, Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital NYSE: HASI declared third quarter earnings. Earnings per share EPS of 14 cents, and a declared dividend of 14 cents as well. I have a large long position in HASI. I attribute those lows to investor worries about the federal government shut-down.

Incidentally, I was buying in early October. In the short term, federal projects may be delayed, but the company can make up the difference from other sectors in its vast pipeline. The most likely reason for the decline was selling by IPO investors. With an average share volume of less thanshares, it would not take much selling by short term IPO investors to drag the stock price down for several weeks.

Note that company insiders are still restricted from selling. I would not be surprised if they are buying today. Long term investors and traders willing to hold a position for at least six months should take note. If selling by short term IPO investors is driving the stock down, it is a buying opportunity, not a reason to panic. While the company was in danger of delisting, creditors were reluctant to provide funding, and this led the company to sell its two most capital intensive businesses: The uncertainty around possible delisiting caused these partners to draw back, preventing Lime from executing on contracts it had won, and leading Lime to sell that business to PowerSecure NASD: Although Lime was able to identify opportunities, it was not able to execute on these opportunities without outside capital, and so Lime is winding this business down.

Such customers are often difficult for the utilities to reach, but many regulators nevertheless require that utilities offer energy efficiency programs to these customers. Lime is the leader in this business, as measured by its success in exceeding contracted goals for energy savings. They recently won a national energy efficiency award from the Alliance to Save Energy one of seven such awards for excellence in saving energy to companies and individuals.

Unfortunately, Lime is pro stock hockey sticks difference yet quite ready to enter the heaven of profitability without one more trial.

Lime may need to raise more capital in another dilutive offering before it can fund its operations internally. Significant accounting costs will have continued through the second quarter, but these will decline significantly now that the statements have been filed. Will the utility business move to profitability quickly enough to avoid an additional fund raise. There may be enough cash to get there, but the cushion is worryingly thin. If Lime is forced to raise funds by selling stock or convertible notes, expect the price to fall further.

On the other hand, any sign that expenses are falling more quickly than anticipated, or that revenue is increasing should lead to a rally. The focus gained should serve the company well in the future, but the lack of fat leaves very little room for error in the coming months.

AMRC potentially confusing earnings. In previous conference calls, Sakellaris had not been willing to provide firm guidance about when he saw conditions improving.

Such projects cannot be delayed forever, so Ameresco has all the pieces in place to return to strong growth in the third quarter, and continue producing growth for a long time to come.

This article first appeared on the author's Forbes blog on August 9th. No, there has not been any scandal involving fudging the books or sweatshop labor. His company recently went public as a REIT, or Real Estate Investment Trust, and the traditional REIT investor likes the familiar.

They invest for income, and for many, a track record of past income and dividends is a must. I recently sat down tradeking penny stocks fees Mr. Eckel at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum REFF Wall Street, and suggested the name to him.

His company is called Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital NYSE: I think the re-branding might make it easier to convey exactly what his firm does. Proctor and Gamble NYSE: GE and a Waste Management NYSE: I think small, environmentally oriented, investors might pay a little more for HASI than professional income investors. The professionals care a lot about the financial sustainability of the dividend, but could not care less about the historical average gain stock market aspects of the business of funding energy efficiency and other sustainable investments.

Stock market puzzle investors are more likely to care about both.

Hannon Armstrong produces sustainable income from sustainable infrastructure investments; the name should reflect that. No doubt it was a coincidence, but it spurred me to write this article. Pounds of CO2 Equivalent saved per dollar invested. Cogeneration includes fuel cost. Hannon Armstrong with data from EIA, CME Group, Company filings, HannieMae. HASI will announce second quarter results and its first dividend on August 8th.

I like investing in companies that are having difficulty communicating their stories to Wall Street. This article was first published on the author's Forbes blog on June 28th. So you remember CFLs, right? The time they took to go on? Despite their drawbacks, compact fluorescents have sold fairly well in the US. They save customers money. WMT pledged to sell million of them. Time magazine put one on the cover. Other researchers lloyds banking group share sale form the number lower, about 20 percent, says IMS Research.

The trouble is, no one likes CFLs very much. Some CFLs took three minutes to turn onfor goodness sake! Consumers were dissatisfied with the quality of the light, and rightfully so, as even advocates of CFLs acknowledged.

Which is why Cree, Inc. CREEa leading manufacturer of LED bulbs, is taking direct aim at CFLs, as well as old-fashioned incandescents, as it tries to win mainstream America over to LEDs—which, by most accounts, are a superior alternative to Investment brokers ratings and incandescents.

PHGand General Electric NYSE: GE —persuade Americans to change their lightbulbs, yet again? He told me that Cree will try to sell LEDS by telling people that they last longer and cost less than CFLs and incandescents, without requiring any sacrifice when it comes to performance. As for incandescents, he said, they are like throwing money out the window.

The fact is, LEDs are the environmentally-preferable choice. And that gap is expected to grow significantly as technology and manufacturing methods improve in the next five years. Sticker shock remains an issue. But a Cree 9. Of course, they are simply not equivalent products.

Most experts believe that CREE and the other leading LED makers will eventually be able to overcome those obstacles and drive sales. They turn on instantly, and they are dimmable. Earlier this year, Gerard Wynn, a market analyst for Reuters, wrote:.

The LED lighting industry is set to dominate the global market more than a century after its discovery, benefitting from a widespread ban of conventional incandescent bulbs and as the market share of competing green replacements fade. Posted by Guest Contributor at These are expected to be the growth drivers for the near-term.

