Posts Tagged ‘Energy Stocks’

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GreenHunter Energy Inc. (GRH) – Buzz Stock of the Day

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Shares of GreenHunter Energy, Inc.(NYSE amex: GRH) climbed more than 75 percent in morning trading Friday after the company reported improved second quarter results.

Including one-time items, GreenHunter reported earnings of $4.45 million, or $0.13 per-share on revenue of $1.7 million, compared to a net loss of $7.3 million in the same period a year ago. Excluding items, the company’s second quarter

“Our ability to negotiate the final settlement of substantial insurance claims as well as sell and monetize certain non-core assets has to-date provided sufficient working capital to keep our Company viable,” said GreenHunter’s chairman, president and CEO, Gary Evans.

For the six months ended June 30, 2009, GreenHunter reported a net loss of $4.3 million, or $0.20 per share, compared to a net loss of $15.6 million, or $0.79 per share for the six months ended June 30, 2008.

“Our Company has been in survival mode since late last year after the hurricane strike on our largest asset, our Houston biodiesel refinery, and the subsequent collapse of the financial markets,” Evans said in a statement.

The past 12 months have been turbulent for the Texas-based energy company. Last September, Hurricane Ike destroyed the company’s largest biodiesel refinery less than 60-days after it initiated operations. Falling fossil fuel prices have also weighed on the company’s revenue growth from the sales of its biodiesel products.

Despite the difficult market climate and recent setbacks, Evans was optimistic about GreenHunter’s current game plan and market opportunities. “We feel that we are methodically working through our very tight capital issues with a specific game plan that should allow for future opportunities within the renewable space,” he said.

GreenHunter Energy, Inc. works on wind, hydropower, geothermal solar and other renewable energy projects. It has the nation’s largest biodiesel refinery in Houston and a biomass-fired power plant in Brawley, Calif.

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Echelon Corp. (ELON) – Buzz Stock of the Day

Monday, August 10th, 2009


Shares of Echelon Corp. (NASDAQ: ELON) were up more than 45 percent today after the maker of energy efficiency products announced a long-term agreement to supply “smart meters” to Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK).

Duke Energy has described the smart grid as one of the greatest advancements of the 21st century,” said Ken Oshman, chairman and CEO of Echelon in a statement.

Echelon’s smart meters allow households to monitor electricity usage while also sending data back to power providers. By bringing the wide area network connection point down to the neighborhood transformer, the company’s NES architecture allows a utility to pinpoint problems in its network at a very precise location, and can improve customer service, for example, by eliminating cost and time associated with outage detection.

The creation of a “smart grid” is considered by some to be essential to modernizing the U.S. power delivery system, according to many experts.

“It’s the marriage of information technology and automation technology with the existing electricity network. This is the energy Internet,” said Bob Gilligan, vice president for transmission at GE Energy, which is aggressively pursuing smart grid development. “There are going to be applications 10 years from now that you and I have no idea that we’re going to want or need or think are essential to our lives.”

However, other experts warn that a “smart grid” isn’t smart enough yet to keep hackers away.

Mike Davis, a senior security consultant with Seattle-based IOActive Inc., demonstrated how a computer worm could hop between the meters at homes and businesses within a smart grid network. Such a worm could give troublemakers remote control of the meters, allowing them to disconnect someone’s power, for example.

“Every time we redesign a new technology like this, we’re doomed to relive the ’80s and ’90s all over again and the same vulnerabilities,” he told the AP.

Duke Energy has received regulatory approval to deploy smart grid infrastructure in Ohio, and plans to launch a five-year mass deployment of smart grid technology later this year including more than 700,000 electric smart meters in Ohio. In Indiana, Duke Energy is seeking approval from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to install smart grid technology, including approximately 800,000 smart meters.

Echelon said the deal could represent a revenue opportunity of $150 million. The initial order is worth $15.8 million, with deliveries expected to begin at the end of the quarter, the company said.

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American Superconductor Corp. (AMSC): Buzz Stock of the Day

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

American Superconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: AMSC) caught a tailwind this morning after the maker of wind-energy components announced first quarter earnings that beat analysts’ expectations thanks in large part to China’s greening.

“China, in particular the China wind industry, is the primary driver for our growth today,” said American Superconductor CEO, Greg Yurek in a conference call with analysts.

For the first quarter, the company posted net income of $1.8 million, or 4 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $6.1 million, or 14 cents a share, a year ago. Excluding items, it earned 12 cents a share. Revenue grew 83 percent to $73 million.

