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Quercus Takes Control of Open Energy Board as Financing is Completed (10/10)
The Quercus Trust now controls three of the five board seats on Open Energy Corp., as the
company also announced that it has completed some $4.7 million in financing to Open Energy. Open
Energy trades under the symbol OEGY.
Open Energy, which develops clean energy products and innovative energy management
applications, received $4.2 million in cash and $500,000 of forgiveness of accrued interest and
restructuring fees relative to other obligations to Quercus.
Following the closing of the financing, the Board of Directors consists of five members, three of
whom were appointed by Quercus, and two of whom were existing members of the board. David Field,
the current president and chief operating officer, is leading the board as Chairman and will assume the
role of CEO effective November 1, 2008.
Quercus says it has strategic investments in the clean technology areas of solar, water, biofuels,
wind and batteries.
Konarka Claims World's Largest Roll-to-Roll Thin Film Solar Plant (10/9/08)
Konarka Technologies says it hsd opened the largest roll-to-roll flexible thin film solar
manufacturing facility in the world.
The vendor says it is preparing for the commercialization and mass production of its patent-protected
thin film solar material, Power Plastic.
Located in New Bedford, Mass., the 250,000 square foot building was previously the location
for Polaroid Corp’s most advanced printing technologies.
“This facility has state-of-the-art printing capabilities that are ready for full operation, with the
future potential to produce over a gigawatt of flexible plastic solar modules per year,” said Howard
Berke, executive chairman and co-founder of Konarka.
The company says its advanced photovoltaic technology started with the work of the late
Sukant Tripathy and Alan Heeger. The ground-breaking discoveries from both founding scientists led to
Konarka’s underlying technology leadership, including a manufacturing process at relatively low
temperatures, which enables the use of low-cost plastic substrate films, the company says.
The company says has secured over $100 million from leading venture capital and private
equity funds, as well as $18 million in government agency research grants from the United States. and
Europe.
The project has been assisted by various Massachusetts departments and quasi-public agencies,
including the Massachusetts Governor’s Office, the Executive Office of Housing and Economic
Development, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, MassDevelopment and the
Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Renewable Energy Trust Fund and Green Energy Fund.
First Solar Records Impressive Quarterlies (8/1)
First Solar reported quarterly revenues of $267 million for the period ended June 28. This was
up more than threefold from the year-earlier $77.2 million.
Net income was a very strong $69.7 million, First Solar reported.
The company makes solar modules with an advanced thin film semiconductor technology that it
says reduce solar electricity costs.
First Solar, which trades under the ticker FSLR, has been on a steady rise for the past year. It
closed up slightly last night at $285.01.
Green Photonics Forum Coming in September (7/24)
The Optoelectronics Industry Development Association (OIDA) is organizing a Green
Photonics Forum Sept. 9-10 at the Sheraton Denver West in Lakewood, CO.
“As the United States grapples with problems of sustainability, global warming, and energy
independence, it is clear that optoelectronic and photonic technologies will play a key role,” according
to OIDA.
“Efficiency, monitoring, and energy generation are areas where photonic technology have
important contributions. Green photonics impacts energy generation (photovoltaic), lighting (solid state
lighting), display (emissive and other efficient technologies), and communications (intra and inter chip,
board, and system).
At OIDA’s Optoelectronics for the Green Revolution Forum, we will explore the key
technologies and showcase companies that will enable optoelectronics to play a major role in the green
revolution, the association says.
OIDA notes that “with current technologies, photovoltaic cells will take approximately 10,000
square miles of material to replace current fossil fuel generation; either efficiency must increase or
scalable manufacturing of the technology must dramatically improve. Lighting consumes about 22
percent of U.S. electricity demand. Use of solid state lighting offers the ability to reduce that by a
factor of 5. Displays use about 50% of a PC's total energy consumption, and displays in TVs, mobile
devices, signage, and embedded applications also consume significant energy. We must adopt
technologies with improved operating efficiency to reduce consumption.”
The association also notes that major supercomputer installations today consume 10s of
megawatts and that 30 percent to 50 percent of average power consumption of new multicore
processors is in the on-chip and off-chip interconnects. As bandwidth increases, the power consumed in
interfaces will increase in proportion to computational power. This will drive a new focus on energy
optimized chip and system design. New technologies, such as nanophotonics that require negligible
energy to operate, may get us to terabit speeds without consuming terawatts of power.
