Author: Terrence Murray

Alcoa is testing a unique concentrating solar power (CSP) parabolic trough technology at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. The technology could be the company’s entry point into the solar power  business.

The news is important for a couple of reasons.  Alcoa’s technology uses aluminum instead of glass mirrors to capture solar heat. While it may not be the first company to try this, Alcoa is certainly the largest. It’s also a vote of confidence by one of the country’s largest companies on the long-term viability of CSP technology .

For Alcoa, one of the world’s major aluminum producers, developing aluminum-based mirrors makes good business sense. They have the resources and knowledge to develop new applications for the the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust.

Alcoa says that aluminum-based mirrors are more durable and environmentally friendly than glass-based mirrors. CSP Today reports that the jury is still out, but that aluminium- and polymer-based mirrors are giving glass a run for its money.

Aluminum mirrors will  “enable[s] manufacturers to more easily scale up to meet the growing demand for this solar technology, ”  said Eric Winter, Alcoa’s director of development laboratories, in a prepared statement.

A company spokesman tells G.E.R. that parabolic troughs could become a full-fledged business unit of Alcoa. That’s reminiscent of  General Electric’s entry into the wind turbine business over a decade ago.

CSP advocates argue that the systems are cheaper to install and operate than photovoltaic systems, but the recent dramatic drop in the price of silicon-based photovoltaic panels along with favorable incentive programs around the world is keeping photovoltaics in the running  for utility-scale projects.

One advantage CSP systems offer over photovoltaic systems is that it can they can store energy in the form of heat, which is much easier and cheaper to do than storing electricity, which is the only storage option for photovoltaic systems. Energy storage for solar power systems can help project economics, because it allows the systems to store energy until electric demand, and therefore prices, are high.

Some have expressed concerns about the environmental impact of large CSP plants, such as the this California project using CSP dish-Stirling technology in flat-tailed-horned lizard territory. CSP systems require the clear cloudless skies of environmentally-sensitive deserts. Others worry about the water required for mirror washing and power plant cooling, but engineers knowledgeable about the systems claim that the water argument against the technology is overblown.

The testing  of the Alcoa mirrors at NREL is partially funded by a $2.1 million Department of Energy grant — see here for the full press release.

Emerald Technology Ventures, a Zurich-based cleantech venture capital fund, expects to hold a first close for a €150 million ($204 million) cleantech-focused fund, by early summer, an industry source tells G.E.R.

This would be the firm’s third fund and like the previous two — the  €90 million Emerald Cleantech I and the €135 million Emerald Cleantech II fund — its investment capital would support renewable energy companies and water and advance material companies

We understand that returning investors include Dow Chemical, Credit Suisse, Rabobank’s Rabo Private Equity unit, Canadian oil and gas company Suncor. As well as tractor maker Deere & Company, Unilever, Volvo and GIMV, an investment firm based in Antwerp, Belgium.

Emerald Cleantech II has invested in Toledo, Ohio-based thin-film photovoltaic maker Xunlight and Synapsense, a developer of energy management solutions based in Folsom, Calif.

Medford, Ore.,-based  UpWind Solutions has raised $28.8 million in a Series B financing led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.  MissionPoint Capital Partners also participated in the financing as a returning investor.  

UpWind provides operations and maintenance (O&M) services for North American-based wind farms. As more wind farms come online and manufacturer warranties covering operating wind farms expire over the next few years, we expect the O&M business to grow significantly. That includes maintenance and repair service providers, and manufacturers of parts for turbine components such as gearboxes and generators. This will assure new, previously untapped revenues for companies like UpWind.

UpWind Solutions plans to use this latest round of financing to fund potential acquisitions and grow its overall servicing capacity — see here for the full press release.

Also,  Solar Junction, a developer of high efficiency solar cells for the concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) market, closed  a $13.33 million third round of funding led by New Enterprise Associates.

Solar Junction will use the cash  for research and development and scale production. Returning investors included Advanced Technology Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

San Francisco-based Pattern Energy Group has acquired the 283-megawatt Gulf Wind project in Texas from Babcock & Brown.

