Clean Tech Deal Flow

CellFor grabs $10M for improved tree seedlings

2008-11-30T23:45:00.000-08:00

Fascinating. I'm very leery of bio-engineering like this. How many well intended introductions have had disastrous long term consequences? (Nutria, Kudzu, etc, etc. ) But I can clearly see the economic and environmental benefits of creating trees that grow quickly, are disease resistant, and create high quality wood. Hmm. "Vancouver-based CellFor said it raised $10 million to expand the

WalMart buying wind power

2008-11-30T20:50:00.001-08:00

It will provide Wal-Mart with 226 million KWh of power annually, and will offset 139,000 metric tons of carbon — the equivalent of what 25,000 cars would emit. Hard to find fault with this. Whatever their motives, Wal-Mart moving towards green has the potential to be a real force in the evolving green-tech and alternative energy world. http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2008/11/20/

Simple Solutions - a Spoiler that could save several MPG

2008-11-30T20:37:00.000-08:00

My favorite kind of solution. Simple, elegant, and effective. "In a paper published in the International Journal of Vehicle Design, Inchul Kim of Metacomp Technologies, in Agoura Hills, California, working with Xin Geng and Hualei Chen of the University of Michigan-Dearborn report that the aerodynamic drag and lift on a mini-van moving at 108 kph (67 mph) are reduced by 5% and more than 100%,

Obama's Green stimulus plan.

2008-11-29T15:30:00.000-08:00

Business Week has a good summary and analysis of Obama's stimulus plan. http://www.businessweek.com/

Germany wants one Million cars on the road in 11 years.

2008-11-29T11:19:00.000-08:00

And I'd like 12 classic cars in my garage in 11 years. Who knows if either will happen? But Germany has a plan, and it includes: a large amount of funding for advanced battery development, investment in an electric car charging infrastructure, and tax credits for the adoption of electric cars and plug-in hybrids. Conceived by four separate German agencies — the departments of Economics,

Wow. Chrysler kills its Hybrid SUV in the same month it goes on sale.

2008-11-26T11:22:00.000-08:00

In October, I noted the announcement of the new Chrysler Hybrid SUV models. According to the NY Times: The hybrid S.U.V.’s became available at dealerships in early October. But on Oct. 23, Chrysler announced that at the end of the year it would close the Delaware plant where they are built. Production of the hybrid models began on Aug. 22. Even if production continues until Dec. 31, the

Is Corn Ethanol dying?

2008-11-26T09:08:00.000-08:00

There are many good reasons to doubt the future of corn ethanol. (Not necessarily ethanol, but corn ethanol.) This Washington Post article puts it in perspective. But because of how corn ethanol currently is made, only about 20 percent of each gallon is "new" energy. That is because it takes a lot of "old" fossil energy to make it: diesel to run tractors, natural gas to make fertilizer and,

Has a scary line been crossed for VC's? I'm not 100% certain.

2008-11-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

Adeo Ressi has made a presentation recently that argues that the traditional VC model is broken. I might agree that it has issues, but I think calling it dead is very premature. Over at TechCrunch much was made of the slide I copied above, from Ressi's original presentation. It does point out, correctly, that the line that represents the value that venture capital adds has dropped below

Searaser floating pump for wave energy

2008-11-26T00:19:00.000-08:00

Wave energy seems like it holds some promise for a renewable resource. Essentially, it is concentrated wind energy, since waves are formed by wind across large areas of water. Capturing it has it difficulties, marine environments are tough on moving parts, tough to maintain, and frequently create energy that must then be transported somewhere. Searaser seems to have a cool idea, but it's not

Connecticut Clean Tech Fund Launched

2008-11-25T08:53:00.000-08:00

"We want to position Connecticut as the preferred location to grow clean tech jobs,” said Governor M. Jodi Rell, who announced the fund in November." It seems to me that it will take a lot more than $9M to establish Connecticut "as the preferred location to grow clean tech jobs". Don't get me wrong, it's cool that they are doing it, and that more funding is available, but $9M isn't enough to

Solargy Systems Begins US $120M African Waste-to-Energy Project

2008-11-25T08:52:00.000-08:00

Solargy is announcing a 120M project in Africa. They bill themselves as an alternative energy system integrator, but this system doesn't seem any different than conventional incinerators. At least, it's not at all clear how it's different. Anyone know? They claim to integrate solar and incineration, but is the solar actually used ot make the incinerators more efficient, or are they just

Cobalt Biofuels Raises $25 Million to Commercialize Biobutanol

2008-10-20T14:02:00.000-07:00

Biofuels, based on non-food feedstocks, are huge right now, and bound to get bigger. There are certainly not without issue, as many don't seem to be very resource efficient, but if they can be brought to a reasonable point of their net energy consumption and cost, they may prove to be one the most efficient ways to harness the sun's energy for use in applications like cars and airplanes. From

