Author: Terrence Murray

Cleantech-focused PE firm Arborview Capital has completed a recapitalization of Paragon Airheater Technologies, a provider of solutions that reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions of fossil fuel-fired power plants. No financial terms were disclosed.

Other investors included SAIL Venture Partners and Huntington Capital, which also provided mezzanine financing for the transaction.

Paragon’s technologies are poised to play a pivotal role as global economies, including (hopefully) the U.S. move ahead and price carbon in a bid to cut emissions.

“Following a year of record revenues, the Arborview transaction allows Paragon to continue its expansion plans to grow market share both domestically and internationally,” said Paragon co-founder Cannon Pearson, in a prepared statement. He adds:  “With an estimated $42 billion of investment expected in power plant upgrades over the next several years, the measurable efficiency gains and cost savings from Paragon’s solutions should result in substantial growth in demand.”

Pharus Advisors and Gripen Capital Advisors acted as advisors to Paragon on the transaction.

San Francisco-based Pattern Energy Group has secured more than $800 million in equity funding and could use some of that cash to fund acquisitions of wind projects, both operating or under development. Of the $800 million, about $400 million come from investment funds controlled by New York-based  private equity firm Riverstone Holdings.

Pattern is a developer in a hurry. Launched a little more than year ago and backed from the start by Riverstone, it has, in that short time, accumulated a 400-megawatt wind power portfolio. A couple of months ago Pattern acquired the 283-megawatt Gulf Wind project, an operating wind power plant in Texas, from Babcock & Brown. For that deal it secured debt-financing from a bank syndicate that included Mizuho Corporate Bank, Banco Espirito Santo, Bayerische Landesbank, Commerzbank, HSH Nordbank and ING Capital.

A Pattern press release says that over the past nine months it has completed investments in wind energy projects exceeding $1 billion.

“By successfully raising significant equity financing, Pattern Energy is now well capitalized for our growth plans, providing us with the ability to invest in future projects in development, construction and operations, while also giving us the flexibility to accelerate our growth through attractive acquisition opportunities,” Pattern Energy’s CEO Mike Garland said in a prepared statement.

In North America Pattern Energy oversees a 522.4 megawatts project pipeline. The company is currently constructing the 138 megawatts St. Joseph Windfarm in southern Manitoba. In Northern California it is developing the 101.2 megawatts Hatchet Ridge wind farm.

Image: iStockphoto

Christiana Figueres, a veteran climate change negotiator from Costa Rica, has been appointed as the United Nation’s head climate change negotiator. She replaces Yvo de Boer, who is leaving after four years as head of the United Nations’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for a job at KPMG.

Figueres is a surprise choice. Observers had predicted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would appoint South African Tourism Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk to the Bonn, Germany-based post, probably one of the more high profile positions in the vast UN bureaucracy– see full press release.

In the wake of the Copenhagen disappointment,  as the executive secretary of the UNFCCC, Figueres will have to work hard to rehabilitate the UN-system as viable organ, able to deliver a comprehensive, global climate change treaty.  Large emitting countries, like China or India, which also talk for the developing world, are turning their back on the UN negotiation framework in favor of looser, self-regulating agreements.

Figueres takes over at the UNFCCC a little more than five months before the next UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun this November.  She’s confident that strong agreements will come out of Cancun.  She says: “I would say that there is an opportunity to take some of the elements that are in the Copenhagen accord, such as fast-track financing, such as the whole thing with deforestation, such as a framework for adaptation, and begin to focus on delivery.”

But who is Christiana Figueres?  A member of the Costa Rican elite, she is 53 and was educated in England and the U.S. She’s been a member of Costa Rica’s negotiating team on climate change since 1995. Before that, in 1994 she was the director of the technical secretariat of the Renewable Energy in the Americas program. She also was the executive director of the Center for Sustainable Development in the Americas. Her father, Jose Figueres Ferrer, was three times president of Costa Rica.

Figueres is “well liked and a competent negotiator,” an unnamed UN source tells Fast Company’s Addy Dugdale. “If they wanted a technical bureaucrat, she’s probably as good as you’ll get,” the source adds.