To register, or for more information, go to OIDA.org.
Renewal of 30 Percent Tax Credit Critical, Solar Advocates Tell Hill Panel (7/14/08)
Solar energy proponents Friday told a briefing on Capital Hill that the U.S. solar program is in
big trouble if Congress does not renew the 30 percent tax credits that are due to expire in December.
Rhone Resch of the Solar Energy Industries Association said 39,000 of the existing 60,000
solar-related jobs in America will disappear without the renewal of the tax credit.
“The oil industry gets tax credits for ever, the nuclear industry for 15 years,” said Resch. “We
get them for two years. That's not long enough for an industry to become sustainable.”
Good things are starting to happen in America regarding solar, Resch said. America could be
third in the world by 2010 with the tax credits and other incentives and subsequently move up from
there.
“It's usually disastrous what happens when the federal government jump starts a market and
then steps back,” said Resch. He acknowledged the U.S. solar industry is still heavily dependent on
subsidies to survive.
What else could the federal government do to encourage solar?
“We want to see utilities investing in solar energy,” said Resch. They are currently prohibited
from getting the tax credit to do so.
While the solar lobby has been able to reverse a moratiroum by the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management on allowing solar sites, there have been few applications thus far.
Resch also said many states are not allowed to connect solar power to the electrical grid. “I
thought this was a free country,” he observed.
Another problem area? Homeowner associations that prohibit solar devices from being attached
to homes. The same thing happened 20 years ago with satellite dishes, Resch recalled. Those actions
were subsequently prohibited.
The hearing was sponsored in part by the Optical Society of America.
Silicon Valley School District Begins Solar Power Program (7/11/08)
The Milpitas Unified School District, located in the Silicon Valley area of California, is working
with Chevron and the Bank of America to begin construction of a 14-site, districtwide solar power
and energy efficiency program.
The goal is to supply 75 percent of the district’s total annual electricity needs through solar
energy.
The 3.4-megawatt solar installation will generate what is believed to be the highest percentage
of solar power for any K-12 school district in the United States and will supply 100 percent of the
district’s power during the peak-demand summer months, when California’s electricity needs are
greatest, according to Chevron.
Chevron says it will construct parking canopies and shade structures mounted with solar
photovoltaic arrays at 13 schools and one district site. The company says it also will provide
maintenance for the solar power system as well as measure and guarantee its performance. The oil
company will also install energy management software on the district’s computers to improve energy
efficiency.
Chevron says it has developed more than 900 projects involving energy efficiency or renewable
power for education, government and business customers in the U.S. since 2000.
The start of construction was celebrated today at a Rancho Milpitas Middle School event
attended by government, business and district officials.
The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.
Cleantech Group Distributes $2 Billion in Q2 08 (7/9/08)
The Cleantech Group says its investments in Q2 08 totaled $2 billion, distributed across 96
companies.
The amount represented an all-time record for the company and represents a 58 percent increase
over the same period in the prior year.
Companies funds were distributed to included North America, Europe, China and India.
"Interest in cleantech continues to show robust growth, despite the impact of economic
headwinds and continued credit market constraints," said John Balbach, managing partner of the
Cleantech Group. "The combination of a strengthening pipeline of promising new innovations, steady
progress in scaling growth-stage companies and improving demand-side pull are leaning towards 2008
outperforming the banner 2007 record performance."
Investments in solar technologies and second-generation biofuels, including concentrated solar
thermal and algae companies, primarily drove the 2Q08 results:
SOLAR THERMAL: Unlike solar photovoltaic technology, which directly converts sunlight
into electricity, solar thermal concentrates the sun's heat to turn water into steam, powering a
turbine. Solar thermal is a utility-scale technology designed to competitively generate gigawatts
of clean electricity. Solar thermal companies eSolar, BrightSource Energy, SkyFuel, Infinia and
Sopogy raised a total of $278 million in venture capital in 2Q08. Combined with the $100
million acquisition of Stirling Energy Systems by NTR plc and the $165 million in venture
capital raised by Solel, Infinia and eSolar in 1Q08, solar thermal companies have raised, year-
to-date, $543 million.
