Top 10 Alternative Energy Stocks for 2015 - Investopedia

With global energy demand continuously on the rise, fossil fuels alone will not be sufficient to meet the demand. Alternative energy, which is defined as any energy source other than fossil fuels, is gaining interest. This segment addresses a lot of concerns linked to fossil fuel usage, including carbon-dioxide emissions, climate change, and other harmful effects on the environment. Companies operating in the alternate energy space include business operations in products, services, and research associated with alternative energy, and in production and supply of alternative energy. As development in technology continues amid high fluctuations in oil prices, this sector is expected to see high volatility.

This article discusses the top alternate energy stocks that look promising for 2015. The list is in alphabetical order with market capitalization, revenue, relative past performance for last one year, a brief description of primary business streams, and future prospects. Sun and wind rule the popularity list, while others forms of energy like biomass, geothermal, hydroelectricity are limited due to operational constraints and less efficiency. (See related: Why You Should Invest in Green Energy Right Now)

1. Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ): Founded in 2001 and headquartered in West Guelph, Canada, Canadian Solar is in the business of designing, developing, and producing solar cells, solar wafers, solar modules, and solar power products. It operates globally with a presence in Canada, the US, China, Germany, India, and Japan. Its market cap is around $1.9 billion and revenues are $914.38 million. Investors looking for investments in a global solar energy business will find this company a good fit.
2. Enphase (ENPH): Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Petaluma, California, Enphase Energy, Inc. is in the business of developing and designing of microinverter systems for the solar photovoltaic industry internationally. Associated businesses include the Enlighten software portal that acquires, processes, and relays information that helps customers to monitor and manage their solar power systems. Enphase has a market cap of $537 million and revenues of $105.21 million.
3. First Solar (FSLR): Founded in 1985 and headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, First Solar, Inc. is in the business of designing, manufacturing, and selling photovoltaic solar equipment and solar power systems through its two segments: components and systems. It has a market cap of $5.98 billion and revenues of $1 billion. It operates globally, serving commercial and industrial clients.
4. NextEra Energy (NEE): Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Juno Beach, Florida, NextEra is in the business of renewable energy generation from sun and wind. It operates in the US and Canada through two subsidiaries: Florida Power & Light Company and NextEra Energy Resources, LLC. The company offers wholesale and retail electrical service to almost five million customers and owns generation, transmission, and distribution facilities to support its services. Its market cap is around $46.43 billion and revenues are $4.664 billion. Investors looking for a company with operations in both wind and solar space will find this company a good fit.
5. Plug Power Inc. (PLUG): Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Latham, NY, Plug Power provides technology for the alternative energy sector. Its business operations are in “design, development, commercialization, and manufacture of fuel cell systems for the industrial off-road market.” Its market cap is around $454.32 million and revenues are $21.45 million. Although ranking lower in terms of market cap compared to the other stocks mentioned, Plug Power is a leader in fuel-cell technology and one of the pure technology players in the alternate energy space.

1. SolarCity Corp (SCTY): Founded in 2006 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, SolarCity is designs, installs, and sells and leases solar systems for commercial and residential customers. It also operates the sale of electricity that is generated by solar systems. Other businesses include energy storage, charging services for electrical vehicles, home energy evaluations, and energy efficiency upgrades. The company’s market cap is around $4.81 billion and revenues are $71.81 million. With a wide variety of businesses based on solar energy, this company is firmly placed in the list of top alternative energy stocks.
2. SunEdison, Inc. (SUNE): Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Maryland Heights, Missouri, SunEdison Inc. is into renewable and solar energy. Through its three segments (solar energy, semiconductor materials, and TerraForm Power), it is in the business of developing, manufacturing and sales of silicon wafers, photovoltaic cells, and other energy solutions. It has a market cap of $6.47 billion and revenues of $610.5 million.
3. SunPower Corp. (SPWR): Founded in 1985 and headquartered in San Jose, California, SunPower Corp. is an energy services and technology company. Its customer base is spread across residential, industrial, and utility segments with operations in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific. Its product range includes ground mounted and rooftop solar systems, panels, and inverters. Its market cap is $41.7 billion and revenues are $1.17 billion. This company offers a good investment option with business serving a diversified customer base globally.
4. TerraForm Power (TERP): Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, TerraForm Power Inc., owns and operates the contracted clean power generation assets of SunEdison, Inc. and other entities. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SunEdison. The company operates wind and solar power plants in Canada, Chile, the UK, and the US. It plans to expand further into wind, geothermal, natural gas, hydroelectricity, and hybrid-energy solutions, which can make it a good long-term good investment option. Its market cap is $4.47 billion and revenues are $42.57 billion.
5. Viviant Solar, Inc. (VSLR): Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Lehi, Utah, Viviant Solar follows the distributed model for selling electricity generated by a solar energy system installed at customers’ locations to other residential energy customers, based on contract pricing. It operates in Arizona, California, Hawai’i, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Utah. Viviant also offers photovoltaic installation software products and equipment. It has a market cap of $1.3 billion and revenues of $6.86 billion. Investors looking for a US-focused solar energy company might find this a good fit.

   The Bottom Line

   The alternative energy sector has seen a few challenges in last few years and growth has not met expectations. For example, the US Department of Energy’s loan program to fund solar industries had initial failures with companies like Solyndra and Abound Solar going bankrupt. However, the program was reported to break even in December 2014, showing signs of success and justifying the claims that supporters of alternative energy will benefit in the long-term. Moreover, the sector continues to evolve and is expected to see good growth in the mid- to long-term. (A good number of companies listed above are less than a decade old.) One can also explore alternate energy ETFs as an investment option.

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Alternative energy sector hails HRM for extending Solar City - TheChronicleHerald.ca (registration)

Halifax’s plan to extend its Solar City program is a ray of sunshine for Nova Scotia’s fledgling alternative energy sector, proponents said Monday.

