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1. 10 Cleantech Companies Greening the Olympics
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2. Green Investors Love EnerNoc, Hate Yingli
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3. Battery Maker A123 Systems Files to Raise Up to $175M in IPO
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4. Ausra: Big Solar Getting Bigger
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5. ReCellular Calls In $15M in Funding
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6. Abengoa Rakes in $426M for 4 Solar Power Plants
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7. The Daily Sprout
10 Cleantech Companies Greening the Olympics
Craig Rubens - Big Green
But America is hardly the only one helping China green the games. Here’s a roundup of 10 cleantech deals made in preparation for China’s Olympic coming-out party.
Cree - LED veteran Cree so impressed Olympic organizers with their 440,000 XLamp LED display on the Beijing National Aquatics Centre, aka “the Water Cube,” that they were asked to do a similar installation on the so-called Bird’s Nest main arena. Cree’s LED technology can also be seen in huge video displays all over the Olympic complex. The company is making a strong push in the Chinese market, including acquiring Hong Kong-based LED maker COTCO Luminant Device Ltd. last year.
Suntech - The Chinese solar giant signed a 10 million RMB ($1.25 million) contract with Beijing's National Olympic Stadium to install a 130-kilowatt photovoltaic system at 12 entrances of the Bird’s Nest.
Canadian Solar - Canadian Solar, a maker of photovoltaic cells and modules, has supplied 66 KW of building-integrated PV modules for street lights in Beijing. The solar powered lampposts will illuminate the Olympic Boulevard from the "Bird's Nest" to the Olympic Square.
ET Solar - The Chinese solar company has had an 11-kilowatt tracking PV system in operation at the Beijing Olympic Beach Volleyball Coliseum since last year. The system’s tracking capabilities allow it to swivel across 270 degrees, boosting energy output by 35 percent, the company says.
Atos Origin - Atos Origin has been managing the IT side of the Olympics since the 2002 Salt Lake City games and is already in place for Vancouver in 2010. This year, in Beijing, Atos has consolidated the number of servers and data centers it will run and has instituted its Commentator Information System, which delivers event results to broadcasters in a “remote mode.” This will enable journalists to cover Olympics from the their base locations, reducing the number of reporters traveling to the games, Atos says.
Echelon - The San Jose, Calif.-based Echelon Corp. has had their LonWorks lighting control system installed in the Olympic Village, managing the lights for some 23,000 athletes residing in its more than 40 buildings. The system will manage the lighting of the apartments, public areas, parking lots and other exterior installations. The system saves energy by monitoring light output and automatically dimming lights when needed.
Volkswagen - The German auto maker is providing a green fleet of 30 vehicles to the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and the games’ main press center. The vehicles represents a variety of VW’s fuel efficiency technologies including TSI petrol engines, TDI diesel engines, DSG dual-clutch transmission (a super-efficient automatic transmission), EcoFuel (natural gas) and BlueMotion (high-efficiency diesel).
Beijing Bus Company Feng Xingfu - Feng Xingfu will use 50 lithium-battery-powered buses to shuttle athletes and media between events and the villages. The buses are part of a purchase plan involving a total of 2,810 new environment-friendly buses, including 900 diesel-powered vehicles that meet the Euro-IV emission standard and 250 natural-gas-powered vehicles.
Alcoa and Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Company - Chinese bus maker Yutong Bus Company will be road-testing two new prototype buses in Beijing during the Olympics, built in a partnership with aluminum giant Alcoa. The aluminum bodies should reduce weight by 15 to 20 percent, Alcoa says, and therefore boost fuel efficiency. The buses feature Alcoa’s spaceframe technology, which it developed with Ferrari, as well as aluminum wheels and paneling.
GE - GE is providing a huge variety of water, energy and infrastructure services at 37 Olympic venues, including the Forbidden City. Check out their animated map to see all the Olympic pies GE has its finger in. A total of 130 GE 1.5 MW wind turbines will help power Olympic venues. 100 are at the Shangyi Wind Power Farm Project while the other 30 are at the Zhangbei Wind Power Farm Project. Solar-powered LEDs from GE will illuminate the Fengtai Softball Field while standard LEDs will light up the Beijing Olympics Committee’s headquarters. Meanwhile, the National Stadium will keep the giant pitch green with a GE Zeeweed nanofiltration membrane rainwater recycling system.
