For Teachers: Lessons on the Energy Sector

The Week in Review is provided by The Stock Market Game, which is a curriculum-based teaching tool that allows students to invest a hypothetical $100,000 online stock portfolio to learn about long-term saving and investing.

The Stock Market Game Week in Review: March 3-7

With the upcoming election monopolizing the headlines at the beginning of the week, the struggling economy again took center stage as the Labor Department reported there was a net loss of 63,000 jobs, which is the largest decline since March 2003, and weaker than the revised 22,000 jobs lost in January. The losses were widespread, reaching beyond the battered construction and manufacturing sectors. Retailers cut 34,000 jobs, while businesses and professional services cut 20,000 jobs.

With many Stock Market Game teams already frustrated by the falling prices of many of their investments, we will highlight an industry that is actually performing positively despite the current overall market headaches: energy.

Renewable energy stocks did amazingly well in 2007 due to record oil prices that lifted the broader energy sector in general. Solar was the big winner with First Solar (FSLR), a company that makes solar-power modules without silicon, surging 795% last year alone. This company claims the industry's lowest manufacturing cost per watt and may be a company to watch during 2008.

Another company to keep an eye on includes SunPower (SPWR), a maker of solar cells and panels used to generate power from the sun. Analysts feel SunPower is well positioned for bottom-line returns in 2008 due to a drop in silicon prices this year along with its announcement in January to construct yet another solar power plant in Spain.

Another sector to encourage your students to research is wind. Experts say the wind sector is the technology of choice for utilities looking to buy "green" power.

General Electric (GE) is the big power player in the U.S. along with Zoltek (ZOLT), which makes carbon fiber used in turbine blades, and its stock rose over 100% last year.

Big oil companies are also investing billions developing new wind power projects. "[Royal Dutch] Shell (RDS.A) and BP (BP) see wind as an increasingly important part of the energy industry," says Randall Swisher, of the American Wind Energy Association. "They want to look for new opportunities, and wind is clearly in their sights." Shell, along with Luminant, a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings (formerly TXU Corp.) is currently in the midst of developing a $4 billion wind power project in the Texas Panhandle.

InvestWrite

Staying abreast of overall trends in our global economy and researching different industries and sectors is clearly essential in creating a top performing portfolio this semester. Our national and state-wide essay competition, InvestWrite, creates another opportunity for students to realize its importance. Both you and your students are eligible for wonderful awards and now is the time to start the essay planning as the deadline for submission is April 11, 2008. For more information about the essay competition, be sure to check out www.investwrite.info. InvestWrite serves as a great culminating activity to The Stock Market Game program!

To hear from 2007's InvestWrite winners, check out "Meet This Year's Student Champions of InvestWrite's Essay Contest" on TheStreet.com TV. Plus, to learn more about The Stock Market Game, go to www.stockmarketgame.org.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints