BestGreenStocks.Info Clean Technology Investing

BestGreenStocks.Info Clean Technology Investing
Renewable Power and Green Energy Wtocks

Best Green Stocks Websites Blogs News

Search Renewable Power stocks, clean energy companies

Custom Search

Green Futures

Green Futures

Popular Posts

Yuya Joe Blog

Twitter / CleanTechUpdate

Best Green Stocks Quarterly - FREE investing newsmagazine!

join our mailing list
* indicates required

Alternative Energy Stocks

Green Chip Stocks

Monday, March 26, 2012

California to invest $100 mil in electric car charging stations

By Jeff Siegel, Energy & Capital

It all went down on June 14, 2000...

California suffered its largest planned blackout since World War II.

Two months later, Governor Gray Davis called for an investigation into possible price manipulation in the wholesale electricity marketplace.

That's when Dynegy Inc. was officially accused of price manipulation and other fraudulent practices.

Fast-forward to 2012, a $120 million settlement is finally announced.

And what will the state do with that money?

Something that's going to help make us a boatload of cash!


Going to California

Twenty million dollars from this settlement will go to fund the reduction of consumer energy bills. That part doesn't concern us — unless, of course, you live in the Golden State.

The other $100 million?

Well, this is where it gets good...

Governor Jerry Brown announced last week the state will use the remaining $100 million to install 200 public fast-charging stations for electric vehicles, as well as 10,000 plug-in units at 1,000 different locations across the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

There are three ways we can profit from this.

The first is the most obvious: the companies that make the charging stations.

There are five that have a shot at getting some of this action:

Coulomb Technologies

ECOtality (NASDAQ: ECTY)

AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV)

General Electric (NYSE: GE)

Siemens (NYSE: SI)


Playing the charging angle is tricky, though. Your choices are limited to small, speculative plays or huge corporations that simply have some exposure to this market.

Certainly there's opportunity here. But quite frankly, this isn't where the real money is.

If You Build It, They Will Come

Here's the interesting thing about California's focus on electric cars...

The state expects to have 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2025. Most of these will be electric.

And don't let the loudmouths in Washington or the media dissuade you. This is going to happen.

Of course, if you think I'm off base, that's fine. But I've spent enough time with lawmakers in California and top execs at the biggest automakers to know this path to 1.5 million is well under way.

Now, we also know that by 2015, all the major cities in California will have adequate infrastructure in place to accommodate these 1.5 zero-emission vehicles.

Last week's announcement just further validates California's commitment.

By the way, this announcement came just days after it was announced that a 160-mile stretch of Interstate 5 is now outfitted with fast-chargers that can charge an electric car in 20 minutes. They're spaced about 25 miles apart all along this Pacific Coast motorway.

My point is this: More than half of the states in this nation are now actively building out an infrastructure to support the integration of electric cars.

You may not be a fan of electric cars... You may think they're inefficient, unattractive, and unable to meet your daily driving needs.

But make no mistake about it; that should have no bearing on whether or not you decide to profit from them.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Aging atomic energy plants have major safety problems: IAEA

by Fredrik Dahl, Toronto Star

VIENNA — Eighty per cent of the world’s nuclear power plants are more than 20 years old, which could impact safety, a draft U.N. report says a year after Japan’s Fukushima disaster.

Many operators have begun programmes, or expressed their intention, to run reactors beyond their planned design lifetimes, said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) document which has not yet been made public.

“There are growing expectations that older nuclear reactors should meet enhanced safety objectives, closer to that of recent or future reactor designs,” the Vienna-based U.N. agency’s annual Nuclear Safety Review said.

“There is a concern about the ability of the aging nuclear fleet to fulfill these expectations and to continue to economically and efficiently support member states’ energy requirements.”

The Fukushima tragedy was triggered on March 11, 2011, when an earthquake unleashed a tsunami that left 19,000 people dead or missing. It also smashed into the coastal power plant causing a series of catastrophic failures at the facility.

Images of the stricken plant shook public confidence in nuclear power and forced the nuclear industry to launch a campaign to defend its safety record.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano told Reuters last week that nuclear power is now safer than it was a year ago. The report said the “operational level of NPP (nuclear power plant) safety around the world remains high”.

It cited steady improvements in terms of unplanned reactor shutdowns in recent years.

But the 56-page IAEA document also highlighted aging nuclear plants, with eighty per cent of the 435 facilities more than two decades old at the end of last year.

This “could impact safety and their ability to meet member states’ energy requirements in an economical and efficient manner”, said the report, which has been submitted to IAEA member states but not yet finalized.

Operators and regulators opting for so-called long-term operation “must thoroughly analyze the safety aspects related to the aging of ‘irreplaceable’ key components”, it added.

LESSONS LEARNED?

About 70 per cent of the world’s 254 research reactors have been in operation for more than 30 years “with many of them exceeding their original design life”, it said.

The document was debated by the IAEA’s 35-nation governing board last week, almost exactly a year after the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years.

The tsunami overwhelmed Fukushima on Japan’s northeast coast, knocking out critical power supplies that resulted in a nuclear meltdown and the release of radiation.

The reactors were stabilized by December, but high radiation levels hamper a cleanup that is expected to take decades.

After the accident, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium decided to move away from nuclear power altogether to grow reliance on renewable energy instead.

But other states, for example fast-growing China and India, continue to look to nuclear energy to meet their growing energy needs, the IAEA report said, adding that some “are even accelerating their nuclear energy programmes”.

France is building its first “advanced” reactor and Russia is seeking to double its nuclear energy output by 2020, it said.

“All countries that are using nuclear power are much more serious about nuclear safety,” Amano said last week. But environmental group Greenpeace said no “real lessons” appeared to have been learned from Fukushima.

Green Mutual Fund Investing Info

Clean Power Investing; Best Green Stocks for 2009 / 2010

Rare Earth Stocks Research

Energy and Capital

Original Joe College Blog