David Fessler, contributing writer for Money Morning, analyzes the ongoing trends and mid-term future for solar energy companies.

By Andrew Snyder, TodaysFinancialNews.com

Baltimore — (TFN): We all have a friend like him. For me it’s a guy named Greg. He has some great ideas and his entrepreneurial spirit runs deep, but for some reason, his plans never seem to make it to fruition. Somewhere from the drawing board to the production line, he runs into a debilitating snag.

Most of the time, it’s money.

David Fessler, Advisory Panelist for Investment U, looks at the state of alternative energy and why conventional experts may be wrong about the industry.

There’s lots of money to be made in the “clean energy” sector…Maybe more so now than ever before. My confidence in the investment potential of renewable energy gained some interesting corroboration the other day.

On Monday, $24.8 billion worth of takeovers were announced. It was the third busiest Merger Monday on record in 2009. Yet most investors remain unimpressed…. They’re convinced it’s nothing more than a short-lived Darwinian event. Weak and unfit companies, exposed by a nasty recession, are simply being forced into the arms of the strong.

It’s been 30 years since the accident at Three Mile Island effectively killed the commercial nuclear power industry in the United States. But strongly escalating concerns about global warming, growing worries about so-called “Peak Oil,” and greatly improved nuclear-power technology are combining to make nuclear power an increasingly alluring option in the United States, Money Morning has been reporting.

Louis Basenese is one of the smartest investment analysts I know, and a good friend of mine to boot. And most of the time I agree with his research – and his conclusions. Just not this time.

Despite lower industry profits in the quarter, this leading petroleum product refiners’ margin increased 51%. Katherine Schildt of Investment U says that, “Tesoro represents a great way to keep your portfolio diversified with exposure to the energy sector.”