CHINA – Sinovel Wind Group has announced plans to invest 3 billion yuan (\xa3285 million) in a plant to produce turbines for the domestic and international market.
\nIn a statement, the Shanghai municipal government said that construction of the Lingang plant would start in February 2011 and that it would be completed the following July.
The plant will produce 5MW, 5MW and 10MW turbines and have an annual capacity of 1.5GW.
\nSinovel said in March it plans to raise 3.5 billion yuan in an initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
\nClearly Sinovel has designs on becoming the worlds largest manufacturer of wind turbines and their designs are coming from AMSC. Looks like APWR will not have the largest wind manufacturing plant in China for long.
\n]]>Will A-Power pay dividends?
\nSince our incorporation, we have never declared or paid any dividends. We may declare and pay cash dividends on our ordinary shares in the future. Our board of directors has complete discretion on whether to pay dividends. Even if our board of directors decides to pay dividends, the form, frequency and amount will depend upon our future operations and earnings, capital requirements and surplus, general financial condition, contractual restrictions, shareholders’ interests and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant.
Will A-Power buy back stock?
\nFrom time to time, we consider repurchasing Company shares when we deem the stock is undervalued. We are discussing the opportunity to repurchase stock with our lawyers. We will make an announcement if and when a stock repurchase program is implemented.
What is A-Power’s guidance for FY 2010?
\nThe company currently estimates $500 million for revenue and $60 million for net income. This guidance is based upon the Company\u2019s on-going DG projects and revenues from the expected sale of wind turbines to be generated during the remainder of 2010.
How many common shares are outstanding and how many shares are in the float?
\nAs of June 30, 2010, we have 45.36 million shares outstanding, and 33.01 million in the float.
What is in your DG contract?
\nOur core DG business is defined as all DG-related work plus EPC projects related to wind and solar. During the second quarter of 2010, we continue to pursue opportunities domestically and internationally and are realizing strong success throughout Southeast Asia. We expect to fully recognize revenues on these orders over the next 12-18 months. We also expect to generate additional signed contracts during this timeframe as well. During the second quarter of 2010, our revenue contribution from international DG projects has exceeded 30% of total revenues for the first time in our corporate history. With significant projects in Vietnam, Pakistan and Thailand, we hope to continue building upon this international success. Given the continued growth in the international market, we expect to see our gross margins from DG remain in the 15% range in the third and fourth quarter of 2010 due to stronger pricing power.
A-Power Energy (Nasdaq: APWR)
\nThis company has vexed even its most bullish supporters. The China-based supplier of wind turbines and energy distribution systems always manages to boost annual sales at an impressive clip, but quarterly results are far more erratic. In some quarters, sales greatly exceed forecasts while profits lag, while in other quarters the opposite is true. In recent quarters, profits have lagged, and analysts have been lowering their earnings forecasts. Many investors have simply given up, as the erratic quarterly performances lend the impression that management doesn’t have a handle on the business.
Of additional concern, the company consumes huge wads of money on its capital-intensive projects, which is hampering free cash flow. But as those investments are completed, free cash flow should increase nicely. In the near-term, investors should stick with traditional GAAP earnings as a measure of the company’s value. And those above-cited concerns, legitimate as they are, overshadow a compellingly valued stock. Shares have sharply fallen in each of the past four trading sessions and now trade for about five times next year’s GAAP profits.
\n]]>TXU Energy is committed to our customers and committed to helping the Texas environment. We’ve expanded the TXU Energy Texas Choice suite of products to give customers a choice in the amount of renewable energy their electricity plan supports.
\nNow you can choose a TXU Energy Texas Choice plan with 100% wind power that comes from Texas resources.
\nAnd when you sign up on one of these plans you’ll also earn 3% cash back on your electricity purchases. TXU Energy has given customers more than $27 million dollars in cash back loyalty rewards since the start of the program in 2007.1
\nYou can also lock in important price protection for 12,14 or 24 months and have a simple, fixed rate for energy that doesn’t change with the seasons.2
\nTXU Energy customers on renewable plans have prevented enough pollution to equal taking more than 40,000 cars off Texas roads every year. And that number keeps growing!
\nHelp the environment, get paid cash back loyalty rewards and lock in price protection. All with the TXU Energy Texas Choice products.
\n]]>Reid puts renewables mandate in play, eyes lame-duck energy bill
\nBy Ben Geman – 08/31/10 02:59 PM ET
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday a nationwide renewable-electricity standard, or RES, is \u201cabsolutely\u201d in the mix as he tries to salvage energy legislation this year \u2014 possibly in a lame-duck session.
\nBefore the August recess, Reid said he doubted an RES \u2014 which would require utilities to provide escalating amounts of power from sources like wind and solar energy \u2014 could win 60 votes. It was left on the cutting-room floor when Reid unveiled a modest energy bill in late July.
\nBut Reid told reporters on a conference call Tuesday the energy bill is still a work in progress and cited two Republicans who have expressed interest in an RES. He did not name them.
\nOne could be Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who has called for including an RES in energy legislation. Reid said he planned to speak with the two Republicans soon.
\n\u201cI am going to tie them down a little more closely,\u201d Reid said. He spoke on a conference call to promote a Sept. 7 energy conference that he is co-hosting at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
\nReid also suggested passing energy legislation could be more likely during a lame-duck session. He noted the Senate would resume work after the recess but added, \u201cMaybe, after the elections, we can get some more Republicans to work with us.
\n\u201cWe are going to continue working on this. You won\u2019t hear the last of us until we adjourn sine die,\u201d he added, referring to the close of the current Congress.
