SunRun teams with Virgance to finance solar for consumers
Hard economic times mean fewer consumers will shell out for expensive solar panels. Also hard hit are startups that offer no-money-down programs to lease panels or buy their power but can’t find banks to partner with. So, teaming with SunRun — one of the few… Continue Reading
Solar Power Partners takes on $32M for solar panel sales
Add another solar-as-a-service company to the list of those unfazed by the recession. Solar Power Partners, a Mill Valley, Calif. company that installs panels for commercial customers but retains ownership in order to sell the electricity from them, has taken on $32 million more in… Continue Reading
BrightView picks up $6M for improved solar manufacturing
BrightView, a solar tech firm that hopes to improve the production of photovoltaic solar cells, has raised $6 million in a first round of funding. (The company is not to be confused with BrightView Technologies, an optics company in North Carolina.)
Rather than manufacturing its… Continue Reading
Syngas startup Ze-gen takes $20M to torch trash
Ze-gen, a company that plans to round up waste from construction sites and turn it into gases that can be used to generate electricity, has won $20 million in funding to help build its first full-size facility.
Based in Boston, Mass., Ze-gen has been moving… Continue Reading
Graphene Energy raises $500,000 for ultracapacitor storage
Graphene Energy, an Austin, Tex. startup based on technology from the University of Texas and Virginia’s College of William and Mary, has taken a $500,000 seed round from Quercus Trust and 21Ventures.
Ultracapacitors (insulating layers between conductors that house electric fields) are being explored by… Continue Reading
SolFocus takes on $47.5M more in quest to sell concentrating solar
SolFocus, the most heavily-funded concentrating solar startup around, has just drawn a bit further ahead of the pack with $47.5 million in fresh capital. With the money, the company has edged near $150 million in total funding, and with luck, widespread installation of a currently… Continue Reading
The termite’s blessing: ZeaChem finds more support
Poor termites. They’ll have no part in the ZeaChem facilities that may someday pump out millions of gallons of cellulosic ethanol, even though it’s the humble bug’s legacy that allowed it all to happen. Lakewood, Colo.-based ZeaChem has raised $34 million more for its process,… Continue Reading
Xunlight gets $7M loan to work on rooftop thin-film lines
Commercial rooftops sporting solar panels are becoming a familiar sight. But the technology used is still changing, with companies like thin-film panel maker Xunlight working to change the way big box retailers and others get their solar energy.
Xunlight has just received an additional $7… Continue Reading
Motion Computing picks up $6M for tablet PCs
Just a day after the long-suffering smartphone and handheld maker Palm picked up a $100 million investment from Elevation Partners, mobile computing startup Motion Computing is announcing a smaller, $6 million investment of its own.
Motion Computing makes slate tablet PCs that are used within… Continue Reading
KaloBios tacks on $12M more for engineered antibodies
South San Francisco, Calif.-based KaloBios, a biotech company that raised $20 million just five months ago, has added another $12 million in a second close of its fourth round of venture capital.
KaloBios has three antibody products in development, each of which targets a specific… Continue Reading
Interconnectivity developer Oxford Semiconductor acquired
Oxford Semiconductor, a fabless developer of connectivity devices, has been acquired by PLX Technology, a similar company that specializes in PCI Express, an expansion card standard commercialized by Intel.
OxSemi was working with several interconnect standards to make devices for the home and small office… Continue Reading
Strengthened by partnerships, cellulosic ethanol maker Coskata raises more money
The cellulosic ethanol company Coskata has managed to pull in a $40 million third investment round despite the recession. The amount is a significant boost for the company, which last took money early this year.
Coskata is becoming something of a standout among the newest… Continue Reading
Solairedirect raises $26M for French solar power
A Paris company called Solairedirect has raised $26 million (€20 million) for solar power production, including both rooftop and ground installations of solar panels.
The outfit calls itself an “integrated solar power provider,” with its fingers in all stages of the business, from manufacturing the panels… Continue Reading
More greenhouse gas monitoring — Clear Standards lands first funding
With a carbon cap and trade now a near certainty for the United States, investors are rushing to fund companies that will help create the market. A Sterling, Va. company called Clear Standards is the latest, with a new $4 million for an inventory system… Continue Reading
Raydiance raises $20M for lasers, lasers everywhere
Laser maker Raydiance has picked up $20 million more in its quest to manufacture lasers for everyday commercial use in medicine, manufacturing, energy and other fields.
Raydiance’s lasers are a type called ultrashort pulse (USP) lasers, which pulse light on the femtosecond time scale —… Continue Reading
Banks show confidence in solar — SunRun secures $105M financing
We may be in the depths of a credit crunch, but some banks still seem willing to give loans to renewable energy projects. This morning, solar services firm SunRun is announcing a $105 million commitment by U.S. Bancorp (USB) to buy about 2,000 of the… Continue Reading
Another Indian solar services firm snags Silicon Valley funding
Azure Power, a Delhi, India company that develops large solar projects both on and off the commercial power grid in its home country, has raised an undisclosed first round of funding from Foundation Capital and Helion Venture Partners.
The investment is the second that Silicon… Continue Reading
Qteros readies for near-term cellulosic ethanol production
A technology that might offer some respite to first-generation ethanol makers like Verasun and Pacific Ethanol has received a significant $25 million from backers including oil giant BP and George Soros’s investment fund. The company in question is Qteros, formerly called SunEthanol, a little-known startup… Continue Reading
EnerG2 aims to improve ultracapacitors for electric cars, industry
EnerG2 Inc., an ultracapacitor startup that has kept quiet until now, is launching today with the official announcement that it has raised $8.5 million in its first round of financing. Founded in 2003, it has spent five years developing electrode materials that it claims can boost… Continue Reading
CarbonFlow adds $1M as it approaches software release
Carbon-trading software company CarbonFlow has added a $1 million follow-on to its first round of $2.9 million, which it first announced in July. The extra investment was provided by @Ventures.
CarbonFlow’s trading software is designed to comply with the carbon standards set by the Kyoto… Continue Reading