Top 5 Clean Energy Companies To Buy Right Now

Droughts made headlines throughout 2012�due to their harmful affects on our nation's food supply, but privation wasn't the only drag on our fresh water sources. A recent study shows that oil and natural gas fracking has placed great stress on available fresh water�in areas around the country by taking up measurable amounts of the resource. In some instances in Texas, fracking staked its claim to 20% of total water usage in the regions surrounding production areas.�

Reading that astonishing fact clears up any doubt as to why Texas now mandates the recycling of water used in the fracking process. If we plan on becoming more energy independent through increased production of domestic oil and natural gas, then something will most likely be done at the federal level as well. Which companies stand to benefit? Check out Motley Fool analyst Taylor Muckerman's video below.

Despite this, natural gas still has a great chance at revolutionizing the clean energy movement. This trend toward alternative energy is gaining momentum. One potential opportunity in this field is Clean Energy Fuels, which focuses its natural gas efforts primarily on trucking and fleets. It's poised to make a big impact on an essential industry. Learn everything you need to know about Clean Energy Fuels in The Motley Fool's premium research report on the company. Just click here now to claim your copy today.

Top 10 Building Product Stocks To Invest In Right Now: 7 Days Group Holdings Limited(SVN)

7 Days Group Holdings Limited, through its subsidiaries, operates a chain of limited service economy hotels under the brand name of 7 Days Inn in China. The company provides accommodations and services primarily to business and leisure travelers. As of December 31, 2010, it operated 568 hotels in operation, including 247 managed hotels, with 56,410 hotel rooms in 89 cities, as well as 197 hotels with 19,345 hotel rooms under conversion. The company was founded in 2004 and is based in Guangzhou, China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Chinese economy hotel chain 7 Days Group (NYSE: SVN  ) announced today that the company's shareholders had approved the going-private proposal that was offered up on Feb. 28.�Approximately 88.3% of the hotel chain's shares voted on the proposal, and approximately 86% voted in favor of it.�

Top 5 Clean Energy Companies To Buy Right Now: QEP Resources Inc (QEP)

QEP Resources, Inc. (QEP), incorporated on May 17, 2010, is a holding company. The Company operates in three lines of business: gas and oil exploration and production, midstream field services, and energy marketing. It conducted through three principal subsidiaries: QEP Energy Company (QEP Energy) acquires, explores for, develops and produces natural gas, oil, and natural gas liquids (NGL); QEP Field Services Company (QEP Field Services) provides midstream field services, including natural gas gathering, processing, compression and treating services for affiliates and third parties; andQEP Marketing Company (QEP Marketing) markets affiliate and third-party natural gas and oil, provides risk-management services, and owns and operates an underground gas-storage reservoir. QEP operates in the Northern and Southern Regions of the United States and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Principal offices are located in Denver, Colorado; Salt Lake City, Utah; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

QEP�� exploration and production business is conducted through QEP Energy in two core regions, the Northern Region (including the states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and North Dakota) and the Southern Region (including the states of Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana). QEP Energy has approximately 50,800 net acres of Haynesville Shale lease rights in northwest Louisiana and additional lease rights that cover the Hosston and Cotton Valley formations. The depth of the top of the Haynesville Shale ranges from approximately 10,500 feet to 12,500 feet across QEP Energy�� leasehold and is below the Hosston and Cotton Valley formations that QEP Energy has been developing in northwest Louisiana for over a decade. As of December 31, 2011, QEP Energy had three operated rigs drilling in the project area. QEP Energy�� Midcontinent properties cover all properties in the Southern Region except the Haynesville/Cotton Valley area of northwest Louisiana and are distributed over an area, including the ! Anadarko Basin of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. QEP Energy has approximately 77,000 net acres of Woodford Shale lease rights in western Oklahoma. QEP Energy has approximately 38,700 net acres of Granite Wash/Atoka Wash lease rights in the Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma and has been drilling vertical Granite Wash/Atoka Wash wells. The Company estimates that up to 1,100 additional wells will be required to fully develop its Pinedale acreage on a combination of 5 and 10-acre density. In addition to QEP Energy�� gross producing wells, QEP Energy had an overriding royalty interest in an additional 21 wells at Pinedale. QEP Energy owns interests in approximately 255,200 net leasehold acres in the Uinta Basin. The remainder of QEP Energy Northern Region leasehold interests, productive wells and proved reserves are distributed over a number of fields and properties managed as the Rockies Legacy division. Exploration and development activity during the year ended December 31, 2011, includes wells in the Powder River and Greater Green River Basins in Wyoming and the Williston Basin in North Dakota. QEP Energy has approximately 90,000 net acres of lease rights in the Williston Basin in western North Dakota, where the Company is targeting the Bakken and Three Forks formations.

