Fabless semiconductor company Arctic Sand has raised $9.6 million in its first round of funding. The technology was first developed at MIT and consolidates multiple power components onto one chip to maximize the power of electronic devices. Arctic Sand is commercializing the technology for mass markets, like telecom, datacom, industrial and mobile. Its Transformative Integrated Power Solutions platform converts power inside devices to significantly reduce energy loss.

Data centers suck up a lot of resources, both financial and ecological. In a statement issued by Arctic Sand, CEO and founder Nadia Shalaby said that data centers spend more than $50 billion annually on electricity and emit large amounts of carbon dioxide. By reducing the amount of power-conversion losses, these chips save energy, space, and money.

“A staggering 80% of energy generated worldwide is lost as heat due to power-conversion losses,” said Shalaby. “Such excessive power inefficiency results in both unnecessary electricity expenses and significantly oversized distribution and generation in serving the world’s rapidly expanding computing and data storage needs.”

Arctic Sand has won a trophy case of prestigious awards, including the 2011 NASA Game Changer Award, the US Department of Energy U-Launch Award and the NREL Industry Growth Forum Grand Prize Award, as well as the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 grant. Institutional investors include Arsenal Venture Partners, Northwater Capital, and Ray Stata. Strategic investors include Dialog Semiconductor and Energy Technology Ventures, a joint venture involving energy corporations ConovoPhillips, GE, and NRG Energy.

The financing will go towards bringing the power-conversion chips to market. Arctic Sand is based in Cambridge, Mass. Read the press release.

Transphorm unveils first product — The company unstealthed last month with $38 million backing from investors like Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins, showing off technology that can save energy losses that happen when power is converted from one form to another (which happens in almost everything that uses electricity). It announced its first product today, power diodes based on its gallium nitride technology, which promises to cut energy waste by 20 percent. Transphorm is targeting markets in motor drives and solar inverters and hopes to one day make a solution that will create more efficient electric and hybrid cars.

App locates electric car chargers — Xatori has released the PlugShare iPhone app, which allows electric car owners to search for electric car charging stations. While electric carmakers like Nissan also offer charge-finding apps, this app is unique in that it allows people to share their own outlets with other electric car drivers.

First Solar no longer top panel maker — First Solar is king no more in solar panel production, at least for now. Chinese solar panel maker Suntech likely beat its 2010 production with 1.5 gigawatts of modules shipped, compared to First Solar’s 1.4 gigawatt (which still represented a nearly 30 percent increase from sales the year prior), according to Forbes. Suntech could pose a threat to First Solar in the future as it continues to cut costs and increase efficiency.

Here Enterprises may buy Texas solar firm — Renewable energy developer Here Enterprises is in talks to acquire an unnamed Texas solar firm, according to the San Antonio Business Journal. It is currently developing the Cycle Ranch wind energy project near San Antonio.

With its power switching technology, Transphorm is taking aim at a billion-dollar inefficiency issue in energy: losses that inherently happen in energy conversion. When you juice up your cell phone, the charger converts the grid’s alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC), but some of the power is lost during the conversion process. Transphorm makes a device that can cut up to 90 percent of that power loss.

It may seem like a rote topic, but the scale of the issue is huge because just about everything that uses electricity requires power conversion. Transphorm says conversion losses account for 10 percent of all energy generated in the U.S. — $40 billion worth of electricity or the equivalent of 318 coal-fired plants, more than all the power generated by renewables (see chart below).

It’s also a potentially lucrative area for investors. GE recently spent $520 million to acquire Lineage Power, a power-conversion company that GE said would give it access to huge money-making opportunities in the telecom industry and greening data centers.

“You can take the whole West Coast of America off the grid if you can save the conversion losses that occur,” said CEO Umesh Mishra in an interview with VentureBeat. “It is a big problem in energy efficiency today, and it is one that is hard to tackle.”

