Back in the 1970s, when solar energy was brand new, it took as much energy go make a solar cell as that device would produce over its 20-year lifespan.

Just a decade ago, solar-cell emissions were very high – about double their current levels.

But with recent technological advancements, solar technology has turned the corner. The sector is poised for a global business boom as such nations as China, Germany and Japan join the United States in a race to perfect solar power.

"Solar power has been criticized in the past," Vasilis M. Fthenakis, the study’s lead scientist told Science News Online, "but what we find out is that those criticisms are not true with the new technologies."

Solar power emits, per unit of energy, about one-tenth the amount of carbon dioxide emissions given off by more-conventional power sources. That makes solar a very viable source of energy, as well as an intriguing profit play, since traditional energy sources are continually scrutinized for their high costs and toxic carbon emissions.

A recent study by the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., found that for each unit of energy produced by solar cells, the net emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants due to the cells’ manufacture, were but 2% to 11% the amount produced by power plants in the United States and Europe.

Unlike their "dark-age" solar predecessors, newly developed solar cells can "pay back" the energy required for their production in just one to three years. And improvements in manufacturing efficiency could reduce emissions from solar power by another 50% in five to 10 years.

In the United States alone, production from solar power installations rose from 49 megawatts in 2002 to 314 megawatts in 2007, the Solar Energy Industries Association reported. One megawatt is enough to power 778 average homes, according to the Energy Department.

"Ten years ago, green was sort of the idea of a few tree huggers in Northern California," John Hardy, an analyst with American Technology Research, told BusinessWeek. "Now, being green has taken on more widespread appeal."

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And there are three solar companies riding the wave of that green movement to big time profits, beginning with Japan’s Sharp Corp. (OTC: SHCAY)

Sharpening Solar Technologies

Sharp claims it is responsible for 25% of the world’s cumulative solar cell production. Sharp estimates that worldwide solar cell production reached 8 gigawatts in 2007, and believes that it is responsible for 2GW of that total cumulative production.

Sharp started making solar cells in 1963, and began the production of the so-called "thin-film" solar cells in 2005. The company also is active in the solar-cell-material and manufacturing-equipment businesses. Sharp is also the only Japanese solar cell manufacturer authorized by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, making it the sole supplier of solar cells for Japanese satellites.

After Sharp’s supremacy has been tested by German rival Q-Cells, the Japan-based company has responded with aggressive efforts to grow its business.
To address shortages in silicon, Sharp hopes to boost its annual output of thin-film solar cells six-fold by 2012. Thin-film solar cells use roughly one-hundredth the silicon of conventional solar cells.
To achieve its goals, Sharp has planned a new plant in Osaka, which is scheduled to go online by March 2010. The company expects the plant to 1,000MW of cells annually. Sharp also hopes to raise output at its Katsuragi plant in Nara, Japan, from 15MW to 160 MW by October.

Last month, Sharp announced a partnership with Tokyo Electron Ltd. to develop production equipment for thin-film solar cells, which use less silicon than conventional solar cells. Tokyo Electron, which will hold a 51% stake in the venture, expects to start making and selling the equipment early next year.

Sharp will also team up with Japanese homebuilder Daiwa House Industry Co. and Dai Nippon Printing Co. to develop large lithium-ion batteries that can store solar energy for houses. The deal will help Sharp build upon its solar power systems business and let Japanese homebuilder Daiwa House increase the value of its homes with energy saving technologies, the Nikkei Business Daily reported.

Sharp will invest $5.56 million [600 million yen] in Eliiy Power, a developer of lithium-ion batteries. Both Daiwa House and Dai Nippon Printing already hold sizeable stakes in Eliiy.

However, Sharp’s biggest deal was announced Feb. 26, when Sony said it would pick up part of the $3.5 billion tab for what will be the world’s most advanced TV-panel plant. You see, in addition to being one of the world’s largest solar cell manufacturers, Sharp is the third-largest maker of liquid crystal display (LCD) television sets in the world.

Both companies were quick to point out that they were not merging, but merely entering into joint ownership of the Sakai plant. The tie-up will greatly reduce the cost burden for Sharp, and result in the exchange of key technologies and know-how. After assuming one-third of the cost, Sony will own one-third of the most advanced LCD plant in the world. The remaining two-thirds will belong to Sharp.

While a weak U.S. economy may put a temporary damper on television sales, the long-term outlook is exceptionally upbeat. TV unit sales are expected to reach 98 million units this year, an increase of 24% from 79 million last year, according to DisplaySearch.

