THE GAINERS

Vrb Power Systems Inc. (Tier1) TSX:VRB EnergyStorage 14.29
Electro Energy Inc. (MM) NASDAQ:EEEI EnergyStorage 12.33
Sunline O.N. XE:SU3 Solar 11.69
Pacific Ethanol - Commonstock (MM) NASDAQ:PEIX Bioethanol 11.49
Satcon Technology (MM) NASDAQ:SATC DiversifiedAltE 9.26
Solar2 Ag XE:S2R Solar 9.09

THE GAINERS

Austrefuel Fpo ASX:ARW Biodiesel 16.67
Bdi-Biodiesel Int. XE:D7I Biodiesel 12.13
Ceres Power LSE:CWR FuelCells 11.65
Phoenix Solar AG O.N. XE:PS4 Solar 11.59
CO2 Grp. Fpo ASX:COZ CarbonTradingandFinancial 10.53
Sag Solarstrom Ag XE:SAG Solar 10.34

THE GAINERS

Cosan Limited CL A NYSE:CZZ Bioethanol 7.90
Active Power (MM) NASDAQ:ACPW EnergyStorage 6.37
Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide (MM) NASDAQ:QTWW FuelCells 5.84
Solar2 Ag XE:S2R Solar 5.71
US Bioenergy (MM) NASDAQ:USBE Bioethanol 5.63
Pacific Ethanol - Commonstock (MM) NASDAQ:PEIX Bioethanol 5.22

THE GAINERS

Agcert Regs LSE:AGC CarbonTradingandFinancial 46.67
Bdi-Biodiesel Int. XE:D7I Biodiesel 21.48
Centrosolar Grp. Ag XE:C3O Solar 17.73
Xethanol Corp. AMEX:XNL Bioethanol 15.79
Jackgreen Fpo ASX:JGL DiversifiedAltE 14.29
Roth + Rau O.N. XE:R8R Solar 14.14

THE GAINERS

Finavera Renewables Inc. (Tier2) TSX:FVR DiversifiedAltE 19.05
Carnegie Fpo ASX:CNM Wave 16.67
Solco Ltd Fpo ASX:SOO Solar 15.00
Morphic Technologies AB Ser. B OMX:MORP-B FuelCells 14.72
Western Wind Energy Corp (Tier2) TSX:WND Wind 12.99
Greentech Energy Systems OMX:GES Wind 12.58

THE GAINERS

Austrefuel Fpo ASX:ARW Biodiesel 35.14
Agri Nrg Fpo ASX:AAE Bioethanol 24.24
CO2 Grp. Fpo ASX:COZ CarbonTradingandFinancial 23.08
Petratherm Fpo ASX:PTR Geothermal 21.32
Carnegie Fpo ASX:CNM Wave 17.07
Missionbio Fpo ASX:MBT Biodiesel 17.00

THE GAINERS

Hansen Tran. LSE:HSN Wind 18.42
Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. (Tier2) TSX:NGP Geothermal 16.48
Finavera Renewables Inc. (Tier2) TSX:FVR DiversifiedAltE 15.00
Solon AG F.Solartech.Ag XE:SOO1 Solar 14.23
Western Wind Energy Corp (Tier2) TSX:WND Wind 13.04
Schmack Biogas NA O.N. XE:SB1 Biogas 11.98

THE GAINERS

Biopetrol Inds Inh.SF 1 XE:B2I Biodiesel 5.32
Wind Hydgn Fpo ASX:WHN DiversifiedAltE 4.76
Ausbiodesl Fpo ASX:ABJ Biodiesel 4.17
Japan Wind Development Co., Ltd. JSX:2766 Wind 2.99
Agcert Regs LSE:AGC CarbonTradingandFinancial 2.50
Dyesol Ltd Fpo ASX:DYE Solar 1.96
Energy Dev Fpo ASX:ENE Wastegas 1.26

THE GAINERS

Ceramic Fuel LSE:CFU FuelCells 16.22
Distributed Energy Systems (MM) NASDAQ:DESC FuelCells 10.33
China Sun SGX:C86 Bioethanol 9.21
Sumitomo Titanium Corp. JSX:5726 Solar 8.72
Cropenergies Ag XE:CE2 Bioethanol 8.55
Acta LSE:ACTA FuelCells 7.14

THE GAINERS

Edenenergy Fpo ASX:EDE DiversifiedAltE 13.89
Ausbiodesl Fpo ASX:ABJ Biodiesel 13.64
ECODIESEL ON NM BOV:ECOD3 Biodiesel 9.78
Nordex AG O.N. XE:NDX1 Wind 8.67
China Sun SGX:C86 Bioethanol 8.57
Sag Solarstrom Ag XE:SAG Solar 6.21

Technically, a bear market kicks in when a given market falls below 20% from its high. So depending on which index you look at, we're already there. As of last night, the Dow Jones is down 14.5%, the Russell 2000 index down 20% and the Nasdaq, 10% off the beginning of the year. 

