One of my Aunts - one who prefers to remain nameless - found a helpful link for me to some information about investing in Alternative Energy mutual funds.

It is actually a very good article, and I learned a lot. It is posted on a site called Alt Energy Stocks, and written by Tom Konrad. What I took away from the article is that the main advantage of investing in mutual funds is two-fold: 1) it is easy to make regular, small investments that are impractical if buying stocks directly, and 2) the mutual fund is a diverse portfolio of stocks.

The downside of mutual funds is that maintenance fees can eat up more of the earnings than one might think.

Diversity is key - take Tom's & my earlier solar energy investment, where we had one stock, and watched the stock price rocket skyward, and then stood by with slack jaws as the company plummeted into bankruptcy. If the stock had been part of a portfolio of, let's say, 30 alternative energy company stocks, the travails of one company would have been a much smaller impact on the overall portfolio, rather than leaving us with virtually nothing. It's whe old adage about not putting "all your eggs in one basket" come home to roost...

The author suggests that for people who have $20,000 or more to invest, and who can tie up that money for several years, selecting a suite of 30 or so company stocks is a better option. He suggests checking the list of companies that some of the mutual funds hold, and investing in them if one does not have the time to research individual companies.

As he points out, this is what people do when they buy mutual funds - they trust some else's judgment about the stocks selected for the portfolio, so why not use their judgment and buy the stocks directly?

Now, $20,000 is a lot of money. We were thinking of maybe $1,000 to start. Here is the list of mutual fund companies that Mr. Konrad lists in the article:

Fund Name	Emphasis	Mgmt Style	Load?
		Turnover
		Ticker	Expense Ratio
Guinness Atkinson Alternative Energy	Alternative Energy & Energy technology; International	Active	No-load
		22%
		GAAEX	1.98%
New Alternatives Fund	Renewable Energy & environment	Active	4.75% under $25K
		40%
		NALFX	1.25%
Powershares Cleantech Portfolio	CleanTech	Index	ETF
		low*
		PZD	0.70%
Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy	Greener and Renewable Energy	Index	ETF
		6%
		PBW	0.71%
Powershares Wilderhill Progressive Energy Portfolio	Nuclear and Advanced Fossil Fuels	Index	ETF
		low*
		PUW	0.70%

The Guinness Atkinson Alternative Energy Fund seeks long-term appreciation investing in equity securities (US and non-US) of companies involved in alternative energy or energy technology sectors. Alternative energy includes, but is not limited to power generated through solar, wind, hydroelectric, tidal wave, geothermal, biomass or biofuels. Energy technology includes technologies that enable these sources to be tapped and also various manners of storage and transportation of energy, including hydrogen and other types of fuel cells, batteries and flywheels, as well as technologies that conserve or enable more efficient use of energy. The fund was created in 2006, so has just over a year of experience that potential investors can evaluate. Their minimum non-IRA initial investment is $5,000, and their minimum initial IRA investment is $1,000.

New Alternatives Fund is a Socially Responsible Mutual Fund Emphasizing Alternative Energy and the Environment. We seek investments in listed companies that have a positive impact on the environment. We are different from funds that make their environmental contribution by only avoiding companies that harm the environment. A quick glance at the list of portfolio holdings revealed a diverse mix of companies that manufacture alternative energy related products (wind turbines, solar panels), that produce energy using alternative means like wind, tidal and solar, that manufacture efficiency products like insulation and water meters, and that provide energy efficiency services to the business sector. Their minimum initial investment for a non-IRA account is $2,500. It's $2,000 for an IRA account initial investment. The fund was created in 1982, so actually has a long track-record that people can review.

The PowerShares Cleantech Portfolio (Fund) tracks the Cleantech Index™, which is designed to identify cleantech companies with the greatest capital appreciation potential within the cleantech industry. A company is considered to be part of the cleantech industry if it produces any knowledge-based product or service that improves operation, performance, productivity or efficiency, while reducing costs, inputs, energy consumption, waste or pollution.

The PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio (Fund) seeks to replicate, before fees and expenses, the WilderHill Clean Energy Index, which is designed to deliver capital appreciation through the selection of companies that focus on greener and generally renewable sources of energy and technologies that facilitate cleaner energy. This fund was started in 2005, and the minimum investments required were not readily found on their website.

The last one on the list - Progressive Energy Portfolio - makes me suspicious because it features nuclear power. Now, I will admit that nuclear power is a good thing in terms of carbon production (the air emissions are virtually zero), but there is still the whole pesky issue of what to do with the waste, and until we as a society figure that one out, I am not even going to consider nuclear power as a "clean" source of alternative energy. Others are welcome to disagree. Quick fact: I won a debate in high school arguing the benefits of nuclear energy!