VanEck Solar Energy ETF (KWT)

[SUPERFREAK]

She crashes again?! Hmmm;) now only if they will get those options ready!

[Pro-Life]

U.S. solar power growth jumps to new record
By Matt Daily
March 14 | Tue Mar 13, 2012 11:59pm EDT

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/14/solar-us-idUSL2E8ECBQ420120314?type=companyNews&feedType=RSS&feedName=companyNews&rpc=43

March 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. solar industry installed a record number of panels in 2011, more than double 2010, and is likely to see strong growth again this year, according to a new report.

Solar installers built 1,855 megawatts of photovoltaic projects in 2011 for a total of $8.4 billion, up from 887 MW in 2010, according to a report released by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

The growth in U.S. demand comes as the makers of the panels that turn light into electricity have struggled to earn profits amid a glut of supplies on the global market that eroded margins.

The WilderHill Clean Energy Index, which includes shares of industry heavyweights First Solar, Suntech Power Holdings, Yingli Green Energy and Trina Solar, tumbled 49 percent in 2011. So far this year it has rebounded about 12 percent.

A record level of fourth quarter installations totalling 776 MW easily beat the peak of 473 MW recorded in the third quarter of the year.

"The U.S. was a strong market in 2011 and we expect it to be strong again in 2012," said GTM Managing Director Shayle Kann.

Many industry analysts had reduced their forecasts last year to between 1,500 to 1,700 megawatts as incentives waned in the country's two biggest markets, California and New Jersey.

For 2012, GTM and SEIA said new construction would grow 35 to 50 percent, reaching 2,500 to 2,800 MW, as a backlog of large projects is completed.

The 2011 figures rank the United States as the fourth largest solar market in the world behind Germany, Italy and China, according to Kann.

The U.S. share of the global market was only about 7 percent last year, he said, but that share should double by 2016 as U.S. demand continues to grow and European demand starts to decline.

The large, utility-scale projects, which produce power for the wholesale electricity market, totaled 758 MW of the 2011 total. That is about the size of one natural gas-fired power plant.

Another 3,000 MW of utility-scale plants are currently under construction in the United States, and 6,000 MW is at an earlier stage of development, the report said.

Among those projects under construction are two 550-MW projects being built by First Solar and a 250-MW plant being built by SunPower Corp, which are among the largest in the world.

Installations on homes rose 11 percent in 2011 to 297 MW, while panels installed at non-residential sites rose 28 percent to 800 MW.

Despite declining prices for solar panels in recent years, the sector still relies on government subsidies to make the power projects competitive with coal and natural gas.

The average installed cost for solar declined by 20 percent last year to $4.08 per watt, largely because of reductions in costs for the largest plants, which saw costs drop to $3.20 per watt in the fourth quarter.

That overall decline did not fully reflect last year's 50 percent drop in wholesale panel prices, since most of the 2011 project costs were before that steep decline.

The 2011 panel price drop is likely to begin showing up in projects that will come on line later this year.

[Pro-Life]

Scoreboard for the week: +1.61%

[Pro-Life]

For the week: +2.98%

[Pro-Life]

This sector is getting spanked hard!

[Pro-Life]

For the week: +9.64%

[Pro-Life]

For the week: -15.59%... careful!!!

[Pro-Life]

For the week: -5.96%

[Pro-Life]

-4.75% is the scorecard for the week...

[Pro-Life]

E-mail reaction to Japan: "... Interestingly solar stocks are trading up at the moment as people look for alternative energy stocks to bid on. I guess they think people are going to be so scared of nuclear energy now that governments will invest in other energy sources. The GEX alternative energy ETF is up over 4% in pre-market action and is one of the few ETF's actually trading up. Disclosure - long this one. Sometimes you are lucky... "

HUGE day on Tuesday for KWT accompanied by volume!

[Pro-Life]

My friends, for the week: +7%!!!

[Pro-Life]

Back to consolidation time... boring.

[Pro-Life]

That June time frame was quite the buy time! Onward!

[Pro-Life]

Still, under many of the major averages.

[Pro-Life]

Coming off the bottom on the weekly...

[Pro-Life]

A big reversal candle today!!!

[Pro-Life]

A tremendous beating has been absorbed here...

[Pro-Life]

Still range bound on the weekly between 12 and 17...

[frenchee]

Great job FJ!

[Pro-Life]

I added the fund capital allocation to the i-Box.

[Pro-Life]

The daily chart looks like a reverse H&S pattern... BULLISH perhaps?

[Pro-Life]

The last month has not been kind!

[Pro-Life]

Correcting now but still way off the bottom...

[Pro-Life]

Which continued in April... still looks positive!

[Pro-Life]

What a great March run...

[Pro-Life]

I'm with ya on that!!! Solar baby!!!

[frenchee]

Finally a positive day for KWT...Let's go solar!

[Pro-Life]

No mod... maybe I can help...

[Pro-Life]

Van Eck has some good funds/ETF's... KWT is an outstanding choice now that it has been run down in price.

[Pro-Life]

The sector may come back strong... time will tell.

[Pro-Life]

This ETF just continues to maintain the break through the terrible downtrend line... time will tell if this break was real.

