ytterbius

China Solar Safari: Hunting for Five Value Companies

BryBry, you should do more research before you blindly follow Jim Cramer in his FSLR right off the road and into the ditch. FSLR is in trouble, only the same analysts that love to put sell ratings on Silicon-based technology continue to refuse to talk about the real issue for FSLR, which is their dependence on Tellurium.

Investing In a Resource-Constrained World (Part V)

I have a BS in physics, and I know absolutely nothing about cold fusion. I do know quite a bit about Solar, though, and you're wrong on it.

Ok, there are a tremendous number of arguments that could be used to support Solar, and in particular, Silicon-based Solar, but I'll stick with one directly related to your article; Peak Oil.

You want to support thin films over Silicon, but that contradicts your peak-based reasoning.

Which is a stronger company in a post-peak world?

Would you bet on super-high-tech company depending on rare elements from the corners of the world, as well as incredibly specialized equipment and infrastructure for the development of their product; or would you rather support a company that uses well-known technology (silicon-based), and the second-most most abundant material in the Planet's crust (silicon) for the production of their product?

The particular Silicon-based company that I mention is LDK Solar. They're building the World's largest Polysilicon Factory in the World. They've got local supplies of raw Silicon to process. They even are buying their Ingot Crucibles from a Chinese Company right across the street, as opposed to ordering them from Europe or the US, as other companies do. Plan has LDK capable of producing 2 GW of Wafers per year after 2009 (much sooner than any cold fusion process will produce a GW). You can bet that if any company will be insulated from the problems of Peak-whatever, it's going to be LDK.

When you're talking about peak-resources, the obvious solution is to make best use of the most common of resources, as you well know by your assaults (deserved INO on FSLR for their Te dependency).

Semiconductors: Is the Glass Half-Empty or Half-Full?

"pretty much the same business model as LDK - except with great analyst support"

LOL! It may be a similar business model, but it's not half the business, and it costs just as much. Their margins are much worse, and their future vision and potential doesn't touch that of Light Peng and LDK.

As for analyst support for LDK, it really depends on which analyst you're following. Needham and UBS have targets will above the current price. Are they fools? Who are you following, and what rationale are they using that suggests to you that they are right about this company?