“The solar division of our small business has doubled in size to 12 employees during the first two years of the program,” said Babak Farsi, operations manager with the Doctor Solar division of Scotian Renewables Inc.

“We’re certainly excited to see it extended and expanded to include new ways of using alternative energy.”

During the first phase of Solar City, Doctor Solar operated as a subcontractor and handled about 400 installations of solar hot water systems in the municipality.

Dartmouth’s Thermo Dynamics Ltd. was the official solar system manufacturer and installer for the project.

“Before installations, our solar division also conducted between 2,500 and 3,000 home assessments to provide consumers with two-page written reports that provided concrete examples of how they could reduce their hot water costs,” Farsi said.

The next edition of Solar City will provide homeowners with a more diverse range of alternative energy options while maintaining a focus on local content in terms of equipment and installation, he said.

“Solar City provided a benefit for participating homeowners while providing a big boost in consumer confidence for the industry.”

Gordon Wilkie, chairman of Solar Nova Scotia, said Halifax Regional Municipality contributed in a major way to the vitality of the alternative energy sector in the province.

“People in Halifax have purchased more solar hot water systems than anywhere else in the country combined,” Wilkie said.

The original two-year pilot Solar City program to encourage people to install the systems was extended last week for another three years.

Version 2 will include solar photovoltaic technology for electricity and solar air technology for space heating.

Applications for version 2 of the Solar City program are supposed to be available for homeowners in about three months.

Wilkie said the initial pilot brought a beneficial cohesion to the industry, with stringent post-installation monitoring requirements and resulting consumer confidence.

“Due to the monitoring requirements, people quickly saw how effective the technology was and how dramatically they could reduce energy costs.”

He said the number of metered photovoltaic installations is increasing exponentially in the province, with growth in off-grid connections, as well.

“The monitoring in the Solar City program enabled people to change their habits, like timing the dishwasher to come on at noon, and use hot water when the tank is replenished and filled with cheap hot water.”

Evidence of growth on the manufacturing and installation sides of the industry can be found in increased enrolments in alternative energy programs at the Nova Scotia Community College Waterfront campus, where Wilkie is an instructor in electrical engineering technology and renewables.

“Students know jobs are available in the sector and they are anxious to acquire the required skill sets.”

He said elective courses in renewable energy affiliated with electrical and electronics technology programs are regularly filled.

Solar City offered financing for solar thermal technology for hot water systems through municipal property taxes.

“The number of residential installations under the pilot program exceeds the number of residential installations Canada-wide on an annual basis,” a municipal staff report said.

It said about 91 per cent of homeowners participating in the pilot program financed their average $8,000 (after grants) solar hot water system through the city for 10 years at a 3.5 per cent interest rate.

With Brett Bundale, city hall reporter

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Where Has Solar, Alt Energy Short Interest Gone? - 24/7 Wall St.

Short interest among solar and alternative energy stocks was mixed during the two-week reporting period that ended on March 31. Solar stocks generally saw short interest drop, as did the alternative fuel stocks.

Perhaps the most interesting change in the two-week period was the lack of change in days to cover. Not one of these stocks saw a decline in days to cover. This indicates that short sellers may be satisfied with their positions and are probably looking elsewhere for action.

First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) saw short interest decrease by about 10.1% to 7.98 million shares, which represents 10.9% of the company’s float. Days to cover remained at four. In the two-week short interest period to March 31, shares fell about 1.4%. The stock’s 52-week range is $39.18 to $73.78, and it closed at $91.30 on Friday.

SunEdison Inc. (NYSE: SUNE) showed a slight increase of 0.7% in short interest to 82.65 million shares. About 30.7% of the company’s float is now short and days to cover rose to 11. In the latest two-week short interest reporting period, shares rose about 1.4%. The stock closed at $26.69 Friday, in a 52-week range of $13.09 to $27.10.

SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) short interest fell by 19% to 5.9 million shares, or 11.3% of the company’s float. In the two-week short interest period, shares fell 4.3%. The stock’s 52-week range is $22.75 to $42.07, and it closed at $32.81 on Friday. Days to cover remained at four.

ALSO READ: The 5 Most Shorted Nasdaq Stocks

SolarCity Corp. (NASDAQ: SCTY) saw a short interest fall by 1.6% to 18.83 million shares, or 33.2% of the company’s total float. Days to cover remained at nine. In the two-week short interest period, shares rose by 3.2%. The stock’s 52-week range is $45.79 to $79.40, and shares closed at $56.09 Friday night.

Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ) saw a drop of 19.8% in short interest in the final two weeks of March. Some 9.7% of the total float, 4.01 million shares, are short, and days to cover remained at two. The company’s shares rose about 4.2% over the two weeks. Shares closed most recently at $34.54, in a 52-week range of $18.68 to $41.12.

FuelCell Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: FCEL) had a slight drop of 0.1% in short interest during the two-week period. About 13.1% of the company’s float, 31.85 million shares, is short and days to cover remained at nine. In the short interest period, the shares lost about 2.3%. The stock closed at $1.28 on Friday, in a 52-week range of $1.05 to $2.84.

Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG) saw short interest slip by 0.7% to 31.8 million shares. Days to cover remained at nine, and about 19.1% of the company’s shares are short. In the two weeks to March 31, the stock’s share price fell about 6.8%. The stock’s 52-week range is $2.42 to $8.37, and shares closed Friday at $2.61.

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE) saw a rise of 3.6% in short interest to 17.15 million shares. About 24.4% of the company’s float is short, and days to cover remained at 13. Shares rose about 4.4% in the two-week period to March 31. The stock ended last week at $5.97, in a 52-week range of $3.99 to $11.79.

