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Tubular solar startup Solyndra piled on more sales contracts and today announced a $320 million deal with Carlisle Energy Services, a newly formed division of Carlisle Construction Materials. The deal is for 100 megawatts of panels over five years. Carlisle will work with an independent solar integrator to sell and install the cylindrical thin-film solar panels in conjunction with its Energy Star-certified, cool roof systems for commercial buildings.
Lilliputian Systems Inc. will expand its Wilmington, Mass., power systems manufacturing plant and add 100 clean tech jobs, Gov. Deval Patrick announced Wednesday.
Wind Energy Corp., a startup developing a small, vertically spinning wind turbine, has raised about $6 million from private investors since launching a year and a half ago, CEO Jim Fugitte told Greentech Media this week.
We were pretty sure that the news that solar thermal startup Ausra had raised $25 million back in August, wasn’t the full story — Ausra Executive VP Robert Morgan had said that the company was looking to raise a round closer to $50 million for its Series C. Well, this afternoon Ausra says that it has closed a round of $60.6 million. The round includes Al Gore’s investment fund Generation Investment Management, as well as KERN Partners, Starfish Ventures and founding investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Khosla Ventures.
As wind farm developments have soared in the U.S., turbine makers are finding they can barely keep up. Northern Power Systems said its parent company, Wind Power Holdings, has completed a $37 million round of financing to boost its turbine manufacturing business, led by RockPort Capital Partners and Allen & Company.
RoofRay, a sort of online clearinghouse for solar that we wrote about in August, launched an embeddable widget (see below) for web sites on Monday. RoofRay creator Chris Bura tells us that a widget was a commonly-requested feature from users and he created the widget to “take solar viral.”
There are 1,700 operating landfills in the U.S., and according to the the EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program, they contain enough natural gas to produce 2,643 megawatts of electricity. As part of its previously announced goal of developing 60 landfill gas-to-energy (LFGTE) projects by 2012, Waste Management, one of the largest landfill operators in the country, said today it plans to partner with private and municipal landfill owners to tap those trash-based resources.
Japanese consumer electronics maker and solar giant Sharp plans to boost its thin film manufacturing capacity six fold. The company is still working on reaching its goal of 1 gigawatt of production capacity by 2010 but Toshishige Hamano, a vice president in Sharp’s solar-battery division, told reporters today that as early as 2014 that number could jump to 6 gigawatts. Hamano, speaking at the opening of Sharp’s new thin-film production line at its Katsuragi Plant, added that Sharp is aiming for a 50 percent market share in thin-film solar by 2012.
eSolar, the startup that says it’s using computing and algorithms to produce low-cost solar thermal gear, says it has signed a commercial contract with Sundrop Fuels, a young solar startup backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. eSolar, which was recently backed by $130 million in funding from Google, Idealab and Oak Investment Partners, is supplying the Colorado-based Sundrop with its heliostat and suntracking technology in a “multi-million dollar deal;” Sundrop will use the technology in a “process heat application.”
SkyFuel’s VP of business development, Christopher Huntington, compares his solar startup’s strategy to the tortoise, in the old tortoise and the hare story. He says while many young solar thermal startups are racing to rush next-generation, unproven technologies to market, SkyFuel is working on dramatically lowering the cost of an established solar-thermal technology that’s been used for decades: trough-shaped solar concentrators.
Algae biofuel maker Solazyme said today that its microbial-derived jet fuel has passed inspection with flying colors. The South San Francisco-based startup had its algal-derived aviation fuel studied by the Southwest Research Institute, a fuel analysis lab, and it passed the American Society for Testing and Materials protocol, the first algae-based fuel to do so, according to the company.
A key European Parliament committee approved a plan that allows the use of electricity and hydrogen to meet the fuel target. It also voted to include the shipping industry in the EU’s carbon-trading program.
The venture would be LG’s first move into solar-panel manufacturing, and could be a boost for Conergy to meet investors expectations.
The Spanish wind-energy giant said it would buy the utility for $4.5 billion in cash and $3.8 billion in debt.
The company expects to be the first to ship customers thin-film panels made using Applied Materials’ prefabricated thin-film line.
Making air conditioners more energy efficient through the use of semiconductor-based valves would not only reduce the average air conditioning bill by some 20 to 30 percent, but would save the equivalent of 1.2 billion barrels of oil annually. That’s according to the Microstaq team, which are showing off their tiny valves at the Demo conference this week. And like the new “Harry Potter” movie, such energy-saving air conditioners will hit the market in the summer of next year.
The New Zealand company Aquaflow Binomics, which is looking to be the first company in the world to economically produce biofuel from wild algae harvested from open-air environments, said on Wednesday that it has produced the first samples of its “green crude.” The bio-crude can lead to fuels similar to diesel and jet fuel, that can “literally be ‘dropped into’ the existing petroleum fuels infrastructure,” said Aquaflow chairman, Barrie Leay in a statement.
Web site The Car Connection on Tuesday managed to get its digital hands on photos of the what is said to be the production version of the Chevy Volt, the much-ballyhooed plug-in hybrid from General Motors.
