As we wrap up all of your discussion and inquiries regarding our recent look at ‘clean energy’ investing, we wanted to save the best for last. Here’s a pretty broad question, but we think we have a great answer(s)… 

Hi,
Could you refer more alternative car stocks that haven’t popped yet and or energy; wind, solar, thermal ocean.
Regards,
Speculative and Aggressive

Thanks S&A. We could mention more companies, but there are probably too many to list and still make sense of them. Instead, we’re going to list some of the better websites and resources we found that could help you find these eco-friendly companies on your own. Bear in mind these aren’t recommendations, nor is our list exhaustive. It’s a good place to start though.

EV - World. Would you believe there’s an entire site devoted to the electric car industry. This site isn’t focused on the individual or investable companies in the electric car world. Rather, it’s focused on the advancement of the technology. Still, you can get a good feel for who’s getting close to the end-goal, and what the future looks like. Hopefully some of the companies leading the race are publicly-traded.

‘The Electric Car Lives’. This isn’t a site - it’s a businessweek.com article. It’s a good overview though. We featured it here just to show how the concept is getting mainstream attention now. Business Week is hardly a fringe publication.

Alternative Energy Wind Power News. The site is actually an ‘all things alternative’ site, but they do a particularly good job with wind-related news. Mostly a forum.

American Wind Energy Association. This site is actually for industry insiders, which in many ways is better for industry investors. A lot of good data, stats, and government-related actions are highlighted here.

Global Investing Today - Geothermal. This is another ‘all things energy site’. They do a particularly thorough job with geothermal resources though. There’s still not a pure list of stocks cited here, but as quickly as they push through industry news, you’ll see several tickers in a short period of time.

Geotherma Info. This is actually a blog. Though we have no desire to become a blog directory, this site was a great resource for industry news as well as links to investment-specific sites.

Solarbuzz.com. - Enough said. There’s actually a ‘corporate news’ section of the site that lists announcements from publicly-traded companies. You may be able to pick up a few ideas there.

SolarIntell.com. - Another blog, this one with a solar focus. However, this site is exclusively dedicated to solar power stocks. There’s a decent list of publicly-traded companies.

Like we mentioned, this only scratches the surface. You’ll also see that we didn’t mention any specific companies or tickers. That was intentional. The industry changes too quickly, and frankly, most of the alternative energy stocks floating around today won’t be here a year from now. We suggest you continue to monitor the site; we’ll update you of major industry news or interesting alternative energy stocks. 

If you have another site of interest that could be of value to investors, leave the link below.

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Though this bulletin board stock may be at a crossroads, the underlying company has continued to find a path to success. Of course we’re talking about micro-cap stock Broadcast International (BCST)….a little company we mentioned last November, which has since managed to keep our attention.

It was only a couple of days ago we featured the ticker again, after we observed the stock’s familiar retreat to the 200 day moving average line (which was where the prior rally started). Though BCST hasn’t used the long-term moving average line as a springboard yet, the idea is still in play.

At the time we had no idea today’s news was on the way; this morning we learned Broadcast International has been granted another key patent to protect their video compression technology. This particular patent allows for switching of settings within a certain codec (the code that translates digital data into streaming images) to maintain a target data rate while also sustaining video quality. It’s one of eight inter-related patents the company has been allowed.

The company’s core business is reducing the amount of bandwidth required to transmit digital video content via the Internet. As more and more data is being delivered via clogged web transmission pipelines, smaller files and more efficient file transfer are becoming critical. Broadcast International offers a better way to send digital audio/video content.

The technology works. However - like far too many things - consumers may not do anything about the Internet bottleneck until they absolutely have to. As such, Broadcast International may not be fully appreciated (fiscally or otherwise) for a while. In the meantime, we’ve found to be a pretty good ‘trading’ stock.

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One of the common pitfalls of investing - particularly with small caps - is that great technology and great companies don’t always mean the underlying stock is a great investment. Of course, you have to give a budding company time to capitalize on their technology. Take ZAP (ZAAP) for instance. As a small cap stock investment, this electric car company has been lackluster. However, could it ever be great in the future? Here’s a slice of our thinking (prompted by this reader e-mail)…

I have had Zap stock for sometime and it still isn’t back to my entry point. The new investor and buy off of convertible debt can’t hurt. They are very slow at getting exposure to the market. I want to buy a car but dealers are to far away. Maybe with the $5 million investment they will move ahead with a more aggressive dealer net work.

Thanks for the post - all good things to think about. It’s true the stock hasn’t been much to cheer about. Even with the recent move from 41 cents to 98 cents, the stock is still no higher than it was a year ago.

All we can say is….well, we really can’t say anything. You’ve pretty much seen the good, bad, and ugly here. Capital is key, but even, so there’s never a guarantee. The stock is still in the red for many investors. Will that change? Maybe, but don’t assume that a well-performing company will automatically mean the stock goes higher.

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Our comments last week about the Dow Theory (and its currently-bullish mode) prompted some feedback from our readers. Some of you agreed, and some disagreed. We’ll try and work through all of it, starting with this e-mail.

