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1. Ontario Bumping Coal for Biomass
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2. GE Funds Wind Turbine Startup TPI Composites
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3. Tata Doubles Nano Investment, Nails Down Production Timeline
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4. Cree's Outlook a Bright Spot in Murky Economy
Ontario Bumping Coal for Biomass
David Ehrlich - Big Green
Instead of shoveling coal into the furnace, Ontario wants to go big with biomass. The province’s four coal-fired power plants are set to be phased out by 2014, but why let those plants go to waste when they could keep on working, but with lower emissions?
Government-owned Ontario Power Generation said this week that it’s looking to get pricing information from suppliers to help plan the potential switch, and OPG put out an official Request For Expressions of Interest for the supply of biomass. The power group plans to only use renewable biomass sources — that is, biomass from sustainable forest-based and non-food agricultural products and by-products, but not from waste material. We’ve updated our coal deathwatch map.
Of course, those power plants still won’t be emission-free — burning is burning, after all. But biomass, which burns a lot cleaner than coal, is considered to be “carbon neutral,” because the amount of carbon released when burned is equal to the amount absorbed by the plant while it was growing. In theory, that balance can be maintained, as long as the use of biomass doesn’t cause the clear-cutting of forests, or the use of food as fuel, as in corn-based ethanol.
The switch could start as early as the fourth quarter of 2011, with at least 2 million metric tons of biomass expected to be consumed annually, if the program gets fully up and running. Ontario Power Generation has already gotten a head start on the move, conducting a test of 100-percent biomass fuel at its Atikokan Generating Station in northwestern Ontario last summer. Partial burn tests have also taken place at two of the other coal-power plants.
Some power companies in the U.S. are also looking at making the switch, with Georgia Power, part of the Southern Co., announcing last year that it was seeking approval from regulators to convert an old coal-fired plant to burn biomass.
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GE Funds Wind Turbine Startup TPI Composites
Jennifer Kho - Uncategorized
TPI Composites Inc., which makes light-weight wind turbine blades that it claims are more durable and more efficient than conventional blades, on Thursday announced it had raised $20 million in its second round of funding.
Investors in the convertible preferred equity financing round, announced at the Clean-Tech Investor Summit in Indian Wells, Calif., include GE Equity and GE Energy Financial Services, Landmark Growth Capital Partners, NGP Energy Technology Partners and Angeleno Group. TPI said the round reflects an increase in its valuation from its first funding. The company raised $22 million in convertible preferred equity financing in October of 2007.
The investment is a score for the company, especially now, when capital is hard to come by. It's notable that GE, one of the largest U.S. wind energy-equipment suppliers, is an investor. TPI in 2007 announced an agreement to supply GE with wind turbine blades.
The company plans to use the money to continue to expand its capacity. Last year, TPI tripled its capacity at its Mexican facility, which is a joint venture with Mitsubishi Power Systems, and opened factories in Newton, Iowa, and Taicang, China, under supply agreements with GE Energy.
Andy Katell, senior vice president of communications at GE Energy Financial Services, said that the investment is a good fit and that it’s a good time for TPI to expand. “They are absolutely in the growth mode because, long term, wind energy is expanding globally and that increases the demand for all the equipment involved, including the blades for turbines," he said.
Annual global wind power installation has increased at an average rate of 22 percent over the last five years, with blades garnering $2.1 billion in sales in 2007, according to a GE estimate.
The funding also signals that GE has capital to invest. While the company isn't immune from capital constraints, Katell said, "We are looking much more carefully than ever at good, high-quality projects and companies to invest in and ones that provide a high return in the short term. TPI fits all those characteristics."
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Tata Doubles Nano Investment, Nails Down Production Timeline
Josie Garthwaite - Automotive
Indian auto giant Tata Motors plans to throw an additional $435 million at production of its Tata Nano, the compact car unveiled in prototype last year with the promise of a price tag low enough to revolutionize transportation in emerging markets. With a lightweight design and high fuel economy (54 mpg, Tata claimed), it was envisioned as a precursor for low-cost electric and micro-hybrid models. While the ultra-cheap auto project has stalled, renewed investment could be the jumpstart Tata needs to get efficient cars out of the planning stages.
The investment announced today will pay for a new manufacturing facility for the $2,500 Nano, with production slated to begin in late February. That’s a 4-month delay from the initially slated rollout, which has proceeded by stops and starts amid fierce land disputes. The spending represents a doubling of Tata’s total investment in the Nano project since its launch just over a year ago, Cleantech Group reports. (Tata deserted a 90-percent complete factory in August after violent protests from local farmers who said they were forced to give up land for the project.) According to the Times of India, Tata will have help from the government, which is letting the company buy the land in eight yearly installments, beginning after production takes off.
Here’s the new timeline: Tata expects existing plants to produce the first 7,000 vehicles by the end of March, with production of the so-called “people’s car” ramping to 80,000 over the next year. If the new factory opens as scheduled in the first quarter of the 2010-2011 fiscal year, Tata said it will reach its original full-scale annual production target of 150,000 Nanos.
The schedule shows remarkably few changes from the original plan, considering the tumult Tata Motors and its parent, Tata Group, have endured over the past year. Then again, it wouldn’t be the first automaker to miss its own revised deadlines.
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Cree's Outlook a Bright Spot in Murky Economy
Kevin Kelleher - Energy
Cree shares rallied 14 percent to $18.76 Wednesday after a positive earnings report just as cleantech investors are sifting through numbers to separate the strong from the weak. Demand from consumer and automotive products may be down, but government spending in China and possibly the U.S. remains promising.
Cree said revenue in the quarter ended Dec. 28 was $148 million, up 5 percent from a year earlier. Most of the gains came from its core LED products. LED revenue rose 28 percent from a year earlier and 3 percent from the previous quarter. That was more than enough to offset areas that saw declines in revenue, such as high-power products and materials.
Other metrics showed the company is pushing into the recession in good health. Gross margin was 39 percent compared to 36 percent a year earlier. Operating cash flow was $41 million in the quarter, up from $35 million a year earlier but down from $44 million in the previous quarter.
In the current quarter, Cree estimated its revenue at a midpoint of $131.5 million and a net profit between 10 and 13 cents a share. Analysts had been expecting $139 million in revenue and a 9-cent profit. In a conference call, Cree CEO Charles Swoboda said the outlook remained murky but - all things considered - encouraging enough.
As we start the third fiscal quarter we are facing reduced visibility from both our customers and distributors… The recession has reduced near-term demand for some of our products in consumer, mobile, and automotive applications, but we continue to forecast growth in commercial LED lighting.
Currently, Cree’s strength is coming from its XLamp LED components, which saw double digit growth last quarter. Demand for retail lighting and video screens in China are expected to be “solid”. Other areas, such as flashlights and other portable LED products, didn’t do so well.
Despite a retrenchment in China, Swoboda said the company is planning to speed up its plans to increase production of XLamps and other products in the country. Demand from China for large display screens and other lighting for domestic infrastructures was steady last quarter. “We’re targeting it should be pretty stable,” Swoboda said.
Cree may also benefit from some of the expected spending on U.S. infrastructure. Swoboda said recent lighting projects at the Federal Reserve building and the Pentagon could be leveraged into other deals.
If we can get momentum from some of the applications that we have recently installed, hopefully that can spur the whole cycle… And one of the keys is to be able to show them that it really works. I think the Pentagon raised a lot of eyebrows, not just because it was 4,200 fixtures and it was an entire wing, but that they were able to put together some payback numbers that I think have opened a lot of people's eyes. And they're talking about less than four-year payback. So that's a pretty big deal and hopefully we can build on that momentum.
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