Venture Investment
Seed company NexSteppe Raises $22M Series C Round – Sept. 23
NexSteppe is a seed company based in San Francisco developing crops that provide raw materials for biofuels and other biobased products. New investors joining in its latest round include Total Energy Ventures and ELFH Holding, a vehicle of the Berninghausen family in Germany. Existing investors Braemar Ventures, CYM Ventures, DuPont Ventures and others also joined in the funding. The company has now raised $36 million in venture capital to date.
Enterra Gets $5M Investment from Wheatsheaf for Renewable Food & Organic Fertilizer – Sept 16
Vancouver-based Enterra Feed is developing proprietary process that up-cycles discarded food into protein, natural feed oils, and organic fertilizers high in nutrients. It will use the new funding to complete its first commercial-scale pilot facility in Langley, British Columbia, which will process up to 54,000 tons of pre-consumer food waste each year. The startup, founded in 2007, also received $5 million from Calgary-based Avrio Capital in March. Key competitors include Ynsect and Protix Biosystems.
Avrio Capital was founded in 2006 and started raising $125 million for its fourth fund in March to invest in innovative agriculture and food companies, which it successfully closed on September 9. The limited partners in its fund include Farm Credit Canada, Export Development Canada, and Alberta Investment Management Co. Some of Avrio’s other recent agriculture investments include: Hortau, Farmers Edge, Organic Meadow, and VoloAgri.
UK-based Wheatsheaf Invetments was established by The Grosvenor Estate in 2012, and focuses on in food, water, and energy investments. Other recent investments include Ostara Nutrient Recovery, which develops wastewater treatment technology.
Public & Corporate Financing
Abu Dhabi’s Masdar to Invest $860M million in UK Offshore Wind Farm – Sept. 24
Abu Dhabi-owned green energy giant Masdar has confirmed that it will invest $860 million for a 35 percent stake in the planned Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm in the North Sea, alongside Norweigan partners Statoil and Stakraft. Based off the coast of England, the 402MW project could generate enough electricity to power approximately 410,000 homes.
UK-Based Grid-Connected Solar Micro Inverter Manufacturer Plans IPO – Sept. 17
Enecsys plans to raise $20 million in an initial public offering on London’s Alternative Investment Market next month. The funds will help the company expand manufacturing capacity, launch its third generation micro inverter and build its sales and support teams, says its CEO Mike Fister. It raised $55 million in venture capital from investors including: Climate Change Capital, Good Energies, Wellington Partners, and NES Partners.
Grants
DOE Gives $4.25M to University of Wyoming for Wind Energy Modeling Research – Sept. 26
The University of Wyoming has received a $4.25 million Department of Energy-EPSCoR grant to research wind farm modeling, transmission grid monitoring and the economics derived from wind-generated power.
Texas Tech Receives $1.4M from DOE for Wind Energy Research – Sept. 25
Texas Tech University wind energy researchers will receive $1.4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a new radar prototype that will provide better measurements of the complex flow conditions in wind plants. Enhanced information about flow conditions within a wind plant enables proactive controls that minimize turbine-to-turbine interaction and maximize power generation.
DoD Grants $210M to Advanced Biofuels Large-Scale Production – Sept. 20
California-based Fulcrum Bioenergy has been awarded a $70 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to build a plant east of Reno to help speed delivery of its jet fuel—made by converting household garbage. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. said the grant announced Friday is in addition to a $105 million loan guarantee U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack confirmed on Sept. 4. The plant is expected to produce more than 10 million gallons per year of advanced biofuels while diverting over 200,000 tons of garbage from landfills by 2016.
The Fulcrum Bioenergy grant is part of a larger grant round totaling $210 million by the DoD for advanced biofuels. Other grants are being given to Emerald Biofuels and Red Rock Biofuels.
DOE Invests $2M for Taller Wind Turbines – Sept. 18
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced $2 million in grants for Keystone Tower Systems of Massachusetts and Iowa State University to develop ways to build wind turbines that are one and a half times taller than current designs. The aim is to generate wine power at higher altitudes, which is more often more powerful than wind closer to the ground. The average height of wind turbines installed onshore in the U.S. in 2013 was 80 meters.