Pacific Ethanol Inc. (NASDAQ: PEIX) saw short interest fall by 13.2% in the two-week period to 4.23 million shares, or about 13.2% of the company’s float. Days to cover remained at six. The stock price rose about 7.4% in the two weeks. The stock closed at $11.74 on Friday, in a 52-week range of $7.51 to $23.97.

ALSO READ: The 5 Most Shorted NYSE Stocks

By Paul Ausick

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Alternative energy exists but has been suppressed - The Nation

American letter-writer Ken Albertson pleads that tidal energy be used to light up Thailand. Yet it is mainly his very own countrymen that stifle pollution-free alternative energy sources.

In the US in 1922, the corrupt government of that time, under pressure/payment from General Electric (generating turbines) and the copper industry (electrical wire) forced the inventor Nikola Tesla to dismantle his so-called Tesla Tower in Colorado. That tower generated free, wirelessly transmitted electricity. Tesla was no slouch, giving us the alternating current.

For cars we have an earlier date, 1860, when Etienne Lenoir of France invented the one-cylinder, two-stroke Hippomobile. The Lenoir Hippomobile was so named because it received its fuel by electrolysing water and running the hydrogen through the small horizontal engine. Much later in 1935, Garrett, also in the US, patented in-car produced hydrogen to fully power his vehicle.

In the 1970s a Swiss scientist had 200 trucks and tractors running on hydrogen created by passing a radio wave through vapourised water. Corrupt US government officials ordered them all dismantled. In the late 1990s, American Stan Meyer had a beach buggy running on hydrogen produced in-car by pulsed electronics and stainless steel electrodes. Stan was murdered in 1998.

Professor Tom Beardon, in the 1970s, developed and patented (US patents are only issued for "things" that work) a motionless electrical generator that needed no power input. Then we have cold fusion, shown by 200 universities to "work", yet today in the US any university that dares work with cold fusion immediately loses funding.

Maybe before Ken's next plea for alternatives to light us up, he should google a little. He'll realise that "wheels" have been invented, but are not permitted to be used.

Thomas Turk

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Germany recharged: EU powerhouse goes all in on alternative energy - The Globe and Mail (subscription)

On a recent Saturday afternoon, a couple of engineers working the weekend shift were monitoring the regional electricity grid in the heart of Potsdam, a city south of Berlin. The control room was largely quiet as the technicians bent over their workstations, scrutinizing the flow of power through the system.

Ralf Doering, a network manager for E.dis AG, the grid operator, pointed to a screen, where an innocuous-looking red line on a chart had just dropped to zero. The line measured how much electricity the grid drew from conventional sources of energy.

As of a few minutes earlier, a swath of northeastern Germany from the Baltic Sea to the Polish border, an area roughly the size of Switzerland, was being powered entirely by energy from the wind and the sun. A group of visitors looked around the room â€" at the lights, the computers, the equipment â€" and mentally multiplied the scene across the entire region. “Solar and wind are now enough,” Mr. Doering said matter-of-factly.

If Germany continues on its current course, such moments will become commonplace. The country has embarked on the most ambitious energy revolution anywhere in the industrialized world. Last year, 26 per cent of Germany’s power supply came from renewable sources. By 2050, the figure is targeted to rise to 80 per cent. The shift, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said last month, is Germany’s “man on the moon” project.

As Germany has discovered, however, a project with sky-high aims can carry a huge price tag. The initiative, which began in 2000 and is a top priority for Chancellor Angela Merkel, has pushed electricity prices for German consumers to the second-highest level in the European Union, behind Denmark. German businesses also pay some of the highest prices for power in the region, with exceptions for certain energy-intensive industries.

German business groups complain that the country’s energy policy hurts their ability to compete and plan long-term investments. They’re especially galled by Ms. Merkel’s decision, in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011, to commit to closing of all of Germany’s nuclear power plants by 2022.

More recently, the energy policy â€" which is aimed squarely at reducing Germany’s contribution to climate change â€" witnessed a disturbing paradox. Between 2009 and 2013, carbon dioxide emissions from Germany’s power sector actually rose, despite the growing share of electricity produced by wind, solar, hydro and biomass. That’s because power companies were increasing their use of cheap but carbon-laden energy sources like lignite and hard coal compared to previous years. Those sources became more attractive for two reasons, experts say: the higher price of natural gas and the low cost of carbon-emissions permits in the European trading system.

Alarmed by that development and by the upward march of electricity prices, Ms. Merkel’s government introduced revised energy legislation last year that moved to rein in the surcharges for renewable energy. The government is also looking at placing new restrictions on coal producers to bring down emissions. Experts estimate that emissions in 2014 from Germany’s power sector fell to their lowest point since 2009.

Despite the hurdles, Germany is plunging full-speed ahead in what is known here as the “Energiewende,” or energy transition. But its leaders acknowledge that unless Germany can prove that the policy works for businesses too, it risks being deemed a failure.

“We need to show that in a country like Germany and a continent like Europe, it is possible to have a high level of industrialization” in combination with policies to mitigate climate change, Sigmar Gabriel, the Economy and Energy Minister, said last month. Only then, he said, “will we find that other countries follow us. Only then will we persuade people.”

Unintended consequences

In late March, policy makers from more than 50 countries gathered in Berlin for a conference to discuss the challenges of transforming a country’s energy supply. Some were from oil-rich nations such as Kuwait and Algeria; others were from smaller European nations that already generate much of their electricity from renewable sources. In Portugal, for instance, the figure is more than 60 per cent.

What Germany is attempting, however, is far more complicated. It is the world’s fourth-biggest economy, with a large industrial sector. Other major economies such as France and the United Kingdom have less lofty targets for renewable energy and aren’t phasing out nuclear power.

