Do Not Believe The Hype Says Battery Industry Equity Analyst

• On 12:53 pm EDT, Thursday October 1, 2009

67 WALL STREET, New York - October 1, 2009 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its Alternative Energy/Clean Energy/Power Generation/Utilities Report offering a timely review of the sector to serious investors and industry executives. This 83 page feature contains expert industry commentary through 23 in-depth interviews with public company CEOs, Equity Analysts and Money Managers. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.

Topics covered: Long Term Perspective on Alternative Energy Industry -- Leading Indicators for Alternative Energy Components Companies -- Mergers and Acquisitions in the Alternative Energy Industry -- Break Even Business Fundamentals for Carbon Free Energy Providers -- Development of Carbon Free Energy Production Infrastructure -- NAT GAS Act -- New Players in the Alternative Energy Industry -- Solar Power Cell Manufacturers Market Strategy -- Demand Response for Raw Materials for Solar Cell Production -- Alternative Energy Investment Opportunities -- Multiple Stock Winners in Carbon Free Production Industry -- Government Funding of Alternative Energy Power Providers -- Chinese Solar Energy Companies -- Alternative Energy Hedge Fund Investors -- Commodity Cycles -- Determinants of Market Valuations in the Alternative Energy Production Industry -- Carbon Emissions Statistics -- Energy Efficiency Statistics -- Innovations in Solar and Wind Power Generation -- Business Economics for Methane Based Power Generation -- Electric Vehicles Projections and Statistics-- Cap and Trade Projections and Statistics -- Development of Battery Technology -- Regulatory Environment Developments for Solar, Wind, and Alternative Energy -- Hybrid Vehicles Development and Sales Projections

Companies include: Tanfield (TAN.L); Smith Electric Vehicles U.S.; Valence (VLNC); Spire (SPIR); Newport (NEWP); MYR Group (MYRG); Primoris (PRIM); Tetra Tech (TTEK); EnerNOC (ENOC); Comverge (COMV); EnergyConnect (ECNG.OB); Calgon Carbon (CCC); and Ener1 (HEV); Westport Innovations (WPRT); Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE); Fuel Systems Solutions (FSYS); FuelCell Energy (FCEL); FEI Company (FEIC); Veeco (VECO); ATT (ATT); Landi Renzo (LR.MI); Teleflex (TFX); Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A); Wal-Mart (WMT); Pepsico (PEP); FuelMaker; Chevrolet; GM; Honda (HMC); Itron (ITRI); Siemens (SI); American Superconductor (AMSC); GE (GE); and ABB (ABB);

In the following brief excerpt from just one of the 23 interviews in the 83 page report, an industry expert discusses the outlook for the sector and for investors.

Brian Piccioni is a Toronto-based Analyst with BMO Capital Markets, where he primarily covers hardware stocks. Prior to joining BMO Capital Markets in 1998, he was an Analyst specialized in researching and financing Canadian technology companies. Mr. Piccioni was previously a Hardware Manager at Eicon Technology, a data communications firm in Quebec. He holds a B.S. in biology from McGill University and an MBA from Concordia University.

TWST: Please provide an overview of your coverage of the alternative energy industry.

Mr. Piccioni: I follow Ballard Power Systems (BLDP). To its credit, Ballard has been re-engineering itself away from being an alternative energy company into being a real company, a reliable company. I think that shows my bias right there. Most alternative energy companies are about recycling taxpayers' money and not really about viable business models or any hope of viable business models.

TWST: How have the problems in the auto industry impacted Ballard and others in the same industry?

Mr. Piccioni: Well, you see there's a perfect case in point. When I picked up coverage of Ballard, every other fuel cell company on the planet was a play on the hydrogen economy. Our Initiation of Coverage Report basically said, "Okay, this whole hydrogen economy thing, it's never going to happen." We demonstrated that issues associated with the physics of hydrogen meant it would never make sense from an environmental or economic or energy self-sufficiency perspective ever to use hydrogen for vehicles. Obviously at the time, the company was not exactly receptive to that idea. But over the ensuing few years, they have since disassociated themselves from the hydrogen economy. At the time their major shareholders were Ford (F) and Daimler-Chrysler (DAI), who were also busy investing in hydrogen economy. And they shaved off that part of their business and sold it to them. They still do some services and sell some products to that former business of theirs, but basically in terms of Ballard's products and everything, it has completely disassociated itself from the auto industry. So this is good, given what's going on in the auto industry. There are two obvious positives from this move: One is the financial predicament, which you would argue is likely to make more adventurous spending a little bit less likely, or at least I would argue that. Of course, I don't really care because there's not going to be a hydrogen economy. And then secondly, most of the focus right now for advanced automotive technology is in battery-powered vehicles or the battery hybrid sort of thing. And even if you believed in the hydrogen economy, that would push it much further into the future and redirect R&D spending dollars.

TWST: Do you consider battery-powered cars an alternative energy?

Mr. Piccioni: Well, not really. People have a very loose understanding of what energy is. I mean, a battery is something you charge with another source of power, it's not an alternative to anything. Now certainly, if you have more advanced battery technologies, then you end up with refinements to auto technology, which have the net effect in principle of reducing or improving fuel economy, which has some parallel objectives. But it is not alternative in any meaningful sense. The other thing is, quite frankly, the difference between what people say and what they do. I had a Volvo a few years ago; it had a 135-hp engine and got pretty good fuel economy for the time. It was very fast for a heavy car as well. Nowadays the same type of car has double the horsepower and similar economy. So people prefer power over economy, otherwise we'd have these hot, 135-hp cars with very fuel-efficient engines. People talk green, but they buy something else. I think it remains to be seen what market acceptance is because people talk a good game when it comes to energy efficiency. But what they actually do with their money is different.

The Wall Street Transcript is a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs and research analysts. This 83 page special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online .

The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse the views of any interviewees nor does it make stock recommendations.

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