SAGE Electrochromics, a Minnesota energy efficiency technology company, says it expects to close on at least $50 million in new financing in the next three to four months. Talks with potential funders are ongoing, company Chief Executive Officer John Van Dine tells GER, declining to provide more details.
Last week SAGE, based in Faribault, Minn., scored a $72 million Department of Energy loan guarantee plus a $31 million manufacturing tax credit. It is the first energy efficiency company to secure a DOE loan guarantee.
In total, that’s $103 million in government funding that Van Dine says it will use, along with the expected $50 million capital infusion to expand SAGE’s manufacturing capacity.
The loan guarantee will back a portion of the financing needed for construction of a 250,000-square-foot (23,225 square meter) manufacturing facility in Faribault that will add 160 full-time jobs to the 100 jobs in SAGE’s current plant, Van Dine explains.
SAGE manufactures smart windows that use electronics to control the amount of solar heat and light that can pass through a window. A small electric current applied to the windows causes the window tinting to darken or lighten. The windows can be integrated with a building’s indoor climate control system to automatically adjust window tinting, or they can be connected to manually operated switches. Smart windows can reduce a building’s heating and cooling loads.
Last year, SAGE raised about $20 million as part of a Series C funding from Good Energies, Applied Ventures (the venture capital arm of Applied Materials), and Bekaert, a maker of advance metals and coatings based in Belgium. Since its inception in 1988, Sage has raised $100 million to support the development of its energy efficiency technology.