VentureBeat

When we talk about concentrating photovoltaics (CPV), it’s the lenses, mirrors and tracking systems that focus sunlight onto solar cells that get all the attention. But why not the cells themselves? A little-discussed handicap in CPV is the near-monopoly two public companies, Boeing’s (BA) Spectrolab and Emcore (EMKR), enjoy on high-efficiency cells.

That’s starkly different from the other solar markets, in which dozens of startups are vying for attention. One reason the two companies reign uncontested is that the market for their expensive cells, which can capture over 30 percent of the sunlight that hits them, is very small. But Cyrium Technologies, with $15 million in new funding, hopes to break the status quo and, in the process help the CPV market to expand.

At the moment there’s not a lot separating Emcore and Spectrolab. Both companies occasionally put out press releases touting record-breaking efficiencies, but those milestones are achieved in labs, not manufacturing lines. What’s actually sold are cells that average 37 percent efficiency (although anecdotal reports suggest their real performance is around 34 percent). Both companies have struggled to do any better with efficiency, and prices have likewise stayed high.

That’s not a huge problem for CPV companies like SolFocus, because the biggest cost is in all the lenses, trackers and so forth that make up concentrating solar units, and the technology is still new. However, many CPV systems are now at a point where they compare favorably to regular solar panels. As a new technology, they could use a competitive advantage to help convince buyers, and lift their own profit margins. Cyrium thinks it can provide that edge.

Cyrium’s innovation is changing a time-tested portion of the cells Emcore and Spectrolab use. The photovoltaics in question go by the geeky designation of III-V, triple-junction cells. That means they’re built with three layers that work a bit like a sieve with progressively smaller holes. The top layer captures ultraviolet light, the middle takes in visible light, and the bottom grabs the remaining infrared spectrum.

The middle layer is what has held up further development, according to Cyrium’s CEO, Steve Eglash. It captures less light than the other two, and further development has been slow. Cyrium was founded by Simon Fafard, now the company’s CTO, around the idea of embedding nano-scale amounts of a material called indium arsenide within that layer of the cell (also called quantum dotting).

Eglash says the technique will boost his company’s first line of solar cells to around 41 percent efficiency, which can milk out 10 percent more energy from a CPV system. That’s a large and important gain, especially if the CPV technology in question is already competitive with other forms of solar power.

Cyrium hasn’t gotten to that efficiency yet, but Eglash says its initial partners are already reporting comparable output to Spectrolab cells, and development is far from done. And interest in the finished product is running high: “Out of the 25-30 concentrated photovoltaic companies out there, nearly every single one has reached out and asked if they can please work with us,” Eglash says.

Also on the books is a reduction in cost, but there, Cyrium’s competitors are on a more even footing with it. Eglash says his company will benefit from a fabless (outsourced) manufacturing model, which Spectrolab and Emcore don’t use, but prices will remain high from now, only falling gradually over time.

The funding for Cyrium is its second so far, and was for $15 million. Quercus Trust led, and was joined by previous investors BDC, Chyrsalix and Pangaea Ventures. It also recently received some funding from Sustainable Technology Development Canada, and its first round was for $3 million. Cyrium is headquartered in Ontario, Canada with an office, headed by Eglash, in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Hydro Green Energy, another player in the burgeoning hydrokinetic sector, has just capped a $2.6 million first funding round led by the Quercus Trust.

The Houston-based company holds 13 preliminary permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for projects in Alaska and Mississippi; it expects its first project, on the Mississippi River in Minnesota, to begin operations in late August. Another four projects that will be built downstream of existing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ dams in Mississippi will generate close to 100 megawatts.

Similarly to Verdant Power, which we wrote about a few days ago, Hydro Green’s turbine arrays don’t require large structures or a damming of water to work. The arrays are mounted on barges, which allows for the raising and lowering of individual units — greatly facilitating control and maintenance operations. They also have a relatively benign environmental impact and, unlike bottom-anchored turbines, have little effect on the riverbed. Each turbine array has a maximum average capacity of 250 kW.

In 2006, a NASA-sponsored study estimated that Hydro Green’s turbine design would produce at least 240% more power than similar technologies in the U.S. and the U.K. — a finding that was corroborated by two independent energy consulting groups, Concepts NREC and Hatch Energy.

