Author: Terrence Murray

A123 Systems, the maker of Lithium-ion batteries, will supply power packs for the Fisker Karma, a rechargeable luxury car set to launch later this year.

A123 has also committed to invest $23 million as part of an ongoing funding round for Fisker Automotive, the company developing the Karma.

The Boston-based battery developer steps in as a second choice for Los Angeles-based Fisker, which until Wednesday had been in talks with EnerDel to develop its automobiles’ batteries.

Talks between Fisker and EnerDel broke off, according to Fisker founder and Chief Executive Henrik Fisker, because EnerDel was unable to meet the automaker’s production schedule for its Karma model, reports Reuters via PeHUB.

For A123 this is a market-creating deal, as it will gives it the annual ability to supply batteries for about 24,000 plug-in hybrids. Last December the company was also awarded a contract to supply battery systems for China’s SAIC Motor Form.

Last year Fisker scored a $528 million federal loan guarantee to help fund its expansion plans. As a condition of receiving that money, Fisker has been raising additional equity from investors.

Iberdrola Renewables, the U.S. subsidiary of the renewable energy unit of the Spanish power company, has inked a power purchase agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for 300 megawatts of wind-generated power.

TVA will purchase the wind energy from Iberdrola’s Cayuga Ridge South Wind Power Project, which is under construction near the villages of Odell and Emington, Il., south of Chicago. The Cayuga Ridge South wind farm is expected to go live later this year.

TVA plans to add 2,000 megawatts of renewable energy to its generation portfolio.  Last fall the government-owned power agency signed two PPAs for 450 megawatts of wind power to be generated by two farms developed by CPV Renewable Energy Company and Chicago-based Invenergy.

Iberdrola Renewables has a portfolio of nearly 3,500 MW of wind power currently in operation across the U.S. with additional projects in construction.

The U.S. subsidiary of Chinese solar power company Yingli Green Energy has received a tax credit of $4.5 million from the Treasury Department, as part of its Recovery Act Advanced Manufacturing Tax Credit program — for more on that, see here. The company says it will use this fiscal incentive to finance construction of its first U.S. manufacturing plant.

The Chinese solar panel manufacturer has scoped sites in Phoenix and Austin to house its 100-megawatt manufacturing operation. The plant is expected to initially house 300 employees and cost between $20 million and $50 million to build.

The company expects to select a location in the following weeks and begin production later this year. Press reports say Phoenix has an edge over Austin.

T. Boone Pickens, the oilman turned renewable energy apostle, has shelved plans to develop the world’s largest wind farm in North Texas to instead push for massive adoption of natural gas for transportation.

Back in May 2008, Pickens oversaw an impressive public relations roll out called the Pickens Plan that included the Pampa wind farm, a $10 billion, 1,000 megawatt initiative that, on paper, would have been one of the world’s largest wind farms.

In a conference call yesterday Pickens said the Pampa Wind Farm “was off the table”.

The tough credit conditions, plummeting natural gas prices and a lack of transmission power lines convinced Pickens to ditch his Texas wind project. Pickens’ Mesa Power said it would cut his order with General Electric to 333 turbines from 667 and will instead use them for wind farms in Canada and Minnesota, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The credit crunch resulting from the global financial crisis also made it nearly impossible to secure funding. Also, as is often the case when it comes to renewable energy, there is a lack of transmission lines linking the wind project to power markets. Already back in July, as Bnet reports, Pickens had already postponed the Pampa project until 2013 when a $4.9 billion transmission line project in Texas was expected to be completed.

Bnet’s Kirsten Korosec writes:

Transmission projects are a sticky, expensive business. And they’re a huge obstacle to building wind capacity in the United States. Aside from the cost, a lot of folks simply don’t like the idea of a transmission line going through their backyard.

During yesterday’s call, Pickens noted that low natural gas prices have made it difficult to finance wind power plants. “You can’t finance wind farms very well when natural gas is under $6,” he said.

Pickens announced that he would continue his advocacy for natural gas and would call on Congress to pass pending legislation that would offer new incentives for greater use of natural gas in the heavy-duty transport fleet.

First Solar, the Tempe, Ariz. maker and installer of thin-film photovoltaic panels, has acquired utility-scale solar projects to be developed in California and across the U.S. Southwest from the Edison Mission Group (EMG), a unit of Edison International.

The EMG projects are set to generate as much as 150 megawatts and are not backed by any long-term power purchase agreements.

This latest acquisition beefs up First Solar’s power generation portfolio. Last year the company acquired project developer OptiSolar in an all stock transaction worth $400 million. First Solar’s existing portfolio of utility-scale PV solar projects is largely sited on public land and is mostly under contract with utilities.

In a statement, Lisa Bodensteiner, First Solar vice president of business development for North America, said:

Acquiring the EMG development pipeline extends First Solar’s leadership in the U.S. utility market. It builds on our strategy to cultivate robust and predictable module demand in utility-scale applications.

– More to come

Enviromena Power Systems, an Abu Dhabi -based developer of solar-generated power plants,  has raised $15 million in a Series B financing round to support its expansion in the Middle East and North Africa.

New investors included Masdar, the Abu Dhabi clean tech investment group, which becomes Enviromena’s largest shareholder, and Good Energies. Current investors include London-based  zouk Ventures and New Energies Invest .

Last year in Abu Dhabi Enviromena’s $50 million, 10 megawatts, photovoltaic solar farm came online. The project was set to supply power to Masdar City, a green urban project whose development has been put on hold for at least four years.

Macquarie Capital Funds, the asset management unit of Australia’s Macquarie Group, has hired Bill Green, the co-founders of renewable energy-focused investment fund VantagePoint Venture Partners, as a senior managing director to expand the firm’s North American renewable energy investments.

At VantagePoint Green oversaw $1 billion investments supporting renewable energy companies as well as water management outfits and alternative fuel and waste-to-energy sectors. He co-led VantagePoint’s investment in New Energy Capital and its subsequent infrastructure investments and realizations.

In a prepared statement Green said:

Historically, investments in the CleanTech sector have gravitated towards the venture capital end of the spectrum. But as renewable energy technology matures, we’ve also witnessed a substantial increase in available infrastructure investment opportunities in the sector. Given the growing demand for renewable energy and other infrastructure projects that support the sustainable use of natural resources, investors can enjoy stable, long-term returns by funding these projects at commercial scale.

Early last year GER reported that Macquarie Capital Funds was looking to raise $400 million for a second cleantech fund.

Separately, PeHUB also reports that Tarun Kalra of Boston-based VC Battery Ventures has joined Next World Capital as a senior associate. Next World, with offices in Brussels and San Francisco, oversees $200 million in capital, which it invests in cleantech companies, as well as software and business services firms.