Heretofore, the public solar markets have largely been a story of Germany, California and what some call condescendingly "Honorary Westerners", the Japanese.

So news of IPOs coming from China and Thailand smacks of a new wave, let's call it Solar 3.0. Solar 1.0 started with President Jimmy Carter and fizzled out rather like he did on the New York Marathon. Solar 2.0 was driven by Germany and Japan with their government sponsored solar roof programmes. Solar 3.0 involves lower cost manufacturing and silicon sourcing, whilst higher tech Western companies are looking at alternatives to silicon based technologies.

According to New Energy Finance, Zhejang Yuhui Solar is planning to raise $80 m on AIM this summer. Another Chinese company - CEEG Nanjing PV-tech also plans to raise capital and last but not least, the thai transformer maker Ekarat Engineering which has a small but burgeoing solar division, making 15 MW or 100,000 modules per year.

In recent years, I've often thought that alternative energy will only really come of age when Chinese manufacturing moves into it. The signs are that this is just starting to happen. Napoleon once said "Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she will rock the world".

Well, here's to the Chinese rocking the world in alternative energy.

On Thursday last (14th July) Ascent Solar Tech raised about $14 million, after expenses and underwriting costs, following an initial public offering of 3 million units priced at $5.50.

The newly Nasdaq listed company (see website) is different to other solar companies in that it is developing next generation amorphous silicon on plastic substrates. The plan then is to use these to power satellites - anything man-made that orbits the earth and wants continuos cloud free solar power and radiation.

I like the 2nd generation amorphous silicon because generation 1 clearly did not live anything like up to its promise. That was the boom the never happened, the customers just didn't buy. And Solar Ascent's space angle is really intriguing . . .

Conventional silicon-based modules are very heavy and the cost per kilo, according to this article in the Economist " have remained static, at $20,000 per kilo put into orbit, for decades."

The additional point then is that this company is NOT chasing subsidies, like some of its solar brethren. It's focussing on the boom in satellite communications and to some extent, the military industrial complex.

So please excuse the pun, it is right out of the usual solar stock orbit.

One week after its IPO, China Biodiesel International, a company that makes biodiesel - profitably - from waste oil closed up today on London's AIM near 2% at 106p. This waste oil is collected by suppliers and includes old cooking oil, expired oil from grain depots waste oil from animal fats. The company has 16 suppliers both local and national. It also imports waste palm oil from Malaysia.

Some people - like NY Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman - believe that China will be forced to become the first country to go green on a massive scale. Although the Chinese economy is growing at 10% p.a., some figures suggest it is losing 2% from environmental damage.

See these video clips of a seminar with Friedman and Senator Luger that discuss this and other issues.

Certainly, this article in the NY Times seems to think so, based in no small part by the successful acquisition of Aventine Renewable Energy for $66m by Morgan Stanley which is allegedly now worth $750m.

Since going public, Aventine's performance has not been spectacular - far from it. Business Week has picked up on this. See their article IPOs to approach with caution.

NYSE listed Aventine is currently trading at $39.18.