Mid Europa Partners, a London-based private equity and buyout firm focused on Central and Eastern Europe, has agreed to invest €60 million ($76.19 million) for an undisclosed stake in Energy 21 a Czech developer and operator of PV-solar power plants, it’s first investment in the clean energy space. Mid-Europa has indicated that it plans to grow its green portfolio and is looking for other opportunities.

Launched in 2007, Energy 21 controls 26 megawatts in installed generation capacity and has another 75 megawatts under development, all located in the Czech Republic. The company says it plans to expand beyond its home market, and the Mid Europa cash could help it do that.

“We are very pleased to have now realized our first investment in a very promising platform with significant growth prospects,” said Mid Europa’s Managing Partner Thierry Baudon in a prepared statement. He adds: “We intend to increase our exposure to the renewable space in Central and Eastern Europe, and hope that Energy 21 will serve as base for a series of attractive transactions to come in the near future.”

A-Power Systems, the Chinese wind turbine supplier that is partnering with other Chinese and U.S. companies to build a 600 megawatts wind farm in West Texas, is traveling to Dallas next week for the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) annual conference.

A-Power Systems and its project partners, which include the Shenyang Power Group and U.S. private equity firm United States Renewable Energy Group have been on the radar screen of some powerful U.S. senators, from the moment they announced plans to build their Texas wind farm, the first Chinese-backed U.S. wind project.

Leading the charge is Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who doesn’t like that the  $1.5 billion facility, which is seeking U.S. government funding, will end up creating some 300, mostly temporary, jobs in the U.S. but more than 2,000 high-paying manufacturing jobs in China. His stance has put him on a collision course with the Obama administration, including Matt Rogers’s the DOE’s man in charge of disbursing the billion in stimulus money, who earlier this year told G.E.R. that Schumer’s concerns were a “none-issue.”

The Obama administration is walking a fine line. It’s a taker for any green dollars that will help make the “green economy” a reality, but at the same time wants as much of that “new, new economy” to stay in the U.S.-made and not be outsourced to China or India.

On attending the AWEA conference A-Power Systems said: “The windpower Conference Program offers a platform to discuss perspectives, methods and strategies for maintaining and increasing profitability of wind energy businesses.”   A-Power is looking for backers and the AWEA conference is the place for them to forge alliances that could be helpful crucial as it moves ahead and develops the project.

Besides cheap, Chinese-made turbines, another advantage for A-Power, are its relationships with Chinese banks, which these days, unlike their Western counterparts are flush with cash and eager to lend.

On Schumer’s concern A-Power and its U.S. partners have said that a minimum of 70 percent of each turbine powering the project would be U.S.-made.

Image: Istockphoto

First Solar, the thin-film PV company, first-quarter profit rose 4.7 percent to $172.3 million from $164.6 million. First Solar expects  sales this year will be between  $2.7 billion to $2.9 billion. Because of tightening government subsidies in Europe,  to grow sales First Solar is acquiring project developers in the U.S. This week the company paid $285 million for San Francisco utility-scale solar power developer NextLight Renewable Power [Bloomberg Businessweek].

Danish wind turbine maker Vestas reported a first quarter loss of €83 million ($109.9 million) from a €56 million profit posted in the previous profits.  In a statement the company said “The decline in revenue and earnings reflects the much lower level of activity and Vestas’ decision not to adjust its capacity further because of short-term market developments.” The company says the slowdown is short-term and remains bullish for the long-term.  It says production capacity by the end of the year will stand at 10,000 megawatts. Vestas recently scored a huge contract to supply 1,500 megawatts worth of turbines to Portuguese clean energy company EDP Renovaveis [BusinessGreen.com].

First, the good news,  Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is not completely turning his back on the energy and climate change bill he co-authored and then walked away from just hours before it was set to be officially rolled out.

Now for the bad news,  Democrats were set to release  later today, a very preliminary draft of an immigration reform bill,  says this tweet from Mother Jones’s Kate Sheppard. That’s not good for the climate change bill, which if left aside in favor of immigration reform, would likely not be debated until closer to the mid-term elections, when support for the bill would be all but dead.

