Enticingly named Ascent Solar, a maker of thin-film solar pv modules, said it expected to receive $21.6 million from the exercise of the warrants. The upshot of this was the stock soared over 15% on the 25th June, since when it has come off a little bit, dropping 5.36% yesterday.

Like several other thin film manufacturers, Ascent Solar believe they have the solution to lowering solar prices. Their techology uses a plastic film or substrate coated with thin-film PV. As this picture shows, it is flexible and light weight. But does that really matter?

Not for buildings, but very conceivably for flight. Like this solar-powered blimp made by
Lockheed Martin HAA. Lighter-than-air, solar-powered High-Altitude Airship is designed to hover for more than a year at 60,000 ft. A prototype is scheduled to go aloft in 2010.

Followers of this blog will be well-attuned to the fact that I see a lot more potential in plug-in hybrids over any other technology like electric or fuel cell vehicles in the years to come. I think I'm definitely correct about fuel cell vehicles - no chance of an imminent price breakthrough there. What I hadn't anticipated though was the speed of development in electric vehicles - both in performance and critically, looks.

So just take a peek at this car - The Lightning, due to hit the marketplace in 2008.

Beauty aside, the staggering breakthrough about this car is with these nanosafe batteries, which can 80% recharge in 1 minute and can achieve 15,000 deep charge / discharge cycles. That compares to an overnight 6 hour charge for lithium ion or nickel-metal hydride batteries or maybe 1000 cycles. This last point is very important - my laptop lithium-based batteries tend to last all of one year before I have to buy a replacement. This new technology would take the battery's lifetime beyond that of it's respective accompanying technology.

It is not inconceivable that this technology and the looks of the Lightning, have the potential to make the Tesla look out of date, very fast. So Tesla Motors must be pleased to have sold so many units ahead of production. Having said that, the Lightning will come in at three times the price of the Tesla - about $300,000 a pop.

But it's not just snazzy sports cars where we are seeing progress. Today I learned of an electric delivery van, shortly to be deployed on the streets of London, which looks pretty conventional, the Smith Edison.

I've often thought the greatest failing of alternative energy cars - from a consumer point of view - was the way they look - see my post on another website here. Well today, manufacturers are clearly starting to address that.

Anyway, let's not get too excited - none of these vehicles are quite yet on the road.

THE WINNERS

1. Distributed Energy Systems +22.34%
2. Dyesol Ltd +22.12%
3. US Bioenergy +9.14%
4. Solon AG +8.41%
5. Roth & Rau +8.32%

THE LOSERS

1. Quantum Technologies -20.1%
2. Western Geopower -10.53%
3. Green Rock -9.76%
4. Hoku Scientific -8.96%
5. Western Wind Energy -7.14%

Following a couple of IPOs over the last week, here they are;

PV Crystalox - a company in what I regard as the sweetspot of the solar business, a manufacturer of silicon ingots and wafers

and

Solaria Energia - a Spanish PV company, which disappointingly, only carries the Spanish language on its website. There has been a bit of a buzz about Spain becoming the next Germany in solar power - that's why several German firms were keen to open subsidiaries there over the last year or so. And yet, you have to think that a Spanish supplier ought to have more opportunity to exploit that over a German one. Let's see. A friend of mine incidentally with a large holiday home in Spain, was advised not to install solar pv panels, because they would be stolen. If that's really the case, the millions of holiday homes (800,000 built last year alone) there will not be a market and the growth will most likely have to be Spanish-led or more ways than one.

THE WINNERS

1. Renewable Energy Corp +24.18%
2. Quantum Technologies +16.85%
3. Satcon Technology +12.73%
4. Plambeck Neue Energien +10.76%
5. Quantum Energy +10.53%

THE LOSERS

1. Sag Solarstrom -8.51%
2. Sunline -8.07%
3. Torrens Energy -7.78%
4. Petrotec AG -5.66%
5. Catalytica Energy Systems -5.41%

News that a new Chinese solar stock, Jetion Holdings, is planning an IPO on AIM made me think about the routes recent Chinese alternative energy floatations have been taking.

It does appear that AIM is popular for those who will capitalize at less than USD 500 m - in the case of Jetion Holdings, their valuation would be in the region of USD 220 m. Meanwhile, Yingli Green Energy, who today capitalise at USD 1.5 billion, took the American Depository Recept route.

And Suntech Power Holdings, AEI's largest stock by market cap. has a full listing on the NYSE, capitalises at over USD 5 billion.

I think it's all about costs and the smaller you are, the less able you are to absorb them. So I think it's fair to say that you could rank these exchanges - on costs alone - like this;

1. Full listing - NYSE/ Nasdaq - most expensive
2. ADR IPO - on NYSE / Nasdaq - less expensive
3. AIM IPO - least expensive

Ok, ok, I haven't included some of the other European or Canadian markets - but it does generally appear that if you're a Chinese company looking to IPO, it's London or New York.