At the conference, Jan Mladek, the Czech Minister of Trade and Iindustry, told a story that pointed to some of the difficulties Germany faces. On a visit last year to Berlin, Mr. Mladek said, he met with federal officials who urged him to speed up the Czech Republic’s adoption of renewable energy. Then, later that same day, he met with the Premier of the state of Saxony, which borders the Czech Republic. The Premier urged Mr. Mladek not to build wind farms near the border, fearing it would destroy Saxony’s tourism industry.

The story epitomizes how each step Germany has taken toward greater use of renewables has created new and sometimes unforeseen challenges â€" in electricity prices, in carbon emissions and in power distribution.

In Germany, consumers paid an average of nearly 30 euro cents (41 cents) per kilowatt-hour for electricity last year. In Ontario, by contrast, the peak price is currently 14 cents; the average price for consumers in the United States is similar.

Here’s what happened to prices. To hasten the adoption of renewable energy, Germany guaranteed long-term price contracts to such producers â€" a technique also common elsewhere in the world. The difference between those guaranteed prices and the price of power sold on the wholesale market gets passed on to consumers.

In Germany, that difference is known as the renewable energy surcharge. The surcharge has jumped from 1 euro cent per kilowatt-hour in 2009 to more than 6 euro cents currently. The increase is due to a rapid growth in the installation of green power, which has also helped to drive the market price down.

So consumers have paid more, even as the market price for German electricity has fallen considerably, because the surcharge must fill the gap. In its reforms last year, the government moved to curb further increases in the surcharge.

Despite the rising prices, support for the government’s energy policy remains strong, said Claudia Kempfert, an energy expert at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin. Electricity accounts for just 3 per cent of the average household’s budget, she noted, compared to heating and transportation, which takes up 30 per cent. A poll conducted last year found that 92 per cent of Germans favoured expanding renewable energy.

Businesses are far less sanguine than consumers about shouldering the costs of the transition. Electricity prices for industrial customers have risen more than 40 per cent since 2008 and companies say the policy has begun to affect their investment decisions.

The “huge costs for promoting renewable forms of energy restrict the competitiveness of our companies,” a spokesman for the German Association of the Automotive Industry said in a statement. “In the long run, that will damage employment at home.”

BASF, a chemicals giant, has said it will focus its new investments outside Germany as a result of energy costs. Last year, SGL Carbon SE and BMW Group said they would invest an additional $200-million (U.S.) in a carbon-fibre manufacturing facility in Washington state. A driving force behind the decision: the availability of cheap power.

BASF and SGL Carbon are among the roughly 2,300 large, energy-intensive German companies that are exempted from paying the renewable energy surcharge through at least 2017. But even some of these firms assert that the energy policy isn’t working.

Heribert Hauck, director of energy affairs at Trimet Aluminium SE, a large consumer of electricity, said the shifting policy terrain is making long-term investments impossible for his firm.

What’s more, he added, the volatility of renewable energy â€" the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow â€" makes it unsuitable to meet the burden of constant industrial demand.

Germany, like other countries, has not yet solved the dilemma of how to store the electricity produced by solar power and wind energy. And it has only begun to tackle the transportation of such energy, which is primarily produced in the north of the country, to the industrial heartland in the south. One major planned transmission route from north to south â€" the “Stromautobahn,” or electricity highway â€" has faced intense protest from those living in its path.

“We can implement the Energiewende up to a certain degree,” said Mr. Hauck of Trimet. But the government must leave a “supply of conventional, reliable, competitive power plants in the system. That’s what industry needs.”

Smaller companies have complaints too. Horst Linn runs a maker of industrial furnaces in Bavaria, typical of the thousands of so-called “Mittlestand” firms that form the backbone of the German manufacturing sector.

The government’s focus on renewables is wrong-headed, Mr. Linn said. Instead, it should have focused on energy-saving technology, he asserted.

Mr. Linn estimates that his company’s electricity costs have jumped 30 per cent in the past five years and fears that more increases lie ahead as the country phases out nuclear power. Yet he’s never seriously considered operating anywhere else because of the skilled labour and quality control required in his business.

“You have no chance with the product we make to go to Bulgaria,” he said.

Fingers crossed

In the middle of March, Germany’s solar industry faced a critical test. A partial eclipse for several hours on the morning of March 20 threatened to wreak havoc on the system: Grid operators faced an unprecedented fluctuation in electricity supply as sunlight disappeared with unusual speed, only to reappear with the same unusual alacrity. (Prior to the eclipse, representatives of the solar industry had asserted everything would be fine. But “really, we were like this,” said a spokesman for the industry, holding up crossed fingers on both hands).

The industry passed the test and hailed it as proof that renewable energies were now a mature and successful part of Germany’s electricity system. As the shift to renewable energy deepens, some power producers see the writing on the wall. E.on SE, a major German utility, announced in December that it would split its businesses into two.

The first will be composed of its conventional energy assets and the second will consist of its ventures in alternative energy and distribution. Some commentators likened the move to the manoeuvre deployed by some financial institutions in the wake of the 2008 crisis: dividing healthy and troubled assets into a “good” bank and a “bad” bank.

Germany’s Greens, the political party that helped kick off the energy revolution, tend to dismiss business concerns as so much bellyaching. In recent years, Germany has notched the strongest economic performance of any major European country at the same time as it has implemented the energy transition, proponents of the policy say. Norsk Hydro ASA, a Swedish company, is increasing its aluminum production in Germany, Baerbel Hoehn, a Greens member of the Bundestag, said in a recent statement.

For the Greens, the future looks a little like Feldheim, a small village of neat brick-and-stucco houses south of Berlin. On a ridge near the village, 47 wind turbines generate enough electricity to power the community’s needs 100 times over; the rest is sold to the regional grid.