The energy and climate change bill crafted by Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.),  Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Graham, would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. It includes a cap and trade system for utilities. It also includes funding for nuclear power, offshore oil and gas drilling, and carbon capture and sequestration. The is widely supported by environmental groups and industry groups. Despite all that good will, earlier today Graham told Ezra Klein of the Washington Post that he was ready to vote against his bill if immigration was scheduled ahead of it. “I care equally about immigration and climate change,” Graham tells Klein. “But if you stack them together this year you’ll compromise climate and energy. You’ll compromise my ability to get votes on climate change,” he warns.

Until Friday its seemed like an “all systems go” for the climate change and energy bill, which has been almost a year in the making. Signals from the White House were that after Wall Street reform, energy and climate change bill was next up. That’s why in the months leading to what would have been its official roll out, Graham, Kerry and Lieberman were actively negotiating with environmentalists, other Senators and industry groups in an effort to build a coalition that could get the legislation passed.

Now it’s true that the legislation never had the 60 votes to get passed, however it was closer to getting these votes (from both side of the isle) than a hurried immigration reform law.

However, given what happened last week in Arizona, immigration reform has become a top priority for Democrats. Graham says he’s not opposed to immigration reform — he recently op-ed with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) calling for such reform — but he argues that now is not the time to do it.

He tells Klein:

My advice is that securing the border now gives a guy like me who wants to get to comprehensive [immigration] reform the credibility to get there. But if you bring up immigration in this climate, you’ll divide the country further. You’ll get a huge vote for border security and interior enforcement, but when it comes to pathway to citizenship, you’ll break down big-time.

Without Graham Kerry and Lieberman can’t get Republicans to vote for their bill. Besides Kerry and Lieberman (since Monday the three senators have not met) the other person that could bring Graham back into the fold is President Obama, writes Jim Tankersley, in the Los Angeles Times.

Graham is probably ready to do a deal. He has said that he would  support the legislation again if immigration reform is delayed until 2012 and if the White House comes out and support a controversial provision in the transportation section of the bill, which the White House has dubbed a “gas tax” and opposed but which Graham argues is not a straight gasoline tax.

We learn that cleantech-focused private equity fund, NewWorld Capital Group, launched last fall by former Mckinsey and Company Director Carter Bales, is close to announcing a series of inaugural investments.

The investments are club deals directly supported by the firm’s founding partners as well as a couple of outside investors and would support at least two companies in the energy efficiency space, an industry source tells G.E.R.

Our source says the investments in the two energy efficiency companies, which he declined to name,  have not been finalized but are expected to be north of $50 million.

New York-based New World Capital is also considering investing in two companies in the waste management and water treatment space.

NewWorld still plans to raise an initial $100 million fund  but which, as we’ve reported, could grow to $500 million depending on investor appetite. The money will support companies in the clean energy and energy efficiency space as well as  companies involved in waste management environmental services and water.

The fund is not looking to invest in startups but in companies that have revenues, proven products and clients.

At McKinsey Bales founded the firm’s environmental practice. He launched NewWorld Capital last fall with Bradley Abelow, former chief of staff to New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine and a Goldman Sachs veteran; Bill Hallisey, who joined from GSC Group; Ali Iz, who came from CMEA Capital and Everett Smith, who was a managing director with New Energy Capital.

Solar Power Partners (SPP), a developer and operator of solar-powered facilities, has raised $115 million in new financing.

The new funding is a combination of tax equity, debt and term debt and was structured by Minneapolis-based   U.S. Bank and WestLB AG, the German bank.

PeHUB reports that Solar Power previously raised $150 million in debt and equity from United Commercial Bank, Globespan Capital Partners, Energy Investors Funds, The Enlightened World Foundation, Carrelton Asset Management, Dry Creek Ventures and Silicon Valley Technology Group.

SPP President and CEO Bob Powell said:

This round of funding allows us to continue our track record of project execution, and will more than double our installed system capacity. In an industry where delivering results rather than hype is scarce, SPP is focused on putting real shovels in the ground to construct projects.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has awarded Boston-based developer Cape Wind a crucial federal permit supporting the development of a landmark, 420 megawatts offshore wind farm off Cape Cod.