Green Investors Love EnerNoc, Hate Yingli
Kevin Kelleher - Big Green
In an era of high energy prices, the most effective solutions are now the least glamorous ones. Ethanol, solar panels and wind energy all have their share of promise and problems. But a company like Enernoc — which helps utilities use traditional energies more efficiently — can offer more near-term, tangible benefits.
Or at least that seems to be what investors are thinking these days, as the market is reacting more favorably to energy efficiency than alternative energies.
Earlier this week, Yingli Green Energy said that demand for its solar cells caused revenue to double and net profit to triple in the second quarter. But concerns about rising polysilicon prices and a possible cut in Spain’s solar subsidies have caused the stock to fall nearly 20 percent since then. Blowout numbers simply aren’t good enough for solar investors right now.
Then came earnings from EnerNoc, the Boston-based company whose network reduces imbalances between supply and demand and helps utilities use power more efficiently. Six months ago, investors punished EnerNoc after it showed signs of a possible turnaround. Today, they seem more confident that the turnaround is underway.
EnerNoc’s stock rose as much as 29 percent Friday to change hands for $18.20, which seems a bit extreme considering the company posted a net loss of 54 cents a share, just three cents smaller than what analysts had been expecting. It also boosted its revenue outlook, but only slightly. The midpoint of the range it gave rose to $104 million from $102 million previously.
Enernoc’s future is looking encouraging, even it it isn’t expected to turn a profit until 2010. And it doesn’t face the kinds of obstacles (rising material costs, diminishing subsidies) confronting Yingli and other solar companies.
Even so, there seems to be a disconnect between this week’s performance of these two stocks. Perhaps investors are losing hope for the solar sector and looking for other opportunities. But it seems a little odd that the stock market is itself not very efficient right now in pricing stocks devoted to energy efficiency.
Battery Maker A123 Systems Files to Raise Up to $175M in IPO
Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups
As expected, lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems has filed to go public. Given that the company is one of the most promising and prominent venture-backed electric car battery makers out there, the move, which will see it raise up to $175 million, is a big deal.
A123 plans to have it shares trade on the NASDAQ under the symbol AONE; Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are co-leading the underwriting. The filing offers one of the first glimpses into the company’s financials, and guess what? They have yet to turn a profit. For the year ended Dec. 31 2007, the company lost $30.97 million, which widened from the $15.78 million in losses posted the year before. “We have never been profitable,” read the risk section, as well as, “[W]e anticipate that we will continue to incur net losses in 2008 and beyond.” Revenues are growing, though; A123 brought in $41.3 million in 2007, up from $34.3 million in 2006.
The fact that the company is losing money isn’t that surprising, given that it’s been expanding rapidly. A123 says it now has over 1,100 employees worldwide, and the bulk of those were added throughout 2007; it had 227 employees as of Dec. 31, 2006.
The company has been rumored to be valued at more than $1 billion. Throughout its lifetime, A123 has raised more than $132 million from a long list of investors including General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Motorola, Qualcomm, North Bridge Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, CMEA Ventures, FA Technology Ventures, OnPoint and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As we mentioned earlier, this gives Sequoia a pretty awesome batting average when it comes to cleantech as this is one of their only green investments.
Despite posting losses, A123 has managed to establish a list of vehicle partners, which it notes in its filing, among them General Motors, Think Global and BAE Systems. The deal with Think Global involves supplying batteries for 11 different vehicle powertrain systems, while for BAE it’s to sell batteries for the Hybridrive propulsion system being used in Daimler’s Orion VII hybrid electric buses. The company is also working with AES to make large batteries for the power grid.
But while A123 is setting its sites on electric vehicles, the company reveals in its filing that it relies on Black & Decker and its cordless drill products for 55.1 percent of its total revenues, as of the quarter ended March 31. That’s down from the 70.7 percent of revenue that B&D used to account for, but still. That’s a huge chunk of sales from one customer. Meanwhile, we’re not sure if the General Motors relationship has yet moved beyond just research and development.
The startup also has a lot of competition. Its competitor list in the filing is a who’s-who of the entrenched battery world, including: Sanyo, Matsushita/Panasonic, Sony, BYD Auto, LG, Valence Technology, Altairnano, Samsung, Toshiba and EnerDel.
Ausra: Big Solar Getting Bigger
Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups
In fact a report from CNET had pegged the round at closer to the $100-$150 million range. Perhaps the company has dialed back on its funding plans in the face of an uncertain investment tax credit? The CNET report also said that the company would need two project financings next year and that it planned to go public by 2010.
