Energytechstocks.com November 17, 2008
Memo to President-elect Obama:
About those millions of new "green" jobs you want to create. You're going to have to check with companies in Europe and Asia, not America. Sorry to say, the U.S. waited too long to go green. The new clean-and-green U.S. economy you want to create will be controlled by wind energy companies in Europe, solar photovoltaic (PV) companies in Asia, and Japanese automakers that are way ahead in the race to develop plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).
Probably the best hope you have for a green energy industry in America that we actually control is geothermal power. But to do that, you're going to have to call ExxonMobil and Chevron, companies your ardent supporters love to hate, because oil companies possess the necessary drilling expertise. (If you don't call, another foreigner, Shell, will likely dominate.)
In case you hadn't noticed, the world's leading wind turbine manufacturers don't even trade on U.S. stock exchanges. As much as your ally, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, has crowed about new wind manufacturing jobs in his state, many have been created by U.S. subsidiaries of foreign firms. You're going to have to make nice with Spain's Gamesa and Denmark's Vestas, as well as with Germany's Nordex, which just said it plans to build a $100 million wind turbine parts manufacturing facility in Arkansas.
At least with solar there is one U.S. company, First Solar, capable of going head-to-head with emerging Asian giants such as China's SunTech and Japan's Kyocera and Sharp. Any hope you have of the U.S. controlling its solar destiny rests with research and development. If we were advising you, we would suggest calling on small American firms such as Konarka Technologies in Massachusetts and SolFocus in California that are deep into inventing advanced PV technologies that have the potential to wrest control away from the commodity-oriented Chinese (they love their silicon) within five or so years.
We further suggest - strongly - that you don't let either still privately-held A123 Systems or publicly-traded Ener1 Inc. fall into foreign hands, because together they appear to be America's first and last line of defense against the Japanese in the all-important battle to develop lithium-ion batteries for PHEVs. Toyota, Nissan and the other members of "Japan Inc." are ready to crush all PHEV competition. As is Japan's custom, these corporate giants are cooperating in an all-out drive to build both the cars and the batteries that will go in them. Alas, America's best hope of not being completely dominated by the Japanese is woebegone General Motors, and A123 may be the lynchpin of GM's strategy to save itself by rolling out numerous electrified models starting in 2010.
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