The village also generates its own heat from a heavily subsidized biogas plant. Next up: a test project to create a lithium-ion battery storage facility for the renewable energy the village produces, the largest such installation in Europe.

Of course, there’s no industry whatsoever in Feldheim. Back in the grid control room in Potsdam, the electrical engineers note that the region they oversee has very few industrial concerns, which makes it easier to incorporate alternative energies.

Meanwhile, they’re plowing ahead with the many different facets of the Energiewende. “For us as engineers, it’s really challenging and exciting,” said Bernd Westphal, a regional manager at E.dis. “We’re not getting bored here.”

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Alternative energy sources power market niche - Chron.com

Houston recently experienced a wet, rainy and cloudy winter, along with much of the state. Yet, the weather did not put a damper on the wind industry; in fact it kept growing.

"The wind farms operate at higher elevations, and there is always enough wind to make it profitable, so the weather does not affect production. The amount produced might vary from year to year, but over a 10-year period, about the same amount is produced," said Hala N. Ballouz, president, Texas Renewable Energy Industries Alliance.

In Texas there are over 10,000 megawatts in wind-energy facilities in one or more stages of construction, and some in the planning stage.

"Wind energy keeps the transmission grids going, and helps keep electricity costs down, which end users appreciate. Wind power will always be here, and is becoming more accepted every day, becoming more widely used," Ballouz said.

Texas is a national leader in the wind energy industry, with more installed wind capacity and more wind-related jobs than any other state, and this industry is continuing to grow.

In addition, the Texas wind energy industry has provided billions of dollars in economic benefits and has thrived due to state policies.

The state also is home to turbine manufacturers, blade manufacturers and several tower manufacturers, in addition to numerous component suppliers, all of which create jobs.

An investment in wind power is an investment in jobs, including jobs in operations and maintenance, construction, manufacturing and many support sectors. In addition, wind projects produce lease payments for landowners, and increase the tax base of communities.

A recent snapshot of the economic boost in Texas from wind energy includes: 8,001 to 9,000 direct and indirect jobs supported, total capital investment of over $25 billion, approximately $38,927,000 annual land lease payments, and over 500 manufacturing facilities producing products for the industry.

Trained and educated

"As with any industry, workers in the wind energy industry are trained and educated across the country. Wind energy employers recruit and hire individuals with all levels of education and work experience, dependent on the position. Several schools, both community colleges and universities, offer degrees or certificates for the industry," said Michele Mihelic, director, worker health and safety policy and standards development, American Wind Energy Association.

The industry provides specialized training and education for workers who join the industry. Workers are trained extensively on fall protection, climb training, rescue and electrical safety, and other areas.

Each employer provides extensive training depending on the level of experience and type of work they will be providing, and continuous education throughout their career is provided.

"From an educational perspective, mechanical, electrical and technical skills, experience and knowledge are important for wind technicians. Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair and maintenance, and interpersonal skills are important," Mihelic said.

The industry looks for individuals who are mechanically and technically skilled - individuals who are able to work and communicate well independently and in a team setting.

"Detail-orientated individuals with problem-solving skills, mechanical and electrical experience, ability to work at extreme heights and who works well independently and in a group setting are highly sought," Mihelic said.

Further details

For more information about American Wind Energy Association, visit www.awea.org, and for information about TREIA, visit the site www.treia.org.

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Alternative Energy: The Case for Renewables - The Maritime Executive

By Amanda Kelly 2015-04-09 16:40:51

According to British Petroleum’s Energy Outlook 2035, which reports trends likely to shape world energy over the next 20 years, renewables are expected to increase from their current three percent share to about eight percent in the next 20 years. In fact, one-third of global energy needs will likely be filled by renewable resources by 2050. Renewable power consumption grew by 16 percent in 2013, providing just over five percent of the world’s electricity.

Population growth, climate change and fossil fuel depletion are all factors in the need to invest in and grow alternative means of creating energy, and renewable energy has become a serious part of the energy mix. In 2013 Denmark’s wind turbines provided over one-third of the country’s energy supply. In Spain, it was one-fifth.

So-called “alternative energies” are commonly understood to be renewable and relatively inexpensively sourced, though not inexpensively produced, relying on free (and usually natural) power sources with fewer unintended and unwanted side effects. BP’s Energy Outlook says the fastest fuel growth is in renewables at over six percent per year.

Hydroelectric Power â€" Above and Below Water

Hydroelectricity is the largest non-fossil fuel energy source and, of course, hydropower has been around for centuries. It will likely play a major role as a future energy source. In 2013, hydro-generation marked its tenth consecutive year of growth at just under three percent.

In the U.S., hydropower generates nearly nine percent of the total electricity supply. In the Pacific Northwest it provides about two-thirds of the region's electricity due to an extensive network of rivers and dams. Currently, U.S facilities are capable of generating enough hydropower to supply electricity to 28 million households, the equivalent of about 500 million barrels of oil.

Delving deeper, tides and currents hold potential as well. Germany’s Schottel Group, a major manufacturer of marine propulsion systems, last year established Schottel Hydro, a new subsidiary comprising activities in three segments: Schottel Instream Turbines (SIT), semi-submerged Triton platforms, and components such as turbine hubs and drives. The new SIT Schottel Instream Turbine allows the harvesting of hydrokinetic energy in rivers and tidal straits for commercial projects at a reasonable cost. The SIT turbine design purposely avoids complex subsystems. Its turbine features passive-adaptive composite blades with no need for any active pitch mechanism.

“Our solutions provide a cost-effective way to harvest river current and tidal energy, both for utility- and community-scale applications,” explains Niels Lange, Managing Director of Schottel Hydro, who leads the company together with Prof. Dr. Ing. Gerhard Jensen, CEO of the Schottel Group.