We are also very confident about the medium to long-term pipeline development, as hedged dividend capture with stock index options by the continued increase in awarded projects.

Where we are cautiously optimistic near term, is the select areas where we continue tradeking penny stocks fees see softness in the awarded project conversion rates.

The varying conversion rates at the local level lead us to believe that overall market conditions will improve gradually over time. We continue to believe, however, that energy efficiency represents a large growth opportunity over the long-term. We are excited about our own growth or potential within this market opportunity, given our leadership role, as well as our current pipeline development.

As a result, we are very optimistic about the long-term fundamentals of our business. Leading Dollar exchange rate in indian rupees American transit bus manufacturer New Flyer Corp TSX: Bus ridership and state tax revenues which also fund bus purchases have been strong.

Green Building company PFB Corporation TSX: PFBOF also announced first quarter results. Year over year, comparable revenues and earnings were slightly down from the first quarter last year. In my opinion, this is most likely due to the much colder weather than inwhich would have slowed building conditions.

Going forward, I expect to see earnings growth for the rest of the year. Oh, yeah, and Tesla NASD: TSLA also announced very strong earnings. The fairy dust from high profile stocks like Tesla tends to fall on all green stocks, and increase valuations across the board. HASI, on the other hand, has market capitalization approximately ten times larger than PW, and traded over five million shares on its first day.

That is about as many shares as PW trades in nine months. Hannon Armstong has long been a leader in financing sustainable energy projects. The company is a fixture at clean energy financing events, and its partners have impressed me with their level of knowledge in our conversations at such events.

By going public and converting to a REIT structure, HASI is tapping a pool of relatively low-cost capital from small investors. Many small US investors have previously had few opportunities to invest in sustainable infrastructure.

The most comparable investments I know are solar-backed loans from Solar Mosaicand PW. Further, these loans cannot be purchased within a retirement plan such as a self-directed IRA. The interest on Mosaic loans 4.

Such projects include the installation of sustainable HVAC equipment as well as potentially clean energy generation such as solar and wind farms. Such projects are not the typical investment which you would normally expect to find in a REIT, but there has been some ambiguity regarding how photovoltaic solar and similar infrastructure should be treated.

In an interview, Eckel told me that the IRS issued a private letter ruling detailing exactly what types of such infrastructure HASI will be able to invest in and maintain REIT status in July The issue of what sorts of renewable cci mini mag 22lr ammo for sale in stock projects are suitable for inclusion in a REIT is of great interest among developers and financiers over the last few months.

Some of the existing rulings could conceivably benefit certain individuals who are making requests to address specific boutique structures, but it is not likely that anything that has been issued will lead to the sea ebs details new fx trading rules that many in the industry are hoping for.

Not only did HASI request and receive their ruling before many industry observers were even talking about the possibility, but it seems to be quite comprehensive. Murasaki trading system has not been forthcoming about its contents: All that means take quizzes and earn money solar, wind, and geothermal can be suitable REIT assets.

Since Hannon Armstrong does not have to significantly change the way it structures deals and manages its portfolio, other REITs may also be able to make similar investments without a prohibitive number of convolutions. Now that the IPO is complete, HASI intends to invest the funds in eight sustainable energy projects which they have lined up and ready to go.

Roughly a third of the projects will be invested in renewable energy such as solar, wind, biogas, and geothermal, with the balance in energy efficiency projects and other sustainable infrastructure.

If HASI funds multiple geothermal projects over the next few years, this could be excellent news for geothermal developers with projects in the United States, such as Ormat NYSE: ORARam Power TSX: REIT earnings are defined by the IRS, and will differ in some respects from the GAAP earnings.

This could increase earnings per share if it allows more profitable deals which might not have gone through without HASI having skin in the game, but it could also dilute earnings if the income HASI earns by managing projects is diluted over a larger equity base invested in the projects themselves.

One other factor to consider is the pricing of would you buy aone stock IPO. Because of that, they will be able to invest less new money per share than they could have if it had priced higher, which will lead to lower earnings per share than we could have expected at a higher IPO price.

After dilution from new equity, earnings would amount to approximately ten cents a share. A quick survey of the top 10 holdings of the SPDR Dow Jones REIT ETF NYSE: RWRshows that these Marcus padley stock market secrets review yield between 2. It should also be attractively priced in comparison to the green infrastructure investments I mentioned earlier: Loans from Solar Mosaic yielding 4.

The REIT presses all my buttons:. Energy Efficiency is good for jobs, and the environment. Much can also be done at modest or no cost to the taxpayer. Today, Senators Jeanne Shaheen D-NH and Rob Portman R-OH are reintroducing their Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act, supported by a broad range of industry can you transfer money from paypal to your bank account, energy efficiency advocates, and environmental stakeholders.

This bill eliminates that provision, along with another revolving loan program which had how television serial earn money intended to fund energy efficiency upgrades. A representative of insulation manufacturer Owens Corning NYSE: Rules for expense stock options fasb applauded the bill.

As the residential insulation market leader for over seven decades, we are keenly aware of the energy savings, environmental improvements, and job creation opportunities derived from strong earn money from blogspot efficient buildings policies and practices.

Although the broad indexes were down at mid-day, Would you buy aone stock Corning stock was up 0. More specialized energy efficiency companies were also rallying. AMRC was up 3. Energy efficiency LED lighting players Cree NASD: RVLTand Phillips NYSE: HON and Johnson Controls NYSE: JCI followed the broader market down.

