I got an email the other day asking what I thought about wind power as an alternative energy. Within the past year, solar has been getting most of our attention and Chinese solar companies have had a mad rush of investors. Wind has got the short end of the stick even though it is beginning to be seen as a viable an option.

I clicked on a google ad about T. Boone Picken’s plan to invest 10 billion in building wind power plants in the Great Plains region. His short term project is suppose to supply energy to power 300,000 homes with 1000 megawatts, and his long term project is to supply 4000 megawatts with wind. The sheer size of this project requires large companies such as Siemens and GE to act as suppliers. But we know these companies aren’t going to have the price movement and percentage gain that small wind companies who may ride on the coat tails of Pickens will have.

The problem is many of these companies aren’t the size of our solar counterparts, they are pink sheets and otc’s, extremely risky. Therefore, wind ETF’s seem to be the only real choice as of now. Some ETFs that are worth a glimpse are the PowerShares Nasdaq OMX Clean Edge Global Wind Energy Index (PWND), the FIRST Trust ISE Global Wind Energy Index Fund (FAN). PWND is 90% majority wind based companies and FAN is 66%.

For those with higher risk tolerance some companies worth focusing on include: VWS, ZOLT, GCTAF.PK, HXL, AVAV, WFLWF.PK, WNEA.OB.

Below is a graph showing where would be good places for wind power generation. 1 = not suitable 7 = best

Related Posts

• No Related Post