DEFG-MSI 2007 Annual Survey Results: Alternative Energy Sector Poised for Growth and Rated as a Buy

May 30 - Business Wire - The Distributed Energy Financial Group LLC, a specialized consulting and financial services firm focused on the energy technology sector, and Market Strategies Inc., the leading energy sector market research firm, released the results today of the Third Annual Alternative Energy Market Survey. The DEFG-MSI survey has become an important benchmark for the sector, with over 450 industry leaders responding to an on-line survey in March and April 2007.

“The alternative energy sector is definitely shifting into a higher gear,” stated Jamie Wimberly, CEO of DEFG LLC. “For sustained success, though, the survey pointed to the need for scale and a more intensive focus on marketing. Government policies will remain a driver as well.” Read More.

AES Expands Wind Generation Operations to 1,000 MW in the US

May 30 - BUSINESS WIRE - The AES Corporation today announced that it is expanding its wind generation business in the US through the acquisition of two wind farm projects totaling 186 MW from GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of General Electric. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. With the addition of these two wind farms, AES will have more than 1,000 MW of wind facilities in operation or under construction in the US.

The projects include Lake Benton I, a 106.5 MW wind farm in southwestern Minnesota, and Storm Lake II, a 79.5 MW wind farm in northwestern Iowa. With an installed generation capacity of 186 MW, these two projects can support the energy needs of approximately 50,000 homes in the US.

“The global market for wind generation is expected to more than triple in size by 2015, and we see tremendous opportunities in wind,” said Ned Hall, AES President, Renewable Generation. “Through these acquisitions, AES will establish a strong presence in a region where demand for wind power is projected to continue to increase during the next few years.” Read More.

We Energies Signs Agreement with Alliant Energy WindConnect

May 30 - PRNewswire - We Energies has selected Alliant Energy WindConnect(R) as the general contractor for the Blue Sky Green Field wind project in northeast Fond du Lac County.

Project construction will begin in June 2007, with the first activities including road building, cable installation, and foundation work. The first turbine equipment is expected to arrive in November 2007. The project, which includes 88 turbines, is expected to be commercially generating power within one year from the start of activities at the site.

WindConnect is the trade name of a business operated by Alliant Energy EPC, LLC. Since 1999, WindConnect has provided design-build services at 24 wind energy facilities in 17 states. Read More.

US $11.8 billion to be invested in offshore wind power

May 30 - Offshore Shipping Online - Addressing delegates at the All-Energy conference in Aberdeen last week, Douglas-Westwood (DWL) director Andrew Reid presented the findings of a new study of the growing offshore wind energy industry and highlighted significant growth, fast-rising costs and shifting market dynamics.

Offshore wind will see US$11.8 billion of capital expenditure in the coming five year period as 3.6GW of new capacity is installed. With just over 900MW of capacity currently installed, this represents significant market growth and will lead to an annual capital expenditure of over US$3.8 billion by 2011.

In addition, DWL forecast the value of the operations and maintenance market to reach US$350 million per year by 2011 with US$950 million to be spent in total over the next five years. Read More.

Snohomish County PUD Purchases Wind Power

May 29 - North American Wind Power.com - The Snohomish County Public Utility District (PUD) has signed a contract to purchase wind energy from the new White Creek Wind Project, located in south central Washington along the Columbia River Gorge. The utility will receive 10% of the project's output, about 7 average-MW, starting in January 2008, the company says.

"This wind power purchase is consistent with our commitment to a diverse portfolio of clean, renewable resources," notes Steve Klein, PUD's general manager. "The Columbia Gorge is a good location to site new wind facilities because of strong winds in the area."

Duke Energy buys wind power development business

May 29 - Reuters - Duke Energy Corp. said it acquired the wind power development business of Tierra Energy from Energy Investors Funds for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition supports its strategy to increase investment in renewable energy and national efforts to reduce carbon emissions, the power company said in a statement.

The acquisition includes over 1,000 megawatts of wind assets under development in the Western and Southwestern United States, it added. (Reporting by Sreerupa Mitra in Bangalore).

