21st Century Regenerative Technology

1. GE Beams $4M Into Advanced Electron Tech
2. SolarReserve Heats Up With $140M for 5GW of Solar Thermal

GE Beams $4M Into Advanced Electron Tech

2008-09-16 13:06

Katie Fehrenbacher - Hitlines

GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of conglomerate GE, says this morning that it is investing $4 million into startup Advanced Electron Beams, which uses electron beam technology to kick start chemical reactions and break down chemical structures more efficiently than thermal and chemical methods. The Wilmington, Massachusetts-based startup says its electron beam emitter is smaller and less expensive than the traditional options and can help companies in the manufacturing and packaging industries cut energy consumption in some cases between 60 to 90 percent — that results in companies reducing emissions and lowering energy costs.

GE has already been testing the company’s electron beam emitter, ‘AEB Emitter,’ in its research center and has drummed up at least 9 possible applications, including sterilizing food and other goods for packaging, treating materials (like solar photovoltaics in manufacturing), curing substances for printing and coating, pollution abatement, and hydrogen production. While the $4 million from GE will no doubt help the company prove its technology on a larger scale, access to GE’s research will be crucial to move this technology into more manufacturing methods.

Already Advanced Electron Beams says they have 40 customers using the tech, and GE’s latest round actually adds on to the startup’s list of investors like Atlas Venture, General Catalyst and RockPort Capital. AEB’s innovation of a smaller, more simple, and less expensive emitter was developed by company founder Tovi Avnery. The technology has the potential to help clean up factories and lower the cost of manufacturing in subtle but important ways and we see this technology making it big when more carbon regulations set in. AEB’s CEO Mitch Tyson says the company’s vision is to provide “the sustainable factory of the future.”

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SolarReserve Heats Up With $140M for 5GW of Solar Thermal

2008-09-16 12:00

Craig Rubens - Hitlines

Although the sun could be setting on the renewable tax credits, private equity is shining down on solar thermal startup SolarReserve. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company says it has raised a hefty $140 million in a second round of funding for its utility-scale solar thermal power plant design. Citi Alternative Investments, Sustainable Development Investments, and Good Energies led the round and were joined by US Renewables Group, PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund, Nimes Capital and Credit Suisse.

SolarReserve says it will use the money to advance the development of 5,000 megawatts of utility-scale solar thermal plants all over the world, ranging in size from 30 to 500 megawatts. The company had previously tested its technology with the U.S. Department of Energy, but should the renewable energy tax credits not get renewed, SolarReserve, like other solar startups, will likely look outside the U.S. for development opportunities. The company plans to have its first plant up and running by 2010.

SolarReserve’s technology works on the problem of solar power's intermittent power-generation ability by storing energy in the form of heat in molten salt. Mirrors, called heliostats, reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a central receiver that uses Rocketdyne's heat transfer technology, which was originally developed for use in liquid-fuel rockets. The extremely hot salt is then piped through another heat exchanger, making steam that in turn powers traditional steam turbines.

SkyFuel, another solar thermal startup, also uses molten salt to store energy as heat, but collects the sun’s rays using parabolic troughs. Google-backed eSolar and BrightSource both use central power tower constructions like SolarReserve’s.

The stealthy startup had previously been largely mum about its financial and development plans. Founded at the start of this year, the company was spun out of United Technologies Corp.’s Rocketdyne division of aerospace giant Hamilton Sundstrand with funding from U.S. Renewables Group.