Another hydrokinetic firm, Massachusetts-based Free Flow Power, just unveiled a $3 billion plan to install thousands of in stream electric turbines at 59 sites along the Mississippi River. CEO Daniel R. Irvin believes the turbines will generate 1,600 megawatts, enough to power 1.5 million homes. The turbines, which will be made of carbon fiber or another lightweight composite material, will be attached to pilings in the river bed.

The project is facing close scrutiny from state and federal environmental regulators and the Army Corps, which have both expressed concerns about the turbines’ impact on river navigation and the river’s wildlife. This extra oversight has done little to dampen activity in the sector, however, with Hydro’s funding round just the latest in a series of investments over the last year.

Republican “red” states hate environmentalism, right? And California is the place to be for cleantech startups, no? Not so, says cleantech installer Standard Renewable Energy, which does its business in middle America and just closed off a second round of venture funding.

SRE, headed by a former Enron trader, is busy selling solar cells, wind turbines, green insulation, efficient cooling and other systems to people in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and other states the environmental elite enjoy jeering at. It’s busy expanding its sales and installation teams, and has taken a total of $15 million in funding over the course of a year.

One of the major selling points for SRE is its carbon and energy calculator, available on the front page of its site, that gives potential customers an easy view of how much they could save with cleantech power and building supplies installed. At present, the calculator only displays the numbers for solar panels, but the company does on-site evaluations for all its solutions, delivering personalized recommendations.

On the surface, running a carbon calculator and cleantech business in those states doesn’t seem to make sense, because it’s a common belief that only consumers in states with large rebate and subsidy programs for solar will install such expensive systems. The CEO of SRE, John Berger, thinks their willingness to pay is actually linked to their electricity bills, though, and those are highest in hot southern states where demand skyrockets in the summer.

Those rates keep going up, Berger says, and they show no sign of stopping their climb. SRE has about 400 customers at present (many of those are businesses like restaurants, with more than one location) and will bring in up to $30 million this year. That’s a healthy business, but Berger has some unconventional expectations for the next three to four years.

First off, he says, prices for power generation feedstocks like coal, oil and natural gas will climb stratospherically. Berger forsees crude oil at $200 per barrel in about three years. It’s currently hovering at a price about half that figure, which many people already consider back-breakingly high.

The high prices will goose customers into buying more and more solar panels for their homes and businesses, he says, which will in turn cause the demand for solar to stay ahead of supplies. I recently reported on a study that holds the opposite view, and most investors also seem to think an oversupply of solar cells is on its way. But if Berger is right about energy prices, he may well turn out to be right about demand, too.

Those factors would work out fine for his business. SRE already employs about 130 people, and is adding on more installers with the new funding. It’s also expanding its territory. Berger says he “might” expand into California, but for the most part he intends to stay in the hot states of the south, with Florida, Georgia, New Mexico and Arizona all being possibilities.

The $15 million total funding SRE has taken is made up of a $7 million round taken a year ago, and the new $8 million investment led by Quercus Trust. SRE is based in Houston, Texas.

LiveFuels, a Menlo Park, Calif. company seeking to turn algae into an alternative fuel, has raised a $10 million round of capital.

The investor was David Gelbaum at the Quercus Trust, which has previously backed environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and the Wildlands Conservancy.

We reported earlier that LiveFuels was looking to raise the money, and ran a column by LifeFuels’ founding investor Rich Hilt about why using algae makes sense.

Why algae? Well, as the company puts it, the slimy critters…
* are naturally comprised of up to 60 percent oil.
* grow happily in marginalized lands where corn fears to tread.
* can be grown in fresh or brackish water (saltier water algae are oilier)
* thrive on sunlight, CO2 and nutrient rich agricultural run-off and waste.
* offer per acre yields that are 250 times that of soybeans.

You know things are hot in the clean-tech area when several algae companies emerge to do the same thing. Berkeley s Aurora BioFuels and Menlo Park’s Solazyme Inc. have also raised recent rounds.

LiveFuels hopes to have its biofuel ready by 2010.