Who’s The Next Google? Meet 8 Contenders (4 Public, 4 Private Firms) 2nd Two: Composite Tech. & A123
Submitted by EnergyTechStocks.com
In search of that one investment that will make you filthy rich? EnergyTechStocks doesn’t have a crystal ball. But it spends a lot of time studying how the biggest industry in the world - energy - is undergoing profound changes that will make this planet very different within 5 to 10 years. We hold that hundreds of companies may make money for investors and that a handful - some public, some still private - have the look of a contender for the title “The Next Google.” We’ve picked out eight (an arbitrary number), continuing with:
Composite Technology Corp., a California-based firm that trades on NASDAQ, and A123 Systems Inc., a private Massachusetts-based company.
At first glance, Composite Technology looks like a long shot to wear the crown “The Next Google.” The company has two main businesses. It manufactures wind turbines and it makes a highly efficient electric power transmission line. Whatever buzz Composite currently enjoys is courtesy of its wind unit in the wake of T. Boone Pickens’ recent call to action. But while Composite’s patented power line is unknown even to most U.S. electric utilities, a day of reckoning is coming, a day when the dilapidated electric utility grids of the United States and other industrialized nations will have to be replaced. When that day comes, expect environmentalists to fight to the death against expanding a grid’s existing rights-of-way. With demand for electricity expected to grow sharply, the next generation of power transmission lines will have to be far more efficient.
Enter Composite Technology. Its patented transmission line uses an aluminum conductor composite core (ACCC) that conducts far better than standard copper cores. China, which is still installing its national power grid, is using the company’s ACCC lines, as are other still-developing countries. Eventually, they could become the global standard. (For more see 20 to Watch in 2008 (#8) – Composite Technology Could Start Stringing Its Efficient Power Lines around the Globe.)
A123 is just the opposite of Composite Technology. It appears to have “winner” written all over it. Many say the company will have biggest initial public offering (IPO) of any energy technology company. (An IPO is rumored for this fall but there’s been no announcement.)
A123 is a - perhaps the - leading developer of lithium-ion batteries for the coming generation of electric vehicles expected to be at the heart of the world’s battle to break its oil addiction. (Its main competition should come from joint ventures among Japan’s auto giants.) A123 is expected to be a key supplier to one of the three or four automakers likely to be the global leaders in electric vehicles, General Motors. (The others are expected to be Toyota, Nissan and maybe Mitsubishi.) A big and still under-recognized strength of A123 is that it has a division that retrofits existing internal combustion vehicles, converting them into plug-in electric vehicles. Thus when new plug-ins hit dealer showrooms starting in 2009 and 2010, A123 should be in position to benefit from people who may want to convert their still nearly-new cars in order to take advantage of electricity that probably will cost roughly the equivalent of $1 per gallon of gasoline.
As if that wasn’t enough reason for optimism, A123’s lithium-ion batteries also are expected to make a big splash in the world of consumer electronics, where demand for powerful long-lasting batteries just keeps growing. (For more see Battery Developers A123, Altair, Compact, EEStor Get New Report Card Grades - Part 1 of 3.)
