Forget The Fed, We’re Talking Hydrogen!
Great Ones, I’m tired of all the economic data, inflation and Fed talk.
So today we’re going to skip over the latest producer price index data, May retail sales and whatever it is the Fed is doing today. (Spoiler: It’s raising interest rates again. Surprise, surprise!)
Instead, we’re going to talk about one of my favorite topics: hydrogen power!
Groan… Again?
Seriously, y’all need to just accept that not only is hydrogen power a thing … it’s going to be a very, very big thing.
Case in point: Today, energy giant BP PLC (NYSE: BP) announced that it bought a 40.5% stake in the Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH).
For those not familiar with this project, the AREH is a huge renewable energy project being built on 6,500 square kilometers in Western Australia.
As part of its stake, BP will become the AREH’s operator, which the company said had “the potential to be one of the largest renewables and green hydrogen hubs in the world.”
When it finally goes online in 2029, AREH is expected to produce up to 26 gigawatts of green solar and wind energy.
Furthermore, BP said: “At full capacity, AREH is expected to be capable of producing around 1.6 million tonnes of green hydrogen or 9 million tonnes of green ammonia, per annum.”
That’s a lot of hydrogen production, and it dwarfs green energy projects underway already by Plug Power (Nasdaq: PLUG) and other hydrogen competitors.
But with a 2029 production date, BP remains several years behind Plug Power’s own green hydrogen production plant. As Great Stuff reported last week, Plug Power’s green hydrogen hub will go live in 2024, producing 12,500 tons of liquid and gaseous green hydrogen per year.
Clearly, 1.6 million tons is a lot more than 12,500 tons, but Plug Power will, once again, have first-mover status. In other words, Plug Power will already have been an established green hydrogen supplier for about five years before BP gets AREH up and fully operational.
At this point, Great Ones, I’m done defending green hydrogen. Several major energy companies have already dropped billions on developing green hydrogen.
While BP didn’t disclose how much its 40.5% stake cost, I guarantee you it was a rather pretty penny.
Green hydrogen is real, and it’s coming sooner than you think. Deal with it.
Now, I’ve said before that “if I had to invest in a so-called ‘oil major,’ it would be BP.” I know a lot of you are skittish about hydrogen and the new power generation.
So if Great Stuff Pick’s holding Plug Power is “too risky” for you, BP is an excellent backup investing idea that will also take advantage of the oil market … as it goes through its death throes.
After all, oil isn’t going to just die overnight. That big greasy beast will be around for quite some time … slowly offering fewer and fewer returns for investors.
With PLUG stock at near two-year lows, now is the time to add to your holdings or buy in for the first time. And if a pure hydrogen play makes you feel kinda funny — like climbing the rope in gym class — then BP is a solid backup.
(Note: Great Stuff is not adding BP to the Great Stuff Picks portfolio.)
Whether you’re already knee-deep in the hydrogen market or still not quite ready to plunge into hydrogen … check this out:
One California company has finally cracked the code for the battery of the future — and it’s not Tesla or any other big company you can think of.
This new, revolutionary technology that’s about to explode is so powerful, it’s protected by 100 different patents.
There are so many better internet browsers out there these days — shout out to Google Chrome and Firefox — that I almost, maybe, totally forgot the old blue-and-gold Internet Explorer browser even existed.
But whether you loved it or loathed it, Internet Explorer is no more.
After 27 years of operation, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) officially “retired” the web browser that brought so many of us into these virtual vistas in the early 2000s.
It’s been replaced by the cooler, edgier Microsoft Edge — a browser the company rolled out with Windows 10 back in 2015. (Stop trying to make Edge happen, Microsoft. It’s never gonna happen.)
Let’s all take a collective moment to say goodbye to the end of an internet era. You never worked particularly well, Internet Explorer. But damn did we have some good times before the internet got scary.
I’ll never forget youuuuuu (again)!
Well, that didn’t take long, Great Ones. A week after Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) announces its own in-house “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) program, PayPal (Nasdaq: PYPL) releases a new payment plan called … wait for it … “Pay in 4.”
Coincidence? I think not!
Now, Pay in 4 is pretty self-explanatory. You … umm, break your expenses into four payment periods that span anywhere from six to 24 months.
