Greentech Media: Alt Energy Stocks

Alternative Energy Stocks

Playing The BC Hydro Clean Power Call Today at 6:27 PM

At a time when many people see clouds on the horizon for US wind, one Canadian jurisdiction is moving full-swing ahead with a procurement for renewable power. British Columbia (BC), Canada's westernmost province, announced in June the launch of its Clean Power Call, an initiative aimed at sourcing 5,000 GWh of clean power.

The structure of this process is distinctly Canadian and similar to what has occurred in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. Like a US RPS, the government sets a target for renewable or clean power that the utility meets through procuring the electricity from private developers. The utility initiates a call for tenders and the most competitive projects are retained. Unlike the US, Canadian utilities are generally government-owned, so politicians tend to be more involved in the process than is the case for an RPS-based round of tendering.

Although the Clean Power Call calls for "clean and renewable resources" in general, wind is likely to feature prominently in the final mix of PPAs awarded.

This initiative is interesting for investors because, unlike in the US, the Canadian market features a number of publicly-listed pure-play wind developers, several of which are active in British Columbia. You can think of them as you would junior mining or oil & gas exploration plays: they go around acquiring rights to promising wind areas and if they can't develop the projects on their own, they sell their rights to a bigger player at a nice premium. A number of such firms are currently participating in the BC Clean Power Call, and stand a decent chance of getting a power purchase agreement (PPA) from the provincial utility, BC Hydro. These companies are:

Finavera Renewables (FNVRF.PK) - We've discussed Finavera and its travails in the past. The company is bidding five projects for a total of 300 MW (PDF). Should Finavera be awarded contracts by BC Hydro, this could lift the stock substantially.

EarthFirst Canada Inc (EF.TO) - I'm not sure if a US listing exists for this one, which is unfortunate for people whose brokers don't allow them to trade Canadian stocks because this is one of the cheaper plays on this. The company already holds a PPA for 144 MW of wind in BC, and has a good project portfolio in the province as well as in other parts of Canada. The stock was recently battered by investors following an announcement that development costs for one project had increased substantially, although it rebounded somewhat when the firm announced it had engaged a couple of investment banks to figure out what to do about this (people are speculating the project might be sold, unlocking some near-term shareholder value).

Naikun Wind Energy (NKWFF.PK) - Naikun specializes in developing offshore wind, and the BC coast is thought to have great offshore wind resources. The company is currently bidding 320 MW into the Clean Power Call.

Sea Breeze Power Corp. (SBEZF.PK) - This company is involved in wind and run-of-river hydro. I quickly glanced at the website and could not find anything about the Clean Power Call, although I would be surprised if they were not participating.

In all cases, we're talking about companies without earnings and whose stock price may have experienced a fair bit of volatility over the past few months. The biggest risk these firms face at the moment is the spiraling out of control of capital costs for new wind projects. This is especially acute in certain parts of British Columbia where a boom in gas exploration is pushing up the price of labor. You therefore want to go through the latest financial statements to ascertain what the cash and financing situations look like.

DISCLOSURE: The author is long Finavera Renewables

DISCLAIMER: I am not a registered investment advisor. The information and trades that I provide here are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to buy or sell any of these securities. Investing involves substantial risk and you should evaluate your own risk levels before you make any investment. Past results are not an indication of future performance. Please take the time to read the full disclaimer here.

Alternative Energy Stocks

Why Clean Energy Investors Need to Care About Politics August 26, 2008 at 7:15 AM

Tom Konrad

I believe that investments in clean energy should outperform the market as a whole for two reasons. First, the inability of fossil fuel supplies to keep up with demand will raise prices and improve the environment for alternatives. Second, growing awareness of the seriousness of Climate Change will lead to increased regulation of greenhouse gas pollution, which should benefit clean energy relative to conventional energy.

While I am certain that at some point reality will galvanize public opinion and political action on climate change, the sooner the politicians take action, the better for the planet, and the better for our investments. This is why I and every clean energy/cleantech/greentech investor should care about politics. Unfortunately, Green is still a partisan issue, with the typical Republican (with a few welcome exceptions) opposing the legislation we need, and strongest leaders on this subject being Democrats, with the party as a whole being supportive.