Transphorm’s approach clearly got the attention of Google, which has made strides in greening its data centers — a popular topic in cleantech, as data centers are huge and expensive consumers of energy. Transphorm’s investors also include Foundation Capital and Lux Capital. The company raised $20 million in a third round of fundraising last May, but didn’t go public with its plan and investors until today.

Transphorm’s innovation is in its switching devices and module design. The company embeds power conversion devices in circuits and modules specifically designed for use in segments like solar inverters and industrial motors, so it’s not a plug-and-play product, which Mishra says others have tried in the past. Gallium nitride is part of Transphorm’s equation — it’s a fairly new material commonly used in LED lighting and is “ideal power switching material,” Mishra said, because it is a low-resistance material that can simultaneously hold off large voltage. Power-conversion devices are traditionally made using silicon.

“There is no further pathway for silicon. It has just reached its fundamental materials limits. [Other scientists] have shown what the maximum limits are, and we’ve broken them,” Mishra said.

Integrating gallium nitride into a power-conversion switch isn’t easy, though, so Mishra says that’s part of the company’s special sauce. Transphorm embeds and connects the technology to application-specific modules that ultimately deliver energy efficiency. It then sells the solution to manufacturers, who integrate it into their products.

The approach can be used to solve energy inefficiency problems in a broad spectrum of power conversion. Markets that Transphorm has singled out include servers in data centers (converting AC to DC),  motors that power elevators (AC to AC), hybrid cars (DC to AC) and solar panel inverters (DC to AC).

The company isn’t releasing details of the cost of the device or how long return on investment takes. As is the case with most energy efficiency plays, Transphorm’s customers can expect to earn back their investment through money saved on reduced energy use.

What’s next? The company says it will be announcing customers across its target markets in the next year, starting with an announcement at the Applied Power Electronics Conference in Fort Worth, Tex. in two weeks. Right now, the company is focused on using the proceeds from the $20 million round to support current orders for its customers. But demand has been strong, and Mishra says the Goleta, Calif.-based company will be looking to expand its facilities next year and will aim to raise another round of funding at that time.

“We’re getting terrific customer pull. The technology has just emerged. We’ve just begun what’s going to be an amazing ride in the development of the technology,” Mishra said.

[Top image via Flickr/kk+]

The company’s technology can reduce by up to 90 percent the power lost when one form of energy is converted to the other (say, from AC — alternating current — to DC, direct current). Hybrid and electric car drives also convert electricity from AC to DC, so the Transphorm’s technology could one day be used to make electric vehicles and hybrids more efficient, said CEO Umesh Mishra in an interview with VentureBeat.
“The efficiencies that we offer translate directly to advanced efficiencies in [electric vehicle] drives,” Mishra said.

The technology could be used to extend the range of cars with the same size battery used in electric cars today, or by reducing the size of the battery for a lighter car with the same range that current electric and hybrid cars have.

All-electric cars right now like the Nissan Leaf (pictured, bottom) typically go about 100 miles on a single charge, and plug-in hybrids like the Toyota Prius Plug-In (pictured, top) or the Chevrolet Volt can go anywhere from 13 to 50 miles before switching over to gas, depending on the automaker and design. While there’s interest in public car chargers, consumers are still concerned about the range of cars.

Battery cost, life and range are major issues in electric car adoption, and some argue that there are inherent limits to battery technology and advancements will be difficult. Major automakers are looking to expand lineups to compete in the green car market, and battery advancements are part of the plan — GM, for example, has invested in battery startups Envia and Sakti3. If car makers can tackle the range problem with power conversion and essentially skirt the battery obstacles, it could be a game changer.

The advancements won’t be happening tomorrow or even this year, though. Mishra sees it as a future market for the company.

“We are going to start working on it soon. But I believe it will take three years to five years before it becomes something the automotive sector will have the stomach for,” Mishra said. “But it’s a hugely attractive thing. … People in that sector completely understand the value proposition. We just have to work with them to get there.”