Babcock & Brown and Pattern Energy did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. What’s known is that debt-financing supporting the acquisition was arranged by Mizuho Corporate Bank, Banco Espirito Santo, Bayerische Landesbank, Commerzbank, HSH Nordbank and ING Capital.

The Gulf Wind project is located on the Texas Gulf Coast in Kenedy County and most of the plant’s output has been contracted by unnamed buyers under long-term power purchase agreements, according to a press release posted yesterday on the Pattern Website — see here for the full press release.

Australia’s Babcock & Brown, once a high-flying infrastructure investor, was hammered by the global financial crisis and liquidated last year after being shut down by its creditors.  Since then the bankrupt firm has  been offloading its renewable energy assets.

Last December FPL Group’s clean energy unit, NextEra Energy Resources, completed a $352 million acquisition of three operating wind farms located in Texas, Wisconsin and South Dakota from Babcock & Brown.

Pattern Energy, which is less than a year old, controls nearly 400 megawatts of wind projects that are either in operation or under construction across North America. Riverstone Holdings, an energy and power-focused private equity firm, backs the company.

Image: iStockphoto

Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers told Bloomberg Television yesterday that when making large, long-term investments his company assumes it is operating in an environment where carbon is priced — watch video below the fold.

Rogers said:

Every decision I make today, I make it with the assumption that there has been carbon legislation in the U.S. and that there is a worldwide treaty.

Rogers does not expect President Obama to sign a climate change and energy bill this year but he is confident that there will be a bill on the President’s desk next year, after the midterm elections.

Duke’s renewable energy unit, Duke Energy Generation Services, currently generates 733 megawatts of wind power. Earlier this year it entered the solar business with its acquisition of the 14-megawatt Blue Wing Solar project, located near near San Antonio, Texas.

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In a call with reporters today, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that the U.S. needs a comprehensive energy and climate change law to beat China and lead the cleantech industry.

He said China’s emergence as a green superpower couldn’t be ignored.

“The U.S. should sit up and take notice,” Chu told reporters.

A climate change law would bring long-term certainty and “help U.S. [renewable energy] companies become more competitive,” he explained. It would also ensure that more capital flows into the sector.

All we’ve seen so far in energy legislation is the House’s Waxman – Markey legislation, which contains a cap-and-trade provision.

On the Senate side, last week Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) and his co-sponsors — Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — took steps to revive their stalled climate change and energy bill as they met with Senators from carbon-dependent states and key industry groups, including the powerful American Petroleum Institute.

Chu said he was talking to lawmakers from both parties to get them to support a climate change bill. He declined to say with whom he was talking.

Underscoring China’s growing role as a global renewable energy leader, Bloomberg New Energy Finance figures released today show that in 2009 China replaced the U.S. as the world’s largest investor in renewable energy. New Energy Finance also reports that last year alone, China invested $34.5 billion in wind turbines, solar panels and other cleantech solutions. The U.S. spent about $18.6 billion.

Asked about these figures, Chu said that he hadn’t read the report, but that  “based on what you are seeing in China these days they seemed believable.”

He added:

The [Chinese] leadership increasingly sees economic opportunity in cleantech… Having missed the industrialized revolution and the semiconductor revolution, they do not want to miss this opportunity.

The Obama administration has been very clear that it wants to beat China and lead the cleantech race. And, there’s growing concern at the White House that China and its huge stimulus could actually end up winning.

Over the past year, a number of Chinese renewable energy companies, eager to grow their U.S.-market share, have announced plans to open manufacturing lines here.

For example, Chinese energy company A-Power Energy Generation Systems recently proposed building a 600 megawatt wind farm in Texas. The project has rattled some on Capitol Hill, including Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has urged the DOE not to give A-Power and its partners stimulus money because the project’s turbines would largely be made in China.