Fierce competition and rapid advances in technology have resulted in annual price declines of 20% to 30%.

Sharp enjoyed all the benefits of a well-diversified company last year, posting strong fourth-quarter results even as global economies began to sputter. Net income was $278 million for the three months ended Dec. 31, up 3.8% from net income of $267.8 million a year earlier.  Sales gained 12% to $8.7 billion. The company left its full-year forecasts unchanged. In October, Sharp forecast that its net income for the year would rise 3.2%, reaching $994 million, on sales of $32.2 billion.

Sharp can’t rest on its laurels, however: The tech industry is notoriously competitive, and competition in the solar industry is escalating.

Q-Cells Cranks Up the Heat

As Sharp was wheeling and dealing last month, German solar-cell maker Q-Cells announced that it had become the world’s leading producer of solar cells. Q-Cells also recorded stellar 2007 results and said that it, too, plans to expand production capacity.

Q-Cells reported full year sales of $1.26 billion, a 59% jump. Full-year earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) rose 52% to $301 million, leading to an EBIT margin of almost 23%.

Net income for the fourth quarter rose to $54.5 million, up from $38.7 million a year earlier, the company said in a statement on its Web site. Sales increased 81% to $430.6 million.

Q-Cells kept its growth targets for 2008 in place, expecting sales of about $1.77 billion, which analysts said was a conservative estimate.

"This is impressive since wafer sourcing costs increased while cell selling prices declined. This shows that Q-Cells is very capable of reducing production costs and we see much more still to come," Benjamin Kluftinger, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. (C), told Reuters.

To keep the ball rolling, Q-Cells said it would invest $263.2 million in a production site in Asia, the company’s first foray into the region. The facility, slated for construction in Malaysia, will have a maximum capacity of more than 300 megawatts. The factory’s first phase will have a capacity of 160MW and is scheduled to start operations in next year’s first quarter.

Q-Cells sixth production line at its headquarters in eastern Germany will begin operation in the fourth quarter, and will have an initial production capacity of 130MW. These upgrades will add to a level of output the company says is already the highest in the world. Production volume reached 389.2MW in 2007, outdoing even the company’s own goal of 370MW.

"With this figure, Q-Cells would already have produced a greater total output than its largest competitors – Sharp and Suntech," the company said in a statement. Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP) is the world’s third-largest solar cell manufacturer. It expects to have 2GW of production capacity by 2010, double its expected 2008 total.
In 2008, Q-Cells expects total solar cell production to come in between 565MW and 590MW.

Q-Cells productivity is starting to attract attention from abroad.  Masdar Clean Technology, a state-owned fund of the United Arab Emirates, is planning to buy a stake in the German solar cell maker, Die Welt,a German media outlet reported.

"The fund wants [to buy a stake], and we are open to it," a spokesman told Die Welt. The newspaper cited sources as saying Masdar could help Q-Cells finance construction of a thin-film solar cell plant in Germany with a volume of about $764 million.

Last but Not Least

There’s a third, relatively unheralded, solar modules manufacturer sneaking into the fold to challenge Q-Cells and Sharp, the industry’s two most prominent leaders. Phoenix based First Solar Inc. (FSLR) posted stellar fourth quarter earnings as the company boosted production.

First Solar brought in $62.9 million last year, a 686.3% jump from the $8 million posted a year prior. For 2007, revenue nearly quadrupled to $200.8 million, up from $52.7 million in 2006.

"Our 2007 results increased our position as the low-cost leader in the industry and brought us closer to achieving price points that make our solar electricity viable," without significant government subsidies, First Solar Chief Executive Officer Michael J. Ahearn said during a conference call with analysts.

The company expects revenue to rise again this year, to between $900 million and $950 million.

Like Sharp and Q-Cells, First Solar’s profit margins have been insulated by steering clear of a silicon shortage by focusing on low cost thin-film cells, and maintaining globally diversified production bases.

Company officials said earnings were helped by realizing the full production capacity of their factory in Germany. And they expect additional savings from reduced costs at a new plant in Malaysia.

"As we’re moving to Malaysia, I think our models imply a 20 cent cost per watt reduction," Jens Meyerhoff, First Solar’s chief financial officer, told a Piper Jaffray investment conference.

The company expects its first Malaysian production lines to start running this year, followed by three fully operational lines in 2009, Reuters reported. That would bring First Solar’s output capacity to 1GW a year.