With the Democratic National Convention in my home town of Denver this week, you can expect a series of articles on Clean Energy and Politics. After the break, you will find my take-away from a recent hearing help by Colorado state Republicans on the subject of Energy and the Economy. [Note if you're reading this on the feed or email, you'll have to click through to the site to see the full story]

As I attend several convention-related Cleantech events this week, you can expect several short articles on how politics affects the future of Alternative Energy. And, I hope, vice-versa.

Alternative Energy Stocks

Five Alternative Energy Stocks I’ll Research “One of These Days” August 25, 2008 at 10:23 AM

I have more ideas than I have time to explore them, and it's getting out of hand. I still need to write the promised articles on Evergreen Solar (ESLR) and Lithium Technology Corp (LTHU), but there are many others that have caught my attention over the last six months or so. Since the list keeps getting longer, I thought I'd just give you a taste of some of the companies in my inbox, and why they seem interesting. Since I may or may not ever write articles about any of these, I thought I'd give people the opportunity to evaluate the companies for themselves.

AECOM (NYSE:ACM). Astute readers of my recent Hydropower overview will have noticed I said: "AECOM Technology Corporation (NYSE:ACM) [is] a global provider of professional technical and management support services to a broad range of markets, including transportation, facilities, environmental and energy," and also that the most promising opportunities were in "suppliers of parts and services to hydropower projects." Not only is ACM a prominent provider of services to hydro projects, they also get much of their revenue from, and, as one ACM employee described it to me, energy projects which don't involve burning something. This includes some of my longtime favorite sectors, such as transmission and public transit. So ACM is on my short list. I might have already bought some, if the stock price had not been going up since I discovered the company.
Kaydon (NYSE:KDN). As a wind industry supplier, I've had Kaydon as part of my portfolio for about a year. When the company had disappointing earnings last month due to their non-wind business, my instinct was that it was time to buy more, but I wanted to dig a little deeper to make up my mind. I still have not done that digging.
Power Efficiency Corp (OTC BB:PEFF). This company, which makes software to save energy in industrial motors and such as escalators and rock crushers caught my eye last year by advertising with us for a few months. After an interesting conversation with the CFO, BJ Lackland, I decided to make a small investment. It's a niche technology, yet has the potential to save a tremendous amount of energy even so, and it is already working in the marketplace. If they can get the technology accepted by OEMs, the growth potential (from a tiny base) is enormous, nevertheless, I have not done the deeper digging I require of myself to make a larger investment than I already have.
Orion Energy Systems (NasdaqGM:OESX). Another energy efficiency company that caught my attention a couple months ago, Orion provides a suite of efficient lighting solutions to commercial businesses. Since I expect the sector to boom in coming years, Orion seems well placed to take advantage of utility Demand Side Management programs.
Texas Pacific Land Trust (NYSE:TPL). A reader sent me this suggestion in response to my comment in my Invest in the Pickens Plan article "I'd prefer a REIT with a rural focus, but have been unable to find one." According to the company's profile, they "owned the surface estate in 964,813 acres of land located in 20 counties in the western part of Texas" as well as some oil and gas royalties. West Texas is typically fairly windy, but to really know if this stock would benefit from a rural resurgence driven by massive wind investment, we'd have to know how their lands line up with both wind resources and available transmission capacity... and how management feels about wind... would they sell out as soon as they saw a small price rise due to interest in wind, or would they wait for enhanced economic growth to produce long term superior returns?

DISCLOSURE: Tom Konrad and/or his clients own KDN, PEFF.

DISCLAIMER: The information and trades provided here and in the comments are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to buy or sell any of these securities. Investing involves substantial risk and you should evaluate your own risk levels before you make any investment. Past results are not an indication of future performance. Please take the time to read the full disclaimer here.

Alternative Energy Stocks

The Week In Cleantech (Aug. 17 to Aug. 23) - Do We Need An Energy Revolution Or Evolution? August 23, 2008 at 9:31 AM

The Economist is currently running an interesting poll on whether we can solve our energy problems with existing technologies or whether we will need breakthrough innovations. Add your vote!

On Sunday, Domenick Yoney at AutoBlog Green told us that electric bike sales were soaring world-wide. I'm not sure what's a good play on this, but an interesting trend to note nonetheless.

On Monday, Matthew McDermott at TreeHugger told us about another biofuel feedstock we may not have considered. Earlier this summer, David Pauly at Bloomberg was telling us about yet another such potential feedstock, which apparently is the craze with commodity speculators.

On Tuesday, Jennifer Kho informed us that New Energy Finance was predicting a 43% solar silicon price drop.

