OT: Speaking of energy I just bought some CNX, Consol Energy. I bought it as an Alternative to Natural Gas. Good Old Coal! Anyway I do own BLDP and PLUG. They have not been good investments for me. Good Luck
How about a highly speculative one that has it's hands in alternative energy like fuel cell and solar energy, also it's a Nano Tech stock. Like I said very speculative. ALTI which is currently 2.65
Like I said, for the specifics you gotta do research. As for the supply, I think it is just that the interest in solar power has not been significant.
If you're interested in investing in wind turbines then you should read through the following links. In summary, wind turbines seem to be great investments, better than solar panels. The ROI is supposedly had after "6 to 15 years." After ROI one then generates free electricity, and sells any excess to an electrical company. A home system cost is in the range of $3-5,000. The cost depends on the size and installation. http://www.energy.ca.gov/renewables/marketing/2002-04-26_WIND_GUIDE.PDF http://windeis.anl.gov/guide/basics/index.cfm http://shop.altenergystore.com/index.asp?CartId=9356668YW-EVEREST-RDX876&FCat=1&FSCat=+++++++4
The preferred source for solar cells is wafers that failed the QC from the semiconductor industry. Once demand exceeds that supply, you have to use non-rejected wafers, which are considerably more expensive. I saw an article a couple of months ago in EE Times about an European company (Siemens? ST?) that was doing research on cheap photovoltaics. They had found some materials that were about 1/2 as efficient as silicon, but only cost 1/10 as much, reducing your cost by about 80%, and pushing the electricity cost below the cost of fossil fuels. I think that in the not too distant future, solar power will be cheaper than other sources and net-metering systems will become much more common.