The federal permit in effect closes a nine-year  approval process for Cape Wind, which first announced the project in 2001 but quickly faced intense opposition from a diverse coalition comprised of local residents, Native American tribes and environmental groups, which did not oppose offshore wind development but the location of the Cape Wind project.

From the start Cape Wind had a staunch ally in Secretary Salazar, who early in his term heading the Interior Department, vowed to develop the country’s largely untapped offshore potential.

Indeed, Europe and in particular Denmark and the UK are years ahead of the U.S. in terms of developing and operating utility-scale offshore wind power plants. Earlier this year, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced an ambitious £75 billion ($119 billion) project to build thousands of offshore wind turbines as part of the country’s Round 3 of bids for leasing of portions of the British sea bed.

Cape Wind says it can generate power by 2012 and aims to eventually supply three-quarters of the power on Cape Cod, reports New England Cable News.

– More to follow

Image: iStockphoto

Is today the day Boston developer Cape Wind announces it’s clinched a crucial permit from the Department of Interior giving it the right to develop its contentious, 420 megawatts offshore wind farm off Cape Cod? Secretary Ken Salazar is in Boston today, where he’s expected to award a federal permit to Cape Wind in a press conference with Governor Deval Patrick. Cape Wind has scheduled its own press conference, a couple of hours later. We will listen in and keep you posted.

– Story to follow

Image: iStockphoto

Thin-film PV maker First Solar has acquired NextLight Renewable Power, a developer of utility-scale power project for $285 million.  This latest acquisition  significantly bolsters First Solar’s project pipeline, adding some 1,100 megawatts of  solar projects that are at various stages of development.

NextLight is backed by Energy Capital Partners, a clean energy-focused private equity fund based in Short Hills, N.J., founded by former Goldman Sachs energy banker Doug Kimmelman.

The Acquisition grows First Solar U.S. exposure at a time when European markets, in particular Germany and Spain, which account for a majority of First Solar’s revenues, are tightening key subsidies. Germany is set to cut its solar power feed-in tariffs by some 10 percent and the Spanish government is considering scaling back its own subsidy program by as much as 40 percent.

NextLight, based in San Francisco, has about 570 megawatts of solar power under development that are backed by singed, long-term power purchase agreements (PPA). Including Agua Caliente, a 290 megawatts facility located in Arizona’s Yuma County, which signed a PPA with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) last fall.  More recently NextLight’s Silver State solar project, located on Bureau of Land Management land in Nevada, signed a 25-year PPA with NV Energy. The Silver State project is slated to begin operating in May of 2011.

NextLight also has 530 megawatts of additional PV  power projects in various stages of development, according to the press release announcing the deal.

In January  First Solar acquired a project pipeline comprised of utility-scale  solar power projects to be developed in California and across the U.S. Southwest from the Edison Mission Group (EMG), a unit of Edison International.  And a little more than a year ago it bought project developer OptiSolar in an all stock transaction worth $400 million.

The acquisition will allow First Solar to monetize its PV panel production by securing sales contracts with  NextLight Projects.  First Solar, which has repeatedly shown that it does not want to be a plant operator, will likely flip the Nextlight plants when they near completion.

Over the past year First Solar sold a 21-megawatt solar project — backed by a long-term PPA with Southern California Edison in Blythe, Calif., to NRG Energy. It also sold a 20-megawatt solar farm in Ontario to natural gas pipeline operator Enbridge for about C$100 million ($93.14 million). The project is backed by a 20-year PPA with the Ontario Power Authority.

For this year Tempe, Ariz. First Solar says it expects to generate revenues ranging between $2.7 billion – $2.9 billion in 2010, which is ahead of analysts’ estimate of $2.4 billion.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) could return to the fold and back the energy and climate change bill he abruptly walked away from on Friday evening, reports trade publication The Energy Daily.

Yesterday’s meeting between Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Senator Graham was not fruitful. Senators Kerry and Graham are starting to get use to the idea of having to Shepard the climate change legislation alone, a Senate staffer tells us.