Dow Theory indicated our entry into a bear market at the end of last year when we slipped below the 200 MA for more than a few weeks - we recently retested it and failed miserably.   Look at recent volumes, the bear market rally is fading fast.

Thanks for the note. We’re not sure what you’re calling the Dow Theory here. For our purposes, the ‘theory’ only involves the leadership of the transportation stocks or the industrial stocks. Where one goes, the other will eventually follow. We used the 200 day moving average line not because it’s a component of the theory, but simply because we needed some sort of baseline to compare apples to apples. (We could have used a 100 day average, or a 250 day average, or a 184 day average….it was arbitrary. We just chose 200 because it’s fairly common.)

Yes, the pullback from late last year was ‘predicted’ by the Dow Theory because the transportation stock sold off first. The 200 day average indicated the same thing.

Yes, the 200 day line acted as a resistance line for the Dow Industrials a few days ago, which also is bearish.

However, with the transportation stocks well above their 200 day line, that’s actually bullish for the overall market even though the Industrials are struggling with the 200 day moving average line.

In other words, we’re seeing mixed signals.

Which is right? That’s the question we’re asking. We can’t say yet either. We’re just saying according to the Dow Theory, the current scenario is bullish. Certainly other analysis could suggest otherwise.

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We always welcome feedback and ideas regarding our macro-themes, and got a really good one following our discussion of electric cars last week. Another budding alternative idea is an air-powered car. We almost mentioned the industry in the previous look, but could find next to nothing about it. Fortunately one of our readers was able to shed some light in air-powered cars:

The same can be said about the air car [that the industry is starting to solidify] (google: air car france; air car australia). This is a technology only picked up by an Indian car company so far (Tata Motors). Why not here in the US? Why not Japan? Why not Korea? Perhaps it is because one company (MDI) has the 19 patents that are needed for immediate manufacture. One very unique thing the air car offers that the electric car cannot is air conditioning…the air coming out of the tanks running the engine is at -20 degrees F, which can be transferred to the cab. I think Steve Jobs should make a deal with MDI and manufacture the “iCar” in the US.

Thanks for the data and points to consider.

As surprising as it may sound, it’s true - Tata Motors (TTM) is indeed making and selling air-compression cars that work. Though it’s not a ‘pure play’, it’s a company with a hand in the industry. Here’s a quick look and description of the air car, which has been around for a year now.

Though the fact that the car works is impressive, the same can’t be said for the stock. The India-based auto-maker’s stock also trades on the NYSE with the ticker ‘TTM’.

Another serious contender in the game is Zero Pollution Motors. They’re not a publicly-traded company, but they expect to bring air-powered vehicles to the United States sometime in 2009 or 2010. The big difference between these cars and the functional electric cars already racing down our streets is the price tag. ZPM’s cars are expected to cost less than $20K a piece.

The downside to Zero Polution Motor’s cars is the same as Tata’s compression-powered cars….they look goofy. Open-minded drivers may not have a problem with their looks, but many U.S. drivers may not be willing to give up their full-sized normal cars.

Anybody else know of any companies working on air-compression powered cars? We found very few. Chime in below.

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While we were optimistic about the electric car industry, we also acknowledge there’s two sides to every coin. We got this e-mail from a reader describing Honda’s (HMC) less-than-great experience with electric cars.

Honda has evaluated all electric cars and has not found they to work for the average person. They just introduced the first fuel cell cars.

Honda is already selling natural gas cars - no need for Mideast oil or refineries.

Honda will be introducing several new hybrids that make the most sense and can be driven across the USA.

PS: Ethanol for cars is a BAD idea.

Thanks for the note. We’re not sure how they came to that conclusion, but if that’s what they think, then that’s what they think.

To that end, we do have to ask if their conclusion was based on feasibility, or marketability. One of the unexplained nuances of electric cars has been ridiculous design and styling - for some reason, many manufacturers have insisted on only building go-cart sized autos, and not giving them enough power. If the car is tiny and doesn’t keep up with traffic, then no, they won’t work for most people. THERE ARE FUNCTIONAL, FULL-SIZED CARS THOUGH…..IN USE.

One of the coolest electric cars is made by Tesla Motors. It looks and performs like a sports car, and you can ‘fill it up’ just be plugging it in at night. At $109,000 it may be beyond most people’s grasps, but the price tag is paying for ’sport’ at least as much as ‘car’.

Still, if Honda is worried about the cost, that’s understandable…..but we don’t think this technology is going to stay expensive forever.

By the way, according to Tesla’s site, the cost to drive their car is 2 cents per mile. All of sudden the $109K doesn’t seem crazy considering what we’ve been paying at the pump.

Also, we agree - the current ethanol-based auto technology isn’t smart. It’s expensive and inefficient. So was gasoline at one time too though. We plan on keeping an open mind, but if the functionality and feasibility isn’t better in the near future, then something better will get the attention. Electric vehicles get our vote.

It’s not all sunshine and nice breezes, which is particularly a problem if you’re trying to produce wind and solar power. One of our readers correctly highlights that geothermal energy may be a more reliable and consistent form of alternative energy.