On Wednesday, Cleantech.com reported that Nexus India Capital had closed a $220 million fund. India is not as flamboyant a growth story as China, but anyone who's been to Bangalore can attest to the fact that this is country with the ability to be a dominant player on the technology front. Add to this major problems with the nation's power infrastructure, and you can see why this quiet giant might one day be a major player in alt energy technologies.

On Thursday, Reuters informed us that carbon funds were to grow in 2008, albeit at a slower pace because of uncertainty. If there is one sector that's exposed to the whims of politicians in the broad environmental investing space, it is this one. I like emissions trading; my grad work was in the area of market-based policy tools. But the contrarian in me can't help but feel a little uneasy at so much capital flowing into something that's so closely tied to the political mood du jours.

On Friday, TheStreet.com let us know all that we needed to know about wind energy. The Title says it all!

The Week In Cleantech is a collection of our favorite stories from the past week generated by our Cleantech News service. Register your site with us if you want your articles to appear here.

Alternative Energy Stocks

Wind Energy ETFs: A Comparison August 21, 2008 at 4:46 PM

Three weeks ago, I wrote on the year ahead for the US wind sector and said I would analyze the two new wind ETFs now available to US investors: the First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy Index Fund (PWND) and the PowerShares Global Wind Energy Portfolio (FAN).

While I don't currently have a position in either ETF as I expect headwinds in the US (no pun intended) to place downward pressure on some of the global wind stocks in the next few months (the US accounted for 27% of global installed capacity in '07), I still intend to get in post-November elections when things get brighter on the policy side.

While these two ETFs cover the same sector, they offer two distinct options for investors and are therefore worth exploring in more detail.

Basic Valuation Metrics

The table above features a few basic valuation metrics. The expense ratio is what it costs you to invest in the funds, and many active investors shun mutual funds on grounds that high expense ratios eat away at returns. One of the benefits of ETFs is that they offer expense ratios that are lower than those of mutual funds, and this holds true for alternative energy. In this case, the 0.15% difference between the two really isn't material and probably wouldn't weigh very heavily in my decision.

The PE and Price-to-book-value are where things get more interesting from my perspective. Based on these metrics - especially PE - PWND has a higher weighting in stocks that are considered pricey than does FAN. A PE of above 76 is considered very high (the long-term average for the S&P 500 is around 15, and it peaked at around 35 in the late 90s), although it's not unusual in the alternative energy industry. This data is a bit dated so this likely is lower now, albeit it probably remains above the long-term average for the market. Depending on what your position is on growth stocks, this may or may not matter much. If you have a value leaning and believe low-PE stocks outperform in the long run, then this may be a red flag.

With regards to the share price premium over net asset value at yesterday's close, this isn't an especially useful metric on its own, and would probably be more useful if examined as a trend over a longer period of time. Nevertheless, this is something worth keeping an eye on - an ETF trading at an important discount to its NAV could present an interesting buying opportunity, while the opposite could spell downside risk.

Finally, PWND holds 32 securities, whereas FAN holds 67. This implies that PWND's positions are on average larger than FAN's - the average security in PWND makes up 3% of the portfolio, whereas that figure is 1.67% for FAN.

Holdings

FAN's top ten holdings are somewhat more focused on the wind supply chain, whereas PWND has a more exposure to wind park operators. Again, as can be noted, PWND's positions are appreciably more concentrated than FAN's, with the top ten holdings making up about 65% of the portfolio Vs. 57% for FAN. Overall, I expect the supply chain to be less impacted by tightness in credit markets than park operators.

The following two graphs are based on categories I created. While both ETFs disclose their industry exposures on their respective websites (here for PWND and here for FAN), I wanted to dig a bit deeper to know what those exposures really meant in terms of the wind power value chain. I didn't know all of the companies so my superficial search might not have landed everything where it truly belongs, but by-and-large I believe this is a good approximation.

My categories are fairly self-explanatory, save perhaps the distinction between "Park ownership" and "Power gen". "Park ownership" refers to pure-play wind park and/or renewable power generation asset owners, whereas "Power gen" refers to larger electric utilities with exposure to a wide range of generation fuels.

We can note that, by market value of holdings, both funds are mostly focused on turbine makers and wind park owners - no big surprise here. One of the big differences is undoubtedly the fact FAN has three times the exposure to the Power gen sector than PWND does - this probably accounts in part for the PE differences between the two funds. Another notable difference is the comparatively smaller exposure to Blades FAN has relative to PWND, although I don't have an opinion one way or another on this.

