Top Solar Stocks
There is little doubt at this point that solar energy represents a big, if not dominant, part of the global energy future. Even among struggling economies worldwide, the United States, China, Japan, and India have all taken big steps into subsidizing and generally promoting solar growth. These are just the tip of the iceberg as an already energy-hungry world ramps up for renewable energy.
Photo Credit: Wolfgang Staudt
With that trend in mind, solar stocks can be expected to rise considerably, beginning in the short term but, more importantly to investors, continuing into the long term. In a recent post for Seeking Alpha, David Fessler anointed his top five solar stocks, with a very conspicuous bias toward thin-film manufacturers. These are his picks:
- First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) – Largest producer of thin-film (CdTe) solar panels.
- Evergreen Solar (ESLR) – Thin-film manufacturer with at least a $3 billion (immediate) future.
- Canadian Solar (CSIQ) – Conventional polysilicon solar cell maker; in Fessler’s words, a “great short-term play in the space.”
- Ascent Solar (ASTI) – Just opened a landmark plant in Colorado. Liable to be a force (complete with military connections) in flexible, thin-film technology.
- Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ENER) – is an all-in-one solar company. They manufacture, sell, and install PV solar systems, including batteries. This is good evidence of solar stocks as a long-term play, considering the company just closed a plant and cut 70 jobs yet still has an upbeat outlook.
Photo Credit: david.nikonvscanon
If I were a stock analyst I’d provide you with five more picks to spread the inevitable wealth a bit more. Alas, I am not, so I’ll make no such attempt. I will speculate on two things, however. One, that these Top Five are five among many solar companies you’ll see make a jump in the coming year and beyond. And two, Fessler points out that thin-film will completely overtake conventional silicon cells in sales within a few years, and he may well be right. But just to make the long-term even longer, keep an eye on third generation solar cells. Most of these are still in the development phase, but could revolutionize the industry as soon as they hit the market…just something to keep an eye on (We’ll do our best to keep you posted).
Be sure to check David Fessler’s own very convincing argument for investing in these and other solar stocks.
Posted on April 16th in Solar News by Dan.
April 16th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Great article!
At least for the purpose of attracting interest in this sector.
I don’t think it is very balanced though:
You say “Even among struggling economies worldwide, the United States, China, Japan, and India have all taken big steps into subsidizing and generally promoting solar growth.”
I would think that stating “Even among struggling economies worldwide, with Germany and Spain leading the way, the United States, China, Japan, and India have all taken big steps into subsidizing and generally promoting solar growth.”
If you look at what happened when and why then you cannot leave that out.
Per today Germany has got 50% of all PV panels worldwide installed, has one of the biggest production capacities in Solar tech, and has installed > 1.86 GW PV capacity in 2008 alone; Spain installed > 2.46 GW of capacity in 2008 alone; all based on Germany’s Gross Feed-in-Tariff model from 1992 which sparked the whole industry worldwide.
These numbers dwarf the US American effort which admittedly sufferd badly under the previos government but now is catching up strongly, thank heavens.
Oh, to put numbers in perspective: The global demand of PV installations in 2008 was 5.95 GW, which means that Germany and Spain stand for 72.6% of the world market, something you certainly cannot ignore.
All numbers are based on the World PV industry report by Solarbuzz (http://www.solarbuzz.com/Marketbuzz2009-intro.htm)
On the production side the numbers are such that (according to the European Commission Joint Research Centre Institute for Energy’s PV STATUS REPORT 2008) in 2008 Thin Film production capacity was:
~1100 MW in Europe
~ 490 MW in USA, China and Japan each
and on the crystalline side the German company Q-cells alone produced more in 2007 than the whole US market.
I wonder whether your financial analysis is possibly a bit skewed, not really looking a t the complete picture.
I certainly am no financial analyst but merely see that big chunks of the market are overlooked and don’t think that this could be right.
Regards,
Ben