Wind energy stocks have had the breeze at their back recently and China Ming Yang Wind Power (MY) has benefited from a resurgence in the sector.  The company also announced some good news yesterday in the form of an EPC contract for two wind farms with a total capacity of 125MW in Bulgaria.  The deal was actually inked back in December but the announcement wasn’t made until yesterday.  The first batch of wind turbines were shipped out on Feb 6th.  The deal is expected to provide further opportunities for the company in E. Europe.

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The first pilot project of 4.5MW is expected to be completed and commissioned in Somovit by mid summer while the larger 120MW portion is expected to commence in the 2nd half of the year.

“This represents a significant milestone of Ming Yang’s overseas market development, marking an important step in extending our footprint in mainstream European markets,” said Mr. Chuanwei Zhang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ming Yang. “Our strategic partnership with W. Power is a strong endorsement of our capabilities and innovative business models for overseas markets, which are designed to provide total EPC solutions by combining equipment, technology, capital and financing support.

As mentioned above Ming Yang is looking much better technically in recent months with a high volume surge above resistance of the 50 day moving average in mid January followed by an orderly digestion of gains in recent weeks.  Look for a breakout from this recent consolidation as another entry point for a trade.

PowerSecure (POWR) has announced this morning $15 million in new LED lighting orders from three major retailers which include reach in case lights, walk in freezer/cooler lights as well as shelf and canopy led lighting.  The retailers expect to improve lighting quality while seeing a 70% reduction in energy usage.  The PowerSecure brand of LED lighting is specifically engineered with retailers in mind to improve the customer experience.

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“We are excited to announce these new orders to serve three major retail chains with our LED lighting products. Our lighting technology is designed to deliver exactly what our customers want – lights that make their product displays “pop”

Shares of POWR aren’t moving on the news as the deal only represents about 15% of a quarter’s revenue, but this deal could lead to more orders from the retailers down the road so shouldn’t be overlooked.  Technically, the stock is much improved and has been trading above resistance of both the 50 and 200 day moving averages for several days.  It’s up over 20% since I called the shares “bullish in the short term” Jan 5th.

GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) reported good earnings results yesterday, beating analyst estimates.  The company reported an EPS of .12/share on revenues of $153 million vs the expectations for .08/share on revenues of $146 million.  However, it’s still well below the year ago quarter when the company posted $263 million in revenue as the solar market continues to struggle.  There are some positive signs though particularly with the surge in demand in Germany which has helped push the solar stocks up in recent weeks.

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CEO Gutierrez commented on the quarter:

“We saw continued success in our polysilicon business, including our first ever reactor booking with an incumbent manufacturer. This helped drive a positive book-to-bill ratio and strengthened our overall backlog to $2.2 billion at quarter’s end.  Our reactors and supporting technologies continue to be validated as the industry’s most technologically-advanced and efficient solutions for building viable polysilicon production facilities.

“In our sapphire business, we completed installation, received acceptance and recorded revenue on a significant number of sapphire furnaces. We continue to believe that our ASF™ solution offers the most viable path to low-cost, high-quality sapphire production.  In PV, while we saw some pockets of improvement, on balance we continue to believe a broad-based turnaround is unlikely in the near to mid-term. With less than 10 percent of our current backlog coming from PV, our current exposure in this space is limited. Longer term, as the PV industry’s well-financed technology leader, we are well positioned to drive our customers’ critical move to higher efficiency and lower cost products with our DSS™450 MonoCast™ and HiCz™ products.

Looking ahead, guidance remains largely intact.  While the company is taking down top line guidance for its EPS number from $1.45 – $1.65 to $1.45 – $1.60 due to a higher tax rate, the revenue target remains unchanged at $950 million to $1.05 billion.  For fiscal 2013 which begins April 1st, the company sees modest growth over 2012.

Technically, shares of GTAT continue to round out a bottom and I believe a long term bottom is in at the $6.40 level.  It may take some time for this bottom to complete but the trend is clearly up.  The stock looks primed for a test of the next major level of resistance around the $10.50 level.

Zoltek (ZOLT) has been one of the best green stock performers in recent months nearly doubling in price and it’s going to pop again tomorrow as the company reported a big surge in profit.  The company posted a profit of .28/share on revenues of $47 million vs the analyst estimates for .05 in EPS on revenues of $46 million.  That’s a huge improvement over the year ago quarter when the company posted a loss of .05 share on revenue of just $33 million.  The CEO said the wind turbine business represents its biggest growth potential and continues to improve.  He expects the large wind turbine segment to increase 15 – 25% per year for the next decade.  Back in February CEO Rumy declared that growth is coming and the stock surged for a few days.  However, it didn’t take long for the stock to take another big nosedive.  If indeed, the wind energy industry is entering a sustained growth phase shares look enticing at current levels.  This is great news for an industry that has really struggled.

==> Click Here For Your FREE Daily Zoltek Analysis

“We are pleased to report strong gains on both the top and bottom lines in the first quarter and continuation of the momentum we experienced in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011,” said Zsolt Rumy, Zoltek’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.  ”Our performance resulted from several internal and external factors. Our net revenues were up almost a third, despite the drag on our reported sales from the decline in the value of the Euro during the quarter, reflecting our expanded customer base in the wind energy business and increased sales of composite intermediate products. Our margins were positively impacted by a more profitable product mix, higher utilization of our production capacity, better operational performance, lower raw material costs and the decline in the values of the Hungarian Forint and Mexican Peso. We believe our first quarter results evidence that our carbon fiber business is on a path to increase significantly this year.”

Technically, the stock looks outstanding and you can’t say that for many green stocks these days.  ZOLT should move to the top of most green stock watchlists based on the technical improvement and the results last quarter.  The stock pushed above the 200 day moving average today with heavy volume and it’s up another 9% in after hours trading.  While extended in the short term, any pull backs represent a nice opportunity for an entry.

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