Finally, country exposure. You will notice that in neither case does the final count come up to 100 - that's because in both cases only the top ten countries were provided. I'm not sure how much of a difference this makes, seeing as most of the top holdings are global businesses. This breakdown says nothing about the exposure of the underlying businesses to different geographical markets, which is arguably what matters most if you intent to hold the ETF for the medium or long term. Nevertheless, to some, this may be useful info in trying to time an entry point if you have an opinion on where each of these equity markets is headed.

Conclusion

These two ETFs offer distinct choices to investors, although the performance chart above tells a pretty similar story so far (and not a great one at that...). I view the recent downward pressure on the wind sector mostly in positively because I like the space long-term and periodic hiccups provide good entry points.

PWND, with its more concentrated positions and greater focus on pure plays, probably offers a more direct way to play the space. If global wind stocks take off, you will experience greater capital appreciation with this one. However, those rich PEs and concentrated positions might be a red flag for more conservative investors.

FAN offers more diversification, and its larger exposure to the Power gen space might make it a tad less volatile. The top ten holdings have a greater concentration on the supply chain, which I believe will remain strong.

I am leaning towards FAN. I already have exposure to speculative wind in my portfolio, and would look to buying an ETF as a means of reducing my risks on a portfolio basis. I will provide an updated on this after (and if!) I end up pulling the trigger.

DISCLOSURE: The author does have not a position in any of the securities discussed in this article

DISCLAIMER: I am not a registered investment advisor. The information and trades that I provide here are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to buy or sell any of these securities. Investing involves substantial risk and you should evaluate your own risk levels before you make any investment. Past results are not an indication of future performance. Please take the time to read the full disclaimer here.

Alternative Energy Stocks

How to Invest in the Pickens Plan August 19, 2008 at 10:57 PM

A friend recently asked me how to invest in the Pickens Plan. I named a stock (see below).

He then surprised me by saying "You are the fifth person I've asked, and no one else knew how. Several said it could not be done."

You can invest in T. Boone Pickens's plan. Here's how:

The Plan

T. Boone's plan is both simple and audacious.

We will build wind farms all over the Great Plains.
Build the necessary transmission to get that electricity to cities, displacing natural gas used in electricity generation for the use in automobiles.
This will give us an alternative, clean transportation fuel, to replace oil, which has peaked.
It will also cause an economic revival for rural America.

There are investments available for you to profit from all of these steps (so long as they are more successful than is currently expected by the market.) Most of the links below are to articles about how the company fits into the clean energy picture.

1. Wind Farm Investments

To profit from the massive build out of wind farms, look no further than wind turbine manufacturers, and other wind related stocks.

Among individual wind stocks, Zoltek (ZOLT) is currently looking relatively cheap because of a negative analyst report. If you believe T. Boone will pull it off, now is a probably a good buying opportunity.
T. Boone is buying his turbines from a longtime favorite of this blog, General Electric (NYSE:GE).
If you want to play wind without picking particular manufacturers or suppliers, try one of the new wind ETFs, FAN or PWND.
Makers of power conversion devices to turn the the "wild AC" produced by wind turbines into more domesticated power should also benefit.

2. Transmission Investments

We've been pushing transmission investments at this blog for a long time. It's nice to have an oilman hop on our bandwagon. Here are some of our top picks.

Long distance transmission from the Great Plains to coastal cities could be most efficiently accomplished with new high voltage DC (HVDC) lines. Leaders in HVDC are the ABB Group (NYSE:ABB) and Siemens (NYSE:SI).
A more speculative play, Composite Technology Corporation (CPTC.OB), has technology not only for a superior transmission cable, but also for an innovative wind turbine.
Other interesting ways to play transmission are ITC Group (NYSE:ITC) a Midwestern transmission-only utility, and two I highlighted in February, National Grid (NYSE:NGG) and Quanta Services (NYSE:PWR).

3. Natural Gas

The most direct investment in the Plan is natural gas fueling stations. Clean Energy Fuels (NASD:CLNE), operates fueling stations for natural gas fleets, as well as providing fueling stations to the public. T. Boone owns about 37% of the company personally, serves on the board, and founded the predecessor company in 1997. His wife owns another 7%. Although he just recently hit the media with it, T Boone has been thinking about peak oil for a long time. (This is the stock I told my friend about.)

