Cleantech news was relatively slow this week, although solar stocks made a significant rally
midweek on higher crude oil prices, an improved financing environment
and the possibility of a feed-in tariff for photovoltaics in China.
Suntech Power Holdings (NYSE: STP), LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) and Evergreen
Solar (Nasdaq: ESLR) saw there shares surge by as much as 19% on
Wednesday.
The biggest announcement of the week came from power company Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) and Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO). The companies intend to work together to fast-track development of a smart-gird in
Duke’s service territories. The companies said the architecture of the
system will be based on internet protocol-based open standards, which
will allow for software-based upgrades as technologies evolve in the
years ahead.The two companies will jointly evaluate a smart grid
hardware and software, and oversee installation and testing. Duke plans
to begin its smart grid development in Indiana and Ohio and eventually
in North Carolina, South Carolina and Kentucky.
In other smart-grid news, Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) announced that GE Energy (NYSE: GE) and Silver Spring Networks will be the recommended technology and information partners for its smart grid pilot program. ComEd is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation
(NYSE: EXC), which is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities.
ComEd intends to roll out 141,000 smart meters in Chicago and
surrounding suburbs. GE will provide the smart meters and Silver Spring
Networks will provide the operating software and support services.
U.S. solar company SunPower Corp. (Nasdaq: SPWRA; SPWRB) signed a multi-year agreement with Jabil Circuit, Inc. (NYSE:
JBL) to begin maufacturing solar panels in Mexico in the second half of
2009. Financial terms and quantities of the deal were not disclosed.
SunPower said the agreement is part of long-term strategy to cut costs
and that it is also evaluating establishing localized manufacturing
facilities in large solar markets in the U.S.
California utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company (NYSE: PCG) signed a contract for 230 megawatts (MW) of photovoltaic power to be supplied by AV Solar Ranch 1, which is a subsidiary of NextLight Renewable Power.
The power will be supplied–beginning in 2011–by a new solar farm
being built in Antelope Valley, California. This is the third major
solar contract signed this year by PG&E, which recently topped utility rankings published by the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA).
San Francisco-based algae company Solazyme announced that it has surpassed $76 million
in funding, which includes a $57 million Series C financing round that
just closed. Solazyme uses microalgae biotechnology to produce
renewable fuels, green chemicals, edible oils and health and wellness
products. In addition to the renewable diesel and jet fuel, which has
brought the company a lot of attention, Solazyme also says its process
its the first to take non-food carbohydrates and industrial waste
streams and turn them into edible oils, by feeding them to algae.
Boulder, Colorado-based Tendril raised $30 million
in Series C Funding for its open-platform energy management system for
smart meters.The investment was led by VantagePoint Venture Partners
and includes Good Energies, RRE Ventures, Vista Ventures and Appian
Ventures.
Norwegian oil and gas company StatoilHydro (NYSE: STO) said it plans to begin building a full-scale, floating wind turbine
off the coast of Norway this fall. The design is based on floating
concrete platforms the company uses in oil drilling operations in the
North Sea. The floating element will have a draft of 100 meters below
sea level
and will be moored to the seabed using three anchor points.
StatoilHydro said it expects to deploy the turbines waters ranging from
120 meters to 700 meters in depth. The wind turbine itself will be made
by Siemens (NYSE: SI).
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