Alternative Energy Stimulus Provides Opportunities for Semis

Despite a sluggish forecast for the overall high-tech industry in the near term, alternative energies technologies are expected to grow at a 40% annual rate through 2012, and semiconductors used in these applications will see a comparable growth, according to a report Semiconductors for Alternative Energy Technologies: Opportunities and Markets, recently published by The Information Network.

Renewable, alternative energy technologies continue to grab the attention of private industries and world governments. Semiconductors are used in these technologies to convert the energy or power to something functional, such as converting solar energy into electricity.

Semiconductors used in products such as inverters, include MOSFETs, IGBTs, SiC, microcontrollers, DSPs, and discretes. Equipment and materials will be needed to design and make these products.

Alternative energy technologies analyzed in the report are: Solar, Wind, Fuel Cells, Storage, Geothermal, and Nuclear.

The semiconductor market in 2008 was nearly $800 million and will more than double to nearly $2 billion in 2012. This represents an opportunity for semiconductor companies and equipment and materials suppliers to address these growth areas.

But the U.S. stimulus package for alternative energy will impact the entire semiconductor food market. There will be increased demand for computers and control systems enabling consumers to monitor energy consumption on the smart grid. In addition, design activities of energy-efficient buildings and public transportation facilities will also require additional computing power.

Disclosure: no positions

Comments

[Mad Hedge F...:]

Anyone who has any illusions about the Canadian tar sands business should take a look at the March issue of National Geographic, not normally a prime source of financial and economic news for me. I’m not normally a big time environmentalist, but just looking at the glossy, eye opening pictures tells you that this is this an ecodisaster of Biblical proportions. A $50 billion investment by several firms over the last decade is now producing 750,000 barrels/day, and another $100 billion was headed north before prices crashed last year. You have to cut down a whole forest, remove two tons of peat, then another two tons of sand, and burn 100 barrels of oil equivalent to heat rivers of water to steam, just to produce a single barrel of oil. This gives you the world’s highest production cost, thought to be $80-$100/barrel. There are now 50 square miles of sludge ponds in Northern Alberta leaching a witch’s brew of poisons into the water supply, which has caused the local cancer rate to explode tenfold. We’re not just talking about a few sick ducks and fish here. Canada is the largest foreign supplier of oil to the US, accounting for 19% of the total, and half of that is coming from tar sands.

Feb 27 02:36 PM

[smlcap:]

Absolutely disgraceful.

Feb 28 09:14 AM

[jimp:]

Will EMKR (Emcore) benefit?

Mar 01 07:42 AM