21st Century Regenerative Technology

1. Cleantech Bucks the Downturn: Thank Algae, Solar Thermal
2. T. Boone Launches "Pickens Plan" to Save U.S.
3. Blue Square Energy Struggling for Funding, Management Issues?

Cleantech Bucks the Downturn: Thank Algae, Solar Thermal

2008-07-08 18:02

Katie Fehrenbacher - Big Green

The most recent quarterly cleantech investing numbers are out from the Cleantech Group, and they contain some upbeat news: Investing in saving the Earth doesn’t stop when the economy drops — at least it hasn’t so far. According to the Cleantech Group, the second quarter of this year was a “record” quarter for cleantech venture investing, with $2 billion going to 96 companies. That’s a nearly 60 percent increase from the same period a year ago and higher than the last record quarter — $1.8 billion from the third quarter of 2007.

The numbers are also notable in that overall venture investing has started to slow down, at least in the first quarter of this year. Yes, the first quarter tends to be cyclical, but venture investing overall in that quarter dropped 8.5 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2007, and was also down from the same quarter a year earlier. And not a single venture-backed company went public in the second quarter of this year, according to the National Venture Capital Association. Though whether that was partly cleantech’s fault is the subject of much debate.

So what drove growth in the second quarter? Solar thermal technology and second-generation biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol and algae-based biodiesel.

Solar thermal companies, like these 11 that are building big power plants in the desert, brought in $278 million in venture capital in the second quarter. That brings their year-to-date total to $543 million.

Algae-to-fuel companies (there’s also a lot of those, see these 15) raised $84 million for the quarter, including a $50 million round for Sapphire Energy, which the report says is “the single largest round ever raised by an algae company.” Cellulosic ethanol companies like Range Fuels, EdeniQ, Mascoma, and Gevo raised $136 million for the quarter (see these 11 companies building next-gen cellulosic ethanol plants).

The report also has our favorite list, which lays out the top VC cleantech investors and where their money is going:

Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers: 5 investments, Segway, Lehigh Technologies, Amyris Biotechnologies, Verdiem, Jiangxi Tianren Ecological Industry Co.
Foundation Capital: 4 investments, Control4, Silver Spring Networks, eMeter, SunRun
Quercus Trust: 4 investments, Firefly, Standard Renewable Energy, Sencera, Hydro Green Energy
Khosla Ventures: 4 investments, Amyris, Gevo, Firefly Energy, Range Fuels
Draper Fisher Jurvetson: 3 investments, Brightsource Energy, EdeniQ, GreenFuel Technologies

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T. Boone Launches "Pickens Plan" to Save U.S.

2008-07-08 15:41

Craig Rubens - Big Green

Oil baron turned wind developer T. Boone Pickens says gas-guzzling America is in need of an oil intervention. To get us off the sweet Saudi sticky, today Pickens has launched his Pickens Plan, accompanied by a media blitz of television ads (embedded after the jump), a web site and even an array of web 2.0 tools (T. Boone Twitters!).

With a Texan’s penchant for superlatives, Pickens, who is currently building what he says will be the world’s largest wind farm, is launching his Pickens Plan with what he calls the biggest public policy ad campaign ever. Pickens’s PR tells USA Today that America will be seeing just about as much Boone as Obama or McCain in their living rooms as the hedge funder tries to make foreign oil independence the No. 1 issue of this election. (also watch the informational video from Pickens web site embedded below)

The Pickens Plan sounds simple enough: In order to reduce our use of foreign oil, Pickens proposes using the natural gas that currently generates about 20 percent of our electricity to replace about a third of our imported transportation fuel. Compressed natural gas has existed as a transport fuel for some time but hasn’t been a highly prioritized alternative to gasoline.

Pickens then wants to replace that energy on the grid with wind — an energy source the DOE estimates is capable of satisfying 20 percent of U.S. electricity needs. According to Pickens’s flowchart-laden math, this energy shuffle will reduce our annual imports of foreign oil to $400 billion from $700 billion in 10 years.

This isn’t the first time Pickens has bought a place for his voice in a presidential election. In the 2004 election, Pickens supported the Swift Boat campaign against John Kerry and offered $1 million to anyone who could disprove the group’s claims.

Pickens stands to gain considerably from his proposed plan, as his $12 billion wind investment is still under construction. But the 80-year-old oilman is convinced we can do it. We just need the right leadership, he says, which might be purchasable with the right ad campaign.

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Blue Square Energy Struggling for Funding, Management Issues?

2008-07-08 14:47

Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups

When we first learned about solar-cell maker Blue Square Energy at last year’s Dow Jones Alternative Energy conference, the Maryland-based startup was listed in the conference category as “Raising Money Now.” Looks like they may have jumped the gun a bit, according to a post on the Gunther Portfolio blog. The post reports that Blue Square Energy has yet to secure its planned $30 million round of funding, and that inability to raise money has caused the company to miss commercialization milestones and start employee layoffs and has even prompted executives to ask current CEO Jeff Barnett to resign.

The post attributes this information to a recent conversation with Blue Square Energy Chairman Ray Moyer and board member Joe Babin. We contacted Blue Square Energy and are waiting to hear back and confirm this information.

Blue Square Energy’s technology uses impure silicon to make solar panels that it says are lower cost and higher efficiency than the traditional solar-cell manufacturing methods. Standard silicon-grade solar has to remove the impurities, but Blue Square Energy says it has figured out a way around that with its Bright Point technology. “Proprietary manufacturing techniques mean the Bright Point line will soon have the most cost-efficient solar cells on the market,” the company says.

The Gunther report says the company didn’t raise its planned financing because of management and leadership issues:

BSE failed to raise $30 million in VC funding due to concerns surrounding Allen Barnett and the failure at AstroPower along with serious questions related to Jeff Barnett's ability to manage.

Allen Barnett, CEO Jeff Barnett’s father, is a consultant/advisor to the company.

We’ll add more when we know more.