Roundup: A123 files for IPO, Nokia opens in Africa, Calera comes out, and more
A123 Systems files proposal for IPO — Lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems, which aims to sell into the electric vehicle market, has filed the initial registration statement required for an initial public offering. The number of shares to be sold or price has not yet been determined.
Nokia opens research unit in Africa — Aiming to keep ahead in Africa’s growing telecommunications market, handset maker Nokia has opened a unit to study which services will work best on… Continue Reading
Green cement maker Hycrete raises $15M
Hycrete, a Carlstadt, New Jersey-based green cement maker, has nabbed $15 million in third round funding led by Mohr Davidow Ventures. Returning investors included NGEN Partners and RockPort Capital Partners, according to VentureWire.
The company will use the funding to expand its operations overseas, particularly in fast-growing Asian and Middle Eastern markets. Hycrete does not plan on licensing its technology and says it is ready to expend a large amount of capital building and operating its… Continue Reading
Will CO2 become the next hot commodity?
While most of us have come to think of CO2 as a problem, some see it as a potentially lucrative market opportunity. Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Carbon Sciences is one company asking the question: Why try to bury the ubiquitous greenhouse gas when you can just as easily convert it into a commercially valuable product?
The company has designed a low-cost technology, dubbed GreenCarbon, that combines captured CO2 with water and tailings, the waste mineral products from… Continue Reading
IEA calls for $45 trillion push to halve carbon emissions
Emissions will jump 130 percent and oil demand 70 percent by 2050 unless governments take immediate action to start a new $45 trillion “energy technology revolution,” according to a new International Energy Agency (IEA) report.
Halving emissions by mid-century will require governments to rapidly drive up the cost of producing carbon to $200 per ton — or as high as $500 in the worst-case scenario — by instituting a cap-and-trade or carbon tax system. Either policy… Continue Reading
Despite widespread reservations, United States, China, and Exxon all move forward on carbon sequestration
In the cleantech world, carbon sequestration, or the practice of capturing CO2 emissions and trapping them underground or inside materials, is something of a black sheep. Environmentalists call it a “boondoggle”, some engineers think it’s “absolutely crazy”, and even some politicians have called it a risky bet. Yet a string of recent announcements show that the technique has enough support to compete with other green technologies for attention, and money.
The most recent is a United… Continue Reading
Investment in the green building sector is booming
The green building sector has been awash with VC cash in recent months: Despite there only being a few dozen startups in the nascent field, investors have started paying close attention — helping several raise new rounds of funding.
Newark, California-based CalStar Cement has received $3.4 million from several investors, including Foundation Capital, while Serious Materials landed a hefty $50 million second funding round, led by New Enterprise Associates, Rustic Canyon Partners and Foundation Capital. The… Continue Reading
Calera, pulls carbon dioxide out of atmosphere to produce cement
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A secretive Silicon Valley company called Calera says it can stop global warming and ocean acidification by pulling greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere.
It is building a way to grab carbon dioxide from its surroundings during the manufacturing of cement. Cement is a huge culprit of greenhouse gas emissions: It uses about 2.5 billion tons of cement a year, and produces that many tons in carbon dioxide.
Calera, based in Los Gatos, Calif., has raised a… Continue Reading