News and Related Story Notes:

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• Nikkei:
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• Market Insight:
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• Money Morning:
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• Reuters:
  Sharp, Tokyo Electron to tie up on solar cells

• BusinessWeek:
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• Reuters:
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• BusinessWeek:
  Sony and Sharp’s LCD Linkup.
• Money Morning Financial Analysis:
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German solar cell maker Q-Cells announced strong full year results and said it plans to expand its production capacity by investing $263.2 million in its first production site in Asia.

Q-Cells said in February that it had become the world’s leading manufacturer of solar cells. In its 2007 preliminary results, the company reported full year sales of $1.26 billion, a 59% jump.

"This is impressive since wafer sourcing costs increased while cell selling prices declined. This shows that Q-Cells is very capable of reducing production costs and we see much more still to come," Benjamin Kluftinger, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. (C) told Reuters.

Last year, Q-Cells increased production to 389.2 megawatts, which the company claims is more than its biggest competitors – Japan’s Sharp Corp. (OTC: SHCAY) and China’s Suntech Power Holdings (STP). 

"With this figure, Q-Cells would already have produced a greater total output than its largest competitors Sharp and Suntech," the company said in its statement.

Q-Cells also said it would add to that production with a new facility in Malaysia, which is expected to have a maximum capacity of more than 300 megawatts. The first phase of construction, with a capacity of 160MW, is scheduled to come online in the first quarter of 2009.

Solar companies around the world are increasing production capacity to meet soaring demand for green technology to combat global warming.

Sharp is trying to raise its annual output of thin-film solar cells six-fold by 2012 to beat silicon shortages. It has planned a new plant in Osaka, Japan, which is scheduled to go online by March 2010. The company expects the plant to have a maximum of output of 1,000MW a year. Sharp also hopes to raise output of its Katsuragi plant in Nara, Japan, from 15MW to 160 MW in October.

Sharp also announced last month that it would team with Daiwa House Industry Co. Ltd. and Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd. to develop large lithium-ion batteries that can store solar energy for houses. The deal will help Sharp build upon its solar power systems business and let Japanese homebuilder Daiwa House increase the value of its homes with energy saving technologies the Nikkei Business Daily reported.

News and Related Story Notes:

• Reuters:
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• Bloomberg:
  Q-Cells Profit Climbs 46% as Production Increases

• CleanTech:
  Q-Cells to expand with factory in Malaysia

• Money Morning:
  LCD Market Gets Even Hotter as Trade Raids and JV Deals Raise the Stakes

The automotive industry is one of the most competitive in the world. It’s so competitive that the Ford Motor Co. (F), founded in 1903 by Henry Ford the legendary pioneer, innovator, and father of the assembly line, has fallen all the way to the third spot in U.S. auto sales. Just a few weeks ago, Ford was ousted from its longtime No. 2 spot by the Japan-based Toyota Motor Co. (TM), a clear sign that the strategic landscape in the auto sector is changing, and that nothing can be taken for granted.

Innovation has long been an industry hallmark and, as oil hovers near $100 a barrel, fuel efficiency has emerged as the latest way to get ahead in the race for auto sales.

The price of crude oil accounts for more than 55% of the retail price of gasoline, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

AAA, formerly the American Automobile Association, recently reported that the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline nationwide is $3.07, up from $2.32 a year ago. The record national average of $3.23 per gallon was set last May. 

"It’s hard to predict, but the chances are good we’ll reach record high prices at the pump this year because of record prices for crude oil and high demand," Elaine Zeinner, spokeswoman for AAA, told the Charleston Daily Mail.

Zeinner said the AAA and industry analysts estimate that the price of gas could range between $3.40 and $3.70 a gallon this year. Some believe the price could climb as high as $4.00 a gallon.

Soaring gas prices and environmental concerns have blown the door wide open for fuel-efficient hybrid cars.  Registrations of new hybrid automobiles increased 35% to nearly 290,000 vehicles in the first 10 months of 2007, according to data from R.L. Polk and Co., an auto information and marketing company.

Toyota Taps an Emerging Trend

Toyota is the world leader in hybrid technology. The company sold 277,750 hybrid vehicles last year, up 44% from 2006. Toyota’s Prius, Camry, and Highlander are considered the best hybrids on the market today. In fact, the Prius is the industry’s best-selling hybrid vehicle.

The latest addition to Toyota’s hybrid family is the company’s A-BAT, a concept truck set to debut at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. According to BusinessWeek, the vehicle is roughly the size of Toyota’s smallest SUV, the RAV4. Its oversized grill and rugged body type are designed to appeal to truck enthusiasts, but the heart of the truck is its hybrid engine. Analysts have labeled the pseudo-truck as a bold attempt to capitalize on a market shift toward fuel-efficient and eco-friendly vehicles, without alienating traditional "red-state" truck owners.