The question for us is, where are we with alternative energy stocks?

Here's my existing list of Global Alternative Energy Indices - which I suspect is not complete. Email me if you have some others you think I should know about . . . I do read and act on them (thanks by the way, to the person who told me about Arise Technologies Corporation - stock now being added).

Well, I'm going to start with an American index, the Wilder Hill  Clean  Energy Index, because it's still the best known. It's down 24.57% since it's peak on December 26th last year, or about where it was a month earlier in November. So that suggest for its own components, a bear market.

Now back to the global indices. They are quite hard to get data on, as it's usually a premium paid-for service, but here are the ones I have from freely available data.

The Dax Global Alternative Energy Index - see here - again, it peaked in late December at 218.25 and closed last night at 186.44 - so it's down 14.58%. No bear market here then.

The Renixx Renewable Energy Industrial  Index World - see here - hard to read, but the chart suggests a fall from over 1900 to 1400, that's a pretty severe pasting, at least 25% off it's peak.

So I hope that puts you a little bit more in the picture as several newspapers and websites in recent days have been running stories about alternative energy stocks showing big falls.

Let's put this in context.

The important point about the alternative energy sector is that  it has not been driven by Greenspan's cheap credit boom. The drivers to date have been the high price of oil, government regulations and targets, concerns over energy security and the environment and improving technology.

And as far as I can see, none of these have changed in the last month and nor are they about to. But the caveat is that you would have to expect market inflows to drop off substantially during this period of uncertainty for the world economy, because there's less investment money to go around.

THE GAINERS

Ausbiodesl Fpo ASX:ABJ Biodiesel 15.79
Green Rock Fpo ASX:GRK Geothermal 8.89
Active Power (MM) NASDAQ:ACPW EnergyStorage 7.31
Ballard Power Systems - Common Shares (MM) NASDAQ:BLDP FuelCells 4.94
Medis Technologies Ltd. (MM) NASDAQ:MDTL FuelCells 4.79
Econergy Intl LSE:ECG CarbonTradingandFinancial 3.75

THE GAINERS

Carnegie Fpo ASX:CNM Wave 14.55
Climate Exch. LSE:CLE CarbonTradingandFinancial 11.76
CO2 Grp. Fpo ASX:COZ CarbonTradingandFinancial 9.37
Geodynamic Fpo ASX:GDY Geothermal 9.16
Mechanical Technology Incorporated (MM) NASDAQ:MKTY FuelCells 7.79
Distributed Energy Systems (MM) NASDAQ:DESC FuelCells 6.56

THE GAINERS

Ceres Power LSE:CWR FuelCells 32.13
Environmental Power (MM) NASDAQ:EPG Biogas 10.89
Climate Exch. LSE:CLE CarbonTradingandFinancial 8.42
Itm Power LSE:ITM FuelCells 7.58
Western Geopower (Tier2) TSX:WGP Geothermal 7.32
Sumitomo Titanium Corp. JSX:5726 Solar 7.31

THE GAINERS

Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide (MM) NASDAQ:QTWW FuelCells 15.98
Actelios BIT:ACT Wastegas 15.06
Agcert Regs LSE:AGC CarbonTradingandFinancial 10.62
Spire (MM) NASDAQ:SPIR Solar 9.73
D1 Oils LSE:DOO Biodiesel 8.50
Yingli Grn Engy Adr NYSE:YGE Solar 8.07
JA Solar Holdings, CO., Ltd. - Ads (MM) NASDAQ:JASO Solar 7.56

THE GAINERS

Xethanol Corp. AMEX:XNL Bioethanol 15.00
Ocean Pwr Di LSE:OPT Wave 6.37
Satcon Technology (MM) NASDAQ:SATC DiversifiedAltE 5.52
Solco Ltd Fpo ASX:SOO Solar 5.26
Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. (Tier2) TSX:NGP Geothermal 5.13
Solar2 Ag XE:S2R Solar 4.88