AMSC’s largest customer, wind-energy generator maker, Sinovel Wind, accounted for approximately70 percent of AMSC total revenue, and recently increased the its total contract value with American Superconductor to $470 million.

The original Sinovel contract, signed in January and valued at $450 million, had called for AMSC to ship core electrical components for Sinovel’s 1.5 megawatt wind turbines through the end of December 2011. Now, AMSC will increase its core electrical component shipments to Sinovel in 2009 and 2010 and now agrees to complete all shipments by the end of April 2011.

In 2008, China grew the installed base of wind turbines to about 12 GW and early this year declared that they intended to add another 10 GW or more in 2009, Yurek noted. Research by China Wind Energy Association projected that China would grow its wind power installed base between 108 GW and 132 GW by 2020.

“With Sinovel continuing to gain market share, many of our other wind turbine manufacturers set to commence production over the next 12 months, and power grid demand on the rise worldwide, AMSC’s outlook is stronger than ever,” said Yurek, adding that Sinovel is looking to double its production in 2009 and further growth is expected in 2010 and beyond.

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Buzz Stock of the Day- Broadwind Energy (BWEN)

Friday, June 26th, 2009


Shares of Broadwind Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq: BWEN) were up more than 35 percent today.

Earlier this week, the Naperville-based wind energy company announced a realignment of its management team to advance its business development, international and technology efforts.

“Our new management structure provides the framework for pursuing international business opportunities so that we can better serve our customers, enhance our supply chain and develop additional synergies among our subsidiary companies,” said CEO J. Cameron Drecoll in a statement.

Among the recent changes were the appointment of former Chief Operations Officer, Lars Moller to President, Technology and International, a position in which he will focus his efforts on Broadwind Energy’s technology leadership and international expansion; Jess Collins who was named Group President for three Broadwind subsidiary companies – Tower Tech Systems, RBA and Badger Transport; and Don Naab, who has been named Group President for Broadwind’s Brad Foote Gear Works and EMS subsidiary companies.

Despite a first quarter net loss of $7.2 million, or 7 cents a share, Broadwind reported revenue of $53.1 million, up 51 percent over the same period last year.

A recent article stated that Broadwind, which is a maker of turbine gearing, stands to see substantial growth if the sector finds the legs so many politicians pushing.

Shares of BWEN are up more than 200 percent in the past three months.

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Buzz Stock of the Day – Crosstex Energy, Inc. (XTXI)

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Shares of Crosstex Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq: XTXI) were up more than 22 percent today.

Earlier this month, the Dallas-based natural gas transportation and processing company announced an agreement to sell its assets in Mississippi, Alabama and South Texas for $220 million to Southcross Energy LLC. Crosstex’s assets in Mississippi and ALabama consist of about 780 miles of intrastate gathering and transmission pipelines. The South Texas assets consist of about 1,400 miles of intrastate gathering and transmission pipelines.

Proceeds from the sale will be used to pay down more than $200 of the partnership’s debt. This will satisfy the targets for debt reductions in Sept. 2009 and Dec. 2009 established in recent amendments to its debt facilities, Crosstex said in a statement.

“The sale of our Mississippi, Alabama and South Texas assets enables us to strengthen our balance sheet as we pursue our strategy to increase liquidity, reduce leverage and improve profitability,” said Crosstex president and CEO, Barry E. Davis in a news release. “We continue to focus on the growth of our strategic assets in North Texas and Louisiana, as well as our treating business, and remain committed to being a premier provider of midstream energy services.”

More than 92 percent of Motley Fool’s CAPS members believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 this year.

The Energy Information Administration, in its Annual Energy Outlook 2004, estimates that natural gas demand in the United States could be 31.41 Tcf by the year 2025. That is an increase of 38 percent over 2002 demand levels.

The EIA expects residential energy demand to increase 25 percent between 2002 and 2025. Residential use of natural gas is expected to increase by 1.5 percent per year from 2002 to 2010 and 0.9 percent from 2010 to 2025, increasing 25.5 percent from 2002 to 2025. Residential natural gas consumption accounts for 22 percent of all consumption in the U.S.

Probably the most important long term driver of natural gas demand in the residential sector is future residential heating applications. Between 1991 and 1999, 66 percent of new homes, and 57 percent of multifamily buildings constructed used natural gas heating. In 2003, 70 percent of new single family homes constructed used natural gas. While these new homes being built are generally increasing in size, the increasing efficiency of natural gas furnaces used to heat them compensates for the increased square footage to be heated. In general, however, the increase in the number of new homes using natural gas for heat over the next 20 years is expected to provide a strong driver for residential natural gas demand.

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