"This is classic Toyota," Erich Merkle, of automotive forecasting firm IRN, told BusinessWeek. "They’re positioning themselves ahead of the curve, preparing products for a generation of consumers that is still coming up."

It’s such innovative thinking that’s helped Toyota leapfrog Ford in U.S. sales, and possibly even to supplant General Motors Co. (GM) as the global leader in auto sales. GM is still first in the United States, but Toyota is gaining fast.

So now GM has launched an aggressive plan of its own as a counterstrike. 

GM Cleans Up In China

Saturn, the General Motors specialty nameplate, is trying to establish itself in the hybrid market with a compact SUV. Like the A-BAT, Saturn’s 2009 Vue Green Line two-mode hybrid, is an attempt to reach consumers by combining towing capacity with fuel-savings.

The "two-mode" hybrid system has also been showcased on the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon SUVs. And it will be appearing on the Chevrolet Silverado pickup and Cadillac Escalade later this year.

GM isn’t stopping with its product line either. The company’s taking its eco-renovation to China, where pollution has become an epidemic.  In October, GM announced plans for a $250 million research and development center to be built in Shanghai.  The center will focus development on eco-friendly technology, such as alternative fuels, hybrid cars, and more efficient power trains.  The R&D center will also serve as headquarters for GM’s China and Asian-Pacific operations.

GM is trying to use China’s well-known pollution problem as a means of strengthening its toehold in the world’s second-largest – but fastest-growing – automotive market. It also capitalizes on the growing trend toward global diversification.

More than 7 million cars were sold in China in 2006, already outpacing Japan. And 4.58 million vehicles were sold in China in the first nine months of 2007, a 23.8% jump from the year before.

Two weeks ago, GM proudly announced that it was the first automaker to sell a million vehicles in China in a single year.
"From day one, GM and our partners have been committed to continually rolling out new and upgraded models with specific engineering done in China for China to satisfy the needs of Chinese vehicle buyers across the country," said GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner.

The partners Wagoner mentioned are a big reason why GM was the first to hit the million-car milestone. GM’s flagship joint venture in China, Shanghai General Motors Co. Ltd., sold 500,308 vehicles in 2007, a 22% increase from a year ago, Shanghai Securities News reported. 

According to Kevin Wale, president of GM’s China unit, the company won’t be tapping the brakes on its China-focused investments anytime soon. He recently told Bloomberg News that GM would spend about $1 billion a year on production and sales in China over the next five years. Wale estimates that China’s total automotive demand will rise to 9.5 million to 10 million vehicles in 2008. 

"GM’s main hope is put in Asia-Pacific within which China is the most important part," Ashvin Chotai, an analyst with Global Insight Inc., told Bloomberg. "Even with this $1 billion a year, it’ll be tough to remain No. 1 in China.  With China becoming the most important strategic market in the world, it’s crucial to have their investment to stay in the race."

Who Else Is On Track For Global Diversification?

Wagoner expects that GM alone will get 75% of its car-and-truck sales from outside the United States in the next decade. That’s a staggering assertion, considering GM has been one of the biggest names in the American automotive industry since 1908. But it’s become increasingly clear that global diversification is the way of the future, and GM and Toyota aren’t the only ones capitalizing on the trend.

Even a company with a more-exclusive clientele, the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars unit of owner BMW, has been something of a clunker in terms of its performance. BMW is part of Daimler AG (DAI).

In the past, the Rolls-Royce brand struggled to expand its client base beyond the super-wealthy. Owning a Rolls has traditionally been more about prestige than profit, but that’s all beginning to change.

Sales of Rolls-Royce cars for 2007 are expected to be up nearly 25% from 2006.  And that increase in sales has been largely attributed to success in China. China is Rolls’ third-largest and fastest-growing market, accounting for 10% of sales in 2007. According to TIME magazine, one well-heeled Bejing property developer paid $2.3 million for a stretch Phantom, a customized version of the company’s most popular model.

Many industry analysts believe China will be the company’s No. 2 customer by the end of 2008, surpassing its one-time home market of Great Britain. The United States remains Rolls’ primary customer, accounting for 45% of the company’s sales.

Even BMW is willing to admit that if the company hit a rough patch, the Rolls-Royce brand would be first to go up on the auction block, but as the brand flexes it global muscle it’s becoming increasingly viable.