Concretely this means passing the bill will (in an optimistic scenario) take a lot longer as Kerry and Lieberman will have to single-handedly convince Republicans to support a bill they’ve  largely opposed from the start. This was a lot easier to do with Graham backing the bill. “Without Graham we don’t have any Republicans,” a staffer with the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee tells us. The reality though is that  even with Graham onboard the legislation, while benefiting from the support of key industry and environmental groups, was still short of 60 votes.

We’ve emailed and called the offices of Senators Kerry and Lieberman to ask if any other meetings were planned in the coming days. We will post back with updates.

The Energy and Natural Resources Committee official says that Congress has a full plate (Wall Street reform, immigration reform, climate change and energy…) and Majority Leader Harry Reid knows he’s got to make choices. If he puts immigration ahead of climate change, chances are that the climate change bill won’t be debated before Congress’s summer recess. It will also be a lot more difficult to pass any climate change legislation the closer we get to the mid-term elections.

Joule Biotechnologies, a Cambridge, Mass.-based ethanol developer, has closed $30 million in a  second round of funding from a group of undisclosed institutional and private investors.

Joule plans to use the cash to expand  a pilot plant in Leander, Texas. That plant is 25,000 gallons of ethanol per acre per year and 15,000 gallons of diesel per acre per year. The funds will also support ongoing research and development work. Joule is developing proprietary microorganisms that (at least on paper and in the lab) turn photons, water, and C02 directly into ethanol fuels — see the diagram below.

In a prepared statement Bill Sims, Joule president and CEO, said:

Propelled by this latest funding round, we intend to execute on an aggressive timeline to market by hitting key proof points that will substantiate the quality of our product and the scale and efficiency of our process.

Separately, the company also announced that it was changing its name from Joule Biotechnologies to Joule Unlimited — see full press release.

Total, the French oil and gas major, has invested an undisclosed sum in ethanol maker Coskata, which has developed a refining process that can turn garbage, old tires and other waste materials into ethanol.

Warrenville, Ill.,-based Coskata plans to use proceeds from the Total equity investment to scale production and commercialize its production.

Returning investors included Blackstone Cleantech Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV), Globespan Capital Partners, and Arancia – see full press release.

In January 2008 General Motors said it was investing in Coskata. It also did not disclose the amount of its investment.

Last fall Coskata went live with a demonstration plant in Madison, Pa. The output will be delivered to GM, which will test it at the company’s Milford Proving Grounds.

Total also holds a stake in Gevo, an Englewood, Colo.-based producer of butanol.

By Mark Boslet, co-editor, TechPulse360

Clean-tech IPOs have yet to prove themselves.

Sure, investor excitement is on the rise with Tesla Motors, Solyndra, Amyris and Ameresco preparing to sell shares to the public. Another potential blockbuster, Silver Spring Networks, is said to have chosen its investment bankers.

But the track record of recent green IPOs is anything but encouraging. Lithium battery maker A123 Systems went public in September and its shares trade below their introductory price.

Sensata Technologies Holding, a sensor maker from the Netherlands, is hanging onto a gain over its initial price in March, but only a modest one. Biofuel maker Codexis, which debuted its shares last week, is suffering the same fate. And the fortunes of Jinko Solar Holding of China are worse. It canceled its coming out altogether.

“The clean-tech IPOs at this stage are still proving themselves,” says Erik Straser, a partner at the venture firm Mohr Davidow Ventures and leader of its cleantech investment team. Nevertheless, “it appears the markets today are thawing.”

Straser says it is likely there will be more clean-tech IPO filings this year and even a period when less mature companies will go public. That’s because the criteria for what a company needs to interest investors is unsettled.

Link to original post to read the rest of the story

SolarBridge Technologies, the Austin, Texas-based microinverter developer has raised $15 million in a series B funding led by new investor Rho Ventures.

Returning investor included Battery Ventures, which led the company’s Series A financing. With this latest financing the company has raised $27 million.

SolarBridge will use the funding to finalize testing and certification and ramp up production and expand sales and marketing — see full press release.

