Plug Power Fuel Cells to be used for police backup . . .power units.

No question, this is a high profile sale for Plug Power. The fuel cell industry has noticed that the pockets of government are deep (see here for news of multi-million dollar grant awarded by the US Dept of Energy and the European Commission a couple of weeks ago) and so emergency services communications may turn out to be the emerging niche market for backup power from fuel cells.

The advantage of a fuel cell for backup power is that it is 99.9999% reliable whereas a typical diesel generator is 99.98% reliable. This is known as 6 nines reliability. The police contract comes two weeks after the appointment of a new CFO for PlugPower.   http://www.altenergyinvestor.org/2006/12/re_2.html
Why Alt Energy Pessimists Are Wrong

The main reason why clean tech and alt energy bashers are dead wrong is that, for this asset class, the past is no indication of the future. Anyone who bothers to read the news on a daily basis knows that a big trend is afoot, and that this trend will only intensify in the years ahead. Natural resources and ecological services such as clean air are getting scarcer, and this scarcity will soon prove more of a break on economic growth and societal development than any other set of constraints we face.

Let’s forget about peak oil – let’s just say that it’s too contentious a concept and let’s leave it out for now. Think about the looming global water shortage, air pollution in Chinese cities, climate change, loss of forest cover in many parts of the world, and the decline in global fish stocks, to name a few.

Think also of non-environmental trends impacting demand for alt energy, and ask yourself whether you see these trends softening or hardening in the years ahead. Think of terrorism and the impact that it has had and will continue to have on the geopolitics of energy. Any signs of this ameliorating? Think of the emergence of India and China and of their effect on commodity prices.

You would have to be a heck of an optimist to believe that alt energy and clean tech companies won’t ever make you a dime. Demand for the solutions they offer will only grow moving forward because: (a) the problems enumerated above will have to be solved sooner rather than later and (b) people are not, overall, in favor of giving up economic growth and setting the clock back on 4 centuries of economic and social development. Most realistic folks out there are buying the clean tech argument because it’s grounded in common sense. But that certainly doesn’t mean you should be careless with your money!   http://www.altenergystocks.com/archives/2006/12/ending_2006_on_a_cautionary_note_but_looking_forward_to_a_great_2007.html This article just underscores how urgent it is that the West develop
alternative energy sources and become at least mostly energy
independent. We need to see this issue as perhaps THE central homeland
security issue.  If the U.S. weren't so dependent upon oil--which
mostly comes from elsewhere--think how different our recent history
might have been.  We wouldn't have had to suck up to the Saudis, whose
nationals constituted the vast majority of the 911 suicide bombers, and
we wouldn't have had to care about Iraq, or go to war there either
time.  We could have a balanced budget, and we wouldn't have to leak
money through our national sieve, er, treasury.
In his last State of the Union message (2005) Bush actually acted as if
he was serious about developing hydrogen.  Many companies entered this
market, or accelerated their development in anticipation of a real
program.  Bush hasn't achieved the vision he talked about, but some
innovative small companies, such as Ecotality, have achieved important
milestones, such as building a hydrogen-on-demand device, with a little
help from JPL.  (See www.ecotality.com for more info.)


But I can't help but wonder what it is about the human psyche that
makes it so much easier to get people mobilized and together for a war
than it does to mobilize them for something that would not only achieve
unprecedented economic and environmental good, but would alleviate the
need to go to war over the resource that runs our world now.  Why can't
we do that?  Then we wouldn't have to keep going back to hellholes like
Iraq every generation, wasting all that young blood on the desert sands

Fuel cells, consuming hydrogen, created from electrolysis of water, will certainly be the fuel of the future. The question is whether the eco fools in the United States will protest hydrogen's creation from electrical energy from nuclear reactors. It is highly unlikely that sufficient solar panels, wind generators, etc will be available to meet our transportation energy demands. Idiots like Al Gore will certainly shoot their mouth's off on this subject. Are we as a nation sufficiently astute to weed out his bullshit?

mine pick is ONT which in on2.com it's been used by flash8 wich is owned by ADBE. i think it's next AKAM,
i own 5k shares

check out EVCC and let us know what you think.

I think FNF is worthy of the pick. Most would see it as just mainly a mortgage title company, but since FNT became FNF the possibilities are endless. They have good cash, strong growth and a fat dividend.

The con to this stock for 07 could be the close ties to the housing market, though. That may keep the price low. But, I still believe the current price is the low for this stock.