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• Rising Tides in Alternative Energy Storage

  John Petersen submits: Since July I’ve been writing a series of Seeking Alpha articles on the energy storage sector because I believe it is poorly understood but likely to be the next major investment trend. From August 15th through October 31st, the Dow fell by 19.9% but the energy storage stocks I’ve been following tanked by an average of 38.8%, which gives me a dismal track record as a short-term stock market prognosticator. The following table summarizes the gory details. (Click to enlarge) Complete Story » Posted Sunday, November 02, 2008 7:29 AM Filed under: BCON, John Petersen, AXPW.OB, ENS, HEV, ALTI, CHP, XIDE, ZBB, ULBI, MXWL, VLNC, ABAT, CBAK, HPJ

• Alternative Energy Storage and Blood in the Streets

  John Petersen submits: It looks like my September 22nd article Energy Storage Opportunities After the Market Carnage was a little bit premature. But before getting into the details of how the energy storage sector is faring on October 12, 2008, I need to apologize to ZBB Energy Corp. (ZBB) because I incorrectly reported that they were late in their SEC filings in my September 1st article Opportunities in Energy Storage Stocks. My mistake was simple. I missed the fact that ZBB has a June 30 a fiscal year and its next report wasn’t due until the end of September. The company filed its annual report with the SEC a few days later and appears to be in solid financial condition with 18 months of operating cash. I am sorry for the mistake.  ZBB is a transition stage manufacturer of zinc bromine flow batteries and the clear leader in the “hours of discharge time” product class. Their pre-production prototypes are priced in the $600 per kWh range and will compete primarily with pumped hydro and compressed air storage. There is no question that pumped hydro and compressed air will be the technologies of choice for utility-scale diurnal storage installations. But when it comes to small-scale storage for homes, businesses and remote villages, flow batteries like ZBB’s are likely to be the best choice. Given its financial strength, cost advantages to users, tax credit eligibility in solar installations and strong position in a critical energy storage niche, I think ZBB has solid upside potential.  Complete Story » Posted Monday, October 13, 2008 8:08 AM Filed under: BCON, John Petersen, AXPW.OB, ENS, HEV, ALTI, CHP, XIDE, ZBB, ULBI, CBAK, HPJ

• Energy Storage Opportunities After the Market Carnage

  John Petersen submits: Last week was one for the record books and reminds me of the old adage that while history never repeats itself, it frequently rhymes. As I watched the carnage unfold, I couldn’t help but think back to October 1987 when I cleared SEC comments on a client’s registration statement during the week before Black Monday. As a direct result of that market break, the client’s planned IPO didn’t get off, the client and its underwriter both went broke and I didn’t get paid. So it was an expensive education that’s paid for itself many times over during my career. The market is always fickle, often brutal and occasionally downright vicious. But it’s periods of maximum market ugliness that give rise to the greatest opportunities for astute investors. I think it was Rothschild who first said that the time to buy was when there was blood running in the streets. Today, Buffett follows that same time-proven philosophy and gets spectacular results. But he also looks beyond the surface of current events to get to fundamental causes and conditions and then invests based on the fundamental trends. Complete Story » Posted Monday, September 22, 2008 3:42 PM Filed under: BCON, John Petersen, AXPW.OB, ENS, HEV, ALTI, CHP, XIDE, ZBB, ULBI, MXWL, VLNC, ABAT, CBAK, HPJ

• Energy Storage Opportunities vs. Irrational Expectations

  John Petersen submits: Last week, Mark Solheim of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine,posted an article on Seeking Alpha that really helped clarify the economic issues I’ve been writing about for several weeks. His article, backed up by the analytical strengths of the Kiplinger organization, noted that most HEVs offer limited economic benefit to their owners. My reaction was the predictable question: If HEVs offer marginal economics with NiMH batteries, how can they possibly pay with Li-ion batteries that cost significantly more per watt hour of energy storage? Complete Story » Posted Monday, September 15, 2008 1:19 PM Filed under: BCON, John Petersen, AXPW.OB, ENS, HEV, ALTI, CHP, XIDE, EEEI, ZBB, ULBI, MXWL, VLNC, ABAT, CBAK, HPJ

