Mr. Lynch: Is there any way to invest in the booming area of wind? It seems as though there are very few companies in this area and all of them are large, like GE. — Thanks, Kevin W. Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Kevin, I think you have been reading my mind. I have been looking for a way to play the wind boom for a number of years and you are correct that there are very few companies (at least in the U.S.) and the most well known ones are large companies like GE that you do not necessarily want to own just because they have a large wind division. I think the market, at this time, is looking at GE as a finance company and wind is actually a small part of their total revenues.
However, I have recently found a potential candidate that may fit your wind investment desires. There is an exchange traded fund (ETF) with the symbol “FAN.” It is like a mutual fund in that it has a diversified approach (a major decrease in one company will not have a serious effect on your portfolio) of owning many companies in the industry and it trades on an exchange just like a stock.
I went to their website and extracted some information that you may find interesting. The table below lists all the holdings of FAN, their individual symbols and the percentage of the total ETF that company represents.
If you want more detailed information you can get it at their website.
As you can see, if you really want a way to participate in the growth of the wind business this ETF certainly has holdings in all of the significant companies in the industry worldwide. I am sure there will be other ways to invest in this industry in the future, but for now, this appears to me to be the most suitable for most investors.
All Companies currently in the ETF – FAN
|
Security Name | Ticker or CUSIP | Weighting |
| Vestas Wind Systems | VWS.DC | 7.48% |
| Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica, S.A. (Gamesa) | GAM.SM | 7.25% |
| Hansen Transmissions | HSN.LN | 7.23% |
| REpower Systems AG | RPW.GR | 6.18% |
| Nordex AG | NDX1.GR | 5.81% |
| Broadwind Energy, Inc. | BWEN | 5.31% |
| Babcock & Brown Wind Partners | BBW.AU | 4.60% |
| Clipper Windpower PLC | CWP.LN | 4.24% |
| Theolia SA | TEO.FP | 4.18% |
| Fersa Energias Renovables SA | FRS.SM | 3.16% |
| Japan Wind Development Co., Ltd. | 2766.JP | 2.99% |
| Greentech Energy Systems | GES.DC | 2.98% |
| EarthFirst Canada Inc. | EF.CN | 1.19% |
| E.ON AG (ADR) | EONGY | 1.15% |
| Air Energy S.A. | AIR.BB | 1.15% |
| Royal Dutch Shell Plc (ADR) | RDS/A | 1.14% |
| BP Plc (ADR) | BP | 1.13% |
| Renewable Energy Generation | RWE.LN | 1.12% |
| RWE AG | RWE.GY | 1.11% |
| Siemens AG (ADR) | SI | 1.10% |
| Endesa, S.A. | ELE.SM | 1.08% |
| Iberdrola S.A. | IBE.SM | 1.06% |
| Alstom | ALO.FP | 1.05% |
| MITSUI & CO., LTD. | 8031.JP | 1.03% |
| General Electric Company | GE | 1.02% |
| Iberdrola Renovables | IBR.SM | 0.98% |
| Western Wind Energy Corp. | WND.CN | 0.95% |
| EDF Energies Nouvelles S.A. | EEN.FP | 0.92% |
| AGL Energy Limited | AGK.AU | 0.91% |
| NRG Energy Inc. | NRG | 0.88% |
| FPL Group, Inc. | FPL | 0.86% |
| The AES Corporation | AES | 0.85% |
| Acciona S.A. | ANA.SM | 0.83% |
| Allegheny Technologies, Inc. | ATI | 0.83% |
| AB SKF | SKFB.SS | 0.83% |
| Energias De Portugal S.A. | EDP.PL | 0.82% |
| China High Speed Transmission Equipment Group Co., Ltd. | 658.HK | 0.78% |
| Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras S.A. | CAIFY | 0.70% |
| Areva | CEI.FP | 0.65% |
| Woodward Governor Company | WGOV | 0.63% |
| Alliant Energy Corporation | LNT | 0.62% |
| Federal-Mogul Corporation | FDML | 0.62% |
| Trinity Industries, Inc. | TRN | 0.61% |
| Kaydon Corporation | KDN | 0.59% |
| Zoltek Companies, Inc. | ZOLT | 0.57% |
| American Superconductor Corporation | AMSC | 0.57% |
| Capstone Turbine Corporation | CPST | 0.50% |
| Terna Energy SA | TENERGY.GA | 0.47% |
| Canadian Hydro Developers, Inc. | KHD.CN | 0.47% |
| Ameron International Corporation | AMN | 0.46% |
| C. Rokas SA | ROKKA.GA | 0.45% |
| Otter Tail Corporation | OTTR | 0.44% |
| Conergy AG | CGY.GR | 0.43% |
| Boralex Inc. | BLX.CN | 0.43% |
| El Paso Electric Company | EE | 0.43% |
| Harbin Power Equipment Company Ltd. | 1133.HK | 0.40% |
| Composite Technology Corporation | CPTC | 0.22% |
| Polish Energy Partners SA | PEP.PW | 0.21% |
| Heroux-Devtek Inc. | HRX.CN | 0.20% |
| Novera Energy, Plc | NVE.LN | 0.20% |
| China Wind Systems, Inc. | CWSI | 0.20% |
| China WindPower Group Limited | 182.HK | 0.20% |
| Shanghai Prime Machinery Company Ltd. | 2345.HK | 0.19% |
| Gurit Holding AG | GUR.SW | 0.18% |
| Innergex Renewable Energy, Inc. | INE.CN | 0.18% |
| Morphic Technologies AB | MORPB.SS | 0.15% |
| GreenHunter Energy, Inc. | GRH | 0.13% |