Wind Power â€" On Land and Sea

Wind power is another fast-growing renewable due largely to advances in the design of modern wind turbines. Land-based wind energy can generate clean, renewable electricity and provide economic benefits to consumers, particularly in rural and remote communities. Its costs are now lower than those of most new conventional sources, and it is gaining ground on being cost-competitive with natural gas generation due to continuing technological innovation.

The power output from a wind turbine is a function of the cube of the average wind speed. In other words, if wind speed doubles, the power output increases eight times. Since wind speed increases as the height from the ground increases, a wind turbine should ideally be matched to the speed and frequency of the resource to maximize power production.

In the North Sea, a first consent order for offshore wind energy has been granted for the Dogger Bank Wind Farm in the UK. Located off the east coast of Yorkshire, the Dogger Bank Wind Farm will be the largest renewable energy development ever to receive planning consent in the UK. The approval was the result of more than four years of comprehensive assessments, stakeholder consultation and planning by the Forewind Limited consortium, owned equally by four international energy companies: RWE, SSE, Statkraft and Statoil.

It was the most extensive study of an offshore area by a wind energy developer ever undertaken with more than £60 million spent on surveys, the vast majority going to UK-based contractors. The project was given the green light by the UK government in February.

In the U.S., British Petroleum (BP) operates a profitable wind energy business with interests in 16 wind farms in nine states. Seven are wholly owned by BP while the others are jointly owned with at least one other partner.  The net generating capacity from the 14 BP-operated wind farms is 1,558 megawatts of electricity. The total generating capacity is enough to power 780,000 American homes.

Offshore wind turbines are being used by a number of countries to harness the energy of strong, consistent winds found over the oceans. In the U.S., 53 percent of the population lives in coastal areas where energy costs are high and land-based renewable energy resources are limited. Abundant offshore wind has the potential to supply immense quantities of renewable energy to major coastal cities.

Worldwide, there are 4.45 GW of offshore wind energy installed with another 4.72 GW under construction and an additional 30.44 GW approved. Over 50 projects are operational in the coastal waters off Denmark, the UK, Germany, Norway and other countries in Europe as well as in offshore Asia (Japan, China and South Korea).

Commercial-scale offshore wind facilities are similar to onshore facilities. The wind turbines used in offshore environments include modifications to prevent corrosion, and their foundations must be designed to withstand the harsh environment of the ocean â€" everything from hurricane-force winds to ice flows.

Unfortunately for the U.S., roughly 90 percent of its Outer Continental Shelf wind potential occurs in waters that are too deep for current turbine technology. Engineers are working on new technologies like innovative foundations and floating wind turbines to help transition wind power development into the harsher conditions associated with deeper waters.

Heavier Foundations

As part of this effort, maritime and clean energy consultants MEC Intelligence recently published a study comparing the cost of a range of offshore wind foundation designs. “The need for turbine installation deeper into the sea will create demand for larger and heavier foundations and, therefore, for cost-effective designs,” states Jacob Jensen, a Partner in MEC’s Copenhagen office. “The aim of the study was to compare the cost of different design types.”

Conventional designs, monopiles and jackets, were compared to new innovative designs, including gravity-based and suction-based foundations. The study demonstrated that innovative designs could prove to be more cost-effective than conventional foundations for projects with increasing depths and turbine sizes.

The Quest for Sustainability

Concerns over climate change and energy security combined with high fossil fuel costs have resulted in increased demand for alternative energies and more overall attention to new and more sustainable ways of doing business.

Maersk Line recently released a report on its sustainability initiatives, saying that reducing fuel has not only saved $1.6 billion but allowed it to achieve a profit in 2012. The world’s biggest shipping company has promised a continued commitment to reducing its environmental impact. Maersk Group’s CO₂ efficiency improved by five percent in 2014 and 21 percent since 2010. Maersk Line, as the biggest contributor to Maersk Group’s overall emissions, improved its efficiency by eight percent in 2014 and in the process saved $98 million in fuel costs.

Maersk has raised its overall target for improving CO₂ efficiency to 30 percent by 2020. “We sustain our efforts at decoupling growth from resource consumption,” states CEO Nils S. Andersen in the company’s 2014 Sustainability Report. “For the first time, our projections show that this is possible over the period up until 2020.”

In BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy 2014, Group Chief Executive Bob Dudley aptly summarizes the situation: “Renewable forms of energy continue to grow robustly, albeit from a low base. Renewables now account for more than five percent of global power output and nearly three percent of primary energy consumption. The challenge of sustaining expensive subsidy regimes, however, has become visible where penetration rates are highest, namely the below-average growth of Europe’s leading renewable producers, who are grappling with weak economic growth and strained budgets. The world’s quest for secure and fairly-priced energy can be met through competitive industries driving innovation and smart government policies that amplify the creative ‘energy’.” â€" MarEx  

The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.

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Clean Energy Revolution Is Ahead of Schedule - Bloomberg View

The most important piece of news on the energy front isn't the plunge in oil prices, but the progress that is being made in battery technology. A new study in Nature Climate Change, by Bjorn Nykvist and Mans Nilsson of the Stockholm Environment Institute, shows that electric vehicle batteries have been getting cheaper much faster than expected. From 2007 to 2011, average battery costs for battery-powered electric vehicles fell by about 14 percent a year. For the leading electric vehicle makers, Tesla and Nissan, costs fell by 8 percent a year. This astounding decline puts battery costs right around the level that the International Energy Agency predicted they would reach in 2020. We are six years ahead of the curve. It's a bit hard to read, but here is the graph from the paper:

This puts the electric vehicle industry at a very interesting inflection point. Back in 2011, McKinsey & Co. made a chart showing which kind of vehicle would be the most economical at various prices for gasoline and batteries:

Looking at this graph, we can see the incredible progress made just since 2011. Battery prices per kilowatt-hour have fallen from about $550 when the graph was made to about $450 now. For Tesla and Nissan, the gray rectangle (which represents current prices) is even farther to the left, to about the $300 range, where the economics really starts to change and battery-powered vehicles become feasible. 