A previous version of this article was first published on the author's Forbes. CREE arrested my attention as I entered a home improvement store. Cree is not alone in improving the efficiency, light output, and price of LEDs to challenge fluorescents. PHG launched a replacement for conventional T fluorescents widely used in offices. This is especially true in hard-to-reach applications.

Option trading pit review ian cooper I expect a more significant driver of adoption will be improved light quality. Happier workers are a much bigger benefit to companies than saving a how to buy silver mining stocks dollars on their electric bill.

Not every LED stock will benefit equally, however. Pure-play LED companies like Cree and Revolution Lighting Technologies, Inc. RVLT are likely to gain more than broader lighting companies like Phillips and Acuity Brands NYSE: All that said, I worry that LEDs today are where solar was a few years ago: I initially thought that LED equipment suppliers like Aixtron SE NASD: RBCNwhich sells monocrystalline sapphire for LEDs as well as radio frequency and optoelectronics.

In solar, upstream players were profitable for longer than solar manufacturers, although they, too, eventually felt the competitive heat. Of these three upstream players, Veeco has the best exposure to LEDs. Rubicon is somewhere in between. In elementary school, I learned that the surest way to get rich in the California Gold Rush of the late s was to sell picks and shovels to would-be miners.

It seems like even that "tried and true" method won't be enough to make money in the LED Gold Rush. Better to stick to being the jewelery buyer, and benefit from the rapidly growing supply and falling price of LED gold. Many investors flee the scene at the first whiff of accounting problems: In contrast, I 777 list of regulated binary options brokers that we never have anything like an accurate picture of what is going on at the companies we own.

Uncertainty is always present, how much is just a matter of degree. Earnings restatements can be just the tip of an iceberg of accounting troubles, or they be the rough that hides a diamond. Here are the links to the parts about Maxwell and Ameresco. At the start of the year when I included Lime in my list, its accounting problems were well known and ongoing.

Timing of revenue recognition can be very subjective, and honest accountants can differ about when money flowing in to the company should be booked as sales. However, booking non-existent revenue means that someone was attempting to present a false picture of how much money was actually flowing in. Most investors would sell at any price to avoid a company that had been creating sales out of thin air. The reasons I remained invested in the company were:. Unfortunately, the accounting problems were much worse at least in complexity, and possibly in magnitude than the board initially thought.

Also in that announcement, they did not make any claims as to the magnitude stock market alpha definition the potential restatements. On the encouraging side, the late expansion of the investigation lends credibility to the assumption that top management was not forex turkey forum of the problems.

Now, however, I have trouble seeing how the news earnings on frontoks binary options get much worse. I believe the many delays have led the vast majority of investors to completely give up on this stock. I consider it a gamble, but one where the odds are on my side. On March first, Lime Energy NASD: LIME announced the sale of its Energy Service Contracting ESCO business to PowerSecure International, Inc.

The deal should be good news for both Lime and PowerSecure shareholders. Although cme futures trading strategy charts have not seen any financial data since Lime began the internal audit of its books last July, there have been numerous announcements of progress in its utility business. Just this year, Lime has announced:. It should also allow Lime to focus its working capital on the growing utility business, volatility stock market definition possibly repay some of the debt raised in On the other hand, Lime is unlikely to have been in a strong bargaining position, and from that alone we can expect PowerSecure received good value for its money.

Nevertheless, the company says that the acquisition will increase EBIITDA and earnings per share in PowerSecure shareholders, in turn, should benefit from the acquisition of a complementary business at what is likely to be a very reasonable price. One possibility is that everything goes as Lime management hopes. As always, the time to buy will be during the period how much money does michael phelps earn greatest uncertainty, which will likely correspond with the stock price low and happen sometime between now and February hsbc foreign atm exchange rate. Until such time as it is relisted, it will trade on the over the counter OTC markets, where most stocks typically trade at a substantial discount to similar stocks on NASDAQ.

Clearly the decision to buy now depends on the chances of the appeal being denied or of additional delays to filing financial reports. The chance that the appeal will be denied is harder to know. I sold some of my position, but kept most of it. The reason for that is mostly my own psychology. Faster than Anyone Expects. The launch of OLED TVs will complement rapid growth in smartphone and tablet screens. Everyone will want an OLED screen as the costs come down. This should help LED manufacturers such as Cree NASD: CREEPhilips NYSE: PHGand component forex trading currency co tv demo such as Advanced Energy Industries NASD: AEIS and Rubicon NASD: SI and General Electric NYSE: GEamong others.

Jan Schalkwijk, CFA is a portfolio manager with a focus on Green Economy investment strategies at JPS Global Investments in Portland, OR. The latter I believe is more a cyclical bottoming out than an indication of poor future orders. The future of LEDs is bright, and these three experts think could be the year when they really take off.

I tend to be cautious when there seems to be an investment concensus for a sector, because it means that the stocks are unlikely to be cheap. I have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. I chose Rockwool because it forex guruvayoor expanding in the USprovides excellent international diversification, has a strong balance sheet with no net debt, and not least is a leader in the greenest part of the construction sector: BRK-B, BRK-Aand Saint Gobain Paris: US-based Owens Corning NYSE: But a recent price run-up from DKK to DKK over the last year has mosty closed the gap.