BMW isn’t the only company to pounce on a luxury brand either. Tata Motors Ltd. (TTM) is the leading candidate to obtain Ford’s Jaguar and Land Rover brands. Tata Motors is a well-known player in the Indian automotive market. While primarily a truck company, it also accounts for 17% of the country’s passenger vehicle sales. The acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover would bump up its brand equity, giving it two platinum nameplates that would increase its prestige, boost its overall visibility and likely also enable it to access customers in much-higher income classes.

"The acquisition of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands will expose the company to the luxury product category, as well as to broader geographies; these are areas in which TML lacks experience," Elizabeth Allen, senior analyst at Moody’s Corp. (MCO), told the Economic Times.

In the meantime, Ford – which owns the Jag and Rover brands – is looking to slim down in order to better expand its foreign-market initiative. As part of that, it may also be reducing its involvement in the U.S. and European markets, to better focus on the higher-growth markets of China and India.

The move looks to be paying off.

The company’s retail sales in China rose 30% – to a record 216,324 vehicles – in 2007, Reuters News Agency reported.  Ford also said its joint venture with Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. Ltd., and Mazda Motor Corp. (PINK: MZDAF) enjoyed a 60% increase in wholesale volume.

Ford and its joint venture partners operate three vehicle assembly plants and one engine manufacturing plant in China. The company also announced recently that it would put half a billion dollars into the expansion of its manufacturing facilities in the India city of Chennai. The investment will bring total capital expenditures in India to $875 million.

"We have embarked on a strategy of growing our business across Asia Pacific," John Parker, Ford’s executive vice-president for Asia Pacific & Africa told BusinessWeek. "We want to grow our manufacturing-and-supply footprint in China, Southeast Asia, and India."

Parker estimated that Asia, the Pacific, and Africa would account for 70% of the growth in demand for passenger cars in the next decade.

News and Related Story Links:

• BusinessWeek:
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• Money Morning Investment Analysis:
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• Fox Business News:
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• Reuters:
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• TIME:
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Money isn’t the only thing flowing through China right now. Pollution has filled the streets, contaminated the rivers and clouded the skies.

Half of China’s population – 600 people to 700 million people – drinks water contaminated by human and animal waste. In fact, 1 billion tons of untreated sewage is dumped into the Yangtze River each year. And, according to a recent study conducted by the World Bank, air pollution causes more than 400,000 premature deaths every year.

With the health of its population fading and global opposition to carbon emissions rising, China has no choice but to address its pollution epidemic. And thanks to a blistering economy and a stockpile of cash reserves, throngs of investors are eager to help Beijing wash away its troubles.  

Cleantech Group LLC, which hosted an energy conference in Beijing just last week, estimates that China will attract $700 million in venture capital funding for clean technologies in 2008, Reuters News Agency recently reported. Total investments could reach $2 billion by 2010.

Qiming Venture Partners, based in Shanghai, is one of many firms scouring China for untapped investment opportunities, and is uncovering an increasing amount in the clean energy sector. The venture firm already has closed a $200 million fund, and expects to close a second $300 million fund next year. Approximately 10% of that fund will be earmarked for clean technologies.

London Asia Capital also has invested about $200 million in China, and is now weighing its options in the nation’s clean-tech sector.

"In the last few years we have dramatically accelerated the deal sizes and went exclusively into the clean-tech sector," Christoph Loeslein of London Asia Capital told Reuters.

 Dried Up and Wasted

According to a Cleantech Network report and industry insiders attending the clean energy forum in Beijing, water treatment and energy efficiency projects boast the greatest investment potential.

Of the two, water may be the most pressing concern. China’s water supply is both polluted and inefficiently managed. As a result there is no shortage of opportunity for anyone willing to wade waist-deep into the dirty business.

In addition to the problems posed by droughts and a lack of viable sources, a great deal of water in China is actually being wasted. In an article published by InterFax, Guo Youzhi, general secretary of the China Desalination Association, said that only 20% of industrial wastewater in China is efficiently re-utilized. That directly contradicts government statistics, which place the figure at a much-higher 75%.

Worse, the little water China does manage to circulate is of terribly poor quality. At the Cleantech conference, Liu Junjie, general manager of Duoyuan Global Water-Operation Co. Ltd., said 80% of China’s surface water and 40% of the country’s groundwater is polluted. 

Both Guo and Liu agree that the greatest obstacle to solving the nation’s water crisis is economics.

"Artificially low water prices, as well as lack of preferential policies from the central government, mean that it doesn’t make economic sense for companies to adopt costly technologies to improve water usage efficiency and re-utilize wasted water at the moment," Guo told InterFax.

