Now consider how much of that Green energy potential we’re tapping. Of the 100 quadrillion barrels of oil-equivalent energy the United States consumes each year, 85% comes from fossil fuels, 8% from nuclear power, 3% from biomass (primarily wood burning) and 2.5% from existing hydroelectric, like the Hoover Dam (there are no more large scale hydroelectric projects planned for the U.S. and likely never will be, due to environmental concerns). That’s 98.5%.

The remainder, just 1.5% now comes from solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, tidal and other still developing alternate energies combined.

And yet having just scratched the surface of our potential, we have already seen some fantastic stocks make plenty of money for Cabot Green Investor subscribers.

Here are two recent examples: Last month we cashed in a 32% profit on SQM, a Chilean miner of lithium, an essential, ingredient to hybrid car batteries. We bought shares in March just after the market bottomed and sold in July as the shares eased off their 52-week high and we sensed weakness–shares have eased further since. A couple of weeks ago, we sold Green Mountain Coffee Roasters for a 74% profit after buying the organic and fair trade coffee company in April.

And currently, we have winning positions in a wind company, a solar-related technology outfit, a Green car-related company, a Green engineering firm, an organic food company and others.

Our picks are confidential for Cabot Green Investor subscribers, but I know readers of Cabot Wealth Advisory always appreciate a current recommendation, so here is one that is still a buy.

It’s a company few Americans have heard of: Telvent (TLVT). It’s a Spain-based information technology company that manages Green resources, like watersheds in Spain, the mass transit electric systems for Sao Paolo, Brazil, and automated toll collection on Chinese highways.

The company has been in its four business segments–transportation, energy, agriculture and environmental services–for over 20 years and has the benefit of consistently large and stable business as a result (it had 55% of 2010 expected sales locked up by December 2008).

Last year, it earned $1.41 a share earnings and sales of $1.45 billion.  Yet it’s also a growth story in the area of smart grids and smart meters.

Telvent just won a $150 million contract (it will share one-third to half of that with a partner) with Finland’s largest utility to help install smart meters in 3.1 million customer homes and is working with Progress Energy Carolinas to implement smart grid technology to manage loads at peak demand hours. Presumably, that’s a prelude to even more impressive wins.

At 27 a share, it’s still priced at a reasonable 17 times trailing earnings in a segment of the energy industry–smart grids and grid efficiency–that is growing double-digits worldwide.

The latest issue of Cabot Green Investor has two more high potential stocks (of a smart grid technology company and a brand name household product maker). Subscribe today and you’ll have access to those two picks immediately, as well as the full analysis of Telvent.