QuickTake Batteries

But in the past year, the price of gasoline has fallen as well, and is now in the $2.50 range even in expensive markets. A glut of oil, and a possible thaw in U.S.-Iran relations, have moved the gray rectangle down into the dark blue area where internal combustion engines reign supreme. 

Still, if battery prices keep falling, the gray rectangle will keep moving to the left. The Swedish researchers believe that Tesla’s new factories will be able to achieve the 30 percent cost reduction the company promises, simply from economies of scale and incremental improvements in the manufacturing process. That, combined with a rebound in gas prices to the $3 range, would be enough to make battery-powered vehicles an economic alternative to internal combustion vehicles in most regions. 

But this isn't the only piece of good energy news. Investment in renewable energy is powering ahead. 

The United Nations Environment Programme recently released a report showing that global investment in renewable energy, which had dipped a bit between 2011 and 2013, rebounded in 2014 to a near all-time high of $270 billion. But the report also notes that since renewable costs -- especially solar costs -- are falling so fast, the amount of renewable energy capacity added in 2014 was easily an all-time high. China, the U.S. and Japan are leading the way in renewable investment. Renewables went from 8.5 percent to 9.1 percent of global electricity generation just in 2014. 

That’s still fairly slow in an absolute sense. Adding 0.6 percentage point a year to the renewable share would mean the point where renewables take half of the electricity market wouldn’t come until after 2080. But as solar costs fall, we can expect that shift to accelerate. In particular, forecasts are for solar to become the cheapest source of energy -- at least when the sun is shining -- in many parts of the world in the 2020s. 

Each of these trends -- cheaper batteries and cheaper solar electricity -- is good on its own, and on the margin will help to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, with all the geopolitical drawbacks and climate harm they entail. But together, the two cost trends will add up to nothing less than a revolution in the way humankind interacts with the planet and powers civilization. 

You see, the two trends reinforce each other. Cheaper batteries mean that cars can switch from gasoline to the electrical grid. But currently, much of the grid is powered by coal. With cheap solar replacing coal at a rapid clip, that will be less and less of an issue. As for solar, its main drawback is intermittency. But with battery costs dropping, innovative manufacturers such as Tesla will be able to make cheap batteries for home electricity use, allowing solar power to run your house 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 

So instead of thinking of solar and batteries as two independent things, we should think of them as one single unified technology package. Solar-plus-batteries is set to begin a dramatic transformation of human civilization. The transformation has already begun, but will really pick up steam during the next decade. That is great news, because cheap energy powers our economy, and because clean energy will help stop climate change. 

Of course, skeptics and opponents of the renewable revolution continue to downplay these remarkable developments. The takeoff of solar-plus-batteries has only begun to ramp up the exponential curve, and market shares are still small. But it has begun, and it doesn’t look like we’re going back.

To contact the author on this story:
Noah Smith at nsmith150@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor on this story:
James Greiff at jgreiff@bloomberg.net

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Elon uses alternative energy to fuel campus and community - Elon Local News

Elon has made many efforts to be a more sustainable campus, including the use of alternative energy. More than 9,000 solar panels are being installed in Loy Farm.

Workers from Solar Tight Installation or S-T-I, came from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware to install Elon’s latest green energy source.

“Basically we’re doing it from the ground up. We pounded all the poles in the ground and we’ve also made all the rack systems and now we’re at the point where we straightening their raise and lay the panels on,” said Foreman Bill Dostellio.

Each panel ranges in cost between $300 and $500. And the weight of each panel is just as heavy as the cost, close to 40 pounds.

STI has been hauling, lifting, and drilling solar panel installation in Elon for about a month, but the work is not done.

“I think maybe we’ll probably be here at least two more weeks,” Dostellio said.

According to Vice President of University Communications Dan Anderson, the crew is building a 4,500 megawatt system. This will give electricity to about 415 homes.

Once the solar panels are completed solar panels, it is set to a 20 degree angle facing south so it gets the most direct sunlight.

“They still have to do some wiring and hook up some converters which you can see them over there. The electricians will be here after us. We’ll be out of here before them,” Dostellio said.

All the bolts will be torque marked so the panels stay at its proper angle and do not come loose. And if it does come loose STI will be informed.

Dostellio also says the labor is not hard, just continuous.

About the author: Ashley Bohle

Ashley Bohle is a multimedia journalist for Elon Local News. She is a 2017 graduate. Bohle enjoys running, reading, baking, shopping, and playing with her dogs when at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Twitter: @AshleyBohle Instagram: ashleybohle

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Get tidal: waves are another form of alternative energy - The Nation

Could Thai engineers be adding to the development of alternative energy? In theory, yes, but they would likely need to be made aware of the "state of the art", and get support from big business and/or government - two entities that can't see beyond the tip of their golf clubs because of the inbred haze of their archaic thinking.

Tidal energy cometh. It doesn't need big breakers like those in Hawaii to be feasible. Waves far from shore are plenty big enough, as some of the best new designs use the differential between high and low water levels as propulsion to drive the generators that create the DC power. Google "spindrift" to find out more.

Ken Albertsen

Chiang Rai

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Letter: Key benefits of alternative energy are to people - Morris Sun Tribune

By Clement Loo from Morris, Minn. on Apr 3, 2015 at 3:57 p.m.