Cellulosic biofuel startup Range Fuels is getting ready to reap what it has sown with its biomass feedstock partner Ceres, an energy crop company. Range Fuels announced the partnership for a multi-year test of commercial varieties of switchgrass and high-biomass sorghum planted near its Soperton Plant site in Georgia.
Green Energy Options, a Cambridge, England-based energy monitoring company, has received a £250,000 ($447,287) investment through the Thames Valley Investment Network as part of an £800,000 funding round.
In the past couple weeks there’s been news of hundreds of millions pumped into thin-film solar startups, with both Nanosolar and AVA Solar announcing massive rounds. Well, it’s not over yet, folks. This morning Venture Wire says that thin film solar player SoloPower has raised a grand ol’ $200 million to scale manufacturing up at a 100-megawatt-per-year plant (via VentureBeat).
At 1,500-1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, wood chips don’t stand a chance, but under the right conditions, those chips can be efficiently turned into clean, energy-rich syngas. That’s what Vancouver, B.C.-based Nexterra Energy does with its gasification technology, for which it just raised C$3.8 million ($3.6 million) in a fourth round funding, the startup said yesterday. The round was led by return investor ARC Financial Corp., which has invested C$20 million in gasification venture to date.
Thin-film solar maker Nanosolar was already one of the more well-funded startups in cleantech with at least $150 million behind it. But this morning Nanosolar’s CEO Martin Roscheisen writes on the company blog that Nanosolar has raised $300 million in an oversubscribed equity financing round, which closed in March, that brings its total to just under half a billion dollars. That could make it one of the most well-funded startups. Period.
Even the big boys of solar need to keep ramping up production to meet global demand. Today, Mitsubishi Electric said it will invest 50 billion yen ($455 million) to quadruple its annual photovoltaic production capacity to 600 megawatts by 2012 from 150 megawatts today. The plan calls for the construction of a new fabrication building at its Nakatsugawa Works Iida factory in Nagano Prefecture. This new plan is 100 megawatts bigger and a year sooner than the goal Mitsubishi set in March when it announced an investment of 7 billion yen to expand solar cell production. Mitsubishi forecasts a global PV market size of 1,950 megawatts in 2009, growing to 4,430 megawatts by 2012.
Despite rising controversy over a proposed $2.3 billion biomass plant in East Texas, the Austin city council unanimously approved the contract on Thursday, the local Statesman reports. Under the terms of the contract,Nacogdoches Power will construct and operate a 100-megawatt plant, which will burn woody wastes, including sawdust and tree trimmings, and sell the power to Austin Energy over the course of 20 years.
The mood in the solar stock sector today might best be described as dark green. Shares in Qidong, China-based Solarfun posted financial earnings that were ahead of analyst expectations, but the shares dived as much as 11 percent percent on concern that prices for its photovoltaic cells and modules will decline as much as 10 percent next year.
Tangent, a company that makes computers for fields like healthcare, business and education, has just rolled out a new computer model dubbed the “Evergreen 17.” The $1,195-computer has been designed from the ground up to be highly-efficient and uses 24 watts, or 72 percent less energy than the standards set by Energy Star 4.0. And we give it a few bonus points for it’s skinny sleek design that includes a touch-screen LCD and looks a bit like a black PC version of an iMac (though not as nice).
When it comes to renewable energy, there’s the valid question: “But what do you do when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow?” A new joint venture, launched with $20 million, thinks it has an answer - compressed air. Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., owner of New Jersey’s largest utility, has formed Energy Storage and Power with inventor Michael Nakhamkin which will develop and market compressed-air energy storage systems. PSEG will spend $20 million over the venture’s first three years, with the option to invest more should customers start picking up projects, PSEG tells us.
Despite heavy opposition from environmentalists, economists and renewable energy supporters, it’s looking increasingly like carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) will play a large part in various government plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The latest project to be announced — a full coal burning plant using CCS technology in Canada.
Amyris Biotechnologies, a startup using synthetic biology to replace petroleum, has added another $21 million to its already sizable $70 million funding round. This brings the total for its ongoing series B round to $91.35 million. The company confirmed the funding with us this morning, which was first reported by VentureWire.
The World Bank estimates that some 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas are flared at oil fields annually, adding 400 million tons of CO2 to the atmosphere — just because it’s cheaper to burn it than transport it. But Synfuels, a startup with a new chemical process, thinks it can convert natural gas into gasoline efficiently, allowing companies to economically tap the natural gas they usually burn off.
Rob Day of @Ventures offers an in-depth look at A123 Systems Inc., a lithium ion battery technology startup that filed to go public last week.
After a rash of negative publicity, biofuels backers say that advanced technologies will reshape the industry, making ethanol from sustainably grown sources cost-effective within a few years.
As expected, lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems has filed to go public. Given that the company is one of the most promising and prominent venture-backed electric car battery makers out there, the move, which will see it raise up to $175 million, is a big deal.
Simbol Mining, which plans to plans to extract lithium for making batteries for electric cars and consumer electronics, has secured $6.7 million in series A funding.
The Sunflower rooftop system from Energy Innovations became the first solar photovoltaic concentrator to receive Underwriters Laboratories certification Monday.
