Here’s a recap of the biggest cleantech headlines reaching back into the holidays.
In the week before Christmas, California rooftop solar manufacturer Solyndra, Inc. filed for an initial public offering with a goal of raising $300 million dollars. The high-profile company makes CIGS thin-film solar in a lightweight cylindrical shape. Last year the company received the first loan guarantee offered to a renewable energy company by the Department of Energy. Those funds are being used to to build a manufacturing facility in California with a capacity of 500 megawatts (MW). The company has an impressive backlog of orders worth $2 billion dollars and it has raised $970 million in venture capital. But it also has about $500 million in debt and has yet to turn a profit. The date of IPO has yet to be announced.
The US Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) identified 31 renewable energy projects that will remain of the fast-track for approval by the end of 2010. These solar, wind, geothermal and transmission projects have applied for sites on federal land and must undergo environmental and public review. Bureau director Bob Abbey guaranteed that the process will be finished in time for the projects to take advantage of federal stimulus funds that expire at the end of the year. However, some of the projects, such as BrightSource Energy’s solar thermal plant in the California desert, are running up against opposition from wildlife advocates who say the sites will disrupt pristine habitats for threatened and endangered species.
Norwegian electric car company Think announced plans to start
North American production in Elkhart County, Indiana in 2011. The company also said it will begin selling its Think City vehicle
in the US later this year. Elkhart is also the production site for Think’s lithium-ion battery partner EnerDel. EnerDel’s parent company, Ener 1 (Nasdaq: HEV) owns a 31% stake in Think, and helped rescue the company from the verge of bankruptcy at the beginning of 2008. Think said it will invest $43.5 million setting up the production facility, and the company expects to receive state and federal incentives.
The high-profile venture capital firm, Khosla Ventures, invested in two wind power companies in recent weeks. The move is significant for the firm, which is heavy in biofuels, batteries and IT, but previously had little or no investment in pure-play wind companies. Khosla led a $38 million investment round for Nordic Windpower. The company makes a unique, two-bladed wind turbine that is simpler and less expensive to erect than traditional three-blade turbines. The company has an assembly plant in Pocatello, Idaho and received a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy last fall.
The other investment was part of a $13.2 million funding round for Danotek Motion Technologies, a company that makes permanent magnet generators (PMGs) for wind turbines. Danotek says the design includes no "wear-and-tear parts," making them more reliable and
less costly to maintain. Other investors in the round included GE Energy Financial Services (NYSE: GE), CMEA Capital, and Energy Capital
Management, which manages the investments of Norway’s Statoil ASA (NYSE: STO).
France and Italy are making a push to catch up to Europe’s leading solar producer, Germany. In France EDF Energies Nouvelles (EEN.PA) and First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) announced that they are in final stages of negotiations to build a manufacturing facility near Bordeaux with a capacity of 100 MW a year. Construction is expected to begin later this year, and EDF will have the right to purchase the entire output for the first 10 years of production. Much of this capacity is expected to be employed in solar installations in France.
In Italy, Enel Green Power, Sharp Corporation (6753.T) and STMicroelectronics
(NYSE: STM) signed an agreement for the manufacture of
thin-film photovoltaic panels. The plant will be located in Catania and it will have an initial capacity of 160 MW with plans to gradually increase to 480 MW. In addition, Enel Green Power and Sharp created a joint venture with an aim of building up to 500 MW of solar farms in the region by 2016.
EcoFactor, a California-based home energy management startup, closed a $2.4 million fuding round. EcoFactor won the 2009 business plan competition in the Cleantech Open. The company makes a residential energy management system that uses broadband Internet connections and a thermostat to dynamically regulate heating and cooling. The system is unique in that it doesn’t require the installation of a smart meter. Texas utility Oncor has plans to install about 2,000 of the systems in a pilot project.
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