You need to have a portion of your wealth in something tangible—something you can hold in your hand, like a hard asset.  I’m talking about oil, grains, livestock, sugar, copper, aluminum, gold, silver, platinum and even forest products like lumber.

The price of oil will never go to zero!  Someone will always be in the market to buy gasoline.  Gold has never been worth $0.  Silver could always buy you a meal–even in ancient times.

But can the value of a stock or a paper currency go to zero?  Yes, indeed.  One good way to invest in hard assets is to buy the Market Vectors RVE Hard Assets Exchange Traded Fund (HAP).  This ETF closely tracks the Hard Assets Producers index which consists of over 250 companies engaged in the production and distribution of hard assets and related products and services.

The Hard Assets Producers index was developed by the legendary international investor Jim Rogers.  It includes water and renewable energy sources like wind and solar which are ever more important natural resources.  Some of the big holdings of the index are Monsanto, Exxon Mobil, Potash, Syngenta, BHP Billiton, Archer-Daniels-Midland and Gazprom.

Protect your wealth and invest in hard assets.

Source: Invest in Hard Assets!

Shares went up close to 30%… meaning that the former banking behemoth is no longer a penny stock. TFN Hot Stock Confidential members rode the coat tails of Citi Group’s rise to watch their position in Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) clock in at 21% gains.

Among the top-performing sectors today were energy and utilities. Especially alternative energy stocks.

Coincidence? Check out the stimulus bill, and you’ll find plenty of mention of renewable energy sources. Billions and billions of dollars are allocated to new battery technologies, solar energy, wind power… you name it.

Seems like only nuclear energy is too self-sufficient or promising to qualify for new subsidies. Not so geothermal energy. There’s a whopping $400 million… that’s $400,000,000… allocated for geothermal technologies.

Now, unless you live in Iceland, geothermal energy has not played a big role in your own backyard. The United States may generate more geothermal electricity than any other country. But the electricity produced represents less than one-half of a percent of the total U.S. output. And since the most active geothermal resources are usually found only along major tectonic plate boundaries, only four states have geothermal power plants so far:

California has 33 geothermal power plants that produce almost 90 percent of the nation’s geothermal electricity. Nevada has 14, and Hawaii and Utah each have one geothermal plant. So, there’s four states with geothermal capacities. That’s $100 million stimulus per state. There are a total of 49 geothermal power plants in the United States. That’s almost $8.2 million per plant.

Will $400 million in “government investments” double the U.S. output of geothermal energy? It just may. Come 2012 or 2016, geothermal energy may account for a whopping 1% of U.S. energy output. Money well spent, indeed.

Meanwhile, I expect government money to lift especially the smaller geothermal outfits. Companies like U.S. Geothermal Inc. (AMEX:HTM), which ended the fourth quarter in the hole $800,000. The company has a well-developed pipeline into government grants already.

Read the full article here: Geothermal Energy: This company is a stimulus magnet!

Shares in leading German solar stocks rose substantially on expectations that other big players, including oil groups, are on the prowl in a market that grew to €6.6bn last year and is forecast to top €18bn by 2020.

Germany is by far the world’s biggest solar energy market thanks to its “feed-in” tariffs, which pay a government-guaranteed premium of up to €0.47 a kilowatt hour for power produced by photovoltaic panels. It is expected to continue to grow despite government plans to cut subsidies by 8% or 9% in 2009 and 2010.

“The richest investment opportunities can be found in the fast-emerging alternative energy sector,” says Mike Burnick in The Offshore A-Letter.

“That’s where oilman T. Boone Pickens is putting his money – his company Mesa Power just placed an order for US$2 billion in wind turbines. And there’s much more profit potential in other parts of the alternative energy sector too – especially alternative fuel.

“The market for ALL alternative energy sources grew 40% last year alone to US$77.3 billion and will explode into a US$250 billion industry within 10 years.

“Bio-fuel grew to a US$25.4 billion market last with more than 15 billion gallons of ethanol and biodiesel produced globally – more than double the output of just four years ago. The worldwide Bio-fuel industry will continue to enjoy explosive growth for years to come – expanding into a US$81 billion business within the next 10-years!”

“The days of meeting an unchecked demand for energy through monolithic carbon intensive power stations are coming to an end. Increasingly the emphasis will be on energy efficiency, renewables, cleaned up fossil fuel plant and micro generation,” the company said in a statement accompanying its full-year results, according to Britain’s The Guardian newspaper.

SSE, which currently gets 15% of its energy from nuclear suppliers, said it believed “one more tranche of nuclear power stations will be necessary, but that the deployment of such power stations should be minimised through the maximum exploitation of renewable energy sources.”

“The richest investment opportunities can be found in the fast-emerging alternative energy sector,” says Mike Burnick in The Offshore A-Letter.

“That’s where oilman T. Boone Pickens is putting his money – his company Mesa Power just placed an order for US$2 billion in wind turbines. And there’s much more profit potential in other parts of the alternative energy sector too – especially alternative fuel.

“The market for ALL alternative energy sources grew 40% last year alone to US$77.3 billion and will explode into a US$250 billion industry within 10 years.

“Bio-fuel grew to a US$25.4 billion market last with more than 15 billion gallons of ethanol and biodiesel produced globally – more than double the output of just four years ago. The worldwide Bio-fuel industry will continue to enjoy explosive growth for years to come – expanding into a US$81 billion business within the next 10-years!”

Floyd Brown in Investment U looks at another alternative energy source: the Fischer-Tropsch process, used to create synthetic fuels.

“The process works like this: Coal is broken into its components by subjecting it to high temperature and pressure, using steam and measured amounts of oxygen. This leads to the production of synthetic gas.

“In the United States, a small firm provides technology to produce ultra-clean synthetic fuels and chemicals. It licenses its proprietary derivative process from the Fischer-Tropsch method.

“It converts synthesis gas derived from coal, petroleum coke, biomass, natural gas, or municipal solid waste into liquid hydrocarbon products. This includes ultra clean diesel fuel, jet fuel, naphtha, specialty chemicals and other fuel products. It also manufactures anhydrous ammonia, UAN, nitric acid, carbon dioxide and granular and liquid urea.”

Read on here to find out Floyd’s cashing in on this conventional energy alternative.

In consequence of price caps on electricity rates, soaring coal prices have forced many power plants to run at a loss. Among 4,773 large-capacity power plants in China, almost 42% recorded losses in the first two months of 2008. This is 6.35% more than a year earlier. The losses totaled 13.79 billion yuan ($1.97 billion), or more than triple the year-earlier figure.

Zou Yiqiao, director of the price and financial supervision department of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC), has advised major power companies to merge with or acquire coal producers and transporters to help stabilize costs and supplies. Zou reportedly stated that utilities should slow the expansion of their thermal-power capacity and instead invest in coal transport firms and mines.

According to a SERC spokesman, the Chinese government will “allow power costs to reflect coal prices” some time in the future. In addition to thermal coal plants, China has a major program to build out renewable energy sources and boost electricity output.

Until we meet again,

Byron King

Note: Byron King is a frequent contributor to the free e-letter Whiskey & Gunpowder. To receive daily insights into energy, oil, commodities and other natural resources sign up here!