PG&E Corp is quietly ramping up alternative energy assets - see page 14 of this pdf. What's quite exciting is that they are investing in some quite radical assets - like Finavera's 100 MW wavefarm and more recently, 175 MW of geothermal, subject to full regulatory approval. BTW, you should also be aware that PG&E Corp owns a subsidiary called (i.e. not the same company)  Pacific Gas and Electricity  which already has a substantial hydro resource.

It did occur to me that the diversified approach of the utility ramping up alternative energy assets, combined with  the dull conventional power assets make them a less volatile investment for investors worried about an alternative energy bubble. I suspect the utility angle on alternative energy is greatly under appreciated. With a stable, but consistent income of electricity paying customers, they have an easy to understand repeat business model, which may just make them the primary defensive stocks of the alternative energy sector.

Nevada Geothermal has just done the geothermal equivalent of striking oil;

sinking a well that can produce geothermal fluid under its own pressure.

The detail is that Well 23-14 can produce " . . .at a post flash rate of 1865 gallons/minute (118 litres/sec) and a well head pressure of 78 psig (538kPa). A static temperature survey on September 16, 2007 showed a maximum downhole temperature of 374°F (190°C) ".

The Geothermal industry is starting to look like a proper industry on the verge of something big. In the USA, this is partly thanks to the extension of the production tax credit to geothermal power of 1.9 cents per kwh. Elsewhere around the world, Australia's opposition - big fans of geothermal - looks set to win the election and there is even very recent news that Goldman Sachs it taking a serious interest via Iceland.

So now AEI is also now tracking a not inconsiderable 11 geothermal stocks and I daresay this will expand over the next year or so quite a bit more.

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.

As someone who is ever so slightly nerdy, I like my information to arrive thick and fast.

So hats off to Brian D. Fairbank, President and CEO of Nevada Geothermal Power who packed in an amazing amount of useful information into a a few short minutes on http://www.robtv.com/ - click on play under 8.50 a.m. ET.

The informational soundbite highlights were;

"You could look at (Geothermal) like a superheated lake of underground water"

"Nevada is ideal geology for this sort of stuff"

"Costs are all in 4 cents a kilowatt hour and you can sell it for 5 or 6"

Today was also the day that Nevada Geothermal announced the grant of 3,822,000 incentive stock options to certain directors, officers, employees and consultants. The options will be exercisable at a price of $0.65 per share for five years and the common shares are subject to a four month hold period from the date of this grant - 2nd March 2007.

For the time being, Nevada Geothermal is still a development company - the first of four plants, "Blue Mountain", will not come on stream until 2009.

This is certainly a company and an industry to keep an eye on. Although over what time period and with what load factor the figure of 4 cents a kilowatt hour is reached - obviously beyond the scope of this 6 minute podcast - would be very interesting to know.

Yes, you read it right!

Geodynamics has just been thrown onto the PR defensive. Following a test in Switzerland, fresh concerns have recently arisen that geothermal power could inadvertently start earthquakes.

According to this report "... earlier this month, Swiss engineers halted a geothermal heat experiment after it set off a small earthquake. The tremor, near Basel on December 9, measured 3.4 on the Richter scale and caused widespread fear, prompting about 1000 calls to emergency services".

Switzerland is not known for exciting news - so you can imagine this has caused quite a stir.

Geodynamics should be well placed in Australia because it has a recognised potential for geothermal energy - the world's hottest known granite corridors, with temperatures reaching about 235 degrees at a depth of 3.5 kilometres. Additionally in Australia's favour is that it has the world's most geologically stable rock formation. That's why there was some plan (rejected) to plant all of the world's nuclear waste in the middle of the Outback a few years ago.

PNOC Energy Development, a philippine geothermal company listed on the philippine stock exchange (sorry, no price data for this exchange yet) yesterday shed 1 percent at 4.75 pesos on profit-taking, after surging 9 percent last week.

PNOC by the way stands for Philippine National Oil Company - hardly a moniker I'd attach to geothermal power. Nevertheless, the company has a portfolio of 1145 megawatts of geothermal power making the Philippines, the world's second largest producer of geothermal in the world after the USA.