San Jose, PG&E lift veil on major Smart Grid collaboration
Pacific Gas and Electric announced today that it’s partnering with the city of San Jose, Calif., to deploy a major project integrating smart meters provided by the utility with the city’s well-developed solar energy infrastructure.
PG&E has been gradually rolling out smart meters in its California service areas. Just like traditional meters, they record how much electricity a household or business is consuming in real time. Only now, they transmit the data they collect to both… Continue Reading
Sierra Solar snags $40M for cheaper thin-film
One of the major barriers standing in the way of solar power’s wider adoption is its high cost. Sierra Solar plans to address this problem by offering cheaper thin-film photovoltaic cells, and just raised $40 million in a second round of funding to do it.
The Fremont, Calif. company achieves its cost-effective prices by manufacturing its products in China. On the use side, Sierra’s cells are reportedly 16 to 17 percent efficient (the average is 15 percent… Continue Reading
Solar co. Solyndra shines with $220M
Solar installation maker Solyndra has every reason to celebrate the new year, raising $219.2 million in fifth-round funding from a flock of 23 investors. This is the second largest investment received by any U.S. cleantech company in the last year, coming in behind the $300 million bagged by competitor Nanosolar. The amount breaks down into $96.6 million in working capital and $122.2 million in convertible promissory notes.
The Fremont, Calif. company has not disclosed its plans… Continue Reading
Innovalight rakes in $5M for solar cell ink
Investors Leader Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank have shined on solar cell company Innovalight, providing $5 million in new financing toward the development of silicon solar modules so small they can be painted onto surfaces like ink.
The Sunnyvale, Calif. company uses liquid processing of silicon to produce nanosize solar prarticles that are not only more efficient than crystalline wafers, but also much cheaper to make than regular solar panels. It received $28 million last year… Continue Reading
Roundup: IT budgets dying on the vine, Chrysler’s electric cars, a cure for the bees, and more
Datamonitor points to IT budget freeze — Major sector analyst Datamonitor says that half of IT organizations around the globe will cap spending levels next year.
Chrysler to roll out electric cars — Car maker Chrysler will unveil a line of electric cars to its dealers next week, according to the Wall Street Journal. The large car company has not previously shown off any electric vehicles.
Bee well — Remember when some researchers were blaming mobile phone signals for colony… Continue Reading
Roundup: Crisis speculation, another marketing-firm VC, and more
How will the current crisis on Wall Street affect Silicon Valley? – “I don’t think it will have much of an impact on Silicon Valley as an operating entity,” banker Bill Hambrecht tells Om Malik. Watch the video for more.
Meanwhile, how will online advertising be affected by Wall Street turmoil? — Maybe not so bad, some hopefuls in the industry tell PaidContent.
Global Agency Interpublic Group creates new venture arm — It will be called Mediabrands Venture Fund, and follows… Continue Reading
Nanosolar outshines the competition with a $300M financing
Thin-film solar company Nanosolar has been sitting on a big secret for much of this year, it turns out: The company took a $300 million financing this March, and has remained mum ever since, only detailing it on the company’s blog this morning after VentureWire reported the funding.
While Nanosolar hasn’t been entirely secretive about its technology, with chief executive Martin Rosencheisen showing off a rapid manufacturing technique early in summer, but apparently it didn’t want… Continue Reading
Manufacturing could hit a new upswing in the United States
A few years ago, it was still a subject of regular outrage. Jobs were headed to Mexico. Factories moving to China. Everybody hated globalization, without quite understanding it. But with a flood of news coverage — the slightly nauseating peak being an all-too-popular book about the world being flat — people finally figured it out: The manufacturing jobs were gone. Get a job banking, or flipping burgers, but don’t expect to be building cars or… Continue Reading
HelioVolt hopes for a fast scale-up with high-efficiency CIGS process
updated, with correction
These are heady times for the thin-film solar industry. The sector’s dominant player, First Solar, has been on a tear of late, recently announcing it would build a second 10 megawatt power plant in Nevada, while Miasole, once thought to be ailing, has staged an impressive comeback, raking in an eye-popping $220 million. Nanosolar has developed a new ultra-fast solar cell printer, and even giants like IBM and Applied Materials have gotten in… Continue Reading
Nanosolar blows a raspberry at other solar CIGS startups
Thin-film solar panel maker Nanosolar isn’t shy about tooting its own horn. The heavily-funded startup has made a series of advances over the past couple years, from building one of the world’s largest solar cell factories to printing its first cells, all the while claiming that it has the best technology around.
