Submitted by EnergyTechStocks.com

It is only the end of the first year of what promises to be a decade-long revolution in how energy is produced and consumed and investors’ radar screens are already brightly lit with dozens, if not hundreds, of companies that appear to have a chance to hit it big. Which are the contenders, not merely the pretenders? Introducing five firms that look like they are poised to hit it big.

Contender #2 – GMZ Energy, a year-old Massachusetts-based company that has developed a thermoelectric material capable of inexpensively capturing waste heat and converting it back into electricity.

It’s still early days for GMZ, but the potential is there for GMZ’s material to be used across a galaxy of power-consuming products, most notably hybrid electric vehicles. Indeed, it isn’t hard to imagine GMZ becoming not just an economically, but also a politically important ally of the automotive industry, the combination making GMZ a very valuable company.

GMZ expects that its material will be able to capture the waste heat a vehicle spews out its tailpipe and convert it back into electricity that serves to fuel the vehicle, thereby appreciably raising the fuel efficiency of that vehicle. As car manufacturers increasingly turn out hybrid models in response to government demands for higher vehicle efficiency, GMZ’s material could help them turn the political tide against further regulation, providing the sort of technological solution that President Bush, among other anti-regulators, believes will eventually solve the global energy crisis.

It’s a tall order for GMZ, but the company’s bloodlines are exceptional. Technological development is being guided by a professor of mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Financial support is coming from savvy clean-tech venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.