There’s a big shift going on in the international energy markets. With governments urging their local companies to shift away from using Russian-based assets for oil and gas, investors are now expecting a surge in demand from other sources of energy. While domestic oil and gas companies are expected to pick up the slack, other alternative energy sources are expected to see a surge in demand also. This includes solar energy stocks, which surged on Monday, as did many electric vehicle (EV) stocks as well.
Large multinational oil giants have been divesting their Russian-based energy assets over political concerns. The most notable example with British Petroleum, but other big companies have made similar decisions as well. These decisions should also help encourage governments to build more wind and solar power to reduce their dependency on imported fossil fuels.
Clean energy stocks across the board were up on Monday as a result. Large wind-turbine makers, like foreign-based Vestas Wind Systems (NYSE: VWS) were up over 15%, while Nordex SE (OTC: NRDXF) was up over 24.4% at one point as well. More domestic energy companies were up as well. Sunrun (NASDAQ: RUN) and Enphase Energy (NASDAQ: ENPH) were up 12.5% and 8.4% as well, with both companies offering solar energy installation services and products to consumers and businesses.
“There’s a realization that Europe has to move away from dependency on Russian oil and gas and one way to achieve that is renewables,” said Deepa Venkateswaran, senior analyst at Bernstein Autonomous LLP. “Now it’s not just about decarbonization, but also about security of supply.”
The move goes along with earlier promises by governments to fully transition into renewable energy sources. The German government said on Monday that it plans to get almost all of this electricity by 2035. That’s an acceleration from its previous goal of becoming green-house neutral by 2050.
As you’d expect, electric vehicle stocks were also up on the news. Governments have said in the past that they’re also planning to ban gas car purchases within the coming decades in favor of EVs. Companies like Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and Nio (NASDAQ: NIO) were up 7.5% and 12.5%, while the rest of the sector was well in the green as well.
EV stocks were also pulled up by an incredible announcement from a much smaller company. One of the biggest winners on Monday was Mullen Auto (NASDAQ: MULN), an EV battery maker that announced it’d developed a new, next-generation polymer battery.
According to the company, its new polymer batteries represent a major breakthrough compared to today’s lithium-ion batteries. This includes being able to travel more than 600 miles on a full charge, and can be recharged up to 50% in just 18 minutes. Shares were up over 146% over the course of the day, although the company’s market cap was still just a measly $58 million.
Mullen Auto Company Profile
Mullen Automotive Inc is engaged in manufacturing electric vehicles and energy solutions. The company strives to make electric vehicles more accessible by building an end-to-end ecosystem that takes care of all aspects of electric vehicle ownership. – Warrior Trading News