Well, maybe the claims are true. CEO Martin Rosencheisen today unveiled a new tool made by the company, an ultra-fast solar cell printer (video… Continue Reading
Duke Energy invests $100M in rooftop solar projects
Duke Energy — hardly your conventional renewable energy startup — has thrown its hat in the solar ring with a $100 million investment in commercial-scale rooftop solar panels.
The Charlotte, North Carolina, based electric utility will partner with commercial and residential property owners to tap into a growing market that has seen large investments in recent months from major utilities like Southern California Edison, which unveiled its own $875 million rooftop project in late March.
Like SCE,… Continue Reading
HelioVolt claims CIGS thin film efficiency record
HelioVolt CEO BJ Stanbery is set to announce that his company has set a new speed record for CIGS conversion efficiency, ratcheting up the pressure in the competitive, high-stakes thin-film solar cell sector. The Austin, Texas, start-up, which raked in a cool $101 million in second round funding last October, claims its proprietary FASST reactive transfer printing process can produce cells with a 12.2% conversion efficiency in a mere 6 minutes.
This latest technological breakthrough comes… Continue Reading
Small municipal plants could be the future for solar power
Writing on Nanosolar’s blog, CEO Martin Roscheisen has unveiled the next prong in his firm’s business plan — a focus on municipal solar power plants of 2 – 10 megawatts in size. The idea is to build 10 acre lots on the outskirts of small cities that could feed into the municipal power grid directly.
Each lot, consisting of several rows of solar panels mounted on rails above ground, could provide up to 2 megawatts, enough… Continue Reading
Real Goods Solar, a residential solar installer, sets terms for IPO
Real Goods Solar, the Broomfield, Colorado-based solar installer and a subsidiary of Gaiam (NASDAQ: GAIA), a green lifestyle company, expects to sell 5 million shares at $10 – 12 when it files for an IPO on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “RSOL”. The offering’s lead underwriter is ThinkPanmure, with Canaccord Adams and Broadpoint Capital as co-managers.
The company, which recently bought out California-based competitors Marin Solar and Carlson Solar, hopes to raise $49 million after… Continue Reading
Nanosolar gets yet more funding for production — next up, an IPO?
Another day, another dollar, or $50 million of them. Nanosolar is now the most heavily-funded thin-film solar cell manufacturer outside the public market, with a new investment from a French company that wants it to churn out cells more quickly.
Nanosolar’s cells, which the company only started producing in December, are among the cheapest on the market, which is reason enough for it to continue attracting attention from investors like EDF Energies Nouvelles. The company’s CIGS… Continue Reading
Solar CIGS production to pick up — HelioVolt building plant in Austin
updated
A day after Silicon Valley solar cell company Nanosolar said it has begun manufacturing and sales of its solar cells, rival HelioVolt declared it too is building a solar cell production plant, in its hometown of Austin, Texas.
Both companies are competing to build cells from material called copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), which they hope will lower the cost of solar cells dramatically, compared to the dominant material today: expensive silicon.
The timing of the announcement… Continue Reading
Nanosolar rolls out first production thin-film solar cells
Some five years after its founding, and a year and a half after announcing a huge solar cell factory in the Bay Area, Nanosolar has become one of the very first companies to begin commercially selling thin-film solar cells.
Nanosolar’s cells use an “ink” thin enough to be painted onto a flexible backing. The company isn’t alone in making these CIGS cells, so-called because of the conductor compound they use (copper, indium, gallium, diselenide). However, it… Continue Reading
Nanosolar gets $20M more for cutting-edge solar technology
Nanosolar, the company using a new material called CIGS to make lower cost and more flexible solar cells, has received $20 million more in financial backing, this time from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The award was part of the Solar America Initiative, which provides financing to companies to further solar power. The award is important for Nanosolar because the Silicon Valley company is in the critical phase of building production plants to produce its new… Continue Reading
Silicon Valley’s new solar cell companies slipping on delivery dates
Amid all the excitement about new solar technology, several promising companies are slipping on their delivery dates.
However, most of the companies still say they plan to deliver — it’s just a matter of time before they hit the market
Solyndra, a Santa Clara, Calif. solar company (see VB’s coverage), has seen one of its executives, Monier Nessim leave, after that company returned to more basic research and development, instead of push on toward production. Investors Redpoint… Continue Reading
Feds inject $168M into solar, boon for start-ups
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $168 million to 13 solar companies, many of them Silicon Valley start-ups, in what is the equivalent of manna falling from heaven for these companies.
It is cut-throat industry, where solar projects are expensive and difficult to get off the ground, but once at high-levels of production can prove efficient and profitable.
Just last week, a group of ethanol companies were awarded similar grants, to help create alternative fuels…. Continue Reading