THE GAINERS

Japan Wind Development Co., Ltd. JSX:2766 Wind 14.02
SAO MARTINHO S.A. - SAO MARTINHO BOV:SMTO3 Bioethanol 9.91
Cosan Limited CL A NYSE:CZZ Bioethanol 8.06
Actelios BIT:ACT Wastegas 7.27
Helius Eng LSE:HEGY Biomass 6.67
Finavera Renewables Inc. (Tier2) TSX:FVR DiversifiedAltE 5.88

THE GAINERS

Distributed Energy Systems (MM) NASDAQ:DESC FuelCells 30.24
Conergy AG O.N. XE:CGY Solar 12.86
Edenenergy Fpo ASX:EDE DiversifiedAltE 10.84
Solar Millennium Ag XE:S2M Solar 8.90
SAO MARTINHO S.A. - SAO MARTINHO BOV:SMTO3 Bioethanol 8.67
Ldk Solar CO Adr NYSE:LDK Solar 8.07

THE GAINERS

Western Wind Energy Corp (Tier2) TSX:WND Wind 15.13
Finavera Renewables Inc. (Tier2) TSX:FVR DiversifiedAltE 14.89
Petrotec Ag XE:PT8 Biodiesel 12.73
Xethanol Corp. AMEX:XNL Bioethanol 12.37
SAO MARTINHO S.A. - SAO MARTINHO BOV:SMTO3 Bioethanol 5.17
Missionbio Fpo ASX:MBT Biodiesel 3.57

Writing my latest newsletter yesterday (have you signed up yet? You should, it's free!) I was quite taken by how two Australian stocks, Australian Renewable Fuels and Australian Biodiesel Group have clearly not had the same upside - far from it - from a new government in Australia as most of the other alternative energy stocks down under. This is to do with unfavourable changes to Australia's biodiesel tax credit program as well as the more mundane causes like a rise in feedstock costs etc.

Today though I read with some alarm that German biodiesel subsidies are on the way out as of 1st January this year. As this very informative article said, ". . . a consequence of these setbacks is the decline in shares of German biofuel refineries like Verbio, BDI Biodiesel and Biopetrol. These were promising companies until recently, and now face million-dollar losses."

This is a big deal not least because a very large chunk of the global biodiesel market - not unlike solar - is in Germany.

Still, for all the gloom and doom about the biofuels bust, whether ethanol in the Midwest or rapeseed produced biodiesel in Germany (although not in Brazil, more later), I keep thinking about this great piece I devoured this morning in the Daily Telegraph by Tom Stevenson. One of his bullet points toward the end was;

". . . government biofuels targets mean that within 15 years 12pc of the world's agricultural land will be needed for transport against just 2pc today. Farmers, food manufacturers, fertiliser makers and anyone involved in booosting crop yields and improving  the efficiency of irrigation stand to gain"

So in the long run, biofuels are still very much destined for tremendous growth - a sixfold increase in 15 years. The point here is all that really matters is where you source them from. Germany is and will remain a high-cost country.

European and American Farmers are on a hiding to nothing if they think they can compete with Brazilian farmers like these !
Brazil and other developing nations, with vast untapped hectares of land and low cost workforces are certainly not going to have any trouble producing low-cost biofuels - unless Western governments continue to hand out huge subsidies to their own. And Germany, one suspects, quite apart from the environmental arguments, has already taken a view that this is a battle they can't win.

THE GAINERS

Vrb Power Systems Inc. (Tier1) TSX:VRB EnergyStorage 33.33
Xethanol Corp. AMEX:XNL Bioethanol 18.29
Solar2 Ag XE:S2R Solar 17.33
Distributed Energy Systems (MM) NASDAQ:DESC FuelCells 10.17
Millennium Cell Inc. (MM) NASDAQ:MCEL FuelCells 9.86
CO2 Grp. Fpo ASX:COZ CarbonTradingandFinancial 9.37
Run OF River Power Inc. (Tier1) TSX:ROR DiversifiedAltE 7.41

THE GAINERS

Distributed Energy Systems (MM) NASDAQ:DESC FuelCells 31.11
Xethanol Corp. AMEX:XNL Bioethanol 17.14
Satcon Technology (MM) NASDAQ:SATC DiversifiedAltE 16.94
Sunways AG O.N. XE:SWW Solar 16.83
Hoku Scientific (MM) NASDAQ:HOKU FuelCells 13.70
Beacon Power (MM) NASDAQ:BCON EnergyStorage 13.38
Austrefuel Fpo ASX:ARW Biodiesel 11.11