The conversation about alternative and renewable energy has for the most part been focused on benefits for the environment. When people argue for the shifting the energy landscape towards obtaining more of our energy from solar and wind, the cited benefits often are reduced pollution, slowing or limiting of climate change, and things of that nature. But, this is a really limited way of thinking. While there’s no doubt that alternative energy is good for the environment, its key benefits are to people. These benefits include independence, economic growth, and â€" perhaps most importantly â€" lowering energy costs over the long run.

Minnesota does not have fossil fuel resources â€" within our state we have no significant deposits of coal, oil, or natural gas. That being the case when we rely on fossil fuels â€" such as coal and natural gas â€" to generate our electricity, we become reliant and dependent upon other states for those fuels. That means, in essence, that we give up a fair amount of control of our energy availability and cost to regulators from other states â€" regulators that we have no ability to influence or control. Moreover, in addition to allowing out of state regulators to have such an impact on our energy costs, having 60 percent of our electricity being generated by burning coal mined in Montana and Wyoming means that a substantial portion of each dollar we pay for electricity leaves our state.

On the other hand, within Minnesota we have a great deal of sunshine and, especially out here in Morris, we have more wind than we know what to do with. If we turned that sun and that wind into electricity that means that we wouldn’t have to buy nearly as much coal we do now. That would mean that far more of our energy would be under our own control. Moreover, the expansion of our renewable energy capacity could be carried out through investment in Minnesota companies and support job and economic growth within Minnesota. From 2000 to 2014, renewable energy employment grew by 78 percent and already more than 15,000 Minnesotans are now employed in the clean energy sector where wages average around $71,000 a year.

The standard concern that is voiced against shifting to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar is that wind and solar are more expensive than the fossil fuels and so switching to renewables would lead to higher energy costs. However, that concern is becoming less pressing by the day. According to the Financial Times, at present wind energy only costs 5 cents more per MWH in comparison to coal. And, in early March, the U.S. Department of Energy reported that wind energy is going to be “cheaper than electricity produced from natural gas within a decade, even without a federal tax incentive.”

In the long run with improvements in technology wind and solar can only get cheaper while coal, natural gas, and oil prices can only increase. That being the case, this is the time for Minnesotans to have a conversation and seriously think about our energy strategy. We have the opportunity to invest in a growing green energy sector that could result in Minnesota becoming a pioneer and a leader in tomorrow’s energy sources. We should take that opportunity before it’s too late.

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Why Cheap Oil Won't Kill Alternative Energy - Wall Street Journal (blog)

JEFFREY BALL: The price of oil is plummeting, bestowing a bonanza on drivers and upending the geopolitical order. That’s good for the U.S. Will it kill the drive toward alternative energy sources?

Almost certainly not.

In the past, interest in energy options has risen and fallen with the price of oil. When oil prices rose, so did the rush toward nuclear, solar, wind and other fossil-fuel alternatives. When oil prices fell, interest in kicking the oil habit waned too. The upshot of this roller-coaster history: In most of the world, alternative energy sources never got the chance to take root; fossil fuels remain overwhelmingly dominant.

But this time there are powerful reasons to believe things are different.

A bevy of non-fossil energy sources have experienced big technological gains over roughly the past decade, a time when oil prices were high. Those advancesâ€"from cheaper solar panels to more-efficient wind turbines to smaller nuclear reactorsâ€"mean these alternatives are more economically competitive than they were in prior oil-price plunges.

Moreover, the advances in alternative sources have come primarily in a swath of the energy world that’s largely unaffected by the price of oil. Nuclear, solar and wind power are sources of electricityâ€"the juice that comes out of the wall. In all but a few countries, oil ceased decades ago to be burned to produce electricity, replaced mostly by coal and natural gas. Today, oil is overwhelmingly a fuel for transportationâ€"and few alternatives to it have gained much traction.

The oil-price drop may induce policy makers to roll back subsidies for renewable energy, given that popular demand for energy diversity of any sort tends to wane absent pain at the pump. And a recent rise in sales of gas-guzzlers suggests that, with oil cheaper, motorists are burning more of it. But several fossil-fuel alternatives have zoomed ahead in recent years, and there’s little reason to think they’ll make a U-turn now.

Jeffrey Ball (@jeff_ball), formerly The Wall Street Journal’s environment editor and a longtime energy reporter at the paper, is scholar-in-residence at Stanford University’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, a joint initiative of Stanford’s law and business schools. He writes about energy and heads a project exploring the relationships among countries in the globalizing clean-energy industry.

Read the latest Energy Report.

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Sinopec energy shocker: Chinese fuel demand to fall as alternative energy grows - Asia Times Online

Author: Asia Unhedged April 1, 2015

Bloomberg News quotes Sinopec Chairman Fu Chengyu’s prediction on a “little-reported” March 23 conference call that fuel sales will become a non-core activity in as little as a decade, when gasoline sales will peak. That runs counter to the Western consensus, which holds that China’s fuel consumption will anchor world demand growth for the indefinite future. “In the future, fuels will become a non-core business of Sinopec,” the Sinopec chairman reportedly said. “Petroleum or oil and gas will continue to be a major energy source in the future, but they won’t be the only source, more emphasis will be put on our new energy and alternative energies.”

“From 2010 to 2040, transportation energy needs in OECD32 countries are projected to fall about 10 percent while in the rest of the world these needs are expected to double. China and India will together account for about half of the global increase,” Bloomberg quotes a December report by Exxon Mobil. But the Western oil companies haven’t taken into account a planned shift to nuclear and solar energy along with clean coal, in response to pollution as well as energy security concerns. China offers big incentives for solar energy. As new technology brings the cost of solar power closer to that of conventional sources, China can ramp up solar production much faster than Western analysts have anticipated. Residential solar costs already are cheaper than grid power in many markets, Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in March, predicting that solar will be at grid parity in most of the world by 2017. Chinese planners are considering an enormous commitment to solar to replace fossil fuel consumption.

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