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1. Bankruptcy Court Approves $197M VeraSun Financing Plan
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2. Green Freebie: Win a Fuel-Efficient, Smart For-Two Car
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3. Ford Escape Hybrid: The Fuel Economy Test Drive
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4. Coskata Pulls in Funding From Blackstone
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5. EPV SOLAR Germany Begins Thin-Film Module Production
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6. World's Largest CIGS Thin-film Array Goes Live
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7. Chemrec Completes US $20M Funding Round for Biorefinery Technology
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8. FPL Breaks Ground on First Hybrid Solar Plant
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9. Greengate Gets Municipal Approval for 550-MW Wind Project
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10. Cool Earth Is Scaling Up Solar Energy Generation
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11. RES Welcomes Consent for Lincs Offshore Wind Farm and Completion of Construction of Lynn and Inner Dowsing
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12. France's Largest Wind Project Commissioned
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13. Ascent Solar Achieves 9.6% CIGS Efficiency
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14. Spire Corporation Receives Notice of Non-Compliance from Nasdaq
Bankruptcy Court Approves $197M VeraSun Financing Plan
Josie Garthwaite - Biofuels
After a year peppered with construction slowdowns, bio-refinery idlings, and more than a dozen bankruptcy filings in the corn ethanol industry, we have an early indicator of how it will shape up post-shakeout — with significantly less cozy alliances between grain growers and ethanol producers.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court handling ethanol giant VeraSun Energy’s restructuring gave final approval this week for $196.6 million in loans (about $7 million more than the company said it needed to make payroll) that will allow it to continue operations. VeraSun also said the approved debtor-in-possession, or DIP, financing will come from lenders that made loans to the company before it filed for Chapter 11 in October — an arrangement that gives them priority over all other claims.
For VeraSun, which produces 13 percent of U.S. ethanol, acquisition remains a possible exit. Industry observers widely agree consolidation is on the horizon, and VeraSun announced last week it had received an “indication of interest” from an unnamed third party for “substantially all of its assets,” listed as worth some $3.45 billion in its bankruptcy filing. Around the same time, leading ethanol producer Poet said it had begun buyout talks with several companies, also unnamed. But whether a VeraSun buyout is in the works, on hold, or out of the question, this week’s financing plan puts suppliers with hefty contracts at the back of the line. Corn growers, unsurprisingly, opposed the bankruptcy court’s decision this week to let VeraSun reject contracts for hundreds of millions of corn bushels.
Tension between growers and biofuel companies resulting from this turn of events could reverberate throughout the industry. “This really has a lot of farmers upset,” Mike Wolverton, a grain market economist at Kansas State University told Reuters. “What it is doing is creating a climate of distrust among farmers with ethanol plants because VeraSun is not the only organization that manufactures ethanol that is having difficulties right now.”
As we’ve noted before, the food-fuel debate and volatile oil and corn prices loom large in the corn ethanol industry’s current troubles (cellulosic ethanol is another story). Crude oil prices dropped below $40 dollars a barrel today, their lowest in nearly four years, and gas prices have plunged enough to make ethanol blends an undue expense for some retailers. The credit crunch made all of this worse for ethanol producers that might otherwise have been able to skate by with investment capital.
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Green Freebie: Win a Fuel-Efficient, Smart For-Two Car
susan - Sustainable Ideas
What better holiday present for yourself – or a friend you like to drive around with – than a cute, fuel-efficient, smart fortwo car? (This gift will be appreciated by four-legged friends as well. ) Even better — you may be able to get it free. You could be one of the 12 lucky winners in the QVC 12 Days of Christmas Sweepstakes who will drive one away.
And if you don't win the green car, you still have over 1000 chances to win another form of green — free shopper dollars worth anywhere from $50 to $250. The deadline is 12-12-08.
(Photo credit: Smart Car Blog)
Ford Escape Hybrid: The Fuel Economy Test Drive
khallgeisler - Bikes & Cars
When I got back to the States after my vacation in diesel-clogged Buenos Aires, I had a Ford Escape Hybrid waiting for me to test drive. I don’t think I’ve even been so happy to see a low-emissions vehicle in my life.