4. Rural Resurgence

Massive wind investment should be good for real estate values in rural towns in windy areas, mainly the great plains. You don't have to buy the land that the wind farm is on to benefit; the economic revival should help land values in towns nearby, too. The workers have to live, eat, shop, and sleep somewhere, and county tax rolls will benefit, leading to improved public services.
Another way to play the same trend would be to invest in a Midwestern REIT, such as Investors Real Estate Trust (NASD:IRET). While this should profit by an improving Midwestern economy, I'd prefer a REIT with a rural focus, but have been unable to find one.

Quibbles

Insulation. Pickens dismisses insulating homes as "too slow." I'd guess his real problem is that he has no way to profit from insulation on a large scale, so he's not going to waste his money and time promoting it. But you can profit from insulating homes, which not only will save natural gas used in heating, but is usually an excellent investment for the homeowner. About 21% of US natural gas is goes to residential uses, nearly as much as is used in electricity generation. To invest in insulating homes, Owens Corning (NYSE:OC) is a good bet. Another home efficiency improvement is a ground source heat pump. Waterfurnace Renewable Energy (WFFIF.PK) sells extremely efficient ground source heat pumps, which can displace gas used for heating with a smaller amount of electricity from wind.
Intermittancy. Pickens oversimplifies when he says we can simply slot in 22% of electricity from wind power and displace electricity from gas. At the current low penetrations, wind will mostly displace natural gas, but without other sources of dispatchable power, such as Concentrating Solar Power (CSP), and/or much improved smart grid infrastructure, wind will begin to displace baseload generation such as coal (or the wind generation will be curtailed.) Displacing coal is a good thing, not a bad thing, but Pickens is most likely not talking about it because it would muddy his message. The improved transmission called for in the plan will help, but in no case can wind simply displace natural gas one for one on our electric grid. It's like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. You either have to trim down the peg (wind curtailment) or make the hole square using demand response and other smart grid technologies.
Water. Some environmentalists have been protesting the whole plan as a shell game to win permission for a water pipeline, to bring water pumped from an ancient aquifer to thirsty Texas cities. While pumping water from an ancient aquifer is not a good idea, opponents are too simplistic. First, no account is given to the water which would otherwise be used in electricity generation without the wind farm. Second, the water will likely be pumped with wind power when electricity prices on the grid are low. This will even out the net output of the wind farm, and displace less clean electricity which would otherwise be used to pump or purify water elsewhere. Finally, if the giant wind and transmission project is really just a quid pro quo to get us to accept the pipeline, he's essentially offering us a $10 billion plus wind power quid so that we'll ignore the $1.5 billion water pipeline (and the powers of immanent domain which are necessary to put the necessary transmission in place) quo. It sounds like a good deal to me.

DISCLOSURE: Tom Konrad and/or his clients own ZOLT, GE, ABB, SI, CPTC, ITC, NGG, PWR, CLNE, OC, WFIFF, .

DISCLAIMER: The information and trades provided here and in the comments are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to buy or sell any of these securities. Investing involves substantial risk and you should evaluate your own risk levels before you make any investment. Past results are not an indication of future performance. Please take the time to read the full disclaimer here.

Alternative Energy Stocks

Three Years After Katrina and Rita, New Orleans’ Grassroots Effort Brightens Environment, Community August 19, 2008 at 2:51 PM

The following is a Special Information Supplement by our Featured Company Green Light New Orleans.

Fundamental Concerns of Some Local Residents Addressed by Non-Profit

New Orleans, Louisiana - Green Light New Orleans, an energy efficiency program, is still helping to rebuild New Orleans. Equal parts environmental and social aid, the non-profit's solution to mitigate carbon emissions while helping low-income residents has demonstrated once again that simple ideas can result in remarkable impact. Green Light New Orleans sends volunteers to area homes to install free compact fluorescent light bulbs, educate homeowners on the energy saving and environmental advantages of CFLs, and discuss the importance of recycling used bulbs and take other energy efficient measures in their homes.

Executive Director and Founder, Andreas Hoffmann, started the program in response to the 2005 storm. A Swiss-born roots rock musician, Hoffmann’s idea began in his own home, expanded to his band’s tour, and has since become one of New Orleans’ most effective energy-efficiency programs.

