quotedcleantech

Cleantech indices around the world underwent more sharp falls during February. The poor investor sentiment toward solar shares which began with January’s shock news that Germany would reduce its feed-in tariff for solar electricity by more than expected seems to have extended into February. This is evidenced by the fact that both the Ardour Solar Energy Index (down 11.8%) and Germany’s solar-heavy ÖkoDAX (down 12.2%) suffered the most out of the eight cleantech indices that we track.

European stocks underperform their US counterparts

February proved to be another tough month for cleantech firms, particularly among those exposed to the European solar sector – where fallout from January’s decision by Germany to reduce its feed-in tariff for solar electricity appears to be continuing.

The failure of the Copenhagen COP-15 to reach a binding agreement on emission reduction targets weighed on sentiment for the cleantech sector in January.

Last month’s decision by Germany to reduce its feed-in tariff for solar electricity by another 15% hit solar stocks hard. Many solar share prices started January well, but, as analysts had been expecting the German reduction to be no more than 10%, the news led to the shares of most solar companies ending the month down.In Germany, solar cell and module suppliers Phoenix Solar, Q-Cells, SolarWorld and Solon, saw their respective share prices fall by between 13.5% and 21.2% during January. Shares in Centrotherm and Roth & Rau, makers of solar cell production equipment, also dipped during the month.