THE GAINERS

Biofutures LSE:BIP Biodiesel 16.67
Xethanol Corp. AMEX:XNL Bioethanol 16.67
Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide (MM) NASDAQ:QTWW FuelCells 14.58
Mechanical Technology Incorporated (MM) NASDAQ:MKTY FuelCells 13.33
Distributed Energy Systems (MM) NASDAQ:DESC FuelCells 12.50
Satcon Technology (MM) NASDAQ:SATC DiversifiedAltE 10.91
Carnegie Fpo ASX:CNM Wave 10.59
Vrb Power Systems Inc. (Tier1) TSX:VRB EnergyStorage 10.53
Repower Systems Ag XE:RPW Wind 10.40
Solarfun Power Holdings CO., Ltd. (MM) NASDAQ:SOLF Solar 10.23
Run OF River Power Inc. (Tier1) TSX:ROR DiversifiedAltE 10.00
Millennium Cell Inc. (MM) NASDAQ:MCEL FuelCells 9.80
Hoku Scientific (MM) NASDAQ:HOKU FuelCells 9.47
Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. (MM) NASDAQ:ALTI EnergyStorage 8.75
Fersa ESE:CFRS DiversifiedAltE 7.60
JA Solar Holdings, CO., Ltd. - Ads (MM) NASDAQ:JASO Solar 7.53
China Sunergy CO., Ltd. ADS (MM) NASDAQ:CSUN Solar 7.20
Western Wind Energy Corp (Tier2) TSX:WND Wind 7.14
Gtl Resources LSE:GTL Bioethanol 7.10
Active Power (MM) NASDAQ:ACPW EnergyStorage 6.82
Verbio Ver.Bioenergie On XE:VBK Biodiesel 6.32
O2Diesel Corp. AMEX:OTD Biodiesel 6.25
Alkane Energy LSE:ALK Wastegas 5.97
Sunways AG O.N. XE:SWW Solar 5.94
Centrosolar Grp. Ag XE:C3O Solar 5.71
Ldk Solar CO Adr NYSE:LDK Solar 5.02
Sag Solarstrom Ag XE:SAG Solar 4.97
Mgp Ingredients (MM) NASDAQ:MGPI Bioethanol 4.88
Biopetrol Inds Inh.SF 1 XE:B2I Biodiesel 4.66
Daystar Technologies (MM) NASDAQ:DSTI Solar 4.48
Spire (MM) NASDAQ:SPIR Solar 4.44
Suntech Power Hldgs NYSE:STP Solar 4.42
Ascent Solar Technologies (MM) NASDAQ:ASTI Solar 4.26
ECODIESEL ON NM BOV:ECOD3 Biodiesel 4.03
Solaria ESE:CSLR Solar 4.00
Plambeck N.Energ.NA O.N. XE:PNE3 Wind 3.83
Novera LSE:NVE DiversifiedAltE 3.67
Novera LSE:NVE Wind 3.67
Schmack Biogas NA O.N. XE:SB1 Biogas 3.47
Climate Exch. LSE:CLE CarbonTradingandFinancial 3.28
Actelios BIT:ACT Wastegas 3.25
Cropenergies Ag XE:CE2 Bioethanol 3.19
Ersol Solar Energy Ag XE:ES6 Solar 3.18
Ausbiodesl Fpo ASX:ABJ Biodiesel 3.13
Renewable Energy NK 1 XE:R3Q Solar 3.11
Sunline O.N. XE:SU3 Solar 2.91
Bdi-Biodiesel Int. XE:D7I Biodiesel 2.71
Morphic Technologies AB Ser. B OMX:MORP-B FuelCells 2.53
Aventine Renew Enrgy NYSE:AVR Bioethanol 2.51
Green Plains Renewable Energy (MM) NASDAQ:GPRE Bioethanol 2.48
Solar-Fabrik AG O.N. XE:SFX Solar 2.39
Plug Power (MM) NASDAQ:PLUG FuelCells 2.28
Trina Solar Ltd Adr NYSE:TSL Solar 2.27
Petratherm Fpo ASX:PTR Geothermal 1.89
Canadian Solar Inc. - Common Shares (MM) NASDAQ:CSIQ Solar 1.85
Torrens EN Fpo ASX:TEY Geothermal 1.69
Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. (Tier2) TSX:NGP Geothermal 1.59

Obviously excluded are those stocks that IPO'ed in 2007 and Biofuels Corp which had to delist. Here they all are, from year end to year end. A pretty good year !

