Savings Experiment: Snow Removal
The Money Man Behind Rick Santorum: Who Is Foster S. Friess?Solar energy presents two challenges. The first is to gather energy from sunlight. The other is to store it for future use. United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) believes that it has found a solution for the second problem.
According to The Wall Street Journal, UTX unit "Hamilton Sundstrand is scheduled to announce that it has teamed with US Renewables Group to commercialize a new type of solar-power plant that will use molten salt to store the sun's heat."
Solar power stocks were among the biggest winners on Wall Street in 2007. As an example, shares in SunTech Power (NYSE: STP) moved from a 52-week low of $31.41 to close the year at $82.32. As long as the price of crude stays high, solar power shares are likely to do the same.
The United Technologies announcement is a sign that sun-driven alternative energy is entering the big time. The company had almost $14 billion in revenue last quarter, but some of its businesses like cooling and elevators are likely to face slower growth.
What better idea for UTX than to use some of its huge resources to get into one of the fastest growing industries in the world.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-03-2008 @ 12:52PM
Steve in Denver said...
I've been a builder for over 30 years and have tried some of the "alternative energy" gizmos over the years. The biggest drawback to them is getting buyers to pay for them. Geothermal heat is the big fad right now and buyers love the idea of saving money on their utilities, but when you tell them it adds around $30 to $60 grand to the price of a home, they don't balk, they run!!! I'm sure UTX and the rest of the crowd jumping onto this edition of the "alternative energy" bandwagon will improve the quality from what has been offerd in the past, but it's going to be very difficult to overcome sticker shock from consumers.