While I think the North American housing market recovery will continue, I currently see much more attractive sector players, such as Waterfurnace Renewable Energy TSX: WFIFF and PFB Corporation TSX: It does this by using the cost savings from energy efficiency to finance the capital outlays, allowing schools, hospitals, and the like to insulate or install solar panels while sticking to existing budgets, and often producing some savings.

To take three examples announced in the last month. These sorts of win-win contracts should make sense at any time, but are even more welcome when budgets are tight, as they are today. Ameresco management had already expected their quarter results to be less thanbut they did not see just how bad things were likely to get. While the election may have ease some uncertainty, the uncertainty caused by the fiscal cliff will almost certainly continue through the end of the fourth quarter, and its effects are likely to persist through December.

UTX and Chevron NYSE: Ameresco Biomass Cogeneration Facility at Federal government owned Savannah River Site Photo credit: Results-oriented leadership and fiscal conservatism are exactly what Ameresco needs to win new customers at the state level.

With the long term bright, and the stock price looking increasingly attractive, I plan to increase my holdings of Ameresco over the next few months, after the market finishes digesting the bad news.

When Lime Energy NASD: With selling pressure abated, large investors will be unable to buy the stock without greatly increasing the current price. Debra Fiakas is the Managing Director of Crystal Equity Researchan alternative research resource on small capitalization companies in selected industries. Last week, when Lime Energy NASD: Whenever a company reveals accounting problems, it's bad. But there are levels of bad. As Garvin Jabusch, Cofounder and CIO of Green Alpha Advisors and manager of the Sierra Club Green Alpha Should i buy walmart stocks put it.

A couple weeks ago, I compared the efficiency of the two most advanced geothermal heat pumps GHPs recently launched by Waterfurnace Renewable Energy TSX: Like most things in life, it turns out that heat pump efficiency is a lot more complicated than just comparing a couple numbers. I checked with the pros. He says that the only reliable way to compare units is to look at the operational performance data for the designed condition. Both agree that the contractor can mess up the rated efficiency of a GHP, or even make it perform above specification, with the wrong or right system design and installation.

I put them together in a pair of bubble charts:. There are three 7 Series models and two Trilogy 40 models, each of which was tested at full load and part load, under two types of conditions. That said, for most installations, factors other than efficiency will probably dominate the decision. As noted above, Waterfurnace expects exclusivity from its dealers, and I expect Climatemaster and its other major competitors often do the same. This will make it nearly impossible for a residential customer to compare the two without having to weigh other factors such as their confidence in the installer who, as noted above, can make or break a geothermal installation.

In fact, Climatemaster designed the Trilogy 40 with the whole system energy savings in mind, partially at the expense of efficiency ratings. In commercial settings, which typically have year-round cooling requirements, Q-Mode is unlikely to be important. Furthermore, the two largest 7 Series heat pumps have higher capacity than the larger of the two Climatemaster Trilogy 40 models.

This should also give Waterfurnace an advantage in commercial settings, which typically have larger cooling loads than residential settings. Ellis promised to send me some data to help quantify the overall energy savings from Q-Mode, which I plan to return to in a future article.

LXU Trilogy 40 as the first commercially available GHP with a variable speed compressor. The Trilogy 40 is currently available as part of a pilot program, and is expected to be commercially available later this year. The variable speed compressor enables a significant jump in efficiency over previous two-stage compressors.

I looked at the technology behind these new heat pumps in the article Geothermal Heat Pumps: The Next Generation in May, soon after Climatemaster introduced the Trilogy. As you can see from the chart above, Waterfurnace managed to nudge out Climatemaster in both cooling EER and heating COP efficiency ratings.

Both are on linear scales, so the Series 7 is 2. Most rival heat pumps only create hot water when being used to heat or cool the building. Existing relationships between installers and their dritributers will probably dominate both in many cases. The biggest winners will be consumers, who now have both cheaper versions of two-stage GHP technology available, as well as the option to enter a whole new frontier of HVAC energy efficiency.

The firm has been seeing double-digit annual sales growth in North America, driven by interest from do-it-yourself chains and insulating commercial buildings, and expects this growth to continue. Rockwool is far from the only green building company to predict growth indespite the generally depressed housing market. Ground-Source Heat Pump GHP manufacturers Waterfurnace TSX: WFIFF and LSB Industries NYSE: LXU both said they see signs of revival in demand for their how to get loads of money on chobots building products during their first quarter conference calls.

Insulated Concrete Form ICF and Structural Insulated Panel SIP manufacturer PFB Corporation TSX: PFBOF did not provide an updated outlook in the first quarter, but has seen continuous sales penny stocks to buy india over the last several years, despite the downturn, and is expanding manufacturing in the US and has seen favorable pricing trends beginning to emerge.

With signs of growth just beginning to emerge, now seems a good time to get into green building stocks, before the trend is widely recognized. Here are seven to consider, starting with the most-well known large capitalization companies, and moving on to the hidden gems.

Honeywell is not a focused play on green building, having large aerospace, materials, and transportation segments. Although expected earnings are down slightly fromstrong growth is expected to resume in The company does not pay a dividend. As such, this company is only appropriate for a long term investor making a fairly substantial investment.

Like Owens Corning, Rockwool is a large cap, nearly pure-play green building company, and the difficulty of buying it is offset somewhat by the advantages of a regular dividend.

Chemical and GHP manufacturer LSB is currently trading at a depressed price because of investor worries about damage from an explosion at one of its chemical facilities last month. This investor reaction seems out of proportion to the relatively small size of the potential uninsured losses from the incident. Waterfurnace is a leading North American manufacturer of GHPs, and managed the housing downturn well by refocusing its business away from the weak residential market and towards the more resilient commercial market.

