Thursday, April 14, 2011

Geothermal Looking Good In 2011 (Maybe)

Industries always tout their health, but I pay attention to touting in an industry I like.  The Geothermal Energy Association released its annual report featuring greenfield development in the Western U.S.  It's hard to find a good way to invest in geothermal players.  They're either big but underperfoming like Ormat Technologies (ORA) or small and risky like U.S. Geothermal (HTM) and Nevada Geothermal Power (NGLPF.OB).  The sector bears watching but something extraordinary will have to happen to give it powerful growth.  Black swans like a sharp rise in prices for coal or natural gas would make other baseload energy sources look great. 

Full disclosure:  No positions in companies mentioned above.