The wind doesn’t always blow and the sun does not always shine but geothermal energy goes on forever. I do quality audits at a major company that used a 50 acre lake to reduce energy by over 50 percent with a very short ROI.
 
Also, companies like US Geothermal are already using steam to power generators with no pollution.

Thanks. We’ve actually mentioned U.S. Geothermal (HTM) before (back in December). We found it because it looked like the stock was getting ready to move, though nothing ever really materialized. Still, an interesting idea.

One of the challenges here - as an investor - is finding companies that are doing work in the arena, but not doing other things (aka a ‘pure geothermal play’). Chevron (CVX) is actually a big name in the geothermal world, but it’s not their focus. There are geothermal-focused companies, but many are on shaky ground, undercapitalized, not profitbale, etc.

If you were interested in U.S. Geothermal, you may also be interested in Ormat Technologies (ORA). Their stock seems to be getting much more traction that HTM. In fact, Ormat may well be a solid long-term investment whether you’re a rabid geothermal fan or just an opportunity seeker.

Here’s a recent CNBC article on geothermal investing. We thought it was a pretty good take on the current state of the industry.

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This has nothing to do with investing, in micro caps or otherwise. We just thought it was worth reprinting here, since the reader who sent it in is basically right. (We’ll call it our good deed for the day.)

Why is no one in government eliminating the need for Mideast Oil? I believe the USA could do this in 2 years or less if we tried (we did nuclear bombs in less time).
 
We should:

1. Have windmills on every house (10K or less in cost)   
2. Cut down on stop and go traffic (all main city streets with no stopping for red lights once first light turns green - no left turns - 3 rights make a left)
3. Have incentives for more work at home - many jobs can be done without travel to office - at least 1 day per week - reduce rush hour - also make flex time available to everyone) - eliminate stop and go during rush hour.   
4. Promote stick shifts in cars with rebate from energy taxes - not automatics - they get a minimum of 10 percent more miles per gallon saving million of gallons of oil per year - even more with planned travel and use of neutral gears on hills.   
5. Provide rebates for fuel efficient cars.

Editor’s response: ‘Nuff said. One thing that you might find appaling….some owners are paying an extra tax on their hybrid cars. What kind of incentive is that?

If you’ve got more ideas, feel free to add ‘em below.

By the way, can a windmill - in general - power a house or even part of a house’s energy need? Anybody have that kind of knowledge tucked away? What’s the story?

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We featured one of our macro themes last week - clean and green energy. The focus was on a potential lack of fiscal support for wind and solar power technologies, but the idea still seemed to stir up some other related technologies…like clean water. One of our readers specifically wrote about Daleco International…..  

This tiny company  www.bio-organic.com is owned by parent co. Daleco International Inc. (ILDO). This is a green product! One gallon of BOC (bio-organic catalyst) cleans and de-odorizes 1,000,000 in 24 hours. It also increases the methane production by 50% to 100% allowing the cleaning process to pay for itself!!!!!!!!!! Just pour it in the wastewater!!!!!!!! Truly a miracle patented product. Company has contract with MSC Industrial Supply Co. They (MSC) have 28 of the BOC products featured on their green cleaning product line.

Thanks for pointing it out. It’s actually not the first time we’ve come across the company. We came very close to mentioning it when we first discussed the opportunities in clean water back in June of last year. We loved the idea, and the technology seemed to work. Our issue was with the stock….it’s just lifeless. And, it still is.

On the other hand, many stocks are lifeless for a while. Then, they just explode - in a good way. Is Daleco one of those stocks? Maybe. We’re not touting it yet, but we have no problem mentioning it. A little revenue could go a long way. That’s the problem though…..they don’t tell investors anything.

If you have specific thoughts or an update on Daleco - as they seem to have no publicity effort in place - please chime in below. This might be a sleeper.

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After last week’s chat regarding the future of the electric car industry (and we don’t mean hybrids - we mean electric cars) we got a ton of great feedback and questions. Since this seemed to be such an interesting topic for many of you, we’re going to share some of the e-mails and questions we received. Here’s the first one regarding a foreign company working on the technology with Lotus….

Afternoon to you!

Read with interest your article on Hybrid cars, I have shares in a small UK company (also listed on the Canadian exchange) by the the Name of Turbo Power Systems (code; tps). They are working with Lotus cars on such developments and at 3.5 pence are worth a look. These shares were once at 950 pence (taking into account a share split at 2200p) and peaking at the 2850p level before the split.
 
The company is still there, still working and their technology is being used in the new Boeing Dreamliner.  With major changes to the Board they now appear to be looking at the Defence industry or the Defence industry is now looking at them!
 
Appreciate any comments. I have a holding in them of course, buying again after reading about the Board changes. With the removal of the development team it now looks as if they mean business.
 
Regards

Thanks for the e-mail. Unfortunately we can’t tell you any more about them than you know. In fact, you know more than we do. Almost all of our data is U.S.-based. Even Canadian stock information is tough to come by.

However, we’re happy to mention the company name and ticker in case anybody else can add something. If you know more about Turbo Power Systems, please add your comments below.

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