This latest round of funding included a new backer, private equity firm KERN Partners, as well as existing investors Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins. KERN invests in a lot of Canadian firms, so might Ausra be looking at solar markets up North? We’ve contacted the company and are waiting to hear back.
Ausra is just one of more than a dozen companies building solar plants in the deserts that use the sun’s heat to generate power. Ausra manufactures cheap, flat mirrors that incorporate what its calls Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector technology, which concentrates light to heat tubes of water and power steam turbines. The startup has a manufacturing facility near Las Vegas and has signed a power purchase agreement with PG&E for 177 MW from its farm in San Luis Obispo County, Calif.
ReCellular Calls In $15M in Funding
Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups
ReCellular says its revenues have already grown an average of 25 percent per year for the past eight years, and this year is on track to process more than 6 million phones. The new capital will be used to ramp up its expansion, the company says, including opening more offices and hiring more staff. ReCellular says it is also looking to make some acquisitions in the gizmo recycling space.
Like many of its startup competitors, ReCellular buys old phones from customers and collects donations, but instead of selling the phones on eBay, it offers them up directly to the customer through its web site. Broken phones are refurbished while worthless phones are broken down and recycled. The company also runs donation programs including the Cell Phones for Soldiers program, whose phone return envelopes you may have seen included in your last Amazon order.
Startups working in this space — and possible acquisition candidates — include BuyMyTronics.com, FlipSwap and the newly rebranded Gazelle.
Despite the numerous recycling options, just 3 percent of cell phone owners recycle their devices, and some 50 percent are unaware of cell phone recycling options altogether, according to studies from Nokia, the world’s largest handset maker. One big goal for ReCellular, and the industry as a whole, is to make clear to the consumer that while recycling is important, it can also be easy.
Abengoa Rakes in $426M for 4 Solar Power Plants
Craig Rubens - Energy
The solar arm of Spanish renewable energy and engineering giant Abengoa says it has completed raising funds for four new solar power installations it plans to build across Spain — Over €280 million ($426.33 million) was raised from 14 mostly Spanish banks for the projects. Most of those funds, or €210 million, will go toward the construction of Abengoa’s Solnova #4 Concentrating Solar Power plant while the other €70 will be used to build three solar photovoltaic plants.
Construction of the Solnova #4 plant will begin in September in Seville and the facility is planned to have 50 megawatts of power output capacity, the company says. The plant will use the same parabolic trough technology as the Solnova 1 and Solnova 3 plants. This is the “proven” trough technology that Abengoa’s senior adviser to the U.S., Fred Morse, told us the company plans to employ in their U.S. installations. That is, if the ITC sticks around.
Solnova 4 will join four other planned installations Abengoa is working on at their Solucar platform in Seville. The company says the entire site will generate a total of 300 MW from an array of solar technologies. PS 10, a central power tower installation using heliostats, is already generating 11 MW; another 1.2 MW is being produced by a low-concentration PV installation. Solnova 1 and 3 will each have a capacity of 50 MW using the parabolic trough design and are currently under construction. More installations using parabolic troughs and tower technology are under development as well as a concentrated solar power plant using dish Stirling technology.
Even though the Spanish government could shrink its solar incentives, Abengoa, which brought in €3.21 billion ($4.89 billion) in sales in 2007, has the financial wherewithal to keep these projects afloat and with this new backing from a consortium of banks we look forward to all of their solar systems coming online.
The Daily Sprout
Craig Rubens - Misc
EU and UN to Link Carbon Trading Schemes in 2008: The European Commission and officials at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change say their two carbon trading schemes will be linked before the end of the year, joining two of the largest carbon markets - Financial Times.
Scientist Says to Prep for 4 Degree Global Warming: Professor Bob Watson, one of the UK’s top science advisers, warns that the country should prepare for warming of the globe by 4 degrees, a change that will have profound impacts in terms of flooding, agriculture and coastal erosion - Guardian.
Oregon’s Solar-Powered Highway: In a partnership between PG&E, US Bank and the Oregon Department of Transportation, a $1.3 million, 594-panel solar installation will power lights at the interchange of Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 - Press Release.
“Convert Your Prius to Run on E85″: We told you how you can put a plug on your Prius but now a Dutch firm named GreenFuelSystems has created an E85 bio-ethanol conversion kit for €549 so your Prius can burn ethanol - AutoBlog Green.
World’s First Bio-Degrabable USB Key is Corny: Hong Kong-based Hoshino has made what it has dubbed “the world’s first bio-degradable USB disk” made of corn fermented into a material called polylactide - GearLog.
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