A Green Business Investing Conference (ASTI, DSTI, HEV, LDK, RSOL, STP, VLNC, VRNM)

A conference on clean and green technology sponsored by ThinkEquity LLC opened yesterday in San Francisco. It is billed as a gathering for industry executives, investors, influencers and policy makers within the cleantech and alternative energy industry.  Some of the public companies presenting at the conference include Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTI), DayStar Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: DSTI), Ener1, Inc. (NASDAQ: HEV), LDK Solar Co. Ltd. (NYSE: LDK), Real Goods Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: RSOL), Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (NYSE: STP), Valence Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: VLNC), and Verenium Corp. (NASDAQ: VRNM). That’s quite a list, especially if you consider how far these companies are down from their 52-week highs (as of yesterday’s close):

Ascent – Down 80%
DayStar – Down 77% (new low this morning)
Ener1 – Down 47%
LDK – Down 89%
Real Goods – Down 79%
Suntech – Down 84%
Valence – Down 61%
Verenium – Down 92%

The best performing company, Ener1, is down ‘only’ by just under half.  Just the sort of group one might turn to for advice on how to make money in the cleantech industry.  If any of these companies can get that Obama spending money for green business efforts, they better be on that track now.

You can go to the full list of presentations at the ThinkEquity conference if you choose.

Paul Ausick
March 25, 2009