Written by Kevin Kelleher
This morning, Hoku Scientific posted its results for the March quarter and then saw its stock tumble. It followed a pattern set by shares of JA Solar on Monday and LDK today, as well as other solar companies in recent weeks.
Each company’s stock slid for a different reason, suggesting investors are looking for any excuse to move out of the speculative issues. Hoku abruptly shifted its plans for financing a crucial new silicon plant; LDK saw its profit margins deflate; and JA’s surprised the Street by saying it would raise $300 million.
Shares of Hoku opened Tuesday down 9 percent at $7.50 after it posted a loss of 11 cents a share, excluding certain items, well below the 5-cent loss that analysts, on average, were expecting. The company also said that it’s backing out of a plan with Merrill Lynch to borrow as much as $185 million to finance a polysilicon plant in Idaho. Instead, it wants to raise money through a stock-and-warrants offering on a U.S. exchange.
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Written by Irina Haltsonen
As the debate over whether countries should mandate more or less biofuels rages on, Finland’s diesel car drivers — at least in the Helsinki area — now have a chance to fill up their tanks with a new diesel fuel blend whose biodiesel content is at least 10 percent. Neste Oil, Finland’s biggest oil refiner, launched the new biodiesel blend commercially this week, called Neste Green diesel; the biofuel is a mixture of fossil fuel diesel and Neste Oil’s NExBTL Renewable diesel, which is based on renewable raw materials such as palm oil, rapeseed oil and animal fats.
Neste Oil aims to become the global leader in renewable diesel. The company is currently producing NExBTL in one refinery in Porvoo, Finland; a second plant is also under construction elsewhere in the country. A third, which the company claims will be the biggest biodiesel production plant in the world, is currently being built in Singapore. Neste is also said to be looking for investments to build additional plants in the future, potentially in the Benelux countries in Western Europe or in the U.S.
Many, however, oppose the shift to biofuels made partly of palm oil, arguing that it, too, is far from environmentally friendly. Today a European Union directive mandates that each member country should have at least 2 percent of bio or renewable ingredients in transport fuels.
In Helsinki, Greenpeace activists welcomed the new Neste Green diesel by locking the fuel pump nozzles at Neste fueling stations. Wearing orangutan suits, activists claimed that the increased use of palm oil is resulting in cutting down of rain forests and destroying the living environment of endangered orangutans.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher
It’s time to see how our favorite gadget makers and Internet search engines fare when it comes to their commitment to fighting climate change. While Greenpeace has its green electronics guide, the non-profit Climate Counts released a new scorecard on companies this week, which includes a list of electronics makers and Internet/software firms ranked according to the actions they’ve taken to reduce carbon emissions and combat global warming (hat tip to CNET). IBM and Google lead their peers, while Apple, eBay and Amazon lag far behind.
At the top of the electronics category are IBM, Canon and Toshiba. IBM recently told us that they have been working on environmental stewardship since 1971, so no surprise there. But way at the bottom are Apple, Nokia, and a little further up, Dell.
Apple has come under fire from environmentalists in the past, and the company has been trying to change its ways. But apparently when it comes to carbon emissions, not so much. Dell, on the other hand, was one of the first computer companies to commit to reducing its carbon footprint, so we’re not sure why it scored so low. Dell has also consistently had a pretty good track record for recycling, and recently started showing off its new eco PC, which is 81 percent smaller than a standard desktop and uses 70 percent less power.
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Written by Katie Fehrenbacher
Utilities plan to use solar power from both the massive solar plants that are being built in the California Mojave desert, as well as large scale distributed rooftop solar projects, like the one Southern California Edison is planning. So which technology is better? Centralized solar systems that use the sun’s heat to generate electricity, or hundreds of rooftops covered in solar panels strung together to generate power?
Roy Kuga, the vice president of the Energy Supply Division at California utility PG&E, had some interesting ideas about the pros and cons of each technology at the Berkeley, Stanford CleanTech Conference Series on Wednesday. Basically, while solar thermal plants provide lower solar prices, higher efficiencies and better energy storage, distributed solar rooftop programs are quick to deploy, and less costly when it comes to transmission lines and water needs. Check out the detailed list below:
Distributed Photovoltaic Solar Rooftop Projects:
Pros:
- These projects can get up and running fast. Around 8 months, Kuga says, noting that the solar industry is also trying to bring down this time dramatically.
- Distributed projects are not dependent on building long transmission lines to remote locations (such as the desert).
- Distributed projects are also not dependent on the high water needs that solar thermal plants require for cooling.
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Written by Kevin Kelleher
EnerNOC delivered first-quarter earnings Wednesday that were a mixed bag. The company beat Wall Street estimates, which is always nice; but its operating loss nearly tripled from the previous year to $11.7 million, which is not so nice. The net loss of 57 cents a share is down from 91 cents a year earlier, which sounds good. But it fell only because the number of shares used to calculate EPS (19 million shares vs. 4 million a year ago) grew faster than that loss.
Investors watching EnerNOC for a while know that there’s a reason for the losses. The company is spending heavily, especially on new employees, to gain a bigger foothold in a growing market opportunity. So while first-quarter revenue grew an impressive 87 percent on year, general and administrative costs (which include network operations workers) grew by 212 percent and R&D costs expanded by 343 percent.
EnerNOC’s business is helping utilities, grid operators and other companies like manufacturers use their existing energy more efficiently. With energy prices rising and blackouts likely to become more common, many companies are realizing energy efficiency is not only smart, but necessary.
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Written by Irina Haltsonen
Oil giant Shell’s decision to pull out of the world’s biggest planned offshore wind farm to be built in Britain resulted in a storm of criticism last week. Politicians and environmentalists accused Shell of being “greedy” and “irresponsible” in the British media. Many also believe that the move is part of a larger trend by Shell away from its renewable energy initiatives.
And the future of the London Array wind farm seems uncertain now. Shell was one of the three shareholders in the project together with German power company E.On and Danish utility DONG Energy. When fully operational, the wind farm would have provided electricity to power 750,000 homes, or around a quarter of London — its 341 turbines would have generated 1,000 megawatts of power.
The decision of Shell is also a major setback for Britain as London Array has been the symbol of the country’s renewable energy future. Britain is having a hard time meeting the European Union’s target of producing 15 percent of the country’s total energy from renewables by 2020. London Array wind farm was designed to provide around 10 percent of the renewable electricity produced in Britain by 2010.
It seems ironic that the decision made by the oil giant that has marketed itself with its renewable energy plans came only days after the company reported record profits. Shell has declined to give a detailed reason for its decision to sell its 33 percent share in the wind farm. However, Shell has said it plans to pursue other wind projects in the US where government incentives are more competitive and permitting easier to obtain.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher
Fuel cell maker MTI Micro is showing off a prototype of a GPS system with an embedded fuel cell at a fuel cell conference in Atlanta this morning. The company, which is based in Albany, New York, says its fuel cell-connected GPS system can provide 60 hours of usage, which it says equals three times as much energy as GPS that are powered by four traditional AA batteries.
MTI CEO Peng Lim told us that the GPS is designed to be used by hiking enthusiasts and the mountaineering types that want “truly” mobile power for a long period of time. For now, MTI isn’t announcing manufacturing partners for such a device, how much the device would cost, or even when it could be available. Just that yes, the company has designed such a product.
Fuel cells have a reputation for being perpetually 12 months away from hitting the market, and MTI plans to start selling its first fuel-cell devices some time next year. But this week, methanol-based fuel cell makers (like MTI) got a boost when the U.S. Department of Transportation said passengers on flights could take methanol-based fuel cells onboard planes.