Forward earnings estimates are not available for this little-followed company. Among the pure-play green building companies in this list, Waterfurnace is currently one of the two most attractively priced, and unlike PFB below is easy to buy for a US-based investor.

PFB makes green building products from expanded polystyrene, such as the SIPs and ICFs mentioned above. The company pays a regular quarterly dividend of 6 cents a share for a 3. Unfortunately, the stock is extremely illiquid, and so is only appropriate for very long term investors or smaller investors trading using limit orders. Dividends from Rockwool, Waterfurnace, and PFB are subject to foreign withholding taxes, and so these stocks should be held in taxable brokerage accounts, where this tax can often be recovered through the federal foreign tax credit.

Climatemaster, a division of LSB Industries NYSE: LXUrecently announced that their new Trilogy 40 geothermal heat pump GHP had been certified by the Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute AHRI to exceed 40 Energy Efficiency Ratio EER under ground loop conditions. EER is the ratio of effective cooling heat removed to the energy used, at maximal load, and is the standard measure of cooling effectiveness for geothermal heat pumps. A quick perusal of the list of Energy Star qualified GHPs shows just how big a leap this is: According to Barry Golsen, President and COO of LSB, the Trilogy 40 will also have improved heating performance, with a Coefficient of Performance COP, the industry measure of heating efficiency of 5 at ground loop conditions.

This is also a significant increase, with the best GHPs in the Energy Star list having COPs of 4. It allows the GHP to produce hot water even when it is not being used for space heating or cooling. According to Chris Williams, technology evangelist at Heatspringa provider of renewable energy and energy efficiency training and certification, producing hot water year round required additional equipment and cost with traditional heat pumps.

Climatemaster is not moving into 40 EER territory unchallenged. Variable speed compressors see below are available from a number of vendors, and Huntington believes that the compressor used in the Trilogy is less efficient than the on Waterfurnace has selected for the 7-Series.

How did they achieve these efficiency breakthroughs? Current GHP models use two stage scroll compressors. Variable speed blower motors and pump fields have been available for some time, although they often require the special controllers.

Variable speed compressors are new. The integration of components and jump in efficiency should make these new systems attractive to installers in the field. According to Lankhorst, the Trilogy may be especially cost effective in high-end residential applications, where the integrated system will eliminate several separate components.

Year round hot water is less of an advantage in commercial applications, since commercial installations operate nearly all the time in cooling mode, when free hot water is produced as a byproduct of cooling the building. On the other hand, the spot efficiency ratings of a GHP are far from the only factor in determining the effectiveness of a GHP system.

According to Williams, proper ground loop, distribution, and system design can potentially have a greater impact on system efficiency. When contractors select a GHP, technology tends to be more important in commercial operations than in residential ones.

The cost of the heat pump is a small fraction of the cost of drilling the loop field, so residential installers are more interested in the level of technical support offered by the distributor, so these competitive advantages will vary from region to region.

On the other hand, if Q-Mode makes for much simpler installations, Climatemaster stands to gain residential market share unless its competitors can offer similar integration without infringing its intellectual property.

The next generation of efficient ground source heat pumps are a significant step forward in energy efficient climate control. Geothermal heat pumps are already so efficient that the additional savings may not be enough to justify the higher up-front cost. Additionally, Waterfurnace introduced their new 5-Series line of GHPs with two stage compression in March, at a slightly lower price point than the Envision product it replaces.

Either way, the cost of saving energy continues to fall, and the potential customer base for geothermal heat pumps will grow as higher efficiency and lower prices make them an even more economical approach to climate control. LIME announced that it was selling a million shares to Richard Kiphart, one of its own directors and its largest shareholder. Cash reserves are always seasonally low at the end of the first quarter after the slow winter season, so liquidity was a bit tighter than usual.

Because of these contracts, analyst Graig Irwin at Wedbush Securities was quoted in a Charlotte Business Journal article no online access saying he expects the company to end the year in the black, despite the first quarter loss. Director Richard Kiphart, who already owned 9. I look at this citrus and see green. Friday, in a generally positive article about Lime Energy NASD: Using data on executive pay from Morningstar, I compared executive pay at Lime not only to Orion Energy, but to the four other energy management companies I covered in my series of executive interviews last year: World Energy Solutions NASD: XWESEnerNOC NASD: ENOCComverge NASD: COMVand Ameresco NYSE: The results are shown in the chart below:.

The chart shows total compensation of the top five executives of each company, in millions of dollars, over the last five years. I included the stock price returns, since this is an indicator of how effective share option awards have been at reducing executive pay as the share price falls. Since all these companies have had falling prices over the last three years, we would expect to also see falling pay.

Note that the return of World Energy Solutions is a one year, not a three year return, as the company got its NASDAQ listing only Who is the Most Overpaid?

The most overpaid executives are at Comverge and EnerNOC, both in absolute millions of dollars, and as a percentage of market capitalization. Capital LLC in March, so I expect that this particular group of overpaid executives will be out the door soon. EnerNOC execs should probably go the same way, but with such hefty pay packets, executives there have every incentive to hang on as long as possible, as did executives at Comverge just ask Brad Tirpakwho led a multi-year campaign to remove them.

With Sakellaris as the driver, investors should be happy pay his quite reasonable salary and hop on for the ride. While the headline was disappointing, President and CEO George Sakellaris confidently reaffirmed revenue guidence for the rest of the year, saying that he expected revenues to be heavily back loaded.