\nThe energy and oil spill response package that Reid unveiled in late July contained rebates for home-efficiency retrofits and measures to boost deployment of natural gas-powered trucks and electric cars.
\nBut Reid is under heavy pressure from renewable energy groups, environmentalists and many members of his caucus to include an RES.
\nThe Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year approved an RES as part of a broader energy package that cleared the panel with several GOP votes.
\nIt would require utilities to provide 15 percent of their power from renewables by 2021, although about a fourth of the requirement could be met with energy-efficiency programs.
\nA renewables mandate has long been a pillar of Democratic energy plans, but the proposals face resistance from many Republicans and some southeastern lawmakers from both parties have expressed fear that their states lack enough renewable resources to meet the targets.
\nSome Republicans \u2014 notably Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) \u2014 have floated a broader \u201cclean\u201d energy standard that would include nuclear power and electricity from coal plants that trap carbon emissions.
\nOne issue that apparently won\u2019t creep back onto the agenda is legislation to impose a cap on greenhouse gas emissions. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t appear so at this stage,\u201d Reid said when asked whether a cap-and-trade plan could be revived. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have the traction that a lot of us wish it had.\u201d
\n]]>I conclude that the most likely source for increased oil price volatility is a reduction in the ability of oil supply to adjust to changes in price. This agrees with another formulation of the Peak Oil thesis: Peak Oil is not the end of oil, but the end of “easy” oil. We still have an oil supply, and it may or may not be declining, but extracting enough oil to meet demand is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive. We pay the increased cost of extracting the more difficult oil reserves in higher and more volatile prices at the pump, and in environmental disasters such as the blow-out of BP’s Macando well.
\nImplications of the End of Easy Oil
\nAs world oil demand continues to rise, and extracting oil becomes increasingly expensive and more dangerous, several trends are likely to continue.
\n1.Oil prices will rise in order to compensate oil companies for the increased costs and risks of finding oil.
\n2.Oil companies will become less able to quickly adjust supplies to changes in the oil price, further increasing price volatility.
\n3.Increased drilling risks will cause more frequent oil spills. Increased political risks as oil firms increasingly search for oil in places controlled by less stable political regimes will lead to more frequent expropriation of oil firms’ assets by those same unsavory regimes, as we have seen in Venezuela.
\n4.Increased oil prices will lead to adjustments in our oil use that decrease demand.
SHANGHAI (AP) — Chinese manufacturing and auto sales rebounded in August, suggesting the world’s second-biggest economy may not be slowing as quickly as feared.
\nTwo surveys released Wednesday showed production, new orders and purchasing prices all rose in August, with the HSBC purchasing managers index — a seasonally adjusted index designed to measure the performance of the manufacturing economy — rising to its highest level in three months, at 51.9.
\n“This reconfirmed our long-held view that China is moderating rather than melting down,” Hongbin Qu, chief economist for China at HSBC, said in the report.
\nThe state-affiliated China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said its PMI rose to 51.7 in August from 51.2 in July. Numbers above 50 show manufacturing activity expanding, and the federation’s PMI readings have remained above 50 for 18 straight months after slowing in late 2008 and early 2009.
\nChina’s economic growth slowed to 10.3 percent over a year earlier in the second quarter, down from its blistering 11.9 percent first quarter pace. Many worry that the slowdown could weaken the global recovery if it cuts Chinese demand for imported iron ore, industrial machinery and other foreign goods.
\n]]>On Wednesday September 1, 2010, 7:06 am
\nBEIJING (AP) — Auto sales in China, the world’s biggest car market, rebounded in August as subsidies for energy-efficient vehicles and a stronger currency spurred demand.
Sales rose 55.7 percent over a year earlier to 1.21 million vehicles, up from 1 million vehicles the month before, the Cabinet’s China Automotive Technology and Research Center said Wednesday.
\nThe increase compared with 17 percent year-on-year growth in July and 19.4 percent in June.
\nSales of energy saving vehicles rose 32 percent to 129,600, the center said in a report posted on its website.
\nDemand was also relatively strong for imported vehicles, as Japanese and European automakers increasingly focus on serving the market for smaller, affordable cars, said the center’s chairman, Zhao Hang, without giving specific figures.
\nA recent rise in the value of China’s currency has also stimulated sales of imported cars. “That makes things cheaper,” he said.
\n]]>Jeff Rubin comments on how world oil prices are set to be trading around the $200 US dollar mark in the future. Rubin, the former Chief Economist of CIBC World Markets warns that higher oil prices are a result in a lack of affordable, extractable global world oil, which has now passed the easy peak oil extraction year of 2005.
\nJeff Rubin is not an oil alarmist\u2014he doesn\u2019t think that the world\u2019s supply of crude will run out and cause resource wars and food shortages of apocalyptic proportions. In fact, he doesn\u2019t even think the world\u2019s supply of crude is running out at all. Rubin made this clear as he addressed the Business of Climate Change Conference in Toronto last September, opening his keynote address with the statement, \u201cThe world\u2019s not running out of oil.\u201d However, after milking the pause for a second or two, Rubin went on: \u201cBut it has already run out of oil it can afford to burn.\u201d
\nRubin, former head economist at CIBC World Markets, is often referred to as Canada\u2019s top economist, largely because of his bold and accurate economic predictions: in 2000, he forecast that the price of crude would hit $50 per barrel within five years (it broke the $50 mark in 2004) and foresaw the huge price spike of 2008. He recently predicted that the price of crude would hit $100 again by the fourth quarter of this year.
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