“

The bill is not dead but it’s in E.R., and on life-support. Today Senators John Kerry (D- Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and lone Republican Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), were set to release their energy and climate change bill. A legislation that enjoys support from key industry leaders, environmental groups, and unlike other key Obama legislation had some aura of bi-partisanship.

But on Friday night Senator Graham walked away from the bill over attempts by the Senate leadership and the White House to push through immigration reform over climate change and energy.  This week immigration became a top priority after Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) signed into law one of the country’s strictest immigration law on record. On Friday President Obama called the law “misguided.”

Graham, already vulnerable in his home state, partly because of his willingness to work with the White House on climate change and other key issues, wants climate change and energy to go ahead of immigration. The bill has been a year in the making and is obviously much farther along than any immigration reform bill.

In his letter he wrote:

“Expecting these major issues to be addressed in three weeks — which appears to be their [the White House] current plan based upon media reports — is ridiculous…. Let’s be clear, a phony, political effort on immigration today accomplishes nothing but making it exponentially more difficult to address in a serious, comprehensive manner in the future.”

From our perspective what’s hard to understand is why shake the deck, so close to the end-goal. While the 60 votes weren’t secured (yet), the Kerry -Lieberman -Graham legislation enjoyed wide industry support (ConocoPhilips was on board); It was bi-partisan, all factors that could have helped twist some arms to get to 60 during the floor debate.

At least for now pragmatic politics has won the day.  Senator Reid faces a tough reelection in his home state of Nevada, which has a large Hispanic population. Pushing a comprehensive immigration reform with provisions that could legalize millions of illegal workers would play well with his Hispanic constituents.

In a statement released shortly after Graham’s letter, Reid downplayed the riff.

He wrote:

Immigration and energy reform are equally vital to our economic and national security and have been ignored for far too long. As I have said, I am committed to trying to enact comprehensive clean energy legislation this session of Congress. Doing so will require strong bipartisan support, and energy could be next if it’s ready. I have also said we will try to pass comprehensive immigration reform. This too will require bipartisan support and significant committee work that has not yet begun.”

Senators Graham, Kerry and Lieberman are expected to meet later today. Lieberman seemed optimistic, saying it should be sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a full economic analysis, a process that’s expected to take five weeks to do.

Supporters of the bill are angry, not Graham but at the White House and Reid.  On CBS’s Face the Nation New York Times columnist Tom Friedman said the political gamesmanship played over the climate change bill was a “disaster,” and a  “travesty.”

He added:

“The result is, right now … in Beijing, they are high-fiving each other… ‘Oh yeah baby. This means the Americans are going to be paralyzed on green tech for another couple of years. China is already leading the world now in wind production; China is already leading the world in solar production. Where industry goes, where research goes.’

Joe Romm on his Climate Progress blog wrote:

Obama cannot possibly be a successful president from a historical perspective if he doesn’t have a domestic climate bill, since that would essentially doom the chance for an international climate deal.  Who really is going to care about accomplishments in banking regulations and immigration when they are suffering through Hell and High Water?

Week of April 19 – to – April 23, 2010

This week, biofuel developer Codexis sold shares as part of its much anticipated Initial Public Offering (IPO). The company sold shares for $13, which was on the low-end of the $13 – to – $15 per share range, raising a total of $78 million. The share sale was the first cleantech IPO since A123 Systems went public late last year, raising more than $57 million.

Codexis plans to use the fresh batch of capital to scale production of its biofuel-making enzymes in a bid to eventually go commercial (and become profitable). So far, the company depends on major shareholder Royal Dutch Shell for a majority of its revenues, which are generated as part of a licensing agreement. With the Shell agreement expiring in 2012, the clock is ticking for Codexis, which says it is confident it will become profitable by eventually supplying its enzymes to the biofuel sector and the biotech industry. Since its inception, the company has banked on its ability to supply these two industries as the key to its long term success.

On Friday afternoon, the Department of Energy announced the closing of a massive $529 million loan guarantee for Fisker Automotive, the developer of the plug-in hybrid sports car. The government money will finance the reopening of the General Motors auto plant in Wilmington, Del. and the hiring of 2,000 workers that are expected to churn out up to 20,000 of the company’s Model S cars each year, starting in 2012.

