Small-Cap Solar Stocks Dirt Cheap

President Obama’s greening of America has yet to take hold, especially in the solar sector. Wall Street basically had a love affair with it in 2007, handing triple-digit gains to a number of solar companies.

Then came 2008, and the first six months of 2009. Any green made by investors or solar companies faded away. This, of course, means that we’re looking at some bargain prices at a time when the government should be earmarking all kinds of money to alternative energy.

It’s only a matter of time until the $5.5 billion earmarked by President Obama for alternative and clean energy, scientific research and various environmental projects turn the United States a darker shade of green.

Convinced that a new era of prosperity can be ushered in by weaning America from its two century long energy-wasting habits, Obama vows to invest $150 billion in clean energy projects over 10 years and create 5 million new “green-collar” jobs.

The bulk of Obama’s $5.5 billion allocation will go toward installation of solar panels on Federal building roofs as well as to install high-tech energy meters and smart lighting systems that adjust to daylight.

Government agencies will be on a pretty tight schedule. The following timetable shows the specific percentages and deadlines they must meet to increase renewable sources:
• 3% or more in fiscal years 2007 through 2009
• 5% or more in fiscal years 2010 through2012
• 7.5% or more by 2013

That’s a 150% increase in the percentage of energy sourced from renewable means, like solar, by 2013.

These companies stand to profit from a solar influx: Solarfun Power Holdings (Nasdaq: SOLF), JA Solar Holdings (Nasdaq: JASO), GT Solar International (Nasdaq: SOLR) and Evergreen Solar Inc. (Nasdaq: ESLR).

The government believes that bigger projects like these can be quickly deployed. After the stimulus bill passed, the Obama administration said contracts should be awarded within 90 days.

One example of the 500 ready-to-go projects is the Internal Revenue Service building in Andover, Mass. The building has a structure and location that make it a good candidate for solar roof panels that will reduce heating and cooling loads and provide electricity for the building.

The transition to a renewable energy economy is already proving to be a powerful economic engine. Before the current recession, clean energy was the fastest-growing industrial sector in the United States.

Sales of new materials and equipment for the renewable energy sector — steel, gears, wind turbines, solar panels, insulation, software, high tech batteries, gauges, and hundreds of other products — reached $25 billion in the U.S this year, up from less than $10 billion in 2004.

We’re still in the infancy stages of planning and developing ways for all of the above to actually happen…although the Federal solar transformation may happen sooner than later.

When money begins to be dolled out to industries involved in all of the above aspects of turning America green, we’ll see skyrocketing profits for companies and shareholders.