US MicroGrid

Chesapeake Energy: Marcellus Shale JV in Question

Not all leaseholds are created equal, and prices are local and based on the play. In tough times you sell some, buy others (like we're all doing on stocks). The question is which ones do best in the long run.

In the long run, do you really want to bet against Aubrey?

I'm hoping that over the next 18 months Mr. Market gives us a lot of opportunities to pick up shares sub $ 20. The life of new wells continues to shorten, drilling will drop, costs will drop, and then 18 to 36 months from now we'll find ourselves short clean natural gas again. But next time, the industry will do a better job of locking in a lower cost structure so they can take advantage of price escalation. Leveraged commodity plays do have their ups and downs.

Buy low.

The Problem with Cap-and-Trade Offsets

Cap-and-Trade vs. Carbon Tax:

What I don't understand is how you effectively administer cap-and-trade.

The calculations and monitoring are reasonably sophisticated. Do we get an army of auditors to make sure companies are not cheating? With the financial incentives won't there be carpetbaggers in the industry? Wouldn't it require a "IRS" like organization to administer? And then wouldn't that just create a whole new unproductive industry trying to figure out how to game the system.

I'm not for taxes, but it seems to me that a Revenue Neutral (if we can trust government to do such a thing) carbon tax would be more efficient and would not create incentives for deploying resources to try and game the system.

Comments?

SunPower Buy Opportunity?

Jack -- do you know SPWR's cost per kW off hand?

Who's Really to Blame for Rising Oil?

You Forgot the single highest return action drivers can take to reduce consumption: Proper tire pressure.

Before you laugh, check the numbers. They are staggering and I invite you to interrogate the calculations

energyviews.blogspot.c...

We should be all over this opportunity. Its real. Simple solutions exist today. The Impact is huge. The issue is that advocating simple conservation measures doesn't get anyone elected, even if it represents smart policy. Pass on the word.

SunPower Buy Opportunity?

Do you know what their cost per kW (not kWh) is running these days?

EnerNOC's Shares Slide on Larger Than Expected Loss

Salesforce.com (CRM) déjà vu?

Enernoc stock finished off its recent slide with a thump, driven by a conviction to invest for the opportunity.

The sound byte was an earnings miss, which eclipsed a deeper story of fantastic growth and a ballooning backlog.

Lag times from sales expense to revenue recognition are greatest in growth regions such as PJM which has some of the juiciest pricng for capacity and enegy.

What do ENOC and CRM have in common? From an inside view, they can calculate the Net Present Value of a newly acquired customer, and they can track renewal rates.

The risks are different, but the calculus is quite similar and probably explain the go for growth stategy.

The company was on sale at a discount to their IPO price today. Reminds me of Salesforce.com a couple of months after their IPO...

Beware of the Solar Stock Fad

Historical Perspective:

More than a fad, we’re witnessing "technology rotation". Going back in history, this is the industry that claimed that nuclear would make "electricity too cheap to meter", then got hyped up on Cold Fusion, which passed the baton to Fuel Cells, which handed off to heavily subsidized Wind, which was eclipsed by Ethanol, and now heavily subsidized Solar PV have created a perception of project economic viability that regrettably just isn’t there.

Unfortunately the technology rotation only serves to obscure the real analysis and work that must be done to solve our energy and environmental problems. Industry insiders wince at the ‘hype to substance’ ratio in much of what is being promoted.

There are things we can, and should be doing right now. Like Grid reactive power adjustment (which increases transmission efficiency), like conservation, like lighting retrofits, like basic PV research vs. implementation of today’s low efficiency PV cells, even like programs to educate people on the value of proper tire pressure!

The good news is that the triplet issues of energy reliability, environmental impact, and economic price impact have come to the nations’ consciousness. The bad news is that this awareness has brought bubblicious responses and current PV (vs. PV basic research) will end up joining their brothers before. Great time to short or buy puts!

Disclosure: I own puts on one or more of the current Solar Plays