[frenchee]

Solar Stock Comparison Table

http://www.cnanalyst.com/solar/

[frenchee]

President-elect Obama's energy plan will help KWT. http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/factsheet_energy_speech_080308.pdf

[frenchee]

KWT went on a parabolic SAR buy today...

[frenchee]

No support on the charts and the trend is strong. Shorts must be lovin it...

[frenchee]

KWT on a short-term buy signal today...

[frenchee]

The Ardour Solar Energy Index(SM) (Bloomberg ticker: SOLRX), the pure-play leader in tracking the solar energy industry, returned 8.4% in August 2008 and -24.8% year-to-date through end-August 2008.*

The SOLRX index is comprised of a basket of securities of companies from around the world that are engaged in various aspects of the solar energy industry, including solar electricity, heating and lighting. The Index includes only those companies that generate at least 66% of their revenues from solar energy. On an index-weighted basis, the constituents of SOLRX derive well over 90% of their revenues from solar energy.

SOLRX was launched on April 21, 2008 and includes many companies of global prominence--such as First Solar, Q Cells and Renewable Energy, with weightings of 10.3%, 9.4% and 11.5%, respectively, as of August 31, 2008. The Index comprised 34 companies in all as of that same date. SOLRX is published by Ardour Global Indexes, LLC(SM) and is a member of the Ardour Family(SM) of Alternative Energy Indexes, which serve as leading alternative energy industry benchmarks.

Market Vectors--Solar Energy ETF (Amex: KWT) seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the SOLRX index. KWT generally holds all the securities that make up the Index in proportion to their Index weightings.

[frenchee]

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2008
GETTING TECHNICAL



The Light Shines on Solar-Energy Stocks
By MICHAEL KAHN

Despite an energy sell-off, stocks in this alternative-energy niche are firming up quite nicely.


ON A DAY WHEN OIL PRICES plummeted and energy stocks of every ilk tumbled, it seems beyond contrarian to write about positive prospects in solar-energy shares. But when we look at price performance versus the broad market and even versus oil and gas stocks, we see an industry group that should be considered.

To be sure, solar energy stocks took a beating at the open Tuesday and several in this small group have damaged chart patterns. Considering that companies here are still new on the scene this should not be a surprise. But for every stock with a bad chart we can find one with a good one and that means opportunity once the energy markets stabilize a bit.

Solar energy companies develop and market products that turn sunlight into electric power. In an environment when oil prices today are still 14% higher than where when the year started and nearly double where they were at the start of 2007, the recent decline in energy prices must be put into context. Alternative energy remains a hot topic.

Indeed, money has been made in this industry and a ranking analysis run on High Growth Stock Investor software puts solar energy stocks in the top decile of all stocks in terms of earnings growth. Taking the strongest of these stocks and putting them to the technical test turns up a nice list of candidates to consider.

For example, Sunpower Corp. (ticker: SPWR), which was a hot ticket last year in a bubbly run that saw it quadruple before tumbling back to Earth, has spent the year in a trading range


This range has served to heal the stock and allow prices to move back to the more sustainable bullish trend that was already in place since 2006 ---before the bulls stampeded too far, too fast.

The trading range is bound on top by a small zone between 97 and 99. What makes this technically better is that once prices reached this ceiling in August they did not immediately decline as they did on previous occasions. This tells us that demand was able to absorb most of the supply thrown at it – a bullish sign.

The buy signal only comes when demand swells anew and we can tell when that happens when prices move over 97-99 with increased trading volume.

Another bit of bullish evidence can be found in volume traded Tuesday as prices fell. Despite a rather sizable 5% decline by mid-day, volume was running below its 10-day average. Selling was not that urgent.

Another stock with a nice looking chart is that of China-based LDK Solar (LDK). It has been in a general upward trajectory since March and has moved above resistance set by its May high of 47.81

What makes this stock look good is that it has already proven that it can rally in good market times and bad. We also know that at a minimum bargain hunters were active as it traded well off its intraday low Tuesday.

Making it look even better is that since its March low, trading has been consistently more active on days when the bulls were in charge than when the bears took over. In other words, the desire to buy, while not quite a stampede, was nonetheless significant. Call it rising demand, inflow of money or just buying pressure but the bottom line is that the bulls like this stock more than the bears do not like it.

Just to round out the analysis, I want to show what a solar stock with a good fundamental story but a bad chart looks like. Evergreen Solar (ESLR) has an 89 out of 100 earnings growth ranking according to HGSI. But the stock got hurt badly on Tuesday's sector decline


Technically, it is trading down towards the lower border of its 2008 trading range and is below its major 50- and 200-day moving averages. It also sports rather weak momentum indicators so it really has not shown the same ability to rally as some of its peers. That is the mark of a stock to be avoided for the time being.

Again, shining a positive light on an energy sector on a day when oil prices plummet seems a bit too optimistic. But when everyone thinks that a sector is doomed, that's exactly the right time for contrarians to take note -- just as long as they do some homework.

[frenchee]

KWT showing signs of life starting...

[frenchee]

So far TAN is outperforming this new Solar ETF...see chart in iBox...