Public Utility Demand For Alternative And Clean Energy Driven By Regulatory Controls In California Declares Industry Expert Research Analyst

• On 3:56 pm EDT, Friday October 16, 2009

67 WALL STREET, New York - October 14, 2009 - The Wall Street Transcript has recently 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 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 (T); 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 25 interviews in the 98 page report, Clean Energy research analyst Bryce Dille discusses the outlook for the sector and for investors.

Bryce Dille is a Research Analyst at JMP Securities, where he covers clean technology and alternative energy companies. Prior to joining JMP, he spent nearly three years at Encompass Fund, serving as a buy-side Research Analyst focused on oil and gas, mining, industrial technology and emerging energy technologies. Mr. Dille previously served as an Assistant Portfolio Manager at Mellon Financial. He has also worked as a chemist at EIC Laboratories in Massachusetts on polymer chemistry, lithium battery technology and photovoltaic solar technology for Department of Energy-funded and Department of Defense-funded projects. Mr. Dille holds a B.A. from Carleton College in Minnesota.

TWST: Moving to the electricity distribution sector, what impact will California's demand response programs have on the space?

Mr. Dille: I think with the California Public Utility Commission setting forth a budget for demand response, which basically puts through a $350 million budget for the three utilities, or the three major utilities in California, and puts together a three-year plan, which is 2009, 2010, 2011, which is pretty material in my mind. Because I think many people, whether they are on the supply side or the demand side of the electricity equation, look to California as sort of a leading-edge marketplace. Over the past several years, in my opinion, California has been sort of lax on establishing what their outlook for the demand response market looks like by both approving and then not approving certain demand response contracts that were set up by the utilities. I think this recent passage or this recent case put through merely sets the stage for how material the demand response market can look like in California.

TWST: What other geographic markets look good for companies in this electricity sector?

Mr. Dille: I think California may not be the leader today, but it's a pretty material market for demand response. I really look to the PJM Interconnection as the market leader for demand response at this time. Other markets that I would probably consider would be Ontario Power Authority, the Texas or ERCOT market, because as more wind is integrated to the electricity grid there, they will need more tunable electricity infrastructure to support the intermittency of the renewable electricity. I would still continue to look to ISO New England and ISO New York - these being other material markets.

TWST: What is the competitive landscape like in this space?

Mr. Dille: Right now the competitive landscape includes certain utilities that provide demand response services in their territory. There are independent third-party administrators or third-party demand response aggregators that participate in the marketplace, and they are public companies such as EnerNOC, Comverge and EnergyConnect (ECNG.OB). And then there is a basket of private companies that are participating at this time, and they are largely second-tier demand response aggregators.

TWST: Do you expect to see any consolidation in the midterm?

Mr. Dille: Yes, I believe consolidation is probably right around the corner for demand response, but also in regard to companies that provide services to commercial and industrial buildings, especially for commissioning of "smart buildings." One reason for this likely consolidation is that it is an emerging market where a fair amount of the market opportunity is being controlled by either geographically centered or sort of a mom-and-pop-size companies, where the bigger players may want to move into the space as rapidly as possible. Additionally, I think just because of the attractive economics, where some of the efficiency providers mimic the software as a service model, and due to the lower or shorter-term ROI on these projects versus multiple-year-type ROI investments, I think there could be consolidation in the space both from the utility side, where the utilities will want to kind of steepen their learning curve for either smart grid-type applications or energy efficiency-type applications, or we'll see networking companies or hardware companies, let's say the larger technology IT companies, trying to enter the cleantech space and acquire them in order to establish a footprint in the utility marketplace.

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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