danno

Index Watch: 6 New Clean-Tech Stocks to Join CELS

Yawn. CELS is such a bozo index, if one really looks at this index and what has done in the past, then one realizes it's totally worth ignoring. This is an index that loaded up on grain ethanol stocks at one point, added stocks that announced that they were delisting, or even had only 2% of its business in renewable energy (thank you Eurotrust). When you look at the quality of the stocks in CELS (e.g., CPST, FCEL, AVR) it's quite apparent that the these guys not only don't know what they're doing but the future returns will stink as bad as past returns. Note to author: engage brain before writing.

The Trouble with Chinese Solar Companies

Mr. Cordes: Does it bother you that virtually all the Chinese PV companies (withe the exception fo Suntech which owns some decent IP) are pursuing exactly the same strategy of vertical integration with increasingly little to differentiate them? Seems to me that's a recipe for price driven commodity market where the only "winners" are the low-cost producers. And who knows whether profitability in the sector then will ever earn a positive EVA?

It seems to me that Q-Cells is quickly losing it's technological edge and will have to compete more directly with it's Chinese peers, and that Evergreen has licensed away a good deal of the upside of this market. What can you see in the Chinese and Taiwanese PV companies that is anything that supports a strong 3-5 year outlook (i'm not talking about these short-term trading chumps, but for investors)? I certainly don't see the R&D and innovation to suggest that they will be able to compete on any basis except prices which scares the bejesus outta me.