EPOD International, is planning a public listing. The company claims to be the leaders in electric power storage systems for the Distributed Generation, Co-Generation, Wind and Solar Power markets.

Of particular interest to me is their recent teaming-up with a Canadian Wind Power company to test commercial levels of energy storage during off-peak times to sell back into the grid during peak hours, using the EPOD EMT Energy Storage system.

Windpower's greatest weakness is that it is not predictable and the power it produces at night is almost worthless. Yet the subsidy structure all over the world dictates that it is worth exactly the same price. It's fascinating that the company values the wind energy storage market at $20 billion - double the existing wind power market !

If EPOD really does crack energy storage on that scale, we could see an end to the spikes in spot electricity prices, sometimes multiples of the ordinary price.

As per my earlier blog about British Biofuels being lifted by the announcement by the government to mandate 5% biofuels by 2010, Argent Energy, the Scottish renewable energy group, which is credited with having created the world’s largest biodiesel plant, is preparing to float early next year. 

The company is already capable of producing 50 million litres - almost equivalent to 5% for Scotland !

So you can see why they welcome the new captive client base that will have to appear in England, Wales and Northern Ireland . . .

Irish Carbon Credit trader EcoSecurities today said that it intends to float on AIM, with speculation that it could a fetch a price tag of some €200m. If it goes ahead, it will be joining "Trading Emissions" which listed earlier this year.

Both companies will be looking for the price of carbon to rise substantially from the EUR 21 - 24 range where it has been stuck for a few months. Trading Emissions - I suspect - would like to see a return the early volatility since the launch of carbon trading in Europe in December 2004.

I have more than a few doubts about carbon trading - a highly artificial market. A key question is whether it will be sustained beyond the period of 2012 and extended outside of Europe. A more pressing issue will be that Britain may suspend carbon trading if - as some have predicted - a harsh winter leads to blackouts.

According to this article from Reuters, China's SunTech Power is planning to raise $350 m in an IPO in New York.

The company is already big by solar standards, in the top 10 of manufacturers, with a capacity of 120 MW per year. It would appear to be very well placed to profit from China's greater appetite for alternative energy - just boosting the renewables target for 2020 from 10% to 15%. China's new renewable energy law comes into force at the beginning of next year.

Xantrex Technology Inc has just announced a sales deal with recently London aim-listed Clipper Wind Power for $12 million of wind power converters.

Xantrex sees itself as a world leader in advanced power electronics. With the major renewables such as solar and wind providing power not in your precisely chosen quantity or even exactly when you want it, power electronics are vital to smooth out the power supply.

As renewables make ever greater inroads, it will still have to be on the back of better electronics managing the power. That's why Xantrex is important.

Outside of India - where power supplies are extraodinarily unreliable - there aren't many companies doing this. Xantrex though, is one of them.