VENTURE CAPITAL
PACE financing company Ygrene Energy Fund Raises $30M – 8/13/14
Santa Rosa’s Ygrene Energy Fund has received a $30 million investment from its first institutional investor, Virgo Investment Group, to expand its operations nationally and expand sales efforts. Ygrene provides “property assessed clean energy,” or PACE financing to property owners for energy-efficient projects with repayments tied to their property tax bills.
Founders Fund invests $2 million in Transatomic Power – 8/4/14
The $2 million investment came from a recently created investment arm, FF Science, which focuses on highly advanced technologies such as aeronautics, advanced computing, and nanotechnology. Transatomic Power is developing a new type of nuclear reactor that safely turns nuclear waste into clean energy. Read more.
CORPORATE
Cathay Pacific Airways invests in biofuel developer Fulcrum BioEnergy – 8/14/14
Cathay Pacific Airways announced that it is the first airline investor in Fulcrum BioEnergy, Inc., a U.S.-based sustainable biofuel developer, as part of the airline’s biofuel strategy and to help it achieve a target of carbon-neutral growth from 2020.
Suntech Invests $25M in Energy Storage Developer Powin Energy – 8/8/14
Oregon-based Powin Energy Corp. – which is developing scalable energy storage technologies for grid-level, commercial and transportation applications — has secured an investment of $25 million from SF Suntech Inc. $5.2 million will be used to pay off and the remainder will be used for working capital and other purposes. Suntech has has the option to purchase a further 30% stake in the company over the next two years for $37.5 million.
GOVERNMENT
Obama Administration provides $55 million in funding for EV and fuel efficiency technology – 8/14/14
The $55 million investment will go to 31 projects dedicated to improving electric vehicle technology and increasing fuel efficiency for other vehicles. Nineteen of the projects are funded by the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the Obama Administration’s effort to reduce plug-in electric vehicle prices to the level of combustion vehicles by 2022. Read more.
DOE shows support for geothermal power – 8/12/14
The U.S. Department of Energy announced the addition of 32 new geothermal energy projects, worth $18 million, to its portfolio. This brings the agency’s total geothermal portfolio to 150 projects.
And early this month, Enel Green Power signed a cooperative research agreement with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to develop its Sillwater hybrid solar-geothermal site in Fallo, Nevada. It is a 2MW concentrated solar project under the oversight of the US Department of Energy Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO). The team will study the integration of geothermal and CSP in the coming year and model the combination of both the systems. Construction at the 21-acre Stillwater CSP plant started in April 2014 and is expected to be completed in the third quarter.
DOE invests $2 million in WireTough Cylinders for hydrogen storage technology – 8/12/14
The U.S. Department of Energy has committed $2 million to WireTough Cylinders of Bristol, Virginia to build low cost, high pressure hydrogen storage vessels using its patent pending steel wire over-wrap process.
Hawaii to Commit up to $50M to BioTork for Biofuel Technology – 8/7/14
The Hawaii Department of Budget and Finance has been authorized to provide revenue bonds of up to $50 million BioTork Hawaii LLC’s commercial facilities. The company uses a “proprietary evolutionary optimization approach,” and “enhances the performance of non-GMO microorganisms under real-world industrial conditions in an unrivaled cost efficient way”. The conversion process takes a few days and doesn’t require sunlight to create oil for biofuel and high-protein feed.