Alternative Energy

Natalie Pace, author of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is, is adding a splash of green to Wall Street and transforming lives on Main Street.

It’s amazing, but the shortest T-bills are now paying zero interest. Yesterday, the Treasury sold $30 billion in 4-week bills at zero interest. Even more amazing, in trading after the auction, interest rates on some of the bills went negative. It actually cost money to own them.  As one money-market mutual fund president said, "Down slightly is the new up."

SunOpta: Turning Green into Gold; The Starting Point for Investors in Small Cap Companies

The concept of non-polluting fuel cells powering our cars and trucks seemed too good to be true when it first exploded on the scene nearly two decades ago. Investors in one of the leading hydrogen-cell developers, Ballard Power Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BLDP, TSX: BLD) might be left wondering if commercializing the technology is just a lot of hot air.

Incorporating its proprietary continuous carbonization process, Zoltek Companies (Nasdaq: ZOLT) develops and manufactures carbon fibers, high strength, high stiffness synthetic fibers that reinforce and improve the performance of composites used as the primary building materials in every day commercial products.

China's biodiesel industry boom could be a boon for investors as the country steps up development of the green fuel to meet its pressing energy needs. But, as with many apparent opportunities in China, prudence is the order of the day as the sector goes through its growing pains.

In the second and final part of our series on Green Investing we take a look at exciting new developments on the corporate front, in which businesses and organizations ? profit and non-profit ? are jumping into the fray, not only with their voiced support, but also with their pocketbooks.

Clean energy is now ranked as the fastest growing sector in private funding and the third largest VC investment category, accounting for some 13% of invested capital.

The cleantech/alternative energy markets have been plagued by alternating euphoria and uncertainty. We look at a company in that space - Sunpower (Nasdaq: SPWR). Also, DC Money Show musings and Wi-Fi might be coming to Washington's Metro system.

In this issue we continue our series on investing in India with a look at three companies that are capitalizing on outsourcing. Also, we take a look at some solar energy stocks.