A123 Systems

Fisker Automotive, the vehicle manufacturer which took the clean transportation world by storm in 2009 when it announced the debut of its Karma model plug in hybrid vehicle, has announced its intention to renegotiate the terms of its $528.7 million conditional loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, or DOE.

A small handful of companies in the clean/efficient energy sector bucked Monday’s stock market downer by making strong gains. Two of these companies, lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: AONE)) and wind turbine tower manufacturer Broadwind Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: BWEN), also halted months of sinking share prices. 

Despite terrific share price appreciation over Q1 2011 for many clean energy companies, as demonstrated in our Saturday list of the TOP 20 performing companies in the EnergyBoom Clean 100 Index, not all companies in the sector ended the quarter with happy shareholders.

Here are the 10 worst-performing companies on the EnergyBoom Clean 100 Index January 3 through March 31:

American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) of Chinese solar wafer and module manufacturer ReneSola Ltd. (NYSE: SOL) (market cap $799 million) fell 16.74% Tuesday -- and recovered 3% in early trading today -- after reporting strong 2010 revenue and earnings growth, but scaring investors with lower gross margins in Q4 compared to Q3 and with a forecast that Q1 2011 revenues will be 14%-20% lower than Q4 2010 revenues. 

(OTHER NEWS: Western Wind Energy Corp., A123 Systems, Inc.)

Here’s a brief comparison of three battery companies: Exide Technologies (NASDAQ: XIDE), A123 Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: AONE) and China BAK Battery Inc. (NASDAQ: CBAK).

One of the three has generated profits on growing revenues and been rewarded with steady share price appreciation. The other two...not.

Every day seems to find news about record progress in the development of better electric vehicles (EV). Now the Venturi Buckeye Bullet 2.5 has set a new world EV speed record.

Mississippi State University (MSU) has taken top honors in the second year of the EcoCAR competition, a three-year automotive engineering competition sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) and General Motors Corporation (GM).

Toyota (NYSE: TM) may be having some “troubles” with supposed runaway Priuses and all, but they are still moving forward with the plug-in version of the iconic hyb

A123 Systems (Nasdaq:AONE), a developer and manufacturer of advanced Nanophosphate lithium-ion batteries and systems, recently completed a battery supply agreement with Fisker Automotive, an American automaker of green vehicles.

The economic downturn caused a decrease in clean energy investments during 2009, according to several studies. However, booming investments in Asia, particularly in China's wind power, meant that global investments in clean energy remained stronger than expected.