THE WINNERS

1. Green Rock +19.35%
2. Geodynamics +14.39%
3. LDK Solar +12.65%
4. Hoku Scientific +12.09%
5. Sumitomo Titanium +11.32%

THE LOSERS

1. Geothermal Resources -16.74%
2. Biofuels Corp -4.35%
3. CMR Fuel Cells -4.19%
4. JA Solar Holdings -3.7%
5. Australian Renewable Fuels -3.66%

THE WINNERS

1. Quantum Technologies +12.67%
2. Ceramic Fuel Cells +9.2%
3. Ascent Solar Technologies +9.18%
4. D1 Oils +8.25%
5. China Sunergy +7.78%

THE LOSERS

1. Biofutures Intl -12.12%
2. Hoku Scientific -5.63%
3. Spire Corp -4.57%
4. Millennium Cell -3.03%
5. ITM Power -2.34%

At AEI, I take a pride in disclosing to the public, the most comprehensive list of globally-listed alternative energy stocks - it continues to grow at quite a rate.

I do however, have a few rules;

- no pink sheet or OTC stocks e.g. ZAP
- no stocks with an alternative energy exposure of less than approximately 25% to alternative energy in sales e.g. General Electric - don't believe the ecomagination hype, alternative energy is still well under 10% of their sales but has obviously great potential to grow faster than the rest of the business
- no energy efficiency stocks (because all energy efficiency ultimately leads to increased energy consumption due to the rebound effect to the M3 part of the money supply)

I'm always playing catchup however to the alternative energy universe. Apart from my own media scanning, I always welcome an email telling me of a stock I may not know about which should be included - so let me know if there any that should be included. In that vein, here are 4 new stocks - all geothermal and in Australia - that I have just added; Geothermal Resources, GreenRock Energy, Petratherm and Torrens Energy.

This image I have taken from here and sums up perfectly Australia's geothermal potential. Australian geothermal stocks are doing well because the leader of the opposition party Kevin Rudd, who has a strong chance of winning the next election, prefers geothermal development to nuclear power. And by the way, see this useful wiki on geothermal power, although it is a bit US-centric.

The bottom line is that if you can dig deep enough, you will always get a high enough temperatures to boil water, turn it into steam and power a turbine. At the centre of the earth, temperature reaches a staggering 223,000 degrees centigrade. But we will probably never manage to drill that far. In other words, it helps if you live in Iceland which is basically volcanic, just below the surface.

There was just one story yesterday - Hoku Scientific jumped 47% in one day on news that its subsidiary, Hoku Materials, signed a 10-year contract for delivery of polysilicon with Suntech Power Holdings.

The detail of the contract is that it calls for a $2 million deposit on deliveries slated to start in 2009 and additional prepayments of $45 million. Critically, it also could mean $675 million in revenues over a 10-year period.

From a posting, blogging point of view, I love Hoku. It provides an extraordinary tale how a fuel cell company which bizarrely decides to locate in Hawaii, decides to diversify into solar and actually succeed. What were the odds on that?

And whoever is in charge of drumming up the business for Hoku is the definition of rainmaker.

THE WINNERS

1. Hoku Scientific +47.38%
2. Geothermal Resources +41.87%
3. Petratherm +13.33%
4. Torrens +11.11%
5. Solarfun Power Holdings +10.27%

THE LOSERS

1. Quantum Energy -12.38%
2. Mission Biofuels -6.72%
3. US Bioenergy -6.36%
4. Australian Renewable Fuels -4.65%
5. Agri Energy -4.56%

THE WINNERS

1. O2Diesel Corp +7.55%
2. Solar2 AG +6.25%
3. Ormat Technologies +6.23%
4. Trina Solar +4.72%
5. Theolia +4.28%

THE LOSERS

1. Prometheus Energy -6.94%
2. Hydrogenics Corp -5.07%
3. Biofuels Corp -4.44%
4. Sumitomo Titanium Corp -4.42%
5. Carmanah Technologies Corp -3.77%

AIM-listed Renewable Energy Generation, a windfarm operator and developer, has ordered a further 18 wind turbines for its Canadian wind farm projects and expects delivery in autumn 2008.

The company has other farms in the UK and Poland. But they are a fraction of the size of the estimated 2.5 GW that they could exploit in Canada - much easier to do since they acquired AIM Powergen Corp in August last year. There still isn't really much windpower in Canada - just under 800 megawatts in capacity in a country voluminous in empty space and plenty of hydropower to back it up. So REG looks strategically well placed in Canada.

And yet I think I've said it before, but couldn't someone have come up with a better name for the company than Renewable Energy Generation?

