Introducing EnergyTechStocks’ ‘Wise Energy’ Stock Index (Part 3 of 5) - Itron, Energy Recovery, Woodward, EnerNOC, Echelon
Submitted by EnergyTechStocks.com
Try as you might, you won’t find an exchange-traded or mutual fund that targets “smart energy” companies whose technologies and processes serve to reduce energy costs. And yet, in the wake of the Wall Street meltdown, every company and household can be expected to put a higher priority on saving money by saving energy. So we’ve created “The EnergyTechStocks.com Wise Energy Use Index.” We haven’t run it through a whole bunch of financial filters, so think of this as an informal index, your starting point for creating your own “wise energy use” stock portfolio, continuing with:
Five companies directly involved in reducing the demand for energy: Itron Inc., Echelon Corp., Woodward Governor, EnerNOC and Energy Recovery.
Both Itron and Echelon make so-called “smart” meters that enable consumers to better measure their energy consumption and to lower their costs by programming in changes. From Toronto to California, governments are piloting smart meters from Itron and Echelon as the first stage in making the electric grid “smart,” a process expected to take many years but which eventually could cut electricity usage as much as 50% in a developed countries such as the U.S. and Canada.
Woodward Governor is an altogether different “demand reduction” company. Its equipment reduces the energy consumption of airplanes, industrial manufacturing equipment, and the actual equipment that generates electricity. The company’s diverse product mix has been described as an energy control systems portfolio.
Other than being in the energy-saving, money-saving business, EnerNOC and Energy Recovery have nothing to do with Woodward Governor, nor with one another. However, each has a business model that seems primed for prosperity.
EnerNOC saves utilities the cost of having to generate additional power on hot summer days when demand peaks from all those air conditioners. The company does so by saving the customers of those utilities money by paying them to turn off their nonessential power-consuming equipment, thereby freeing up power for the utilities to use.
Energy Recovery may be the closest thing to a sleeper on our list. Its business is providing power to water desalination plants. Experts say Energy Recovery’s equipment provides significant cost savings over its competitors, making desalination more affordable at a time when lack of clean water is vexing billions of people.