Liu corroborated Guo’s story, pointing out that China’s water prices are only one third of average global prices, despite a government pledge to increase the cost of water by 10% annually.

However, Guo also said that while overall Chinese water prices are low, there is a substantial disparity in prices between regions. According to the InterFax article, the price of water in central China’s Guiyang City has fallen as low as $0.005 per ton. But prices in the Tianjin Municipality have climbed as high as $0.88 a ton. 

High water prices in Tianjin has increased foreign investment in seawater desalinization technologies. Approximately 40,000 tons of the 600,000-ton daily desalinization capacity is the product of foreign investment from companies such as General Electric Co. (GE) and Veolia Environment (VE).  

It costs around $0.54 to desalinize a ton of seawater. According to Guo, it costs between $0.20 and $0.27 to treat and re-utilize a ton of industrial wastewater with current technologies. If Beijing keeps its word and the price of water rises, the tide of investment will rise as well.

Letting Mother Nature Do the Work

The second biggest environmental concern for China is the nation’s suffocating air pollution. So far, China has relied heavily on coal-fired power plants to power its rapid industrial expansion.

Between 2003 and 2006, worldwide coal consumption increased as much as it did in the 23 years prior. China was responsible for 90% of that increase. China used 2.5 billion tons of coal in 2006, more than the next three highest-consuming nations combined. The country is home to more than 2,000 coal-fired power plants, and a new one goes into operation every week.

Those plants produce massive quantities of hazardous carbon emissions. Earlier this year, China surpassed the United States as the world’s top emitter of greenhouse gases. The smog-filled skies have resulted in acid rain, desertification, dust storms and declining health. Healthcare costs alone account for an estimated 4% of China’s GDP.

The nation’s climate-change program has set a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 950 million tons over the next two years. Last week, at the U.N. climate conference in Bali, Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said China’s investment in renewable energy would reach $20 billion this year.

"China is already the world’s factory," Yang Ailun, climate change program manager at Greenpeace China, told Bloomberg News. "It could be and should be the manufacturing hub of clean technology for the world as well."

China-based manufacturers of alternative energy technologies are already taking off in a big way. Companies specializing in alternative energy have seen their stock prices soar. Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP) has seen its stock price skyrocket by 137% this year. Solarfun Power Holdings Co. (SOLF) has jumped 125%.

Three Chinese companies struck it big in their initial public offerings (IPOs) this year as well. JA Solar Co. (JASO) has seen a 248% vault in its stock price. Yingli Green Energy Holdings Co. (YGE) has climbed 201%. And LDK Solar Co. (LDK) is up 117%.

Solar power isn’t the only clean energy industry showing promise either. China became the world’s sixth-largest generator of wind power last year. Now, the country’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines is planning to raise $244 million dollars from its IPO. In a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co. Ltd. outlined plans to sell 50 million shares at about $4.88 a share.

According to KGI Securities Co. Ltd., Goldwind has 33% of China’s wind power equipment market.

"As China’s wind power sector takes off, we think Goldwind is well positioned to become a major beneficiary, thanks to its strong brand and first mover advantage," Steven Liao, a KGI Securities analyst, told Bloomberg.

Greenpeace’s Yang estimates China may have installed wind-power-generation capacity of 120 gigawatts by 2020, given the level of state-sponsored initiatives.

"The power generated from the wind-generation units will be the equivalent of five Three Gorges projects," Yang told Bloomberg.

The Three Gorges Dam on China’s Yangtze River is the largest hydropower venture in the world with a planned capacity of 18,200 megawatts.

Beijing is hoping that the nation’s renewable energy consumption will rise from 8% now to 10% in 2010, and 15% in 2020. Right now 80% of China’s energy comes from coal.

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The European Commission yesterday (Wednesday) introduced a plan calling for a massive restructuring of power grids throughout the continent.  The plan was designed to reduce the region’s vulnerability to the massive energy companies that control the production and transmission of gas and electricity.

Currently, large energy companies monopolize energy production and distribution, with little or no regulation from the EU.  These companies operate at the network, wholesale, and distribution levels, keeping competition at a distance and prices vague.

Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, president of the EC told The Associated Press that “energy is the driving force of our economy,” and added that a response is needed to “achieve greater energy security and provide abundant energy at a fair price for citizens.”

The report also pointed out that EU residents and businesses supply options and that there is too much incentive for current operators to freeze out any new competition.

The Commission offered two options to proceed with, what it called, “ownership unbundling.”  The first would force energy companies to sell off their transmission networks. The second would require companies to retain their respective transmission networks, but lease them to fully autonomous operators. The Commission also called for an independent EU energy agency to oversee national regulators.