Right now, Transphorm is focused on other target markets, which include solar panel inverters, industrial motors (like the ones found in elevators) and data centers. Transphorm’s innovation is in its switching devices and module design. The company embeds power conversion devices in circuits and modules specifically designed for use in segments like solar inverters and industrial motors, so it’s not a plug-and-play product, which Mishra says others have tried in the past. Gallium nitride is part of Transphorm’s equation — it’s a fairly new material commonly used in LED lighting and is “ideal power switching material,” Mishra said, because it is a low-resistance material that can simultaneously hold off large voltage. Power-conversion devices are traditionally made using silicon.

Transphorm has raised a total of $38 million (including a $20 million round disclosed today); its backers include Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, Foundation Capital and Lux Capital.

The company, which manufactures everything from wind turbines to electric car charging stations, announced today it has acquired power conversion technology company Lineage Power for $520 million from Gores Group, an offering that GE says will help it leverage huge opportunities in telecom and making data centers more efficient.

In 2006, the government reported that data centers consumed 1.5 percent of all electricity in the U.S., costing $4.5 billion, and projected that energy use could nearly double by 2011, costing $7.4 billion a year. Kevin Skillern, who heads up GE’s energy venture capital investments told us he believes the rate is higher – three to four percent of U.S. energy output a year. GE has backed other green data center technology companies like JouleX and SynapSense in the past, but this acquisition is a major move into the sector.

Lineage Power makes energy efficient power conversion technology that converts the AC electricity delivered from the grid to DC electricity to power the servers and equipment in data centers. It also makes DC-DC power modules for telecom purposes and helps companies set up energy systems. Some companies have been demonstrating data centers running on all-DC power as of late, as a way to save energy.

Lineage Power had revenues of approximately $450 million last year and counts Verizon among its customers. It also appears to have a small fuel-cell business.

GE will acquire Lineage Power for $520 million — GE is purchasing the company from Gores Group in a move to expand its energy business. Lineage Power makes high-efficiency power conversion technology used in data centers and telecom.

SoloPower awaits $20 million loan for Oregon factory — Thin-film solar manufacturer SoloPower recently raised $51 million and is now awaiting a decision on its application for a $20 million loan for a 75-megawatt factory from Oregon’s State Energy Loan Program, the Oregonian writes. The decision should be handed down today, so stay tuned to GreenBeat.

Ford not a fan of Better Place’s battery switch — Electric vehicle infrastructure company Better Place wants to popularize a battery switching technology that allows for the five-minute swap of a depleted electric car battery with a fully-charged one. It has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and partnered with GE in the process, but the switching requires automakers to make electric vehicles compatible with Better Place’s switch stations. Ford said this week that doing so wouldn’t make sense for them because it would hold the company back from progressing to new electric vehicle battery technology, Fast Company reports.

Toyota will mass produce plug-in hybrid batteries — Toyota’s Prius plug-in hybrid is slated for limited release in 2012, but according to reports, Toyota will be manufacturing batteries for plug-in hybrids at the rate of 100,000 a year. The company is making lithium ion batteries for the first time ever in one of its own plants and at a factory operated with Panasonic that will cost $120 million, according to the Nikkei business daily (and re-reported by Reuters).

Electric hybrid Chevy Volt technology may come to a GM minivan — That’s according to GM CEO Dan Akerson’s comments published in Autoblog Green. Akerson says he wants 10 percent of GM’s cars to be plug-in or hybrids within 10 to 15 years, and he expects one car within each of GM’s divisions (Buick, Cadillac, etc.) to eventually use technology from Chevrolet’s Volt electric car. Remember what we said about the revenge of the American automaker hinging on green cars? Looks like it’s in full swing.

Texas loses EPA suit, increases wind power share – A federal court denied Texas’s request to not adhere with federal greenhouse gas rules that include the EPA’s plan to issue greenhouse gas permits in the state. Texas still has other lawsuits pending to challenge the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases, the Texas Tribune reports. On the state’s environmentally friendly side, it has increased production from wind farms so that wind now makes up 7.8 percent of the state’s electricity supply.