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$500M Renewables Fund Forming in Europe

$500 million has been raised for a European fund – the Ampere Equity Fund – that focuses on renewable energy projects. This novel fund was created by a project developer to fund it’s own portfolio. It will invest in projects developed by Evelop, which is a subsidiary of Dutch clean energy firm, Econcern. The portfolio has been largely identified. If a project meets the fund’s predetermined criteria, the fund will take an equity position. Dutch pension giants ABP and PGGM have made cornerstone investments, and Rabobank and Delta Lloyd, and others have also invested. The fund currently stands at Euro 350 million ($500 million). Envelop expects to raise Euro 500 million by year end when the fund will close. 70% of the fund’s assets will be invested in Western Europe wind farms, both onshore and offshore, and 30% will be invested in biomass generation, although it will also consider solar. “With KPMG Corporate Finance we have developed a model for this fund that enables us to reach a decision about new projects very quickly,” he said. “That speed will give us an enormous advantage in the market. Our objective for the next few years is to develop and implement 4,000 […]

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TPI Composites Raises $22M

TPI Composites, Inc., a manufacturer of large-scale composite structures for the wind energy, transportation, and military vehicle markets, announced it closed $22 million in Series A Convertible Preferred equity financing from new and existing investors. NGP Energy Technology Partners led the investment round and was joined by Angeleno Group and return investor, Landmark Growth Capital Partners. Said TPI President and CEO Steven Lockard, “We expect our wind business to continue its dramatic growth in North America and China over the next couple of years. We are gaining significant traction in our military and transportation businesses as well.” “TPI is an exciting company with a strong management team and a proven ability to produce high-quality, large-scale composite structures in volume,” said Philip Deutch, Managing Partner of NGP Energy Technology Partners. Website: [sorry this link is no longer available]     

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FERC Fast Tracks Tidal Power

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) held meetings in Portland last week on its proposed fast-track licensing process for hydrokinetic pilot projects. FERC currently has no system in place to govern the new technology, which utilizes the tidal motions of the ocean to generate power. According to its July proposal, FERC wants to implement a system by which developers could receive five-year licenses in as few as six months. By comparison, FERC often takes three years to review traditional hydropower projects before granting a license of up to 50 years. The fast-track licensing for tidal power is meant to encourage developers to experiment with technologies and sitings, and the short license period would reduce the potential for environmental damage. But some suggest there are significant downsides to the program. The two main concerns are that the short review period leaves projects vulnerable to lawsuits and the short licensing period doesn’t encourage significant investment in the young technology, which may take longer than five years to reach levels of profitability. Tidal/ wave energy has tremendous potential according to experts, but the industry is still in its infancy stage, awaiting the development of proven designs. Estimates suggest wave power could supply anywhere […]

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Challenges to Japanese Whaling: Youtube, Satellite Research

Australia is using YouTube to campaign against Japanese whaling, while Greenpeace has begun to track whales by satellite to prove the Japanese don’t have to kill whales in order to research them. Australia’s campaign on YouTube targets Japanese children. It says: “Can you imagine what life on Earth would be like without these magnificent creatures? Hundreds of years of whaling have nearly wiped them out.” That’s what Australia Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull says in the video, which is subtitled in Japanese. For the first time, Japan plans to kill 50 endangered humpback whales and 50 fin whales in the Antarctic. They are currently on their way there, swimming along Australia’s coast. Japan also plans to kill 935 minke whales, continuing its “scientific research.” Meanwhile, Greenpeace has implemented a satellite-based tracking system that monitors endangered South Pacific humpback whales, saying there are other ways to study the animals, other than killing them. The group has tagged humpback whales which are “now being tracked to produce vital data on their movements, habitat use and population structure,” said Greenpeace New Zealand’s oceans campaigner, Mike Hagler. “The tagging program is producing real scientific results” on whale migrations from breeding grounds in the South Pacific […]

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PV Industry Proposes Take-Back System

During a debate at the 4th European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) Roundtable, which runs until December 2007, participants focused on waste and recycling in the photovoltaic sector. They discussed the PV industry initiative to establish a voluntary take-back system for PV products and urged the European Commission not to include PV in the WEEE take-back directive, currently under revision. Photovoltaic (PV) products are currently not included in the scope of the directive on Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), but could be after the current revision is released in 2008. The need to recycle PV products is still limited, since it’s only recently that the sector took off. EPIA foresees a drastic change in the situation 20 years from now when products reach their end-of-life and spent modules will have to be recycled. To anticipate the future needs, the PV sector, through the association “PV Cycle”, proposes a voluntary take-back system for PV waste that will enable the sector to recover up to 90% of PV products by 2015. The association represents over 70% of the global photovoltaic market. Its key objectives are: . Promoting and setting up an industry wide voluntary PV module reclaim and recycling program; . Promoting […]

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SunPower Corporation: How High Is High?

URL: http://seekingalpha.com/article/49591-sunpower-corporation-how-high-is-high?source=yahoo Website: http://seekingalpha.com/article/49591-sunpower-corporation-how-high-is-high?source=yahoo     

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