Strong revenue growth is coming from contract with the federal government.

Sakellaris commented that Ameresco has found it hard keeping up with federal demand so far this year. Click here for an up-to-date quote. LIME has been a star in the very competitive energy services space recently because of its ability to maintain margins in what has been a very competitive environment.

This was the buying opportunity I was waiting for since I first wrote about the Lime last October. CHG direct install program may change that. But the earnings impact is likely to be much bigger than 2 to 4 cents a share. In the context of a utility program, the utility pays Lime to contact the businesses and implement a menu of energy efficiency measures.

Lime can then offer the business a number of additional efficiency measures which will be profitable to both the business and to Lime. This article first appeared on the author's Forbes. I was contacted by a representative of BioBased Technologies a company highlighted in the article who felt that it was misleading regarding the safety of their product.

Here is what she had to say: Posted by John Petersen at Despite the long term benefits, the upfront cost is often a barrier, especially to government entities in today's tight budgetary environment. Performance contracting offers them a way to square the circle between the long term budget benefits of efficient buildings and the often significant capital cost.

This works by funding the capital improvement with debt secured by future energy savings. An Energy Service Company ESCO guarantees a certain level of energy savings and performance hence the term Performance Contracting.

Yet performance contracting comes at a cost. No ESCO puts its balance sheet behind a promise of energy savings solely out of a desire to green the economy. That ESCO has a cost of funds just like everyone else, and in the case of a performance contract, this cost of funds is built into the contract price. Entities which understand what needs to be done and can borrow at reasonable interest rates or have cash can wring greater savings out of energy efficiency services by avoiding performance contracts.

ESCO Business That's where Lime Energy Co NASD: Lime a name derived from "Less Is More Efficient" has been providing energy efficiency services for 20 years, both directly to clients and also as a subcontractor to ESCOs. Lime does not have the balance sheet to guarantee performance contracts itself, but it does have significant expertise in delivering the energy efficiency services that make performance contracts work.

In a recent interview, Lime CEO John O'Rourke told me that his current ESCO clients include Johnson Controls NYSE: JCIHoneywell NYSE: HONConstellation Energy NYSE: CEGClark Energy, and PEPCO NYSE: According to O'Rourke, Ameresco NYSE: AMRCthe publicly traded pure-play ESCO firm that was profiled in the most recent part of this series"would probably never use us," because of overlap in certain in-house capabilities and I suspect a bit of inter-company rivalry.

In its 20 years of business, Lime has worked with many ESCOs and directly with public sector or institutional customers which do not need performance contracts. One such example is the United States Postal Service USPSwhich issued competitive solicitations for multiple regions where the USPS financed the work directly instead of a traditional performance contract. Lime was awarded several of these IDIQ contracts with achieved savings in excess of 30 million kWh per year.

While the ESCO business is becoming more competitive, the business of actually delivering energy efficiency has become somewhat less competitive. In Lime's core Northeastern market, several energy efficiency contractors have recently gone out of business or shrunk their operations significantly. These businesses were unable to weather the trough that the ESPC industry experienced over the last three years.

Lime survived by re-directing their focus to other areas, and found growth opportunities in the private sector. Utility Business Lime has carved out a niche for itself managing Demand Side Management DSM programs for utilities. Part of the reason for the rapid growth is likely Lime's track record, in which the company has "blown savings goals out of the water" over the last three years. Utility DSM targets tend to be conservative, since the utility itself usually plays a very large role in setting the regulatory process, and utilities have a vested interest in setting targets low to keep them easily achievable, so Lime's track record may not be as impressive as O'Rourke makes it sound.

On the other hand, targets for delivered savings have increased dramatically over the last few years, and utilities face penalties for failure to meet these goals. In addition to this rapid growth, the utility business brings two main benefits to Lime.

First, it is a source of earnings stability, since contracts tend to be multi-year and not seasonal like much of Lime's energy efficiency business. Current utility clients include the Long Island Power Authority and National Grid NYSE: NGGbut O'Rourke hopes to win additional contracts this year.

Finally, Lime has recently introduced a new division called Lime Energy Asset Development, or LEAD to develop its own energy projects in-house. These projects involve the development, design and construction of larger alternative energy projects where the clients purchase the energy produced, rather than the asset itself. These larger projects will be limited by Lime's ability to finance them, but doing project development in-house should allow Lime to maintain strong margins on the projects, and Lime need only undertake them when it will not put undue pressure on Lime's balance sheet.

Since the third and fourth quarters tend to be the most profitable, cash should increase over the next two quarters, and so O'Rourke is probably right that current assets and credit lines should be sufficient to bring Lime to consistent profitability. I like Lime's business, and think the company is fundamentally strong, and the valuation is quite conservative. However, I expect the current stock market rally to be short-lived. I'll be watching the stock closely and buying cautiously if either of these comes to pass.

In this article we will continue the discussion and address: Possible Investment targets within GHP 6. The 2 best opportunities for investment in public equities. There are two major things holding back the GHP industry. IGSHPAThe International Ground Source Heat Pump Association, has created a training certification to help spread the knowledge.

HeatSpring Learning Institutealong with a number of other private and public education providers, is using the IGSHPA certification to build the base of industry professionals who can install geothermal. Similar to the solar industry, the large amount of money upfront needed to install geothermal has impeded growth.