It's a bit like calling a computer company, the computer company. It makes it totally impossible to drown out the white noise of non-related information to the company on the internet - very important these days.

THE WINNERS

1. Quantum Energy +16.67%
2. Sunline +10.12%
3. EOP Biodiesel +5.79%
4. Actelios +4.49%
5. Geodynamics +4.36%

THE LOSERS

1. CMR Fuel Cells -11.52%
2. Aventine Renewable Energy -8.11%
3. Western Wind Energy -7.69%
4. Distributed Energy Systems -6.92%
5. VRB Power Systems -5.10%

Slightly off the beaten track from alternative energy stocks, but worth a post. There is an ongoing debate of raging intensity as to how serious the risks of wind turbines are to birds. The technical lingo for this is "avian mortality rate". No question, it does happen and I have found a picture from this site which I assume is genuine of 2 eagles, in pieces post an encounter with a wind turbine in Spain.

Not a pretty site.

But there's more to it than this. We must have some perspective. Many things kill birds (and for that matter, bats) in far greater numbers - particularly domestic cats and cars, both of which kill millions and millions each year. I've yet to hear however of anyone advocating a mass cull of domestic cats to help the birds. What's more, Industrialised agriculture has probably done more than both of these put together.

The problem comes from the type of birds wind turbines kill - typically slow maturing predator species (eagles) and the emigrating kind (geese). There just isn't much you can do about this. Eagles like to soar on currents and wind turbines can interfere with this. Some believe putting more turbines out at sea would go a long way to reducing bird kill. That though runs into statistical issues. Avian fatalities are not fully accurate because of scavenger removal - i.e. you can' t record a dead bird if a fox takes it before you see it. Accounting for scavenger removal becomes a whole lot more difficult out at sea and some would say impossible.

So surely, it is not beyond the wit of man to develop some sort of device that keeps these birds at a safe distance?

THE WINNERS

1. Renewable Energy Holdings +12.36%
2. Voller Energy +9.38%
3. Powerfilm +8.82%
4. Hydrogenics +8.66%
5. Daystar Technologies +6.15%

THE LOSERS

1. Ballard Power Systems -6.49%
2. Western Geopower -6.15%
3. Sustainable Energy Technologies -5.88%
4. Green Plains Renewable Energy -3.96%
5. Theolia -3.52%

Plug Power, the stationary fuel cell manufacturer, has finally got a permanent CFO to replace the temp. - David Waldek, appointed in February. Could this be the start of a long-heralded turnaround?

The stock is down over 40% from 12 months ago. If money was no object, I'm sure a lot of people would be buying fuel cells. It's just that it is an object. Only yesterday, I saw an advert in the newspaper for a new 5 kilowatt diesel generator generator for all of $2000. That really is hard to beat. And corporate customers would pay less.

The advantages of gas-powered fuel cells are real;

- they produce virtually no SOx, NOx, or CO
- they're also quiet and lightweight
- they have high reliability - 6 nines or 99.9999% to use the lingo

All the stationary fuel cell industry needs is a price breakthrough. But I can't see it coming any time soon.

THE WINNERS

1. Distributed Energy Systems +7.69%
2. Finavera Renewables +4.44%
3. Solon AG 4.37%
4. Centrosolar AG +4.07%
5. Reinecke + Pohl +3.76%

THE LOSERS

1. Biofuels Corp -6.12%
2. Catalytica Energy Systems -5.96%
3. Voller Energy -5.88%
4. Alkane Energy -4.94%
5. Electro Energy -4.55%

As promised a little while back, here they are;

China Sunergy - a Nanjing-based solar cell manufacturer which floated on May 18th and LDK Solar which went public a few days ago.

Is there no end to the Chinese Solar boom?

Here's a man who thinks a more general solar correction is in sight - J. Peter Lynch. As he wrote recently here . . .

"Back in September and October of 2006 all of the publicly traded solar stocks I follow regularly (15 in the U.S. and 12 in Germany) were just advancing through their 50 day moving averages. Currently, 12 of 15 (80%) of U.S. solar stocks are below their 50 day average and 9 of 12 (75%) of German stocks are below their 50 day average. This tells me that, more than likely, the solar sector is weakening and is potentially headed for a corrective phase".

Added to this, I think some of the stories we have been seeing lately about polysilicon oversupply bringing down prices as soon as 2010 are at least a little overplayed. There is still massive undersupply which may necessitate some consolidation in the industry - that just might play out after a mini solar crash as is anticipated by Lynch.

