Most down but better than last week
Again, the stimulus bill signed last week which included about $80 billion in incentives and benefits for the solar industry. In fact, February 17 quite likely was the best day for the American PV industry in history. So solar stocks caught fire, right? Wrong. The 20 stocks in this index went down an average 19.38%. There's always next week, right?
This week, at a combined 7.43% down, obviously was a little better. Maybe investors are beginning to see the (sun)light; that renewable energy companies will not only create more jobs but will slow electricity rate hikes while reducing GHG emissions. Or maybe it's because spring is just a month away and the prospect of sunnier days get more people thinking solar. (This blogger always more PV installations during the baseball season when air conditioning can make electricity bills look like mortgage payments.) Or maybe it's because banking stocks are super dicey and U.S. auto stocks look even worse.
Through it all, one solar-related stock stands out: MEMC. This company started as a venture by the old Monsanto chemical conglomerate in St. Louis in 1959 becoming the Monsanto Electronic Materials Company. Today MEMC produces high-grade silicon wafers at nine facilities in all the major semiconductor markets in the world including Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Korea, Europe and the U.S. Their new line of 300mm silicon wafers (about 12" diameter) could become extra large solar cells. If that's the intention, the cost of PV modules for large-scale installations could go down considerably. All solar stocks are down from the January 5 close of trading and the beginning of this index but MEMC has only dropped 5% in the time, the least of all 20.
It is not the intention of this index to recommend or detract from any stock listed. However, crystalline cells still run the world's electronics and convert sunlight to energy. A well-entrenched, well-distributed chip manufacturer with an active R&D arm, MEMC, is at least a brighter spot in today's PV market.
Week of February 23-27, 2009
| Monday Open | Friday Close | Up/Down | % Change | Close 1/5/09 | |
| Dow Jones DJIA | 7365.67 | 7062.93 | -302.74 | -4.12% | 8952.89 |
| NASDAQ | 1441.23 | 1377.84 | -63.39 | -4.40 | 1628.03 |
| Akeena Solar AKNS | 1.47 | 1.06 | -.41 | -27.90 | 2.28 |
| Amtel Systems ASYS | 3.01 | 2.96 | -.05 | -1.63 | 4.00 |
| Applied Materials AMAT | 8.76 | 9.21 | +.45 | +5.13 | 10.67 |
| Canadian Solar CSIQ | 4.20 | 3.59 | -.61 | -14.53 | 7.00 |
| ECD (UniSolar) ENER | 24.62 | 21.93 | -2.69 | -10.93 | 29.33 |
| Entech Solar ENSL.OB | .272 | .2602 | -.0118 | .-4.44 | .28 |
| Evergreen Solar ESLR | 1.30 | 1.22 | -.08 | -6.16 | 3.60 |
| First Solar FSLR | 134.01 | 105.74 | -28.27 | -21.10 | 157.80 |
| GT Solar Int. SOLR | 4.22 | 4.27 | +.05 | +1.18 | 4.00 |
| JA Solar JASO | 2.27 | 2.03 | -.24 | -10.59 | 5.09 |
| Kyocera KYO | 61.34 | 57.80 | -3.44 | -5.78 | 71.87 |
| LDK Solar LDK | 6.12 | 5.12 | -1.00 | -16.34 | 14.84 |
| MEMC Elect. WFR | 13.75 | 15.01 | +1.26 | +9.16 | 15.76 |
| Renesola SOL | 2.37 | 2.42 | +.05 | +2.10 | 5.15 |
| Satcon SATC | 1.19 | 1.19 | NC | NC | 1.60 |
| SolarFun SOLF | 2.97 | 2.99 | +.02 | +.006 | 6.12 |
| SunPower SPWRA | 30.92 | 27.89 | -3.03 | -9.80 | 45.13 |
| SunTech STP | 6.86 | 6.09 | -.77 | -11.33 | 13.55 |
| Trina Solar TSL | 7.49 | 6.54 | -.95 | -12.69 | 10.09 |
| Yingli YGE | 4.07 | 3.89 | -.18 | -4.43 | 7.25 |
| Percent change all 20 stocks this week: | -7.43% |
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