Investor News for the cleantech industry was a little slow over the last two weeks, but several interesting stories stood out.
Venture investments
set an all-time record of $2 billion in 2Q08, according to figures
released by the Cleantech Group, which showed an increase of 48% over
the previous quarter. U.S. company’s received the lion’s share of $1.49
billion in 54 financing rounds that favored solar thermal and
second-generation biofuel companies.
Another report showed that the global carbon market is booming,
generating $59 billion in trades during the first half of 2008. A level
that is almost equal to the total amount of trading in 2007 ($62
billion).
All eyes are on GT Solar International Inc. as it prepares for its IPO.
The company, which manufactures equipment used to produce solar wafers
and cells, priced 30.3 million shares at $15.50 to $17.50, the proceeds
of which will be split among the companies current stakeholders. The
company became profitable in the previous fiscal year and the IPO will
be a good indicator for the overall market strength of the solar
sector.
Another U.S. solar company Sencera International Corporation announced that it will stay in Charlotte, North Carolina, building a thin film manufacturing plant
over the three years in the city where it is headquartered. The company
said it will spend roughly $36.8 million building the facilit, which is
expected to have an output exceeding 38 megawatts (MW).
Ausra, a California-based company at the forefront of developing utilit-scale solar thermal plants, officially opened a manufacturing plant
near Las Vegas that produces reflectors–a key component for the
technology which uses sunlight to create steam, which then turns
electricity-generating turbines.
California’s SunPower Corporation (Nasdaq: SPWR) was selected by the FPL Group (NYSE: FPL) to build two massive solar power systems
in Florida. A 25-MW system in DeSoto County will be the largest in the
country, and the second 10-MW system will be installed at the Kennedy
Space Center.
And another U.S. company, National Semiconductor Corp (NYSE: NSM) has entered the solar market
with the dubiously named SolarMagic technology, which the company says
can boost the overall efficiency of most types of solar power systems.
Intel Capital, the global investment arm of Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), led an investment round in German thin-film solar company Sulfurcell.
Intel Capital pitched in EUR 24 million of the total EUR 85 million,
which the company will use to build a new production plant in Berlin.
Germany’s largest solar company by output volume, Q-Cells AG (QCE.F) announced the expansion of EverQ. EverQ is a joint venture between Q-Cells, Norway’s REC (REC.OL) and and Massachusetts-based Evergreen Solar
(Nasdaq: ESLR). EverQ will build a third integrated wafer, cell and
module production facility in Germany, boosting the company’s capacity
from 100 MW to 180MW.
In China, integrated solar company Solarfun Power Holdings (Nasdaq: SOLF) announced plans to purchase the remaining 48% stake
that it does not currently hold in Jiangsu Yangguang Solar, which
produces polysilicon–the raw material used in photovoltaic solar
cells.
General Electric (NYSE: GE) is two-thirds of the way to reaching
its $6 billion goal for investments in renewable energy. The company’s
Financial Services unit crossed the $4 billion mark with plans to invest $100 million in three new wind farm projects in New York. Noble Environmental Power will develop the projects.
In other wind news, Spanish renewable energy developer Iberdrola Renewables has tendered an offer to buy all outstanding shares of the Greek wind power company Rokas Group
(ASE: ROKPA). Iberdrola already owns a majority of the company.
Iberdrola has a goal of investing EUR 18.8 billion in the global wind
sector over the next four years.
Elsewher in Europe, hydrogen fuel cell company Intelligent Energy raised $13.6 million in a round of private funding. The company recently formed a joint venture with Scottish & Southern Energy
to develop hydrogen fuel cell combined heat and power (CHP) systems for
domestic and business uses in the UK. The company also has a
high-profile deal to provide fuel cells for London taxis in time for
the 2012 Olympics.
And in other news, Solazyme announced that its algae-based renewable biodiesel fuel passes American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D-975 specifications. The company is working with Chevron to bring the fuel to market.
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