Until the industry can figure out the financing, like the solar industry has with the PPA, growth will not be rapid. LVestus is a New Hampshire based company that is now offering a TPA, a thermal purchase agreement, and is addressing the financing issue. How can you invest in this growth?

Where is the opportunity in the GHP Industry? There are a number of large, publicly traded manufactures that are pure plays FSLRTSLSTPjust to name a few. Other than the heat pumps, the rest of the products are nearly impossible to invest in because they are: Very small companies that are not large enough to become public.

This pertains to most design and installation firms as well as software companies.

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The only opportunity to invest in GHP is in the heat pumps themselves. Here is a review of the top heat pump manufacturers in the USA. After a review of GHP manufacturers, there are only three that are public and accessible.

LXU is less diversified than UTX and has two main business units--climate control and chemicals. The climate control group designs and manufactures a range of HVAC products including ground source heat pumps. WFI is the only pure play on the GHP industry. Both ClimateMaster LXU and WaterFurance WFI are respected manufacturers within the industry and provide quality products.

After completing the analysis and looking at direct access to the GHP industry, I was surprised how decentralized the industry is for every product within the supply chain. Based on the number of products that go into every GHP installation, I would have thought it would be easier to invest in the industry.

The GHP industry as a whole is highly competitive, very price sensitive, and built around commodities instead of proprietary technology or manufacturing techniques like we see in the solar industry. Sign up for their newsletter here. Chris can be reached directly at cwilliams heatspring. The dealer who sells the equipment typically installs it.

ByPMG projects the U. Will the growth of the geothermal industry continue for the next 10, 15, 20 years, and can we invest in public equities like we can in the solar pv industry to benefit from this growth? In this article, I will walk through an analysis of 1. What is driving the growth if the GHP industry 2. Why property owners and utilities are adopting GHPs 3. The market segments that are adopting geothermal the fastest 4.

Alternative Energy Stocks: Energy Efficiency Archives

Geothermal is a reliable energy source and a solid investment that is more broadly applicable than solar because the technology is not susceptible to state policy, like solar pv. Put another way, the financial return that a GHP system provides to property owners is based more on the fundamental technology and the fuel it is displacing rather than government incentives.

Geothermal heat pump HVAC systems are attractive because the technology is fundamentally sound and super efficient. The Department of Energy also has some great geothermal heat pump resources. Geothermal heat pumps offer a number of advantages over traditional heating and cooling methods to property owners, namely they offer the following: Many of our alumni have weathered the recession by investing in training and moving their business into this new segment.

The residential market is the strongest in new construction, where the systems can be financed from day one. However, the retrofit market is still strong, especially if the building has an old furnace or leaky building envelope. Also, with large commercial or government projects, geothermal is becoming the norm because upfront costs are less of a consideration like with residential customers and lifetime savings and NPV are more important.

Continue reading A Guide to Geothermal Heat Pump GHP Investing, Part II. GE is betting big on natural gas. It will be manufactured in France and sold first in Europe and Asia, and then later in the U. One key selling point of the new plant is its unprecedented flexibility: It can ramp up and down rapidly, and thus be easily combined with wind and solar power plants that generate electricity intermittently.

The new GE plant—dubbed the FlexEfficiency 50—is rated at megawatts and offers fuel efficiency greater than 61 percent. Competing plants burn natural gas at efficiency rates of 57 or 58 percent, Bolze said.

What this tells you is that, all other things being equal, natural gas has become the fuel of choice for the global electricity business. Nuclear is expensive and it is deemed riskier than ever, for better or worse, after Fukushima. Coal is low cost but dirty and, as a result, politically unpopular in western Europe and the U. GE is continuing to invest in wind and solar power, the company said.

On March 22, the Conservative Canadian federal government released its proposed budget. The biggest news about the budget is not what is in it, but the fact that it is likely to lead to a no-confidence motion in Parliament, and bring about a new election.

Canadian insulation manufacturers hailed the inclusion of the home insulation program in the budget. It is an important tool that will help with economic growth and recovery in Canada. I followed up with Koch about the prospects for ecoENERGY in the next budget after the election. The Conservatives are saying that if that are elected, they would introduce the same budget. The Liberals have also revealed a platform supporting a similar program, and the NDP also supports it.

I believe it must be at least two years minimium and the requirement of mandatory label of the energy efficiency of a home be mandated as disclosue to the buyer should be implemented after the two years. All the major Canadian parties support the program because Energy efficiency measures help economic growth twice. Like any expenditure, they create economic activity, but they also have the added benefit of saving homeowners more money than they cost on energy bills. This money can then be spent on other goods and services, providing a second boost to the economy.

When ecoENERGY or a similar reinstated, Canadian insulation companies should get a boost along with the economy, although that boost will be limited if the program is for only a year. The five members of NAIMA Canada are CertainTeed Corp. Knauf is privately held, while Johns Manville and CertainTeed are divisions of the much larger conglomerates Berkshire Hathaway BRKA and Saint-Gobain CODGF. For green investors looking at insulation as an energy efficiency play, the two stocks to know are pure-play insulation manufacturers Owens Corning OC and Rockwool International RKWBF.

PKthe Danish parent company of Roxul. Owens Corning is well known in North America for its ubiquitous pink fiberglass insulation, but also makes a wide range of insulation and roofing products. Rockwool makes a range of insulation for buildings as well as marine and offshore environments.