QEP Energy Company

QEP Energy is actively involved in several of North America�� hydrocarbon resource plays. QEP�� exploration and production activities are conducted through QEP Energy. P Energy operates in two core regions: the Northern Region (including the states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and North Dakota) and the Southern Region (including the states of Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana). The Southern Region contributed approximately 56% of 2011 production while the Northern Region contributed the remaining 44%. QEP Energy reported 3,614 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent of estimated proved reserves as of December 31, 2011. Of those estimated proved reserves, approximately 64%! , or 2,31! 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent, were located in the Northern Region at December 31, 2011. The remaining 36%, or 1,302 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent at December 31, 2011, were located in the Southern Region. QEP Energy has an inventory of identified development drilling locations, primarily on the Pinedale Anticline in western Wyoming; the Haynesville/Cotton Valley area in northwestern Louisiana; the Midcontinent area with properties primarily in Oklahoma and Texas; the Uinta Basin in eastern Utah, and the Rockies Legacy, which includes the Bakken/Three Forks area in western North Dakota and other properties in Wyoming.

QEP Field Services Company

QEP invests in midstream (gathering, processing and treating) systems to complement its natural gas, oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) operations in regions where QEP Energy has production. In addition, QEP�� midstream business also provides midstream services to third-party customers, including independent producers. QEP Field Services owns various natural gas gathering, treating and processing facilities in the Northern and Southern Regions as well as 78% of Rendezvous Gas Services, LLC, (RGS), a partnership that operates gas gathering facilities in western Wyoming. The FERC-regulated Rendezvous Pipeline Co., LLC (Rendezvous Pipeline), a wholly owned subsidiary of QEP Field Services, operates a 21-mile, 20-inch-diameter pipeline between QEP Field Services��Blacks Fork gas-processing plant and the Muddy Creek compressor station owned by Kern River Gas Transmission Co. (Kern River Pipeline). RGS gathers natural gas for Pinedale Anticline and Jonah Field producers for delivery to various interstate pipelines. QEP Field Services also owns 38% of Uintah Basin Field Services, LLC (UBFS) and 50% of Three Rivers Gathering, LLC (Three Rivers). These two partnerships operate natural gas gathering facilities in eastern Utah.

QEP Marketing Company

QEP Marketing provides wholesale market! ing and s! ales of affiliate and third-party natural gas, oil and NGL. As a wholesale marketing entity, QEP Marketing concentrates on markets in the Rocky Mountains, Pacific Northwest and Midcontinent that are either close to affiliate reserves and production or accessible by pipelines. QEP Marketing contracts for firm-transportation capacity on pipelines and firm-storage capacity at Clay Basin, a baseload-storage facility. QEP Marketing, through its subsidiary Clear Creek Storage Company, LLC, owns and operates an underground gas-storage reservoir in southwestern Wyoming. QEP Marketing uses owned and leased storage capacity together with firm-transportation capacity.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  QEP Resources, Inc. (NYSE:QEP) will host a teleconference and webcast to discuss third quarter 2012 results beginning at 11:00 a.m. EDT (9:00 a.m. MDT) on Wednesday, October 31, 2012. QEP will issue a combined third quarter 2012 financial and operations press release Tuesday, October 30, 2012 after the market closes.

• [By Daniel Gibbs]

  Strong forward growth prospects
  Towards the end of 2013, Vanguard announced�that it is spending $581 million to acquire a stake in two of the most prolific natural gas fields in the United States. These two fields are the Pinedale Anticline and Jonah fields located in southwestern Wyoming. The fields currently contain 2,000 producing wells between them, but Ultra Petroleum (NYSE: UPL  ) and QEP Resources (NYSE: QEP  ) , the operators for the fields and Vanguard's partners in the development of these fields, plan to drill another 970 wells, which will obviously substantially increase Vanguard's production from the fields going forward.

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  QEP Resources Inc.(QEP) plans to separate its midstream business, QEP Field Services Co., into a separate entity, including its interest in QEP Midstream Partners LP(QEPM).

• [By Eric Volkman]

  QEP Resources (NYSE: QEP  ) is letting its dividend flow. The company has declared a quarterly payout of $0.02 per share, to be paid on June 22 to shareholders of record as of June 3. That amount is in line with all of the firm's previous distributions stretching back to the first one it handed out in September 2010.

Top 5 Clean Energy Companies To Buy Right Now: SolarCity Corp (SCTY)

SolarCity Corporation (SolarCity), incorporated on June 21, 2006, is engaged in the design, installation and sale or lease of solar energy systems to residential and commercial customers, or sale of electricity generated by solar energy systems to customers. The Company sells renewable energy to its customers. As of December 12, 2012, the Company served customers in 14 states. The Company�� residential customers are individual homeowners and homeowners. The Company�� commercial customers represent several business sectors, including technology, retail, manufacturing, agriculture, nonprofit and houses of worship. The Company has installed solar energy systems for several government entities, including the the United States Air Force, Army, Marines and Navy, and the Department of Homeland Security. The Company purchases major components, such as solar panels and inverters directly from multiple manufacturers. As of September 30, 2012, its primary solar panel suppliers were Trina Solar Limited, Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited and Kyocera Solar, Inc., among others, and its primary inverter suppliers were Power-One, Inc., SMA Solar Technology, AG, Schneider Electric SA, Fronius International GmbH and SolarEdge Technologies, among others.