THE GAINERS

Carnegie Fpo ASX:CNM Wave 1365.52
First Solar (MM) NASDAQ:FSLR Solar 795.25
Ascent Solar Technologies (MM) NASDAQ:ASTI Solar 757.24
Roth + Rau O.N. XE:R8R Solar 536.39
Hoku Scientific (MM) NASDAQ:HOKU FuelCells 336.78
Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd. (Tier2) TSX:STG DiversifiedAltE 266.67
Geo Res Fpo ASX:GHT Geothermal 265.08
Sunpower (MM) NASDAQ:SPWR Solar 250.79
CO2 Grp. Fpo ASX:COZ CarbonTradingandFinancial 208.00
Solon AG F.Solartech.Ag XE:SOO1 Solar 204.44
Q-Cells Ag XE:QCE Solar 186.47
Spire (MM) NASDAQ:SPIR Solar 185.63
Trina Solar Ltd Adr NYSE:TSL Solar 184.66
Solarfun Power Holdings CO., Ltd. (MM) NASDAQ:SOLF Solar 179.30
Emcore (MM) NASDAQ:EMKR Solar 176.67
Solar Int Regs LSE:SIT Solar 170.27
Canadian Solar Inc. - Common Shares (MM) NASDAQ:CSIQ Solar 168.61
Western Geopower (Tier2) TSX:WGP Geothermal 157.14
Phoenix Solar AG O.N. XE:PS4 Solar 156.25

THE GAINERS

Electro Energy Inc. (MM) NASDAQ:EEEI EnergyStorage 45.59
Daystar Technologies (MM) NASDAQ:DSTI Solar 25.00
Finavera Renewables Inc. (Tier2) TSX:FVR DiversifiedAltE 21.82
Biofutures LSE:BIP Biodiesel 20.00
Carnegie Fpo ASX:CNM Wave 8.97
Wind Hydgn Fpo ASX:WHN DiversifiedAltE 8.33
D1 Oils LSE:DOO Biodiesel 6.72
Emcore (MM) NASDAQ:EMKR Solar 6.18
Renesola LSE:SOLA Solar 5.84
Austrefuel Fpo ASX:ARW Biodiesel 5.45
PV Crystalox LSE:PVCS Solar 5.21
Solco Ltd Fpo ASX:SOO Solar 5.00
Itm Power LSE:ITM FuelCells 4.95
Green Rock Fpo ASX:GRK Geothermal 4.76
Gtl Resources LSE:GTL Bioethanol 4.57
Plug Power (MM) NASDAQ:PLUG FuelCells 4.50
Renew. Energy LSE:REH DiversifiedAltE 4.46
Uqm Technologies, AMEX:UQM FuelCells 4.31
Jackgreen Fpo ASX:JGL DiversifiedAltE 3.70
Nova Biosource Fuels AMEX:NBF Biodiesel 3.57
Romag LSE:ROM Solar 3.21
Dyesol Ltd Fpo ASX:DYE Solar 3.14
Biofuel Energy (MM) NASDAQ:BIOF Bioethanol 2.93
Japan Wind Development Co., Ltd. JSX:2766 Wind 2.85
Mechanical Technology Incorporated (MM) NASDAQ:MKTY FuelCells 2.74
Active Power (MM) NASDAQ:ACPW EnergyStorage 2.33
Edenenergy Fpo ASX:EDE DiversifiedAltE 2.22
US Bioenergy (MM) NASDAQ:USBE Bioethanol 2.00
Canadian Solar Inc. - Common Shares (MM) NASDAQ:CSIQ Solar 1.81
Torrens EN Fpo ASX:TEY Geothermal 1.72
Portland Gen Elec NYSE:POR Hydro 1.61
Energy Conversion Devices (MM) NASDAQ:ENER Solar 1.60
Theolia EURO:PTEO Wind 1.36
Verasun Energy Corp NYSE:VSE Bioethanol 1.26
JA Solar Holdings, CO., Ltd. - Ads (MM) NASDAQ:JASO Solar 1.17
Suzlon Energy Limited NSE:SUZLON Wind 1.14
Western Geopower (Tier2) TSX:WGP Geothermal 1.12
Energy Dev Fpo ASX:ENE Wastegas 1.04
Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. (MM) NASDAQ:ALTI EnergyStorage 0.95
Aventine Renew Enrgy NYSE:AVR Bioethanol 0.95
Yingli Grn Engy Adr NYSE:YGE Solar 0.81
Cosan Limited CL A NYSE:CZZ Bioethanol 0.72
Sunopta (MM) NASDAQ:STKL Bioethanol 0.68