THE WINNERS

1. Powerfilm Solar +8.51%
2. Western Wind Energy +8.08%
3. Biofuels Corp +6.52%
4. Umweltbank AG +5.52%
5. Verbio Vereinigte Bioenergie +4.71%

THE LOSERS

1. US Bioenergy -6.8%
2. Carmanah Technologies -6.75%
3. Quantum Fuel Systems -6.59%
4. Nibe Industrier AB -5.89%
5. Morphic Technologies AB -5.69%

Micro stock Voller Energy, having originally tried to crack a few years ago the portable power pack for laptops, ipods and mobile phones and clearly not having succeeded, is now trying to break into the construction market.

I have to say this looks like their most promising venture yet. You buy an ipod because it's small and neat. The Voller fuel cell charger is not that - they really don't fit together and the noise it makes would make it hard to work on a laptop.

But it's chunky yellow looks (see here and click on movies at bottom left of page), somewhat reminiscent of a JCB digger are a plus for the unfussy, no-nonsense builder. The sales channel is promising too - Speedy Hire, the leading supplier of cordless tools to the UK construction industry. The aim is to for the fuel cell generator to replace diesel generators in the 200,000 static shelters for construction workers in the UK.

I'm also wondering if there would be scope for scaling up their technology. The highly portable gas 10 inch canister that is used with the unit is pretty small. Why not connect it to a 13 kg gas cannister (as used in a large barbecue) and run much bigger machinery, like road-digging tools, a bit like they do with their marine products?

For serious power applications, the 100 watt limit of the fuel cell generator could then be lifted to 2 kilowatts.

THE WINNERS

1. Distributed Energy Systems +10.13%
2. Japan Wind Development +7.23%
3. GS Yuasa +5.93%
4. Ceramic Fuel Cells +5.06%
5. Quantum Technologies +5.03%

THE LOSERS

1. Catalytica Energy Systems -9.88%
2. Australian Biodiesel -8.22%
3. Biofuels Corp -8%
4. Western Wind Energy -7.48%
5. Mission Biofuels -6.67%

Ceramic Fuel Cells, had an unusually large turnover of shares today, 13 million shares compared to a more usual 1 million or less. This is prompting bid speculation that a large "White Goods" manufacturer - i.e. a maker of fridges, freezers, washing machines, dishwashers etc. - wants to buy them outright. Having reread my last post on the company from March, I'm reminded that they've got quite a big interest in Germany. So if I was to speculate who the mystery bidder is, one big German white goods manufacturer who might well be interested is Bosch.

I keep thinking about this video clip from early April on 4 WNBC.COM - the 5 minute new story is about plug-in hybrids, hybrids and all-electric vehicles. CEO Michael Reed of Electro Energy makes a bullish forecast for the accompanying battery technology, estimating that in 5 years, a typical plug-in battery will have a range of 100 miles on a full charge, compared to just 20 today.

That would be very impressive. After all, if your better than average Nickel Metal Hydride battery delivers 70 watt hours per kilo, we are looking at a battery in 5 years time that delivers 350 watt hours per kilo of power. That is a very big jump which - if the cost is reasonable - would lead to a slam-dunk case for plug-in-hybrids. That's because the average american auto journey is no more than 24 miles and in the UK, more like 15. So you quickly see how big the potential is. For all that, Electro Energy is small and by market cap., over the last 12 months, getting smaller and now stands at $26 million.

What Electro Energy believes it offers over other battery manufacturers, is it's proprietary bipolar technology. They anticipate that this should deliver advantages in volume, weight, production cost and power presumably when their Florida manufacturing plant in Gainesville kicks in.

The need and demand for better rechargeable batteries is clear. The technology though has yet to catch up.

THE WINNERS

1. Western Wind Energy +12.36%
2. Sustainable Energy Technologies +10.42%
3. Fuelcell Energy +7.27%
4. Alkane Energy +6.25%
5. Hydrogenics Corp +5.36%

THE LOSERS

1. Biofuels Corp -10.53%
2. Energiekontor -7.65%
3. Finavera Renewables -6.12%
4. Schmack Biogas -6.09%
5. Quantum Fuel Systems -5.81%

Biofuels Corp soared 46 pct on Friday after confirming that it has reached agreement to roll over its banking facilities, dealers said.

At a guess, I would say this has to be one of the top 5 most volatile stocks in the AEI universe. It is down however a staggering 90% plus a year ago, so an awful lot of people must have lost wardrobes of shirts on this stock. And takeover talk by Biopetrol Industries AG, seems to have subsided.With it's paltry capitalisation of around $10 million, it finds itself below the radar of most fund managers with liquidity concerns. If and only if it was able to recover a little bit, the turnaround might well be quite stunning.

THE WINNERS

Quantum Fuel Systems +17.01%
Hoku Scientific +15.71%
Carmanah Solar Technologies +14.29
Electro Energy +12%
D1 Oils +11.96%

THE LOSERS

Solarfun Power Holdings -22.19%
Repower Systems -20.65%
Trina Solar -13.06
Biofuel Corp -12.31
Solar Millennium -11.88