On this and the fact that a lot of foreign companies have ended up pocketing the DOE’s cash grants, Secretary Chu, citing American Wind Energy Association figures, pointed out that 53 percent of wind turbines parts  manufactured by foreign companies for the North American market were U.S.-made.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Aurora Biofuels,  an Alameda, Calif. developer of  biofuels produced from open-pond algae, has raised $15 million in a third round of financing  led by Oak Investment Partners. Returning investors included Gabriel Venture Partners and Noventi Ventures.

With this latest round Aurora has raised $40 million. The company plans to use the new cash to grow production and eventually commercialize its algae-based biofuel.

Separately, Aurora also announced that Scott McDonald is joining the company as Chief Financial Officer — see here for the full press release.

Earlier this week San Bruno, Calif.-based Agile Energy raised $13.2 million as part of a first round of financing from Good Energies, reports the CleanTech Group. Agile develops photovoltaic and concentrating photovoltaic projects in North America.  The company plans to use the cash, which comes in the form of cash and credit support, to finance its 400-megawatt project pipeline — see here for the full press release.

Ken Caldeira of Stanford University’s Carnegie Department of Global Ecology, says global warming will likely continue even if emissions of green house gases and carbon fall. For the earth to cool would take zero emissions, he starkly points out.

One route to mitigate global warming is geoengineering or using human-developed technologies to alter climate on a global scale. Caldeira is at the forefront of this controversial process, having just shared a $4.5 million funding from Bill Gates to to find and support promising  geoengineering technologies.

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In an interview with Bloomberg Television, ahead of the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Summit, which starts today in London, Michael Liebreich, CEO of New Energy Finance, highlighted that in 2009 clean energy investments fell by six percent.  Liebreich remained confident about 2010 and beyond, saying that despite failure to reach a comprehensive climate change agreement in Copenhagen, individually countries would continue supporting green investments.

A 10-year outlook, released yesterday by competing market research firm CleanEdge, predicts that globally investments in renewable energies could peak to $325.9 billion by 2019 from $139.1, currently — see video and chart below the fold.

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San Jose, Calif., solar PV panel maker SunPower filed a 13G and it appears that Fidelity Investments and the firm’s Chairman, Edward Johnson III, control  5,068,929  company shares or 12.059% of SunPower’s Class B Common Stocks.

The SunPower Class B shares are actually controlled by a special purpose company controlled by Fidelity Investments’s parent company FMR LLC.

The 13G filing states:

Edward C. Johnson 3d and FMR LLC, through its control of Fidelity, and the funds each has sole power to dispose of the 5,068,929 shares owned by the Funds.

It’s not clear if Mr. Johnson and his family directly control the SunPower shares or Fidelity via its family of funds do. We’ve got calls out to SunPower and Fidelity requesting clarification – see here for the full filing.

Last week SunPower scored a major contract to supply PV panels for a Southern California Edison project that’s expected to cost $875 million to develop.

SSE Renewables, the renewable energy unit of Scottish and Southern Energy, was awarded exclusive rights to develop up to 400 megawatts of wave and tidal-powered electricity in and around the Scottish coast as part of a massive tender administered by the Crown Estate.

The Crown Estate also awarded leases to Iberdrola of Spain, the U.K. unit of ScottishPower, and Germany’s E.ON.

SSE Renewable does not expect to begin constructing the projects until at least 2015, the company said in a statement released this morning.

Partnering on the SSE Renewables projects are Aquamarine Power, an Edinburgh-based developer of wave-powered electric generation technology and OpenHydro, a manufacturer and installer of tidal energy systems based in Dublin.

The four sites, all located in Scotland, are Costa Head (wave-powered project); Westray South (tidal stream-powered project); Brough Head (wave-powered project, to be developed in partnership with Aquamarine); and Cantick Head (tidal stream-powered project, to be developed in partnership with OpenHydro).

The Crown Estate and seeks to develop 1.2 gigawatts of marine energy off the coast of Scotland, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Image: iStockphoto

Serial entrepreneur Bill Gross recently spoke with Henry Blodget, executive editor of the Business Insider, about one of his renewable energy venture, eSolar, the innovative developer of concentrated solar thermal power technology.