New Energy Economy thoughts from earthpolicy.org

2008-10-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

A powerful, if a bit optimistic, outlook on the new energy economy. A good friend and I were out kayaking the other day, and he raised the idea that after 9/11, Bush had perhaps the best opportunity ever to work on divorcing us from oil. If he had said, "We need to go after Al Qaeda, and we need to become energy independent.", he would have had nearly the whole country behind him. Of course

More thoughts in Big Oil and it's impact on Green TEch

2008-10-19T22:09:00.000-07:00

Referring to Shell, the article says this: The oil titan has quadrupled its budget for renewable-energy projects this year, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Similiar to what I posted earlier about the influence on oil, I think these guys increasing their influence could be major. Even 2-300 Million a year would be a considerable investment for this sector. The article: Greentech Media | Shell

Are we getting closer to a mainstream electric car? The Electric Mini

2008-10-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

Tesla makes a cool car, but a low volume 2 seat sports car that sells for 100K will never be mainstream. Getting a major manufacture to build a small but useful city car, all electric, will make a big difference. BMW is building between 500 and a 1,000 all electric Mini's. With a claimed range of 150 miles, and 0-60 times of around 8.5 seconds, it should be pretty fun to drive, certainly a

VC's down on current state of the industry.

2008-10-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

This study isn't focused on Clean Tech, but is a more general study of VCs' attitudes. It shows a drop in confidence for the third quarter, hardly a surprise given the current economic situation. Of course, the study only started 4 years ago, a pretty short time really. I personally think we are in the ultimate "disrupted market" right now. There will be big losers, but ultimately, there will be

Better Battery Technologies

2008-10-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

Batteries are the weak point in many clean tech ideas. They tend to be heavy, inefficient, and not very environmentally friendly. But systems like electric cars and thousands of other products depend on them. To paraphrase an old saying, Build a better battery, and the world will beat a path to your door. A group from Portugal has come up with some early new technology that might help with

Start a company in a recession?

2008-10-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

Don Dodge writes an interesting blog post about starting a company during a downtime, it includes: "Customers are willing to try new things to save money in bad times. When things are going great they don't want to take risks on a tiny startup. If you can save them money in bad times...they are happy to deal with a startup." I'd add to that. Companies that offer a genuine energy savings, good

Dodge Durango Hybrid: Aspen, Durango Two-Mode Hybrids Hit 22 MPG Highway

2008-10-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

Chrysler Aspen hybrid and Dodge Durango hybrid have managed an EPA-estimated 20 MPG city and 22 MPG highway rating. Reasonably impressive numbers. Not great, but for a big SUV, pretty good numbers. Off course, if people buy this when all they really need is a small car, there is no net gain. But for those of us in the Clean Tech world, I'm willing to bet there are some suppliers making money

Green Car Congress: Clemson University to Lead $1.2M Cellulosic Ethanol Project

2008-10-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

Clemson University will lead a $1.2 million bioethanol research project to find the best way to produce plant-based fuels in South Carolina and the region. The US Department of Energy awarded the grant to Clemson, which will collaborate with DOE’s Savannah River National Laboratory in Aiken. The purpose of the grant is to assess the potential of switchgrass and sweet sorghum as feedstocks.

California sets out green vision

2008-10-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

Regulation can drive business, or stifle it. California has set ambitious new climate change plan, and being as that California is the center for Clean Tech in the U.S., companies here or hoping to sell here are going to be affected by it. California published a radical climate change plan this week, outlining its intention to have its wide-ranging policy proposals formally approved by the

What You Don't Know About Energy Can Kill You - Warnings about the Oil Companies

2008-10-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

Neal Dikeman is a partner at Jane Capital Partners and CEO of Carbonflow. He makes an impassioned and very reasonable argument that Silicon Valley investors and start ups should be looking out for, learning from, and respecting the oil companies. Oil companies have tons of money, and tons of experience selling energy. I've said before, and firmly believe, that when oil companies refocus on

Eating Kangaroo Could Reduce Global Warming Effects

2008-10-17T15:38:00.000-07:00

So who is going to be the first Silicon Valley VC to fund a kangaroo farm, and sell the offsets? Professor Ross Garnaut was recently commissioned by the Australian government to produce a 600-page study on global warming, in which he stated that the agriculture industry should be required to buy permits for exceeding the recommended amount of greenhouse gas emissions. The resulting higher

With Oil Under $70 Again, What's It Mean for Green? - thedailygreen.com

2008-10-17T15:11:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, according to at least some analysts, neither the rising price of oil nor the financial crisis has taken much steam out of investments in 'clean tech,' which attracted $2.2 billion in investments in the first half of 2008 and is expected to account for 11% of total investments. And investing in energy efficiency programs, and renewable energy technology research and development, is

Adura raises $5M for their lighting management systems.

2008-10-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to these guys. I met Zach and some of the rest of the team when we were competing in the California Clean Tech Open against them a few years ago. I thought at the time it was a strong product, good timing, and a good plan. Plus, genuinely nice people. Happy to see them getting along well. Adura Brightens With $5M for Lighting Management � Earth2Tech: