New Perspective

This time next week we'll be within exactly one hour from landing time in Los Cabos for the Future1investor Conference Cabo















At this point it feels like I'm just dreaming of the warmer weather and sound of crashing waves on the beach. But I'm looking forward to this trip as a way of re-energizing myself for working with the market and providing a new perspective for 2008.

There has been so much gloom and doom in the recent past that almost anything is positive. And it seems with last two weeks the market thinks so too. Everyone is jumping in, perhaps not with both feet but certainly a few toes. We are looking very positive on solar and the alternative energy sector and will be carefully observing various company moves and their technicals to find good entry points for maximum profits on our end.

We look forward to seeing you in Cabo next week; not only to share great weather and fun but also to share our business insights and investing experiences.

Shot In the Arm for Solar

Early morning news gave the solar sector a boost before the bell Wednesday. FOX News analyst, FNC panelist, and executive editor of ChangeWave MicroCap Investor Tobin Smith said: "It's not too late to add stocks with huge growth potential like alternative, renewable energy companies, in an interview on BizRadio. " "green" power technology is only in the "first inning" in the U.S. as we are 1) finally approaching grid parity in 2010-11 where solar energy and coal plants will have equivalent costs per watt-hour and 2) the whole world is going to carbon credits, which will turbo-charge this investment sector. Tobin Smith's ChangeWave investing strategy focuses on new technologies that will transform our business and/or living styles.

Stocks up before the bell: 8:47am (FSLR) 6.34%, (JASO) 6.00%, (CSIQ) 4.72%, (CSUN) 5.85%, (SPWR) 9.65%, (AKNS) 1.22%, (SU) 2.58%.

Smiles For Solar Frowns For Oil

In February the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Renewable Energy and Energy Tax Act of 2008. This Act would eliminate $18 billion in tax breaks for big oil companies to help pay for extending renewable energy tax credits. Now we’ll see if Senate Republicans can vote for good energy and environmental policy – or just vote for Big Oil again.

We’ve been through this before. Last December Senate Republicans voted along party lines – at the urging of the White House – to defeat a similar bill. This year, Republican opposition to this bill and favoritism to Big Oil is becoming a theme of the presidential campaign.

The result is that solar power and other forms of renewable energy have become politicized – to the detriment of everyone who uses electricity and cares about the environment. Fortunately, it looks like the next new thing is clean tech: silicon for solar cells as well as chips. But there’s a cloud on the horizon – and that is the Federal Government’s apparent hostility to any industry that has the potential to impede Big Oil. We’ve seen this with absurdly lame CAFÉ standards, the EPA’s refusal to allow California to regulate their own emissions, and outright obstruction of the Kyoto Protocol’s efforts.

Renewable energy legislation that Republicans should pass moves $18 billion in tax incentives from Big Oil to the renewable energy industry over 10 years. In 2007 alone the profits of the Big Five oil companies were over $120 billion – if these profits continue at this pace they’d generate $1.2 trillion in profits over the same ten-year period.

Big Oil’s influence on our country’s energy and environmental policy. The impact is now being felt economically as higher energy prices create inflationary pressures. With $4/gallon gas and $110/barrel oil, our economy is going into a recession while our country writes ever bigger checks to foreign oil producers.

Big Oil does not need tax breaks while they’re earning record (some say windfall) profits. Senate and House Republicans need to wake up to the fact that their votes for big oil are embarrassing and politically suicidal. Our country’s energy policies are an economic and environmental dead end, and we cannot wait until next year to turn around. Let’s get an Energy Bill passed now that removes unnecessary support for Big Oil and accelerates the growth of clean, renewable power.

You people know that my investing friends and I here at Future1investor are big fans of solar. It is written about a lot on this web log. Though we are light years away from the SHINING example that Germany has placed before us with solar installations, I can only hope that the United States will not only follow suit but become the new example in what can be done with solar power in the near future. Meanwhile, we have opportunities to take long or short positions in the solar sector with companies such as First Solar (FSLR) , a Cramer favorite, Solarfun (SOLF), Evergreen Solar (ESLR) , Akeena Solar (AKNS), Canadian Solar (CSIQ) and others. The above article is an extract from Akeena Solar.

News This Week In Solar

Renewable energy is still a good investment for private equity, but high corn prices have taken investors' eyes off ethanol, said Scott Brown, chief executive of New Energy Capital.

New Energy Capital is a holding company that acquires minority or majority stakes in renewable energy companies.

"Any kind of renewable that generates energy, especially wind and solar power, are experiencing billions of dollars in new investments," Brown told Dow Jones Newswires in a telephone interview.

MORE

Southern California Edison (SCE) launched a project that will place 250 megawatts of advanced photovoltaic generating technology on 65 million square feet of roofs of Southern California commercial buildings. "This project will turn two square miles of unused commercial rooftops into advanced solar generating stations," said John E. Bryson, Edison International chairman and CEO. "We hope to have the first solar rooftops in service by August. The sunlight power will be available to meet our largest challenge – peak load demands on the hottest days." MORE

Executives from the world's top oil companies, in a congressional hearing today, told U.S. lawmakers that competition and high costs justify the industry's opposition to higher taxes.

Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, called on chief executive officers from the oil industry to testify on record profits and gasoline prices before his Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
The House passed a measure in February over oil-industry objections that would impose $18 billion in new taxes on oil and gas companies to pay for wind and solar projects and energy conservation measures. The industry argues that the money should go toward exploring for and producing more fossil fuels, which executives say could help bring down prices.
``In general, the United States tends to resist the need to develop new domestic energy supplies,'' John Hofmeister, president of The Hague-based Royal Dutch Shell Plc's U.S. unit, said in written testimony. ``Can we afford to continue this approach while energy demand and costs are rising?'' `MORE

Southern California Edison said it would spend $875 million to put solar cells on 65 million square feet of commercial buildings, enough to generate 250 megawatts of electricity.

The FPL Group, a subsidiary of Florida Power & Light, said it would build a 250-megawatt Beacon Solar Energy Project on 2,000 acres in Kern County and have it running by 2011.

The Dine Wind Project, a partnership between the Navajo Nation and Boston's Citizens Energy, would put hundreds of 400-foot-tall windmills in the Gray Mountain area, about 50 miles north of Flagstaff, Ariz.

Pacific Gas & Electric today (April 1) will announce the largest series of solar-power contracts in the utility's history. The deal, to buy as much as 900 megawatts of electricity - or enough to power 540,000 California homes each year - involves five plants to be built during the next decade.

Top executives of the five biggest U.S. oil companies were pressed today to explain the soaring fuel prices amid huge industry profits and why they weren't investing more to develop renewable energy source such as wind and solar.

An acre of solar panels and converter boxes sits atop a Target store in Manteca, installed just two weeks ago as part of a corporate plan to control energy costs by harvesting the power of the sun.

On Thursday morning, U.S. Rep. Jerry McNerney toured the store — one of just 18 solar-equipped stores in California — guided by several Target officials from Minneapolis. The panels provide about 20 percent of the store's energy, said Raj Maheshwari, senior group manager of engineering property development for Target, who oversees the solar program. In the summer, when the days are longer, the percentage climbs to 60 percent.

A solar-powered hydrogen fueling station is officially open, just days after the state gutted rules designed to increase the number of hydrogen-powered cars on the road. The station uses solar energy to separate hydrogen from water to power clean-fuel vehicles. Its solar panels produce 80 kilowatts of electricity, roughly enough to power 40 homes, or about 14 fuel-cell vehicles. The station opened Tuesday as a joint venture between the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, British Petroleum, Ford Motor Company and the U.S. Department of Energy. It will power SMUD's fleet of seven fuel cell vehicles. A solar-powered hydrogen fueling station is officially open, just days after the state gutted rules designed to increase the number of hydrogen-powered cars on the road.

MTI Instruments Inc., a developer of precision measurement instruments, has made a new product focused on the solar cell production industry. The product, called the PV1000, will be on display at the Photovoltaic Technology Show in Munich, Germany, on April 2. MTI Instruments, a subsidiary of Mechanical Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MKTY), based in Albany, N.Y., said the product would be incorporated into solar cell production lines. Robert Kot, MTI Instruments' vice president and general manager, said the product was developed with input from solar equipment suppliers and solar cell manufacturers.

Solar Cloudy But Clearing

That is my current position on solar investments at this time. Due to a bit of bad news of a polluter along with so much more going on in banking, housing, etc.. investors have turned away from solar for the moment. That is due to change however as we refocus the importance of the latest efforts in solar research and design.

The annual report from The Clean-Tech Market Authority was released this month citing the importance of subsidy support by government. The report shows that out of the total investment of Venture Capital, 10% has been focused on green technologies. (see below) Their forecast for green technologies is seen in the graphic above. (top)



We currently hold two companies: China Sunergy (CSUN) and Solarfun (SOLF) but there are many companies with attractive reasons to invest in them out there. If you've watched the videos from last week, you'll see an Israeli company which is running at full bore. Its technology is being used in the Mohave Desert right now. Germany has shown that much of the country can be sustained by a combination of Solar, Wind, and Biofuels which is managed by a single power station.

Like I said, there are many attractive companies, some of them you can't invest in yet through the markets, still others are available via OTC trading. I caution everyone on OTC trading as it is harder to reliably follow companies trading this way versus via the mainstream stock market. It is very easy to loose your money or see it go into limbo, so we won't trade there.

Perhaps the bottom line for the rapid growth of solar lies with our governments. Greed and corruption are rampant in almost every government including here in the U.S. With this lies the problem of support for what is right vs. where the money is for our leaders. Our men and women in politics seem to have their morals surgically extracted from them when they enter the political arena. They are bought and sold by large corporations who have no interest in what is right and wrong, what is good or bad. The greed of industry giants controls it seems every politician in an office which can do something for them now or in the near future.

We need the full support of government in order to quickly build an infrastructure of clean energy technologies. With the expenditure so far on Iraq and its future capital fallout, we could have provided every household in the U.S. with renewable energy. Or we could have done so on a large scale with alternative energy power stations. However this doesn't happen because there isn't enough money upfront apparently for politicians.

So it will take smaller corporate investment or the leadership of a company such as GE and the voice of the people to pressure politicians to embrace the technologies that can save our planet. It has to be done now, and not delayed in a long protracted plan as is so often used to quasi-table the important issues.