Gross says solar thermal technology is close to becoming price competitive with old, carbon energy. One challenge faced by his industry, he explains, is access to project finance capital.

Gross tells Blodget that renewable energy plants, like the ones developed by eSolar, require a lot more upfront capital than natural gas-fired power plants, where costs are spread overtime. “Even if our plants is a good bargain, if the world isn’t lending, they are hard to finance,” he explains, (his full remarks on project finance start at around 18:31).

This need for lots of upfront capital has led eSolar to, over the past year, forge partnerships with New Jersey’s NRG Energy to develop utility-scale solar projects across the U.S. Southwest. More recently, eSolar said it would jointly develop solar thermal projects outside the U.S. with Germany’s Ferrostaal.

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In a surprise move, Utz Claassen, the newly appointed chief executive officer of Solar Millennium, the German solar thermal developer, has resigned without giving details for his decision.

Claassen, the former head of German utility EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg, officially joined the company in January.

In a press release issued on Monday evening, Solar Millennium said it was surprised by Claassen’s resignation — read full release here.

Helmut Pflaumer, chairman of the supervisory board, said:

The resignation came unexpectedly for the supervisory board. We respect the decision and welcome his intention to remain on friendly terms with the Company. The supervisory board will reorganize the duties of the management board in due course to ensure the sustainable growth of Solar Millennium AG.

Shares of Solar Millennium fell fell 13 percent to €25.13 ($34.37 / £22.84) in late morning trading today on Xetra, the electronic trading platform of Deutsche Börse in Frankfurt, according to MarketWatch.

As CEO Claassen was to oversee the company’s U.S. expansion. Earlier this year, Solar Millennium announced that it had hired Deutsche Bank and Citigroup to help it raise as much as $6 billion to finance construction of thermal power projects in the U.S. Southwest.

In Spain, Solar Millennium has developed Europe’s first parabolic trough power plants. It is  also participating in the massive $572 billion DESERTEC project, which seeks to build a network of large utility-scale solar generation power plants in the Sahara.

Satcon Technology, a manufacturer and supplier of utility-scale power conversion equipment, has appointed Donald Peck  as chief financial officer, effective immediately.

Before joining Boston-based Satcon, Peck was chief financial officer and treasurer at Egenera, a data center virtualization company.

As part of his compensation package Peck is getting about  $2.33 million in stock options or about 1 million company shares, the company said in a statement released today shortly after markets closed — see here for the full press release.

The Illinois Finance Authority (IFA), a state-financing agency, is considering providing Chicago-based Invenergy’s 150-megawatt White Oak project with a loan guarantee. The guarantee was internally approved, an industry source tells G.E.R., given certain conditions are met.

To attract renewable energy developers to Illinois last year IFA established a $3 billion loan guarantee program to support wind projects and other renewable energy initiatives.

The state agency is currently reviewing applications for 750 megawatts of wind projects, our source tells us. We’ve called Invenergy and will post with any update.

Siemens, the German industrial conglomerate, says it’s confident it can become one of the world’s top three makers of wind turbines by 2012.

Andreas Nauen, the head of Siemens Wind Power, tells Reuters he’s confident that his business unit has overtaken Indian wind turbine maker Suzlon last year for the number five spot.

In terms of market shares until 2009 Denmark’s Vestas, General Electric, Spain’s Gamesa and Germany’s Enercon and Suzlon held the first top six slots.

Last week Siemens opened a plant that manufactures parts for wind turbine in Denmark. The company is also building a nacelle plant in Kansas.

Over the next two years (2009-2012) Siemens expects to land $21 billion in new orders globally, government stimulus spending will generate the bulk of the new revenues.

Last year Suzlon took a beating over ongoing reports of flawed turbines, mostly operating on U.S. wind farms.

In December Suzlon’s U.S. subsidiary hired Chicago-based investment bank Marathon Capital to improve its profile with the capital markets community. Banks have been unwilling to finance projects backed by Suzlon turbines.

