THE GAINERS

Dyesol Ltd Fpo ASX:DYE Solar 20.00
Carnegie Fpo ASX:CNM Wave 14.29
Edenenergy Fpo ASX:EDE DiversifiedAltE 11.76
Solco Ltd Fpo ASX:SOO Solar 11.76
Agri Nrg Fpo ASX:AAE Bioethanol 10.71
Plug Power (MM) NASDAQ:PLUG FuelCells 7.36

THE GAINERS

Emcore (MM) NASDAQ:EMKR Solar 13.88
Energy Conversion Devices (MM) NASDAQ:ENER Solar 11.59
Austrefuel Fpo ASX:ARW Biodiesel 6.67
Sunpower (MM) NASDAQ:SPWR Solar 5.16
Memc Electronic Mtrl NYSE:WFR Solar 4.07
Jackgreen Fpo ASX:JGL DiversifiedAltE 4.00

A very informative piece here on alternative energy in Greece,  by Thrasy Petropoulos in Spero News.

I was staggered to learn that windfarm applications in Greece amount to an enormous 34,000 MW - almost 3 times the installed total capacity of existing electricity capacity - some 12,500 MW - of Europe's oldest nation. Obviously, they're not going to get that far - developers must be factoring in a high failure rate in planning applications, although getting past the bureaucrats has apparently got easier;  36 permits used to be required to site and connect a wind park, now it's only 9.

One of our wind stocks by the way, is Greek - C. Rokas SA.

A similar story with solar power - the existing target / project for 600MW, including 100MW on Crete is 6 times oversubscribed. I was recently in Athens and was struck by how many solar thermal units I saw on roofs. I was more struck though by the apparent wealth that did not exist there until recently. The economy was last recorded as growing at a very healthy 3.8% per annum (annualised Q3 2007) and Greece has become a kind of gateway to the Balkans for foreign investors.

A fast-growing, energy hungry economy makes the shift to alternative energy a lot easier. Given all of these, Greece deserves much more attention.

THE GAINERS

Agcert Regs LSE:AGC CarbonTradingandFinancial 43.14
Xethanol Corp. AMEX:XNL Bioethanol 10.17
Ausbiodesl Fpo ASX:ABJ Biodiesel 10.00
Finavera Renewables Inc. (Tier2) TSX:FVR DiversifiedAltE 7.32
Repower Systems Ag XE:RPW Wind 5.92
Phoenix Solar AG O.N. XE:PS4 Solar 5.55

THE GAINERS

Run of River Power Inc. (Tier1) TSX:ROR DiversifiedAltE 16.67
Carnegie Fpo ASX:CNM Wave 12.00
Japan Wind Development Co., Ltd. JSX:2766 Wind 7.85
Umweltbank AG O.N. XE:UBK CarbonTradingandFinancial 7.41
Millennium Cell Inc. (MM) NASDAQ:MCEL FuelCells 6.33
Western Wind Energy Corp (Tier2) TSX:WND Wind 6.25

THE GAINERS

Futuref Regs LSE:FFU Biodiesel 19.44
Hydrogenics Corp Com Npv TSE:HYG FuelCells 13.56
Sunopta (MM) NASDAQ:STKL Bioethanol 13.21
Yingli Grn Engy Adr NYSE:YGE Solar 12.57
Camco Intl LSE:CAO CarbonTradingandFinancial 10.39
Canadian Solar Inc. - Common Shares (MM) NASDAQ:CSIQ Solar 9.98

Following on from my post from a few days ago "Can supercapacitors close the lithium ion performance gap?" a great tour de force in this week's Economist magazine (why do their editorial staff insist on calling it a newspaper? So pretentious!) - about the rise of the ultracapacitor in energy storage. It's well worth a read for the technical detail and for an overview of who's doing what.

I hadn't heard before of the XH-150 - pictured here -
a 3 way hybrid employing a petrol engine, conventional lithium-ion  batteries and ultracapacitors, made by AFS Trinity.

What this article misses though and makes me wonder, is all the hype that was created by the Lightning Car Company
and their planned use of high performance altairnano fast recharge lithium ion batteries. Read all about it here. As they are due to deliver their cars starting this year, you wonder why there isn't more excitement about the coming launch?

I suspect there's already a degree of ennui, mostly unfair, about this sector. It's not helped by the fact that heretofore, there are more than a few players, promising lots and delivering little, much like any new industry. So as this becomes apparent, expect plenty of fallout and rationalisation. After all, in the 1920s, there were 1000s of vehicle manufacturers, now only a few - see the talk here I organised by Professor Garel Rhys CBE, the leading global academic authority on the motor industry on pages 3-9 of this pdf last year, on 21st Century Motor Industry Economics.

Meanwhile, Altairnano's technology still has a lot going for it. The relatively low energy density of batteries appears to be not quite the obstacle everyone thought it was. It's much more to do with recharge times, number of potential charge/discharge cycles and of course cost. And these metrics are all showing far better year on year improvement metrics than energy density.

THE GAINERS

Fersa ESE:CFRS DiversifiedAltE 13.48
Medis Technologies Ltd. (MM) NASDAQ:MDTL FuelCells 11.71
Emcore (MM) NASDAQ:EMKR Solar 10.46
Petratherm Fpo ASX:PTR Geothermal 10.13
Schmack Biogas NA O.N. XE:SB1 Biogas 9.15
Plug Power (MM) NASDAQ:PLUG FuelCells 8.34

THE GAINERS

Agcert Regs LSE:AGC CarbonTradingandFinancial 66.67
Millennium Cell Inc. (MM) NASDAQ:MCEL FuelCells 13.08
Emcore (MM) NASDAQ:EMKR Solar 10.87
Missionbio Fpo ASX:MBT Biodiesel 7.92
Mechanical Technology Incorporated (MM) NASDAQ:MKTY FuelCells 7.50
Xethanol Corp. AMEX:XNL Bioethanol 7.14

Yesterday, I was watching Sky News, waiting to see the Governator's endorsement of Senator McCain, who was lined up shoulder to shoulder with Mayor Giuliani. What I hadn't realised until that moment was that the announcement was taking place at the HQ of Solar Integrated Technologies, immediately following a tour of the premises.



So it was to some irritation of the assorted news teams, that the President & CEO of SIT, Randy MacEwen, instead of making a perfunctory introduction, launched into a 5 minute pitch about his business on live TV all round the world - to which I can only say, good going !