America's renewable energy industries are thriving at a time of unprecedented market volatility -- and wind and solar companies in particular are among the few bright spots in the current gloom over Wall Street.

Wall Street's JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs and the big utilities have been buying up renewable energy companies in a scramble to get a piece of the record-breaking growth. More than a half-dozen firms have been taken private, including names such as Noble Environmental, Zilkha and Community Energy.

U.S. wind energy companies collectively invested $9 billion dollars in 2007 building 5244 MW of new wind power facilities -- a new record according to the American Wind Energy Association and enough additional energy to supply 1.5 million homes.

U.S. solar companies are also growing at their fastest pace in history -- more than 324 MW of new capacity was added last year, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association.

In a recent analyst survey, a number of high-growth wind and solar companies received favorable "buy" ratings.

Investology Research has a "positive" buy recommendation on NACEL Energy Corp. Earlier this month, the Wyoming based wind Company announced a financing for a major 80 MW expansion -- enough new energy to service 25,000 homes. NACEL Energy is one of the few "wind-only" energy companies in the utility-power producer sector.

Piper Jaffray upgraded SunPower Corp to a "buy" and Banc of America Securities reiterated its "buy" on Suntech Power Holdings Co. Both are leading manufacturers of photovoltaic products and systems used in solar power generation.