Glacier Bay solidifies $10M for power management systems
Glacier Bay, maker of high efficiency power and thermal management systems for trucking and aquatic applications, announced that it raised $10 million in new capital from the Westly Group, New Enterprise Associates and Quercus Trust.
The 18-year old company shifted to building energy-efficient HVAC and power… Continue Reading
Let there be light: eSolar switches on first U.S. solar thermal tower
The U.S. solar industry just took a great leap forward with eSolar’s announcement that its 5-megawatt Sierra SunTower is now fully operational. Located in Lancaster, Calif., the array uses 24,000 mirrors to concentrate sunlight on two 160-foot towers.
The facility is technically a solar thermal plant,… Continue Reading
Advanced Telemetry gets infusion for wireless energy-management dashboard
Advanced Telemetry has taken an undisclosed amount of second-round funding from existing investors Quercus Trust and 21Ventures to continue developing its energy consumption management platform for residential and commercial use.
The San Diego company’s lead product is a wireless panel called the EcoView that classifies energy… Continue Reading
ETV Motors powers up with $12M for longer-range hybrid engines
ETV Motors, an Israeli company developing alternative powertrains for hybrid-electric vehicles, has raised $12 million in a first round of funding to fuel further research. If successfully launched, its “micro-turbine” technology could be disruptive, causing plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle (PHEV) makers to abandon the internal combustion… 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 a… Continue Reading
Lightwave raises $13M to improve thin-film solar
Thin film solar cell maker Lightwave Power brought in $13 million in first-round funding to improve conversion rates of sunlight into electricity. Right now, the average conversion rate is about 9 to 15 percent. The Cambridge, Mass. company says it’s working on thin-film solutions to… Continue Reading
Evolution Robotics rolling toward an automated world
Banking on the idea that helper robots will be as ubiquitous in homes and offices as they are today in factories, Evolution Robotics has raised almost $14 million to continue developing both software and hardware for a variety of self-directed machines.
Evolution, an Idealab startup founded… Continue Reading
Sencera nabs another $15.6M for solar cells
While the overall economy may be in a bad spot, investments in green funds and renewable energy startups are showing little sign of waning, with solar firms like SoloPower, Nanosolar and AVA Solar leading the way. Its financial prowess may not match that of its… Continue Reading
With $15M new funding, Cyrium will fight Boeing and Emcore for the concentrating solar market
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… Continue Reading
Hydro Green Energy caps off first funding round in growing “hydrokinetic” market
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… Continue Reading
Selling solar on the conservative side of town
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… Continue Reading
GridPoint, a well-funded smart-grid startup, raises $15M more
GridPoint, a smart-grid company that can intelligently manage energy sources and storage for utilities, has pushed its total equity raise to $102 million with an add-on of $15 million to its fourth round.
The company works to distribute the power and storage of utilities, as well… Continue Reading
LiveFuels raises $10M to turn algae into alternative fuel
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…. Continue Reading