Image: iStockphoto

Thin-film photovoltaic panel maker First Solar has sold its 30 megawatts Cimarron I PV solar power project in northern New Mexico to a venture comprised of Southern Company, the Atlanta-based power company, and Turner Renewable Energy, Ted Turner’s newly formed renewable energy company.

First Solar and Southern Co. / Turner Renewable did not disclose financial terms — see here for the full press release.

The Cimarron I Solar Project is adjacent to the Vermejo Park Ranch in northern New Mexico. The facility is backed by a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, a not-for-profit electricity wholesaler supplying 44 electric cooperatives in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming.

This is Turner Renewable’s first solar investment since announcing the partnership with Southern Co. last fall.

First Solar will continue to generate some revenue from Cimarron I via a 25-year operation and maintenance service contract with the facility.

Construction of the solar project will begin this month. The solar farm is expected to begin commercial operations by the end of the year.

Image: iStockphoto

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, often described at the “smartest man in the room” in the Obama administration, urged Congress to pass a comprehensive climate and energy bill. Speaking this week at a conference at Stanford University, Chu warned that failure to seriously tackle climate change could limit the nation’s ability to be a leader in the green-energy technologies of tomorrow.

He warned:

The future prosperity of the United States is at risk. I think we will lose (and) end up purchasing equipment from abroad.

Along with an overhaul of the country’s healthcare system, the Obama administration has made clean energy-  and specifically, ensuring that it beats China as the world’s leading green power – one of its top priorities. The country that wins the clean energy race will lead the 21st century, President  Obama often repeats.

But much like the healthcare debate (at least until recently), on the Senate side, the energy and climate change discussion has been paralyzed by ongoing debates about the validity of carbon pricing and yes, (hard to believe) whether human-made climate change is real. The House overcame those divisions this summer, approving its energy and climate change bill in a largely partisan vote.

Taking a cue from Secretary Chu’s stark warning this week Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) and his co-sponsors — Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — took steps to revive their stalled climate change and energy bill, as they met with Senators from carbon-dependent states at a White House mini-summit headed by President Obama. The day before, Kerry also met with key industry groups, including the powerful American Petroleum Institute, which has been lukewarm about cap-and-trade, despite strong support from key member companies and industries.

Is an acquisition in the making in the wind sector? It’s certainly looking that way following this week’s resignation of Doug Pertz, CEO of California wind turbine maker Clipper Windpower, and his replacement with United Technologies (UTC) executive Mauricio Quintana. The corporate reshuffle could pave the way for UTC to take a majority stake in the turbine company, of which it already controls a 49.5 percent stake.

German solar cell maker Q-Cells also showed CEO Anton Milner the door this week. Milner, one of the company’s co-founders, was forced out after the company reported steep financial losses of €1.36 billion ($1.84 billion / £896 million). Taking over the top slot is Chief Financial Officer Nedim Cen, who joined the company from the restructuring consultants Alvarez & Marshal on an interim basis in June 2009.

SunPower, the San Jose, Calif. solar panel maker, scored a big contract this week to supply up to 200 megawatts of solar panels to be installed on rooftops of commercial buildings across the service area of power utility, Southern California Edison (SCE). This is one of the Southern California’s more innovative projects, which at full capacity, will generate some 500 megawatts of sun-powered electricity. Indeed, rather than building large utility-scale plants, SCE has opted to use existing space (building rooftops) and distribute power locally, which voids the needs for cumbersome, long transmission lines.

Competitor First Solar signed a large power purchase agreement with SCE and Pacific Gas and Electric for the 550-megawatt output of its Desert Sunlight photovoltaic solar project. The contract effectively preps the power plant for a potential sale by First Solar, which as a strategy has bought projects to ensure a market for its PV panels; it then sells them once the projects are close to completion.