The plan was specifically designed as a safeguard against Gazprom, the state owned Russian energy giant. Gazprom currently supplies 25% of Europe’s gas, and is aggressively seeking other European acquisitions.  It has repeatedly used supply lines as a means of political and financial gain.

Additionally, Moscow refuses to open its energy sector up to foreign investment, even though Gazprom has full access to European energy markets. This has long been a point of contention.

If the plan is put into effect, other key European energy players will no doubt suffer. France’s EdF and Germany’s Eon are among the companies that would be broken up. France and Germany oppose the measure along with six other nations.

Barroso said in Brussels that “an open and fair internal energy market is essential to ensure that the EU can rise to the challenges of climate change, increased import dependence, and global competitiveness,” The AP reported.

As it stands now, Britain, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, Finland, Romania, Sweden and the Netherlands are on his side. Though, the likelihood of the measure succeeding remains unclear.

Related Articles and Links:

• Money Morning: Belarus Assuages EU Fears; Agrees To Pay Part of Gazprom Debt.
• Money Morning: The New “Cold” War: How Russia Has Turned Its Energy Exports Into Weapons of Diplomacy.

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I finally understand the Irish fascination with the color green.

Having descended, in part, from some fine Irish stock myself (my mother’s maiden name was “Herron,” formerly “O’Herron”), I’ve always been entranced by Irish legends and lore, history and heritage, and custom and culture.  The color green is a key ingredient of this Irish cultural stew – as anyone who’s ever donned a funny hat and a shamrock pin and drank green beer on St. Patrick’s Day can attest. Green is the color of the uniform that Irish football teams don to do battle on the gridiron. It’s the color of the mother country’s landscape.

And when Ireland was battling Great Britain for independence in the late 18th Century, green signified sympathy – which actually drove Britain to make it illegal for folks to wear anything green.

Green is the national color of Ireland – in more ways than one. And the modern motivation has a lot to do with the so-called “greenback” – otherwise known as money.

The Buck of the Irish

If you’re a business owner or investor, and are looking for an overseas market with a lot of promise, Ireland clearly deserves a look.

According to one investment-research report I studied, Ireland is home to roughly 1,100 multinational companies; the $60 billion worth of products these firms export account for nearly 90% of Ireland’s overall yearly total.

Europe in general is a big target for foreign direct investment (FDI) by companies involved in healthcare and drug care, and almost a third of that amount gets invested in Ireland. Indeed, nine of the world’s top 10 drug companies have operations in Ireland, which manufactures most of the Botox drug treatment, or the Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) Viagra drug, destined for distribution Europe.

Digital technology is also a huge element of the Irish economy. Ireland is the world’s biggest software exporter – even ahead of the United States, which is home to such software giants as Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), and Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL), to name just a few. Those two companies, combined, have a market value of nearly $360 billion.

U.S. companies have long been big investors in Ireland. Indeed, the Irish-American connection remains particularly strong. Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) has invested $5 billion in a huge chip fab in Ireland. Other big U.S. investors in Ireland include Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) (which alone is responsible for 5% of Ireland’s exports and 2% of Irish GDP), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), and Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) has chosen Cork for its chief European software-development and support center. [For a list of some other Irish companies, click here].

Thanks to a truly admirable savings rate – not to mention property values that have soared into the stratosphere – the Irish have become the wealthiest people in Europe, according to a Bank of Ireland (NYSE: IRE) research report released this week.

According to the bank’s yearly report, “The Wealth of the Nation: How Ireland’s Wealthy Will Invest in the Next Decade,” the Irish economy’s total wealth on a per-capita basis places the country second among the world’s eight most-developed nations: Behind No. 1 Japan, and ahead of both the United Kingdom and the United States.

Ireland’s per-capita net wealth rose from $225,400in 2005 to $263,000 last year, a remarkable 16.7% increase, the bank said. The report defines net wealth as property, bank deposits, pensions and investments. Overall net wealth rose $169 billion, or 18.6%, to $1.078 trillion.

The author of the report is Pat O’Sullivan, senior economist at the Bank of Ireland’s Private Banking Group. Much of last year’s surge in wealth was fueled by 20% growth in the value of residential real estate, an important element of the Irish consumer/investor’s personal wealth.

The report doesn’t provide any short-term forecasts. But in response to a journalist’s question at the press conference where the bank released the report, Senior Economist O’Sullivan said the rate of growth will be slowed substantially this year, thanks to slight slumps in share prices and a bit of a retreat in the residential real estate market, “probably in the mid-single-digit” range, which equates to roughly 5%.

