Orocobre

Shares of Orocobre Limited (ASX: ORE.AX) (market cap US$273 million) jumped more than 9% today after the company announced that a definitive feasibility study (DFS) of the company’s Salar de Olaroz lithium-potash brine project in Argentina defined a resource base of 6.4 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent -- sufficient to sustain a mine producing 16,400 tonnes per year of battery grade lithium carbonate. The company’s website says initial commercial production at Olaroz is expected to begin in 2012. 

The overall clean tech sector declined dramatically during 2010 compared with strong positive performances for the U.S. overall stock market indices. Most European markets had shaky years and the Shangai Composite Index had the lowest performance among major markets tracked by EnergyBoom (2010 market data below).

However, the real story of 2010 was the spectacular gains of companies that bucked the down-trend for clean tech stocks. Here are the 2010 top 25 companies in the EnergyBoom Clean 100 Index (E•B Clean 100):

EnergyBoom’s E•B Efficiency subindex had the best performance in November among Energyboom’s five sector indices and also beat all broad market indices for the month. The E•B Efficiency slipped 0.13 percent for the month, narrowly beating the best-performing broad market index, the S&P 500 Index (-0.23 percent).

EnergyBoom’s E•B Solar subindex, led by the Chinese low-cost solar cell and module producers, increased 5.10 percent last week.  E•B Solar beat EnergyBoom’s other four clean sector indices and all broad market indices except the Hang Seng (Hong Kong) Index which increased 7.18 percent.