You can't ignore the volatility that is so prevalent in the alternative energy sector.

Take today's biggest winner and loser for example.

Repower Systems AG, usually referred to by the media as just "Repower", jumped 27% today, because Suzlon Energy, an Indian wind turbine manufacturer, has just offered a 40% premium over Areva's buyout price for Repower - fixed on Jan. 19, the last trading day before Areva made its approach. . This is no question, an exciting story. Indian industrialisation has largely been ignored in the West, who have assumed that it is all about China, and India was all about call centres and software. With an economy of 1 billion people growing at 9% a year, we can expect to hear much more of India in the years to come.

Now the loser, Energy Conversion Devices, down 16%, because revenues came in $10 million lower than expected. According to this article, the company said that it does not expect to achieve sustainable profitability by the end of the year as previously projected, partly due to the longer-than-anticipated delay in securing additional funding for the company's emerging technologies.

To pick just one angle, the contrast between the two is really one of marture and developing technology. Repower and Suzlon represent off-the shelf profitable alternative energy technology which works. ECD's basic problem is that it is visionary - the technology is always beyond the horizon.