August 07, 2006

US: Solar Stocks Boom in 2005 -- But It Is Just the Beginning

by Peter Lynch, Independent Wall Street Analyst
August 7, 2006
For the most part, 2005 was a mediocre year for the stock market. The market mostly went sideways to nowhere and was generally a boring year for most stock market investors. The Dow Jones was down 0.61%, the S&P 500 was up 3% and the NASDAQ was up 1.37% for the year.
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Below is a comparison of the 2005 performance of seven solar related public companies and one "clean energy" exchange-traded fund (ETF) that trade on major U.S. markets and whose primary business is renewable energy verses a number of indices that are commonly used in the financial press. These companies and the ETF are listed in alphabetical order, followed by their stock market trading symbol and their percentage gain in 2005:

Distributed Energy Systems Corporation (DESC) + 160%
DayStar Technologies, Inc. (DSTI) + 336%
Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ENER) + 160%
Evergreen Solar Inc. (ESLR) + 213%
Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy Fund (PBW) + 19.5%
Spire Corporation (SPIR) + 120%
Sunpower Corporation (SPWR) +34%
Suntech Power Holdings (STP) +32%

Average Gain for U.S. solar stocks in 2005 = 134%
Average Gain for three Indexes in 2005 = 1.25%

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=45637