Solar Energy Products

The Company�� solar energy products include Solar Energy Systems, and SolarLease and power purchase agreement finance products. The major components of its solar energy systems include solar panels that convert sunlight into electrical current. Most of its solar energy customers choose to purchase energy from the Company pursuant to one of two payment structures: a SolarLease or a power purchase agreement. In both structures, the Company charges customers a monthly fee for the power produced by its solar energy systems. In the lease structure, this monthly payment is pre-determined and includes a production guarantee. In the power purchase agreement structure, the Company charges customers a fee per kilowatt! hour based on the amount of electricity actually produced by the solar energy system.

Energy Efficiency Products and Services

The Company�� energy efficiency products and services include home energy evaluation and energy efficiency upgrades. The Company sells home energy efficiency evaluations to new solar energy system customers and existing customers. The Company�� energy efficiency upgrade products and services address heating and cooling, air sealing, duct sealing, water heating, insulation, furnaces, weatherization, pool pumps and lighting. As of December 12, 2012, the Company had completed over 13,000 home energy evaluations and performed more than 2,000 energy efficiency upgrades.

Other Energy Products and Services

The Company�� other energy products and services include electric vehicle charging and energy storage. The Company installs electric vehicle (EV) charging equipment that it sources from third parties. SolarCity markets EV equipment to residential and commercial customers through retail partnerships with companies, such as The Home Depot, and through EV manufacturers and dealerships, such as its partnership with Tesla Motors, Inc. The Company is developing a battery management system built on its solar energy monitoring communications backbone. As of December 12, 2012, the Company had over 100 energy storage pilot projects under contract. As of December 12, 2012, the Company had sold over 750 charging stations.

Enabling Technologies

The Company�� enabling technologies include SolarBid Sales Management Platform, SolarWorks Customer Management Software, Energy Designer, Home Performance Pro and SolarGuard and PowerGuide Proactive Monitoring Solutions. SolarBid is a sales management platform, which incorporates a database of rate information by utility, sun exposure, roof orientation and a range of other factors to enable a detailed analysis and customized graphical presentation of each customer� �s savin! gs.

SolarWorks is the software platform the Company uses to track and manage project. Energy Designer is a software application its field engineering auditors use to collect pertinent site-specific design details on a tablet computer. Home Performance Pro is its energy efficiency evaluation platform that incorporates the United States Department of Energy�� Energy Plus simulation engine. Home Performance Pro collects and stores details of a building�� construction and energy use. SolarGuard and PowerGuide provide its customers a view of their home�� or business�� energy generation and consumption.

The Company competes with American Solar Electric, Inc., Astrum Solar, Inc., Petersen Dean, Inc., Real Goods Solar, Inc., REC Solar, Inc., Sungevity, Inc., Trinity Solar, Inc., Verengo, Inc., SunRun Inc. and Ameresco, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY  )
  You know how I'm a staunch advocate for profitability?... Well, throw that out the window just this once!

Top 5 Clean Energy Companies To Buy Right Now: Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (ATI)

Allegheny Technologies Incorporated engages in the production and sale of specialty metals worldwide. It operates in three segments: High Performance Metals, Flat-Rolled Products, and Engineered Products. The High Performance Metals segment provides various high performance alloys, including nickel- and cobalt-based alloys and super alloys; titanium and titanium-based alloys; zirconium and related alloys, such as hafnium and niobium; other specialty alloys primarily in long product forms of ingots, billets, bars, shapes and rectangles, rods, wires, and seamless tubes; and precision forgings and castings, and machined parts. The Flat-Rolled Products segment provides stainless steel, nickel-based alloys, super alloys, titanium and titanium-based alloys, and specialty alloys in various product forms comprising plates, sheets, engineered strips, and precision rolled strip products, as well as grain-oriented electrical steel sheets. The Engineered Products segment produces carb on alloy steel impression die forgings, and grey and ductile iron castings, as well as provides precision metal processing services, such as grinding, polishing, blasting, cutting, flattening, and ultrasonic testing. The company serves various markets, including aerospace and defense, oil and gas, chemical process, electrical energy, medical, automotive, construction and mining, food equipment and appliances, transportation, electronics, communication equipment, computers, and machine and cutting tools markets; and other markets requiring tools with hardness. Allegheny Technologies Incorporated sells its products through direct sales and independent representatives. The company was founded in 1960 and is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Charley Blaine]

  The market overall gained support from energy and utility stocks. About 288 S&P 500 stocks were higher, led by First Solar (NYSE: FSLR) and steel-maker Allegheny Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ATI), up 22% and 18.6%, respectively.

• [By Sue Chang and Saumya Vaishampayan]

  Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) �shares rose 4%. The company, which makes products for the aerospace and petrochemical industries, last week declared a quarterly dividend of 18 cents a share. The dividend will be paid on March 26 to shareholders of record at the close of the business day on March 12.