What happened
The renewable energy industry had a great week on the stock market, mainly because the market's growth stocks continue pushing higher. Renewable energy and everything related are riding that wave of optimism right now.
Some of the biggest movers, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, were Eos Energy Enterprises (EOSE), jumping 19.9% from the close of trading last Friday to 1 p.m. ET; FuelCell Energy (FCEL), rising 9.9% over that time; and Blink Charging (BLNK), gaining 8.1%. All of the stocks were up at least 13% at one point this week.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
The best fundamental news recently was FuelCell Energy reporting a 134% increase in revenue in the fiscal second quarter to $38.3 million. The company still lost $33.9 million, but investors are focusing on revenue growth at this point.
Charging stocks like Blink have jumped after Tesla announced charging deals with Ford and General Motors. The two legacy automakers will include Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) in their vehicles in the future and get access to Tesla's Superchargers as a result.
Not coincidentally, Blink announced a new fast charger with dual-port charging designs. This will allow the company to be a part of the network that charges all of the electric vehicles (EVs) with the NACS plug.
Eos Energy is riding the renewable energy wave higher, and it didn't hurt that the Federal Reserve didn't raise short-term interest rates this week. Higher debt costs make it less cost-effective for developers to build renewable energy projects, so investors want to see rates stay low. While rates are up 5 basis points in the U.S. today, they're down in slightly in Europe, which could make developing there more attractive.
Now what
There wasn't a lot of really solid financial news this week, but speculation about the future continues, and the market is generally pushing growth stocks higher.
Long term, there's been a big push to increase renewable energy subsidies and EV adoption. The market is seeing some of those moves as tailwinds for the industry. But the challenge for Eos, Blink Charging, and FuelCell Energy is that they're all losing money, and that doesn't seem to be turning around anytime soon.
Renewable energy, battery storage, and even charging are relatively mature markets, so companies are going to have to start proving that they can provide returns eventually. Those that do could fare well, but companies that can't turn a profit will eventually struggle.
That's why I'm staying out of these stocks, despite the pop this week. If the market turns lower, they aren't like to handle the drop well.
