quotedcleantech

Solar investors suffer

Share prices in the cleantech sector have suffered in line with global stockmarkets. The solar sector has been especially hard hit, with the collapse of privately owned Solyndra in the US hitting sentiment in the sector.

We’ve added two new indices this quarter, the NASDAQ OMX Clean Edge Global Wind Energy Index and the Nasdaq OMX Clean Edge Smart Grid Infrastructure Index. These two were the top performers over the first half of 2011 - with the Smart Grid Infrastructure Index ranking as the only index on the list to have chalked up a gain over the six month period (of 3.6%). It was also the best performer over the second quarter of the year - despite losing 6.3%. The index includes stocks such as General Electric, Siemens and utilities such as National Grid PLC and General Cable, which contributed to a less volatile performance than some of the indices with a heavy bias towards younger renewable energy companies. 

The first quarter of 2011 saw many cleantech shares put on double-digit percentage gains. The best performances occurred in March, amid political concerns about the future for nuclear energy after the Fukushima plant accident in Japan and the high oil price resulting, in part, from the unrest in the Middle East.