Overall, Ireland’s net wealth (which excludes debt) has risen more than 400% since 1995. From last year’s $1.078 trillion, O’Sullivan predicts that net wealth will reach $1.245 trillion in 2010 (an increase of 7.4% from his earlier 2010 estimate of $1.159 trillion, and an estimate based on a “soft-landing in the real estate market this year.” He forecasts net wealth of  $1.556 trillion by 2015.

That compares favorably with some projections from the highly respected think-tank, the McKinsey Global Institute, which in a report released earlier this year said that global wealth would soar from $118 trillion in February 2005 to $200 trillion in 2010 – with much of that gain coming from outside U.S. borders. That’s an increase of $82 trillion, or 69.5% in only a five-year period.

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Millionaires Everywhere

If you’re planning to become a millionaire, and want to move into a neighborhood with others of your “own kind,” chances are you’ll find a pretty nice one in the Emerald Isles.

In a nation of 4.2 million people, estimates say that there are as many as 100,000 millionaires. At that level, O’Sullivan says that would imply that millionaires make up about 2.5% of the Irish population. For comparative purposes, in both the United Kingdom and the United States, millionaires represent about 0.7% of their respective populations, he said.

Using some basic statistical analysis, O’Sullivan ratcheted down his estimate for Ireland to 30,000 millionaires. That’s up 10% from 2005, the report said.

Now, before I break down the net-wealth ranges of this group, let me take a minute to show you an interesting little fact that might make for some interesting conversation at your next staff or board meeting, dinner party, or night out with friends. We’ll call it “Irish Millionaire Trivia,” and the basic question is as follows: How do you define an Irish millionaire?

Well, that’s easy, according to the Bank of Ireland’s O’Sullivan: Those folks are Irish residents with a net wealth of 1 million euros or better.

Makes sense, right? After all, a millionaire in the United States is a person with a net wealth of $1 million or better.

Do you see the interesting conundrum here?

You see, because of exchange rates, a U.S. millionaire who went over to Ireland or onto the European continent would no longer be a millionaire ($1 million USD. = 745,225 euros…. too bad, Charley, you’re OUT of the club……).

And it hardly seems fair that a European investor has to actually have $1.34 million in U.S. dollars to make the club (1 million euros  = $1.342 million USD). But it’s just one of those fascinating little bits of international financial trivia one uncovers while engaged in some late-night financial analysis.

But since we’re playing in the Bank of Ireland’s ballpark tonight, we’ll stick with their rules. Ireland’s millionaire population breaks down as follows:

• 27,000 millionaires with a net wealth in the range of 1 million euros to 5 million euros ($1.34 million USD to $6.72 million USD).
• 2,700 millionaires with a net wealth in the range of 5 million euros to 30 million euros ($6.72 million USD to $40.27 million USD).
• 300 millionaires with net wealth in excess of 30 million euros ($40.27 million USD).

While Irish household debt rose 20% to $220.3 billion, this was more than offset by the following:

• A 15% gain in cash savings.
• A 26% increase in privately held stocks.
• And an 11% gain in the value of pensions.

According to O’Sullivan, Irish consumers save about 14% of their disposable income – the top rate of any country in Europe. German consumers placed second with 10%, and the British saved just 5%. As for the Americans, well, they save just 1% of their disposable income.

Investors can look at direct investments, such as the bank or some of Ireland’s other public companies. Or you can look to benefit indirectly, invest in firms such as Apple or Dell, which are benefiting from their involvement with the Irish economy.

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Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) has delayed the product launch dates of some proposed new high-mileage hybrid cars that will use lithium-ion battery technology. The Wall Street Journal said that major safety concerns relating to the new type of batteries was behind the decision. The decision is a blow to Toyota, whose gas-electric hybrid car, the Prius, fueled a major sales surge in the U.S. market. The delay could give U.S. carmakers General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) a window of opportunity to gain market share and close the gap on Toyota. Both U.S. firms are developing alternative-fuel vehicles of their own.

Indeed, Toyota lost its position as the world’s No. 1 auto seller to GM on a quarterly basis in the second three months of this year, although it outsold GM in the first half of the year for the first time ever. During the first half of the year, Toyota sold 4.72 million cars to GM’s 4.67 million. GM sold 2.41 million vehicles globally in the recent quarter, a year-over-year gain of 0.4%, while Toyota sold 2.37 million vehicles in the June-ended period, for 7% growth. Analysts have said Toyota will likely outsell GM for the full year.