Solar Fabrik AG has just released its latest set of quarterly earnings.

One of Germany's smaller solar companies (turnover EUR 52.1 million in 2004), it manufactures and supplies solar modules, inverters, installation accessories and solar system solutions. This year it is predicted to have a 20 MW output.

What makes Solar Fabrik unusual is that a company this small manages to be independent. Manufacturing in solar is usually dependent on scale. Morover, they have some ingenious products designed for the developing world; a solar powered water purifier and an autonomous solar power plant - the solar home station.

SolarWorld AG generated a group profit after tax of 33.6 (previous year: 10.3) million EUR in the period from January through September 2005 thus more than tripling the previous year's profit.

The company has had quite a turn around since 2003 when it made a loss of EUR 5.4 million. Aside from the massive improvement in profitability, it has tripled in value since the beginning of the year. And now MM Warburg is rating it as a buy.

Just last week, the foundation stone was laid for a new wafer plant, which it is anticipated will boost annual output to 220 MW by the end of 2006.

Millennium Cell has just posted improved Q3 results, although still making a loss.

The company calls itself the "Hydrogen Battery Technology Company" and sees its future markets as military, medical, industrial and consumer.

Of particular recent interest here though is the military market, for which they have developed a 30 watt battery pack together with Protonex Technology Corporation.

The U.S. Army is funding the development of a portable 30 watt soldier power product (the "P2").

MC CEO H. David Ramm said "We expect the Air Force to begin field testing early next year and Protonex to begin low volume shipments to support this effort in early 2006".  Mr. Ramm continued, "While the military has clearly emerged as our lead market in the near term, we view the P2 as an attractive replacement for batteries in selected applications in the medical and industrial markets".

This won't be the first time that military investment has made possible a product on consumer markets.

London AIM listed Ocean Power Technologies , earlier this week announced much reduced annual losses. Net losses for the year to 30 April came in at $429,000 against $2.85m a year ago on revenue up 14% to $5.4m.

The company's technology incorporate a "Powerbuoy" that captures wave energy from the rising and falling of the waves to drive an electrical generator.

Many view wavepower as having a much more popular future than windpower as it can be located out of sight, yet relatively near population centres and above all, provides predicatable power.

The flipside is that this is not quite off the shelf technology. It is more like where the wind industry was in the 1970s and costs are invitably higher. Right now it looks experimental - more like the fuel cells sector.

Dustin Shindo, CEO of Hoku Scientific, Inc. today presided over the opening bell to celebrate its initial public offering on the NASDAQ - the first Hawaian company ever to do so.

Hoku Scientific Inc., a fuel-cell technology developer that went public in early August, has since then doubled its stock price after a mighty rise in mid-September. It has also just posted its third straight profitable quarter and is currently trading at $11.47.

To find a quoted fuel cell company that makes money is a true rarity.

To find it is located in Hawaii is extraordinary.

Ahead of the AGM yesterday, London AIM listed Voller Energy Plc issued a very upbeat statement. The group, "believes it is on course to be one of the first fuel cell companies in the world to reach profitability."

Voller also announced the resignation of Chief Technical Officer Mark Turpin after joining the group's technical team in February 2005. 

Hard-headed investors must like Voller's law :

"Consumers will not pay a premium to be environmentally friendly nor will they accept a performance degradation to be environmentally friendly".

I'm not sure it's true though.

Take a look at the Toyota Prius - not only are consumers paying a premium, it's pretty ugly too !

Xantrex Technology Inc. (TSX:XTX), a solar inverters producer, and Solon AG, a European solar module manufacturer, have signed an agreement valued at more than US $10 million. Under this two-year agreement, Xantrex will supply custom solar grid tie inverters to Solon AG.

What's interesting about this is that it marks a clear way of getting into the European (for which read Germany) solar market for Xantrex. There's much more to solar power than just the panels and inverters are crucial balance of systems components. Xantrex claims to have inverters in place for over 3000 MW of wind and solar power around the world. An inverter by the way converts direct current electricity to alternating current.

Xantrex closed yesterday at 8.00 having risen from just over 5 in mid-August earlier this year.

A just published report commissioned by the UK's Department for Trade and Industry clearly shows that onshore windfarms are more than capable of commercially existing with lower subsidies than they do now. I'd go a bit further myself - some can exist quite easily without subsidies altogether.

Two forces are at play here;

1) The cost of wind turbines are still falling

2) The external cost of other energy sources - specifically coal and gas - are rising

It has been estimated that a 40% drop in the cost of windpower would make it the most competitive form of electricity generation. Some have predicted this happening by 2020. Far more likely is a 20% drop and a 20% rise in conventional fuels, yielding the same 40% drop.

Either way, as Britain's wind industry grows, there will be pressure to reduce subsidies, not increase them.

Suzlon Energy - India's wind turbine manufacturer who make machines from 350 kw to 2 mw in size - completed its listing on the Bombay Stock Exchange, with the issue reportedly oversubscribed more than 45 times. Suzlon  raised a total of INR 13.6bn (USD 310m).

The company also delivers turnkey wind farms (ones with all the necessary turbines and electrical infrastructure in place literally ready to turn on), most notably Asia's largest in  Vankusawade of 201 mw.

What's impressive is that Suzlon is reaching the required design standards of West European manufacturers - Germanische Lloyd - and is able to sell turbines as far afield as Minnesota USA. Assuming the de-industrialization of Western Europe continues, expect Suzlon to be a key benefactor.

According to a recent report by PwC, the revenues of 20 listed fuel cell companies declined from 2003 - 2004 and none of them are profitable. According to the report's co-author, John Webster, "It's unique in our experience. The sector has always shown reasonably healthy increases in revenues".

On the bright side, Distributed Energy Systems made a 450% gain in revenues.

I still think fuel  cells other than in the portable throwaway market are still some way off.

Australian financial group Babcock and   Brown announced plans to list its partially owned investment vehicle,   Global Wind Partners, on the Australian Stock Exchange. The company will be   renamed Babcock and Brown Wind Partners (BBWP) and  market capitalisation expected to be in the region of AUD   657m-692m.

The newly-listed Babcock & Brown Wind Partners (BBWP) will initially hold stakes in 15 wind farms across Europe, the United States and Australia, with combined generation capacity of 672 MW.

This is one of the widest geographical wind portfolios I've ever seen - a good thing. Each nation's annual wind output can vary hugely, as in Europe in 2003.

Just before its IPO, German PV cell manufacturer Q-Cells has raised the price range for its   Deutsche Bourse IPO from EUR 29-34 (USD 35-41) to EUR 35-38 (USD 42-46).

What this means is that the company could very well capitalize at over EUR 1.4bn   (USD 1.7bn). Large  capitalizations matter because it makes it easier for big investment funds to take an interest, hitherto a barrier for institutional investors in the alternative energy universe.
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Q-Cells AG as the world’s largest independent producer of mono- and polycrystalline, silicon-based high-efficiency solar cells.