• Energy Storage Stocks: Performance, Cost and Bell Shaped Curves

  John Petersen submits: For the last few weeks, I’ve been writing a weekly article on energy storage, a long-neglected industrial sector that most consider boring but I believe will be the next major investment trend. While I’m bullish over the prospects for almost all of the storage companies I know about, I will always pick the “best affordable technology” over the “best available technology” because that’s exactly what consumers will do when they make buying decisions. My fundamental premise is that every energy storage decision will ultimately boil down to a cost-benefit analysis where (a) the cost of the original energy inputs plus (b) the fully loaded cost of storing the energy must be less than (c) the value of the energy delivered to an application. As long as the basic equation balances, energy storage is a rational decision that’s required the laws of economics. But if the equation doesn’t balance we leave the day-to-day world of paychecks, budgets and monthly bills and enter a fantasy world where performance trumps cost. Complete Story » Posted Sunday, September 07, 2008 9:42 AM Filed under: BCON, John Petersen, AXPW.OB, ENS, HEV, ALTI, CHP, XIDE, HPJ

• Opportunities in Energy Storage Stocks

  John Petersen submits: Groucho Marx once quipped: "If we had some eggs we could have eggs and ham, if we had some ham." In 2008, Groucho would probably work in the PR department of an alternative energy company where the logic often follows a similar path and the hype over advanced research projects, prototypes and vaporware can be intense. Complete Story » Posted Monday, September 01, 2008 3:02 AM Filed under: JCI, BCON, John Petersen, AXPW.OB, ENS, HEV, ALTI, CHP, XIDE, ZBB, ULBI, MXWL, VLNC, ABAT, CBAK

• Beacon Power: My Top Stock Pick for 2008

  Phillip Lyon submits: Beacon Power (BCON) is my top stock pick for 2008. Beacon Power is on the verge of commercializing its “flywheel” technology and the company has a ton of positive catalysts going forward. I think this stock could very easily be a multibagger. Beacon Power’s flywheel energy storage system helps support stable and reliable electricity grid operation. The flywheel system stores excess electrical energy from the grid in the form of kinetic energy via a mechanical battery spinning at very high speeds (>20,000 rpm). When the grid is short on electrical power the motor driving the flywheel acts as a generator and the kinetic energy is converted back to electrical power. (Look at these two short videos from the Beacon website for a better understanding of frequency regulation: video 1, video 2.) Complete Story » Posted Tuesday, August 26, 2008 5:45 AM Filed under: BCON, Phillip Lyon

• Lithium-Ion Batteries and Centerfolds: The Final Chapter

  John Petersen submits: I’m convinced that energy storage is going to be the next major investment trend and I have a very bullish outlook for the entire sector. My rationale is simple. As industrialized nations switch from fossil fuels to inherently variable alternative sources like wind and solar power, robust dispatchable energy storage will become essential to insure that electricity continues to flow at the flip of a switch. The only other options are more coal fired power plants or an unstable grid that suffers from increasingly severe disruptions when variable power supplies fail to mesh with variable power demands. When I began studying the storage sector almost five years ago, I was amazed at the complexity and scope of the problem. While my simple mind was looking for a silver bullet solution, I quickly learned that there is no single technology that can solve all energy storage problems. Instead, there are a multitude of technologies that can each solve part of the problem. That’s why professionals believe a comprehensive solution will require a multi-pronged approach and something north of a trillion dollars in energy storage investment. Complete Story » Posted Monday, August 04, 2008 7:32 AM Filed under: BCON, John Petersen, AXPW.OB, ENS, HEV, ALTI, CHP, XIDE, EEEI, ZBB

• Beacon: Powering Up

  Jeremy Richards submits: This is an exciting time for Beacon Power (BCON), a small company with a $125MM market cap that was relatively unknown to the street. Kaufman Bros analyst Theodore O'Neill recently discovered the company and recommended to "buy" the stock just two months ago when it was trading at 28% above the current price. He set a $3 price target on the stock. Beacon makes energy storage devices, specifically of the "flywheel variety." Flywheel-based energy storage systems, unlike lead-acid batteries, are sustainable "green" technology solutions that do not use hazardous materials for production, nor create them during operation. Unlike batteries, flywheels operate reliably for many years with little or no maintenance. Their life cycle cost benefits and ROI have proven to be far superior to those of lead-acid batteries. Complete Story » Posted Monday, July 21, 2008 6:31 AM Filed under: BCON, Jeremy Richards