“After Katrina I had to do something to help the city of New Orleans and it had to be connected to the cause of the storm: global climate change. When I returned to New Orleans I changed the light bulbs in my home and after experiencing the reduction on my energy bill first hand, I decided to use CFLs as a means to offset the tour pollution of my band. After we installed a few thousand CFLs to meet the tour goal, I quickly realized that there was a need for this kind of energy efficiency program, and founded Green Light New Orleans in October 2006,” said Hoffmann.

The simple premise has net unmistakable results. In two years, the organization has installed 120,000 CFL light bulbs in New Orleans, enough to offset nearly 60 million pounds of carbon. The estimated 5 to 8 year savings is approximately $5.5 million for the city's residents; an average household will save about $1400 in energy costs during the period. What's more, Green Light New Orleans’ growth has been monumental. Over 3,000 households are currently on the organization's waiting list for installation. This means that the organization currently has as many households waiting for immediate installation as it has completed throughout its entire history. The installation is free of charge to every resident.

Perhaps what makes Green Light New Orleans most effective is its unique organization. Led by Hoffmann, three staff members organize packs of volunteers that descend on the non-profit's base every week. Operating out of a brightly painted, shotgun-style row house close to Tulane University, Green Light New Orleans plans and prepares seemingly impossible logistics as routine: small windows of time in which residents will be home to receive volunteers; the appropriate quantity, size, and wattage of light bulb for each household; directions; maps; confirmations; names; and safety assessments. The three staff train and pair teams of volunteers with households while teaching them about the environmental and economic impact of the program.

To date, over 1,600 volunteers have worked with Green Light New Orleans. Many volunteers are attracted to the program because of its unique combination of environmental and social agendas. The intimacy of working directly with homeowners – most affected in one way or another by the hurricanes – coupled with the opportunity to discuss climate change and energy costs with the immediacy of offering a solution is powerful.

“The people we met and helped out were amazing. They were so friendly and excited about what was going on that it made it very enjoyable and worthwhile to change their light bulbs. Today we got to make a difference for people economically and environmentally. That alone is spectacular,” said a volunteer from Succasunna, New Jersey.

Green Light New Orleans receives thirty or more applications for the program each day. Residents not only save money on their energy bills, but they also realize that there are several simple steps that can be taken to reduce energy usage and mitigate global warming. In a follow up survey conducted in June 2008, 57% of Green Light New Orleans program participants reported that Green Light’s service encouraged them to take other energy efficiency measures and almost all of the participants claimed that they are prepared to purchase CFLs when their current ones burn out.

“I am elderly and just got back into my home after hurricane Katrina. I am on a fixed income and I would really appreciate all the help that your organization can give with energy efficient light bulbs and in return it would lower my light bill,” described one resident in her application to Green Light New Orleans.

About one-third of the funding for Green Light New Orleans is through a carbon trading agreement with EcoSecurities, the largest carbon trader in the United States. Green Light New Orleans sells the carbon reduction generated by installing CFLs to EcoSecurities in order to offset pollution in other areas of the world. The rest of the program is funded by corporate sponsors such as Entergy New Orleans and Coca-Cola, as well as private donations.

“We support Green Light New Orleans in their efforts to mitigate climate change at a grassroots, community level,” said James Heath, Head of U.S. Origination for EcoSecurities. “Citizens of New Orleans have experienced firsthand the effects of climate change and it is important to incorporate forward-thinking, energy efficiency measures in the rebuilding efforts. We are excited to be part of this partnership, and hope it will serve as a model for future projects.”

The model for Green Light New Orleans has proven such a success that it has begun to expand to other communities. Hoffmann estimates that Green Light New Orleans will install over 3 million CFL light bulbs over the next 5 years. Should that goal be met, Hoffmann's simple idea of changing light bulbs will result in the reduction of a whopping one billion 422 million pounds (1,422,000,000) of carbon from the earth's atmosphere.

About Green Light New Orleans:

By helping households make the switch from incandescent light bulbs to energy efficient CFLs, Green Light New Orleans helps residents reduce their household energy consumption, save money on their energy bills, and encourages individuals to rebuild in a more affordable and environmentally conscious way. Green Light New Orleans focuses on changing awareness as they change bulbs, planting a seed that teaches participants that small changes can make a difference in combating the effects of global warming and rebuilding in a more efficient and sustainable manner.

For more information please contact executive director Andreas Hoffmann or Lauren Tucker at 504.324.2429 or andreashoffmann@greenlightneworleans.org

WWW.GREENLIGHTNEWORLEANS.ORG