One other company which benefited from ecoENERGY last time around was Waterfurance Renewable Energy WFI. In Waterfurnaces's annual report, the company specifically mentioned the end of the ecoRNERGY retrofit program in as one factor leading to slow sales growth in More energy highlights of the Canadian budget are here.

Long WFIFF Past performance is not a guarantee or a reliable indicator of future results. The year-old design software company has made a series of impressive moves into the sustainability realm over the past few years. Over the past year or so, I've had the opportunity to meet with or interview several members of Autodesk's sustainability team as well as its CEO, Carl Bass, on a number of occasions.

Autodesk makes a suite of 2D and 3D design software tools commonly known as CAD, for computer-aided design. Its flagship product, AutoCAD, along with the more advanced tools that integrate with AutoCAD, is the standard design software in architecture, engineering, and construction firms; manufacturing environments, such as industrial machinery, tool and die, automotive, and consumer products; and media and entertainment companies.

It developed Building Information Modeling, or BIM, software, which allows architects, engineers, construction professionals, facility managers, and owners to break down barriers and bridge communication between design and construction teams, with the goal of optimizing buildings and creating predictable outcomes.

Autodesk began using its own facilities as a living laboratory to gain real-world experience. Those efforts created a gateway into sustainability for Autodesk that has spread beyond buildings to designing everything from products to cities. We have customers that are designing consumer packaged goods. The myriad of sustainable design objectives across those industries is vast, and we realize that there is no green button.

One outcome of that exploration was a partnership announced last fall with Granta Design, a developer of materials databases, that combines Autodesk's Digital Prototyping technology with Granta's materials information technology to enable industrial designers, mechanical engineers, and others to more easily create products through sustainable design.

At the other end of the spectrum is a partnership with CDP Citiesa project of the Carbon Disclosure Project, which has worked to standardize carbon reporting and risk management. Now CDP is working to do the same with municipalities, from Beijing to New York. Autodesk partnered with CDP to standardize the software platform for how cities are tracking, managing, and reducing their carbon risk over the next 40 years, explains Stewart.

The city-level partnership exemplifies one of the things I find most interesting about Autodesk: It invests in educating the marketplace, seeding future customers with free or low-cost versions of its software. Autodesk has more than 1. The idea is that students learn their craft using Autodesk software and, of course, want to use it in their professional lives, too. Those students, it seems, hadn't been learning much about sustainability in their studies.

In response, Danby and her team last year launched the Autodesk Sustainability Workshopa series of free online instructional videos. Danby herself stars in the segment on Whole Systems Designwith sustainability education guru Jeremy Faludi leading most of the others. Autodesk also sponsored AskNature. The program started two years ago in the U.

You can watch excerpts from an interview I did with Bass, below. Net conference in San Francisco, on April For more than 20 years, Joel Makower has been a well-respected voice on business, the environment, and the bottom line. He has been called "The guru of green business practices. Profiting from Efficient Electronics was written for AltEnergyStocks. Posted by David Gold at Wind turbines stand tall and mesmerize with their motion.

Solar cells bask in the sparkling sun. Meanwhile, hidden down in the dark dirty underworld, a compelling technology sits quietly and gets no respect. What is this Rodney Dangerfield of cleantech?

Geothermal heat pumps, also referred to as ground source heat pumps or geoexchange. Anyone who has gone down a hundred feet or so in a cave on a hot day probably noticed how nice and cool it was down there. That is because in most geology, a zone of nearly constant degree Fahrenheit temperature exists feet below the ground we walk on. Even at shallower depths the temperature hovers within a much narrower range than on the surface. Geoexchange is technology that uses the constant temperature and huge heat sink that the earth represents to generate heat in the wintertime and to cool in the summer time.

They leverage technology inside the house that has similarities to your refrigerator which is, itself, a heat pump. Whereas solar or wind generate electricity, geoexchange reduces the consumption of energy for space heating and cooling and also can be utilized to generate hot water.

Table from Climate Master. In many markets, a geoexchange system can be installed with paybacks of years without any government incentives. By comparison, except in the best markets high sun, high electricity cost and high state tax incentives on top of federal incentivessolar still struggles today to provide year paybacks with government subsidies. The cost of installing the technology can pay itself back in as little as three years. In most climates, buildings need either heat or air conditioning to be usable days a year, and in many climates they need both.

Those systems age and need to be replaced a year lifetime is typical. So for a building needing new HVAC equipment, the relevant cost is the incremental cost of the geoexchange system.

Netting out the cost that would have been spent on traditional HVAC replacement equipment in most cases drops the payback calculation down to six years. Oregon Institute of Technology. There are several contributing factors:. This is a challenge that the solar industry used to face, when every system required fairly extensive design, engineering and coordination of a potpourri of vendors.

Solar has largely overcome this by better productizing their offerings and streamlining installation; at the same time, the number of solar-focused installation companies has proliferated. Geoexchange has yet to mature in this manner, and many of the companies in the space are largely traditional HVAC vendors that can do geoexchange.

One might think this is a good thing, but I suspect that it hurts geoexchange.

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But no one knows about the neighbor who invested in a geoexchange; after the drilling rigs leave, nobody can see the good deed being done for the environment. Geoexchange systems are installed by a hodgepodge of mostly small HVAC contractors. I would love to find an innovative geoexchange company with compelling technology advantages, innovative financing tools and a great management team that could build a large national business to invest in.

If you know of any, send them my way. David Gold is an entrepreneur and engineer with national public policy experience who heads up cleantech investments for Access Venture Partners www. This article was first published on his blog, www.