23 Jun
I want to invest in Green Energy stocks… But where do I look?
I want to buy stocks in Green/Renewable Energy. Such as Solar, Wind etc.
Does any one know which company's sell stocks in the .00 to .00 rang? I plan on holding the stocks for a couple of years or maybe more and the trade commissions are at .99. I have looked and looked but having trouble on where t look…. Thank you all
Posted by muncie birder on 23.06.09 at 3:54 pm
There are some index funds that invest in green energy stocks. One option would be to buy some stock in one of those funds. Another would be to see what stocks they have bought and research those to see which you would prefer. I do need to warn you though that green energy stocks are not as attractive as they once were, not with oil at $40 a barrel. Anyway here are the index funds.
FAN at $13.38 a share First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy Index Fund. Its largest holding is Vestas Wind Systems, the largest wind turbine company.
PWND at $12.82 a share Power Shares Global Wind Energy Portfolio. Its largest holding is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
TAN at $8.70 a share Claymore/MAC Global Solar Energy Index ETF. Its largest holding is First Solar
KWT at $15.38 a share Market Vectors Solar Energy ETF. Its largest holding is Q-Cells
GEX at $23.42 a share Market Vectors Global Alternative Energy ETF. Its largest holding is First Solar.
GWO at $5.46 a share ELEMENTS Global Warming. I have no idea what this fund holds but I think it has many of the securities owned by the others.
One of the critiques of these index funds is that they are capitalization weighted. That means that overpriced stocks make up most of their holdings. Not a real great strategy for making money. But what you can do is go to the sites of these funds and find out what companies they have invested in and go from there. All of these are down significantly from their highs, some by better than 60%
These are just a few of the index funds that I know of. There might be 20 more that I am not aware of.
Posted by Antonio B on 23.06.09 at 3:54 pm
Keep in mind that some of the big players, companies we don't think of as 'green' companies, are playing important roles in developing green technology.
BP: BP is doing a lot with solar and hydrogen. They're trading at around 49
SI: Siemens, big in photovoltaics, trading around 74
To learn more about the solar industry try the industry website: ases.org. You'll learn which companies are active.
Wind is another great area to look into: awea.org, industry site, a place to learn who the players are.
As you find companies, check out Yahoo message boards for those individual stocks and you'll pick up more names.
I have a feeling that certain companies that are making advanced batteries will be a good investment. But I don't know which companies. That's something to research. There will be a lot of attention on batteries in the next few years, especially for hybrid and electric cars.
I hope these ideas were useful
Posted by JohnGalt on 23.06.09 at 3:54 pm
Its a tricky field. First you have to agree on what GREEN means.
Nat Gas is very green but not renewable. Switching cars to CNG is the smartest move we can make as a country, but Obama may interfere with that. My choice? CHK and XTO. Also transmission companies. FLS makes the pumps and valves needed to move nat gas. Are they a green investment?
Solar is tricky, with technologies changing and none of them economically viable. Thin film seems to be an up and comer, ENER is a good choice. EMKR makes even better solar cells, but expensive right now. WIll they develop cheaper methods?
The greenest you can get is reducing consumption, since it is a permanent improvement. Look at CREE (LEDs) , and Georgia Pacific (insulation). Phillips and GE also big players in LEDs but not a pure play.
Wind? Vestas is the biggest pure play, but Siemens and GE are bigger. AMSC also worth a look.
Is nuclear a choice? Not renewable, but pretty darn clean if you ignore that problem of 100,000 year lifetime waste material, You are looking at 2 year time frame anyway.
With Obama messing around in this area, smart move is to wait until he picks the winners and then invest in those.