Before we get to the mpg, a note on space: The Escape fit all of our suitcases, camera bags, backpacks, and whatever else in the back seat and cargo area, with plenty of space for a regular-sized driver (me) and a six-foot-plus passenger. It was far less crammed than the airline seats we had just happily left, and we had satellite radio.
When the Escape is started, the gasoline engine comes on, so there is an audible cue to let the driver know when to stop turning the key. In case that’s still too quiet for you, there’s the little green car-shaped light with a double-ended arrow under it in the dashboard to let you know the vehicle is ready to go. (This comes in handy when stopped at very long red lights and the gas engine drops out. The electric motor is silent, but ready to do your bidding at the green light.)
The home screen of the display has a little map, radio information, and an mpg meter. For more detailed mileage information, you can call up the HEV screen, which shows a diagram of the engine, electric motor, the battery, and the front wheels. A green outline shows which elements are in play at any time, and the status, i.e., “Idle with Charging,” is spelled out at the bottom of the screen.
The Escape doesn’t have the pep of the Mini I tested a few weeks ago, but I did take it on a variety of roads — surface streets, interstates, and state roads. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get my average fuel economy to budge from 30 mpg. Wait — I did get it to 29.9 mpg while I was passing a string of trucks. This is less than the EPA combined rating of 32 mpg, but still good for an SUV. The EPA also gives it an 8 out of 10 emissions rating.
That kind of mileage and low emissions come at a price, though: the Ford Escape Hybrid starts at $29,305. Hybrids are still hard to find on the lot, as they are expensive to build and popular to buy, so price breaks and dealer incentives are going to be equally as scarce for the Escape hybrid. But if you can find and afford it, the Ford Escape hybrid is a great SUV.
Coskata Pulls in Funding From Blackstone
David Ehrlich - Biofuels
Cellulosic ethanol startup Coskata said today it’s closed its Series C round, with peHub reporting that the company raised $40 million. Illinois-based Coskata did not disclose the amount of funding, but the figure from peHub is a step down from earlier estimates of a $50 million target for the biofuel firm.
Coskata is working on commercializing a system that it says can produce next-generation ethanol from non-food feedstocks at an operating cost of $1 per gallon.
The company took on another big-name backer for its technology with this round, The Blackstone Group, which led the financing. But that’s another change from previous expectations, as JPMorgan Chase & Co. had originally been pegged to lead it.
While JPMorgan isn’t a part of this funding, Coskata did pick up two more new investors, in addition to Blackstone, with Sumitomo and Arancia Industrial coming on board for the Series C. Some previous backers also participated, including Khosla Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners and TriplePoint Capital.
Not included in that list is General Motors, which acquired an undisclosed equity stake in Coskata in January. A Coskata spokesman confirmed with us via email that GM did not participate in this round, but still holds an equity stake. The struggling automaker is on Capitol Hill this week, along with Ford Motor and Chrysler, trying to get a bailout from legislators.
According to Coskata, this latest round marks one of the first investments made by Blackstone’s recently formed Cleantech Venture Partners fund. Blackstone is also reportedly getting a spot on Coskata’s board: James Kiggen, head of the Cleantech Venture Partners team, will take the seat.
Coskata said this third round of financing will be used to complete its $25 million demonstration facility near Pittsburgh in early 2009 and to start engineering and design work on its first full-scale commercial facility. The company has yet to release any details on the full-scale plant, but it’s working on the pilot plant with Westinghouse Plasma, a subsidiary of Canada’s Alter NRG. That pilot plant is expected to produce 40,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year when it’s complete.
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EPV SOLAR Germany Begins Thin-Film Module Production
World's Largest CIGS Thin-film Array Goes Live
Chemrec Completes US $20M Funding Round for Biorefinery Technology
FPL Breaks Ground on First Hybrid Solar Plant
Greengate Gets Municipal Approval for 550-MW Wind Project
Cool Earth Is Scaling Up Solar Energy Generation
RES Welcomes Consent for Lincs Offshore Wind Farm and Completion of...
France's Largest Wind Project Commissioned
Ascent Solar Achieves 9.6% CIGS Efficiency
Spire Corporation Receives Notice of Non-Compliance from Nasdaq
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