Photovoltaic material maker Wakonda Technologies Inc. today will announce a $9.5 million Series A round that will fund the development of high-efficiency, low-cost solar cells.
Investors include Advanced Technology Ventures, General Catalyst Ventures, Polaris Venture Partners, Applied Ventures LLC, and the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund.
With growing portfolios of clean energy and environmental technology startups under their belts, Virgin Green Fund of the U.K. and Dubai’s Masdar Clean Tech Fund turned to the buyout market for a major foray into the “dirty” side of cleantech. The funds announced the acquisition of established refinery services operator DuraTherm Inc. to vastly expand the market for recycling and remediation of hazardous hydrocarbon waste.
The company has teamed up with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to say it has changed its mind about building its four-door sedan, now called Model S, in New Mexico.
The report says investors planted $148 billion into solar, wind and other renewable energy projects in 2007.
Solar thermal company Ausra on Monday opened a Las Vegas factory meant to produce enough equipment each year to provide 700 megawatts of power.
A123 Systems has signed on electricity utilities to use its lithium-ion batteries for short-term energy storage, according to a company executive.
Intel made a big leap into the burgeoning clean-tech sector on Monday by creating SpectraWatt, a spinoff company that will manufacture solar cells.
Its investment arm, Intel Capital, is leading a $50 million round in SpectraWatt. Other investors include Goldman Sachs subsidiary Cogentrix Energy, PCG Clean Energy and Technology Fund, and German solar company Solon.
Cleantech is becoming all the rage, and stories are being published almost weekly about the shortage of employees for this booming new industry segment. So how do you get in on this action? The entire industry is quite new, and there are very few people who have any direct experience with the cleantech field. How do you get into cleantech if you’ve never been clean???
Get Real
First, be realistic. So you’ve worked your whole career in the software industry marketing enterprise software. How in the world can that qualify you to market solar panels? Well, it really can’t. There are many facets to the cleantech industry, and you should focus on areas that more closely mirror your experience. For example, Verdiem is a company that creates software to save enterprises on costs with laptop and PC energy management. That sounds like a company that could use a marketing expert from the software industry. And while you still might get the Director of Marketing job at the solar panel company, be careful what you wish for. Are you really confident as a lifelong software marketing guru that you know what it takes to be successful in solar?
The Same But Different
Continuing this approach, look for cleantech companies that are similar to the industries in which you have expertise. Solar manufacture and design has many similarities to semiconductor manufacture and design. New fuel development companies can be similar to biotech firms. In fact, some cleantech companies do both fuel and biotech development. Battery development can have similarities to the electronics industry. Car design may have transferable skills from the general manufacturing arena. And if you’re having a hard time matching up your industry experience with another cleantech segment, look at their customer profiles. Who do they sell to? How do they need to market their product? You might find there are many similarities with the customer base you have worked with in the past.
How Did THEY Get Hired?
Take a look at the backgrounds of the executives and employees who work for different cleantech companies. Search LinkedIn for their profiles and see what kind of people already work where you want to work. See where they went to college. You may be surprised to find a common industry or background that you didn’t expect would be a fit for that industry.
Save a Tree Only After You Make a Buck
Finally, make sure you understand exactly what you’re getting into. If you want to join a hot startup company for the sole purpose of saving mother earth and humanity, you may find it tough to land a job if you express that attitude in interviews. Remember that most cleantech companies, at least those on CleanLoop, are backed by investors who want a return on their money. If they couldn’t make money saving the planet, then they wouldn’t invest. This isn’t meant to be a negative comment either. Newbies to the cleantech startup world should be aware that these are businesses who have received investment dollars to create hugely successful companies. You can feel great about the work you do, but never forget that cleantech is a business first. If you want to feel great and not worry about pressure to become a successful corporation, you would likely be much happier in the non-profit arena. You should still focus on your passion for the industry in interviews, but make sure it doesn’t overshadow your desire to work hard at growing a dominant cleantech company that is a smashing success.
Ford and GM got money from the federal government to create plug-in hybrid car fleets ready to go by 2014. Unfortunately, this comes on the heels of a Toyota announcement to do the same by 2010. Innovation is alive and well in the auto industry. In Japan.
RockPort Capital Partners of Boston has announced a new $450M venture fund devoted to cleantech investments. RockPort is definitely a VC firm to watch, as they will need to put that money into emerging cleantech companies over the next 3-5 years and create job opportunities.
A report by New Energy Finance and Heidrick & Struggles shows that cleantech CEOs are facing a shortage of human capital in the industry. Some of the highlights:
- 96% see the recruitment shortage as serious to moderately serious
- CEOs, CTOs and project managers are tough to find
- Most of the employees are being hired from outside of the cleantech industry
The question is whether or not the flood of money into cleantech will be able to hire enough experienced workers to meet VC expectations for business growth.
The NVCA announced that over $2.5 billion was invested by venture capital firms in the cleantech industry in 2007. This is a 40% increase over 2006. This is less than the $3 billion investment reported by Thomson but still shows significant money going into the cleantech industry.