Earlier this week, we took a look at the S-1 filed by second-generation biofuel developer Amyris, which has developed sugar-based hydrocarbon molecules that can be converted into greener jet fuel, industrial chemicals, or biodiesel.  The regulatory document provided a unique insight on the company and the challenges it faces. Like Codexis, Fisker, and most cleantech startups, Amyris doesn’t make money. It also has not secured any long term sales, nor has it been able, thus far, to produce its biofuel on an industrial scale. Now, what it does have is a cutting edge technology, a growing IP portfolio, and steep capital requirements, which is why, like Codexis and other renewable energy companies, it’s going to the public markets to raise cash.

This week, we also caught up with SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith. The developer of utility-scale solar thermal power plants, says Smith, will likely wrap up permitting for its $550 million, 100-megawatt Tonopah Solar Energy project in Nevada at the end of the year. The company is talking to project finance banks to raise construction capital and is also planning to apply for 1603 direct cash grant, which typically finances up to 30 percent of a project’s cost.

We also called an executive at the Marlboro, Mass., company to get an update on its China plant. The company is expected to go online with an initial 100 megawatts in production capacity this summer. It cost about $50 million to build the 100 megawatt manufacturing line. Chinese authorities stepped and paid 2/3 of that cost, or about $33 million. The plant, a joint venture with local company Jiawei, is expected to produce 500 megawatts of silicon wafers by 2012. The EverGreen executive says it is talking with Chinese authorities to secure more public money to finance the construction of the rest of the plant.

VC & PE Watch:

Amonix, a Seal Beach, Calif.-based maker of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar power systems, closed a $129.4 million Series B funding led by Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers.

Royal Dutch Shell-backed Codexis sold six million shares priced at $13 as part of its Initial Public Offering (IPO), raising $78 million.

A spokesman confirmed to G.E.R. that billionaire philosopher, George Soros, was still planning to invest $1 billion over the next decade to support clean energy ventures. Soros made the original announcement in October but has yet to announce a first investment.

Jan Van Dokkum, the former president of UTC Power has joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers as an operating partner to oversee the VC fund’s growing cleantech portfolio.

Rambling

While cleantech companies are once again attracting investments, they are also losing money and will likely continue to do so for a while. Codexis relies, for 70 percent of its annual revenues, on a licensing agreement with Shell and has about $159 million in accumulated deficits. Amyris’s S-1 shows the company lost $120.4 million over the last three years. Silicon wafer maker, EverGreen Solar, last quarter reported a $21.1 million loss on revenues of $74.5 million. Those are sobering numbers that highlight some of the challenges faced by the sector.  In order to grow margins, companies can either cut costs, possibly by moving to China, or, even more controversial (for some in Washington…), they can convince the government to provide long-term support by extending popular programs like the direct cash grants or the manufacturing cleantech tax credit.

Image: iStockphoto

Panda Energy, is not giving up.  A little more than a year after walking away from its bankrupt ethanol business, the Dallas energy developer’s solar unit, Panda Solar Ventures, has teamed-up with ConEdison Development, a unit of the New York City electric utility,  to develop up to 20 megawatts of solar PV projects on the East Coast.

This is the first time the two companies’ work together. 

Panda is betting solar power could be its entry point into the green energy business. And with the price of PV panels trading at record lows, Panda’s strategy makes sense. Panda and ConEd, which are equal partners in the two projects,  did not say how much they would cost to develop them. According to industry estimates it costs about $6.1 million to put a single megawatt online.

ConEd bring to the deal financial security as its large balance sheet will make it easier to secure project financing. “ConEd is a good partner to have when it comes time to get financing, ” a Panda official tells us.

The Panda official declined to says where exactly in the Northeast the two farms would be deployed. While a lot of solar power projects are being developed in the sun-rich Western U.S. the northeast, with its large load centers and easy access to the grid, is also prime real estate.

According to a release issued this morning, Panda will operate the plant as well negotiate the long-term power purchase agreements. ConEd will handle project finance. So far none of the projects are backed by PPAs.

Image: iStockphoto