rockymtnway

Sustainable Energy After the Correction

I'm fairly heavily weighted in the sector and I'm no long optimistic. The biggest spenders on solar in the last few yearrs have been Germany and Spain; two countries with very serious economic problems right now. I just can't see the governments continuing to put expensive incentive plans on the table in the 2010 budgets.

Also, as the markets have crashed, so has gone the money to buy that new set of panels. The same pool of money that goes toward early retirement goes to invest in lowering my utility bill.

While I was hopeful just a year ago, we are in a completely different landscape and I think you can't go based on current or projected earnings when looking beyond existing contracts for future revenue.

Solar Breaks Oil Price Dependence

Of course there's a coorelation between various energy sources; it's a free market system. ...or at least it's supposed to be. Solar has the benefit of subsidies in many nations in the world. Without those subsidies, just how many solar manufacturers would be showing any profit this year? Probably none. While there is good coming out of the current influx of money into solar in the form of increased research money and production capacities, solar will only show it has a future when it can demonstrate the ability to out-profit oil, gas, nuclear and wind. That's not happening right now and for many solar companies, it may never happen.

Until CSIQ and the other solar giants start producing 2-5% dividends on top of multi-billion dollar profits like XOM & COP, their price is based on nothing more than hope, dreams and subsidies.