This week GER also caught up with long-time green financier Andrew de Pass of cleantech-focused investment bank Greentech Capital Advisors. Since its launch in July the New York-based firm has scored a number of advisory mandates. Next step in the firm’s development – private equity. De Pass said Greentech Capital is planning to launch private equity investment funds early next year. The firm took a crucial step in its evolution as a one stop shop to green industry with its hiring of Heather Smith, Deutsche Bank’s former head of structured private placements, to build its own private placement group.

The cleantech-focused private equity fund US Renewables Group launched Westerly Wind to provide financing to wind developers that are having a hard time raising capital. Former American National Power CEO Joe Cofelice was brought on to lead the new venture.

VC Watch

This is probably a first, but GER this week did not report on any significant venture capital investments. If we’ve missed anything or if you have a tip on an upcoming announcement, let us know at: [email protected]. Thanks!

Rambling

This week, as part of our Cornerstone Conversation series, we talked to Audra Parker, who’s been leading the opposition against the Cape Wind offshore wind project. The project is awaiting a crucial decision by the Interior Department that could finally pave the way to the construction of the controversial project on the Cape Cod sound.

Parker highlighted that her organization is not against the project, but merely against its location.

She said:

It’s not an issue of being opposed to renewable energy, it’s not an issue of being NIMBY, it’s an issue of being the wrong location for Cape Wind.

As the U.S. seeks to swell its renewable energy potential beyond technology and increase its access to capital and even to the grid system, another often overlooked issue is finding sites. Cape Wind has been trying to launch its “clean energy project” for eight years, and in doing so has been largely paralyzed by strong local opposition. The ability to balance the policy demands with the demands of developers and local residents will play a crucial role in ensuring that the U.S. leads this ongoing cleantech race…a race that China and its centralized, undemocratic, one-party system seems to be winning.

Image: iStockphoto

First Solar, the world’s largest maker of thin-film photovoltaic panels, sells a substantial majority of its production on the German market. The company estimates that just for the first half of 2010 about 50 percent of its production will go to Germany.

With the conservative coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel tightening the countries generous solar feed-in program, the Tempe, Ariz.  company has been working hard to reassure analysts that other markets including, Italy, France and China, will offset an expected declining demand in Germany.

But what about Ontario…? That’s the question Barclays Capital’s Vishal Shah asks this morning in a research note.

Shah highlights that for First Solar, sales of its PV panels to developers, operating under the province’s Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP) subsidy program, could translate in sales margins of up to 70 percent.

He writes –(see here for the full report):

Potential systems project buyers may be looking at almost $5/W ASP for Ontario solar projects under the RESOP program, which could potentially result in nearly 70% margins for [First Solar] FSLR modules sold to the captive Ontario pipeline.

First Solar has nearly 112 megawatts of Ontario projects that have not yet started construction, according to Shah.

Of all the renewable energy subsidy programs now in place in North America and beyond, Ontario’s RESOP is probably one of the most popular with developers because their projects are assured to sell their output to the Ontario Power Authority under long-term power purchase agreements. This has made it a lot easier for developers to secure financing for Ontario projects.

Image: iStockphoto

There is obviously a lot of interest in China’s growing renewable energy industry. Over the past year, China’s $586 billion green stimulus has emerged as a serious contender to win the global clean energy race at the expense of the U.S.  In a recent post for the Green Leap Forward,  Chief Editor Julian Wong dissects the Chinese stimulus and asks how green it really is. Wong is also a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress.

– By Julian Wong

I had the opportunity to answer this question as a member of a panel discussion at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a Washington DC foreign policy think tank, two weeks ago.   The event was held on February 17 to mark the one year anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and sought to explore the effectiveness economic stimulus packages in the US and globally in catalyzing green investments (Wong’s remarks start at about 24′21).

My simple answer?  There is no simple answer.  The lack of transparency of what exactly is being allocated, how those allocations are being spent, and how the uncertainty around the lesser known story of bank lending (or monetary policy), that is separate from the fiscal stimulus figures into clean energy investments makes it nearly impossible to know just how much money is hitting the clean energy road in China.

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