Truly 'Alternative' Energy Stocks That Could Shine

Once again, this is a speculative stock that trades over the counter. It's currently just $2.37. As they say on Wall Street, at least you know your downside.

The chief executive, 69-year-old Kenneth Hern, is an oil industry veteran: He's a former executive at Texaco (now part of Chevron(CVX Quote)). And the company last month raised $47 million. It's busy building relationships with suppliers and customers.

A fifth company Robinson likes is Covanta(CVA Quote), which is the market leader at turning trash into energy. It's already a big business, but the company got saddled with too much debt and is currently going through a huge recapitalization.

Most of these are, admittedly, risky or speculative stocks. They're like Tabasco -- add them to your portfolio sparingly.

Winslow Green is about more than energy. It invests across the "socially responsible" field. But it has trounced the wider stock market since it was launched five years ago, and it's not a bad way to go. Stay tuned to see if the company launches a focused green energy fund.

Robinson warns those rushing blindly into alternative energy investments that "just because a company is green doesn't mean it's a good investment. Everything else needs to be there -- you need a sustainable business plan, you need the management, you need the capital, and you need a market."

It's a year since President Bush first raised the curtain on this industry in his previous State of the Union address. The ethanol business saw a brief stock market bubble in the spring, and then a bust. But if you look at the big picture on the environment, the economy and national security, this issue is not going away.