Clean Energy Stocks may benefit from Green Realtor trend

If this cyclical low in real estate has produced six straight years of declining house prices in the USA, and an estimated 5 to 6 million foreclosures, is there a silver lining anywhere? Well, for one, the price of entry to home ownership for young couples with children has dropped dramatically, especially compared with Canada and Europe.

From a green perspective, one is reminded of the Chinese symbol for crisis - a combination of the characters for danger and opportunity. In coming months the American real estate market will see the re-emergence of the income property investor, presenting a tremendous opening for upgrading existing housing stock. One can imagine an investor picking up an REO from a bank for 30 to 40k, investing 10 to 15k in solar panels, insulation, new windows, paint and landscaping, and offering the spruced up ultra-efficient gem for 79 to 89k.

Out of 5 million forecolosures, perhaps 2 to 3 million will sit empty for some time. This presents a great time for renovators, energy-efficiency experts and home-powered energy systems installers to get busy.

Oil price volatility and continued downward pressure may create even greater bargains in the renewable energy sector in coming months, and buying an individual stock near its low is far, far riskier than buying a clean energy mutual fund or renewable power ETF near its low; the diversification of the funds nearly eliminates individual company risk and allows investors to benefit from the overall price momentum trend of the renewable energy industry stocks.

My suggestion to most investors is to utilize the market weakness to initiate dollar cost averaging programs into a judicious mix of renewable energy mutual funds, environmental investment funds, ethical funds an exchange traded green power funds.

A few names to consider, and look for in a fund's holdings:


Home Depot

It's hard to imagine how the long awaited Greening of America can be achieved without an impressive string of strong quarters and years from these guys. The stock closed 19SEP08 at 27.37, off significantly from the 52 week high of 37.15.


SunPower Corp

Their solar electric parking lot installation with Applied Materials can be replicated 1000s of times across North America, and on-site / building-integrated solar energy is only at the tip of the tip of the iceberg. Oil is the most replaceable commodity, and solar-powered homes will be just one of the many routes to American energy independence. The stock is at 89.62, down almost half from late last year's high of 164.49. Investors may want to look at renewable energy mutual funds and clean energy index traded funds with high weightings in solar power and wind energy stocks, and begin to dollar cost average into these diversified longterm investment vehicles.


Evergreen Solar

Already rebounding strongly from last week's low of 3.30, Evergreen Solar stock at 6.20 is still down 2/3 from the year high of 18.85. This is the company that put the solar panels on the White House, and many other buildings around the USA. Oil price shocks may affect near term valuations, but for the longer term, the coming months and year may provide a good time to average in, or find renewable energy investment funds and clean power mutual funds holding thin-film solar energy companies, geothermal power producers and wind energy stocks.


More renewable energy links:

Wind Energy Stocks, Clean Power Producers

Geothermal Power Investing, Geothermal Stocks

Solar Energy Companies, Solar Power Stocks


Links to geothermal power companies, publicly-traded geothermal energy stocks

Windpower company website links, wind energy stocks, public wind power companies