FRNW vs PBD

FRNWAFidelity Clean Energy ETF

PBDDInvesco Global Clean Energy ETF

In short

FRNW Fidelity wrote its own clean energy index, then priced the fund at 0.39% a year, matching the category's cheapest heavyweights and undercutting most rivals. Roughly 60 global stocks: solar, wind, and the grid gear behind them.

PBD The 2007 original in global clean energy: about 110 names spanning cleaner generation, conservation and efficiency worldwide, reshuffled every quarter. Broader than the cap-weighted giants, and priced at 0.75% for that reach.

Stated mandate

FRNW The fund seeks returns that generally track the Fidelity Clean Energy Index before fees and expenses.

PBD The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index. That index targets companies worldwide involved in cleaner energy, conservation, efficiency, renewable energy, and related technologies.

Why people hold it

• FRNW 0.39% a year ties the low-cost leader of the group (ICLN) and comes in under CNRG at 0.45% and FAN at 0.61%. In a theme where fees often run higher, that is real money kept.
• Global by mandate, not US-only. The index reaches clean energy companies worldwide, so the fund follows the industry rather than one country's subsidy calendar.
• A plain index fund, not a stock-picking bet: it aims to track the Fidelity Clean Energy Index before fees, so what you own is spelled out in the methodology.
• One of the stronger builds in a crowded clean energy shelf on our review, with the low fee and a spread-out portfolio doing the heavy lifting. Pays quarterly.

• PBD Launched in 2007, a year ahead of ICLN, the category's biggest name. It has traded through a full clean-energy boom and bust with the same index behind it.ishares.com
• About 110 holdings across cleaner energy, conservation and efficiency, held worldwide via ADRs and GDRs where needed. No single stock carries the fund.invesco.com
• The index is rebalanced and reconstituted quarterly, so the basket refreshes with the theme rather than drifting toward whatever already won.invesco.com

Worth knowing

• FRNW One theme, one industry. Clean energy names swing with interest rates, policy shifts, and equipment prices, so the ride is far choppier than a broad market fund.
• Roughly 60 stocks. That is focused enough that a handful of names and a couple of countries carry real weight in the outcome.
• Not one of the giants. A mid-size asset base and moderate trading activity can mean wider bid-ask spreads than the category's most heavily traded funds.

• PBD At 0.75% a year it runs above the clean-energy median (0.59%) and near double ICLN and FRNW at 0.39%. The broad global basket is not the cheap way in.
• A smaller, moderately traded fund rather than one of the category's heavyweights, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than the largest names in the group.
• One narrow global theme, tilted away from mega-caps and sensitive to policy and rates. Swings are larger than a broad world index fund's.

Full FRNW profile⁠

Full PBD profile⁠