And hey, there are no late fees for when you “conveniently” forget about those super expensive Southwest flights you bought through PayPal the other month. So that’s nice, I guess.
Maybe it’s just me, but Pay in 4 has a much better ring to it than Apple Pay Later. With all these new BNPL borrowing options cropping up, maybe that’s enough to lure more customers back PayPal’s way.
I said “maybe.” Jeez.
With the noose around Netflix’s (Nasdaq: NFLX) neck beginning to tighten, the streaming service had to do something to keep subscribers’ attention after Stranger Things wraps this summer and everyone starts canceling their monthly subscriptions again until season five rolls out.
The solution? Netflix is tapping into the global success of one of its few remaining hit shows, Squid Game.
You know, the Korean game show series that pits cash-strapped people against one another as they try to solve deadly puzzles and feats of endurance?
Sounds like the not-so-distant future of the U.S. if the Fed doesn’t get inflation under control…
Ha… Anyway, Netflix is launching a reality TV series inspired by the show, with hopefully less-lethal consequences for its contestants who don’t make it through to the final round. And did I mention the cash prize for the winner is a whopping $4.56 million reward?
Squid Game: The Challenge might not be enough to save Netflix from the gallows, but you can bet I’ll be watching this one with interest.
Easy, Breezy, Beautiful … Wind Energy?
You didn’t actually think we were done writing today’s clean-energy chronicle, did you? Oh, nay, nay!
General Motors (NYSE: GM) made an announcement this morning that it would invest $10 million into wind-energy tech with Wind Catching Systems — a startup that builds what I can only describe as walls of offshore wind turbines.
Kristen Siemen, GM’s Chief Sustainability Officer, said in statement: “As GM continues to move towards an all-electric future, it’s critical that we simultaneously drive the transition of the grid to low-carbon energy sources.”
The investment is in line with GM’s all-electric goals, the first of which is to sell 1 million electric vehicles (EVs) a year in North America by 2025.
We’ve told you before that GM could be a longer-term investment angle for those looking to get into the EV market — and its new alternative energy investment makes GM even more attractive today.
But let’s say your portfolio is already stacked with traditional EV/alternative energy positions. In that case, why not try something new?
A little-known company is promising to disrupt $50 trillion worth of energy by putting the power back in your hands — literally.
As PV Magazine explains: “With just a touch of a button on your smartphone, you can become a power plant from your garage.” It’s all thanks to a new technology called iPower.
Click here for the full story.
It’s poll day, Great Ones! My favorite day (don’t tell the other days, they’ll get jealous).
Maybe it’s your favorite day of Great Stuff too — we shall find out soon enough. That’s because today’s poll gets … personal.
Oh no. You found out about the pineapple incident?
The what now? No, no, never mind all that. I mean personal as in your own specific tastes, preferences and habits … pineapples not included.
When it comes to your favorite market meme-filled e-zine … what’s your favorite part? In other words, what do you look forward to most as part your daily Great Stuff reading and relaxing? I mean, y’all do read every day … right?
As always, Great Stuff is committed to providing you with the best reader-oriented and topical market information, and any feedback you have can help make the Great Stuff world a better place, yada yada yada. You get the idea.
Basically, we wanna see what you like reading best. So let’s nail it down to a specific section, eh? Click below and let me know:
Next week’s results should be … interesting. Yeah, we’ll go with “interesting.”
If you were looking for last week’s poll results, your moment has arrived. (Lucky you!) It was a streaming shake-up: Amid rumors that Netflix was looking to buy out Roku, we got your thoughts on if that was even a good idea in the first place.
So … should Netflix buy Roku?
About 48.2% of you said absolutely not — that Roku’s platform-agnostic nature was the appeal of the whole shebang. By contrast, another 33.9% of your fellow readers are ready to cash in their streaming chips and find something else to play.
Then there are the 17.9% of you who are wondering how Netflix can afford to buy Roku to begin with, and I don’t blame you.
As always, if today’s poll answers didn’t cut it for you … or you have more to say on the topic … email us at GreatStuffToday@BanyanHill.com. Rant away, Great Ones. I’m looking forward to it.
Meanwhile, you can also keep up with all the Great Stuff action you might have missed right here:
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Regards,
Joseph Hargett
Editor, Great Stuff