SECOND-GENERATION BIOFUELS: While recent increases in grain prices have created
controversy over first-generation biofuels, second-generation biofuel companies, which do not
rely on food crops as a feedstock, continue to receive large amounts of venture capital. Second-
generation biofuel companies Range Fuels, Sapphire Energy, EdeniQ, Mascoma, Aurora
BioFuels, Gevo, Fulcrum Bioenergy, Greenline Industries, GreenFuel Technologies and Amyris
Biotechnologies raised a combined $280 million in venture investment in 2Q08. Of this total,
$136 million was invested in cellulosic ethanol startups and $84 million in algae biomass
startups, including a $50 million round for Sapphire Energy-the single largest round ever
raised by an algae company.
"For the first time, algae companies are attracting large, follow-on investment rounds-a trend
we expect to continue into the second half of the year," said Brian Fan, Senior Director of Research for
the Cleantech Group. "This breakout quarter for solar thermal and algae companies indicates a growing
appetite for clean technologies that can replace coal for electricity generation and oil for transportation
fuels."
NORTH AMERICA: U.S. companies received a record $1.49 billion in 54 financing rounds,
accounting for approximately 74 percent of the total. California-based companies received
approximately 40 percent of cleantech investments, with a record $794 million in 21 investments.
Canadian companies received $40 million in two investments.
EUROPE: European companies (including Israeli companies) recorded $257 million in 31 disclosed
financing rounds, accounting for approximately 13 percent of the total. The amount invested in
European companies was the lowest for three quarters, due to a drop-off in the number of large energy
generation deals. 2Q08 investments still represent a 37 percent increase from the same period a year
ago. UK companies received the most capital with $86 million invested in 17 companies.
CHINA and INDIA: Chinese companies raised $235 million in venture capital across six rounds,
accounting for approximately 12 percent of total. The largest single investment was $100 million in
growth capital financing for Yingbin Nature, a sustainable forestry product company. Interestingly,
Chinese cleantech-related investment funds raised over $6.9 billion during the quarter, reflecting strong
potential for future growth in the Chinese cleantech sector. Indian companies raised $11.1 million in
venture investments across three rounds, accounting for approximately 0.6 percent of the total. This
was principally driven by a $10 million investment in Emergent Ventures, a Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM) consulting company. The two other investments were in clean water technologies.
| TOP INVESTORS: |
| 2Q08 Top Five Cleantech Venture Funds |
| Venture Capital Firm |
# of rounds |
Companies |
| Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers |
5 |
Segway, Lehigh Technologies, Amyris Biotechnologies,
Verdiem, Jiangxi Tianren Ecological Industry Co. |
| Foundation Capital |
4 |
Control4, Silver Spring Networks, eMeter, SunRun |
| Quercus Trust |
4 |
Firefly, Standard Renewable Energy,
Sencera, Hydro Green Energy |
| Khosla Ventures |
4 |
Amyris, Gevo, Firefly Energy, Range Fuels |
| Draper Fisher Jurvetson |
3 |
Brightsource Energy, EdeniQ, GreenFuel Technologies |
| |
|
Source: Cleantech Group (cleantech.com) |
M&As and IPOs: Cleantech M&A totaled an estimated 43 transactions in 2Q08, of which totals
were disclosed for 23 transactions totaling $4.2 billion. This is down from the 44 transactions in 1Q08, of
which 20 were disclosed, totaling $6.4 billion. The largest M&A in 2Q08 was LBO France's $3.1
billion purchase of equity in Converteam Group SAS, a power optimization infrastructure company.
India's Suzlon Energy acquired Areva's 30 percent stake in RE Power for $540 million, and First
Reserve Corp. acquired Gamesa Solar for $395 million. Aligned with the solar thermal focus in 2Q08,
NTR plc took a 51 percent stake in Stirling Energy Systems for $100 million. Cleantech IPOs increased
to six IPOs, worth $4.4 billion, up from a low of four IPOs worth $108 million in the previous quarter.
The largest IPO was EDP Renovaveis SA on Euronext, which raised $2.4 billion. Euronext had two
cleantech IPOs, while the AMEX, NASDAQ, Frankfurt and NYSE each had one.
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