Rush to bio-fuels reflects profitability, tax breaks

May 26 - Pilot Online.com - Tobin Freid has heard so many proposals to build ethanol and biodiesel plants in North Carolina over the past few years that she’s lost count.

“It seems like every day we get some announcement, but a lot of them don’t come through,” said Freid, the Durham-based coordinator for Clean Cities, a U.S. Department of Energy project to encourage use of renewable fuels.

Some of the developers plan to construct more than they’re capable of and become overwhelmed, she said. Others are lured by the relative ease by which animal fats or vegetable oils are processed into biodiesel but fail because they don’t focus on other important elements of building a commercial plant, such as logistics and securing feedstocks and permits. Read More.

With Help, Could Ethanol Be the Next Internet?

May 27 - NY Times.com - From New York to Washington, government suddenly seems to be in the business of promoting alternative energy. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York announced last week that the city’s taxi fleet would convert to hybrids by 2012. In this year’s State of the Union address, President Bush called for the nation to replace 20 percent of gasoline use with ethanol in 10 years.

The government talk is being backed by action and policy. The federal government offers a 51-cent-a-gallon tax credit to ethanol producers and maintains a 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on ethanol imported from Brazil. More than 20 states have so-called renewable portfolio standards, which mandate that utilities derive a fixed percentage of their power from renewable sources. Read More.

JPMorgan in alternative energy push

May 23 - FT.com - JPMorgan, seeking to capitalise on the boom in environmentally friendly technologies, has established an alternative energy investment banking unit and hired a former executive from General Electric to run it.

In an internal memo sent to staff this week, JPMorgan said it had hired Vandana Gupta from General Electric to head the new effort.

At GE, Ms Gupta managed $1bn in equity investments in the energy and power sectors, including solar and wind power. Read More.

Cool technology: Tech solutions to climate change driven by small companies

May 25 - MarketWatch.com - Investment is pouring into green technology to meet rising demand, and much of it is going to cutting-edge startups that rely on both the quality of their ideas and their ability to protect them.

Earlier this month, the Vatican joined the ever-growing chorus of voices demanding that the world community address the threat posed by global warming. IBM recently announced that it will be redirecting $1 billion dollar per year across its businesses to increase the level of energy efficiency in IT. Wal-Mart also announced a pilot project that is already one of the world's largest investments in solar power.

The demand for green energy and technology solutions is growing rapidly, and for the past several years the investment community has been focused on helping the companies preparing to deliver them. Read More.

Biofuels and renewables 'Country Attractiveness Indices' for Q1 2007

May 24 - Biopact.com - Ernst & Young recently released its Q1 2007 Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices, a series of indices that rank countries on their commercial attractiveness with regards to alternative energy growth and development. These indices provide yardsticks for investors who want to know which markets offer the best near and long term alternative energy growth prospects.

The indices provide scores for national renewable energy markets, renewable energy infrastructures and their suitability for individual technologies. They take a generic view and different sponsor/financier requirements will clearly affect how countries are rated. Moreover, the indices were compiled from a purely commercial point of view, keeping in line with the current status quo of the globalised economy.

Read Article.
View the report: Q1 2007 Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices

GE Energy Financial Services Agrees To Invest $180 Mln In Its Biggest Wind Farm - Quick Facts

May 24 - Trading Markets.com - GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of General Electric, said it has agreed to invest in its biggest wind farm, the 241-megawatt Sweetwater 4 facility, along with a sister project in Texas.

GE Energy Financial Services agreed to invest $180 million for 50 percent of the structured equity, with a subsidiary of Wachovia Corp. providing the balance, in two adjacent wind farms 20 miles southwest of Sweetwater, Texas, in Nolan County. Read More.

GE to Double Cleantech Investments: Venture capital investments to reach $50M a year by 2008

May 24 - Red Herring - GE plans to double its clean technology venture capital investments from $25 million this year to $50 million a year by 2008.

GE plans to make investments across the cleantech sector including solar, biofuels and batteries. In January GE led a $40 million investment round in A123Systems, a company developing lithium ion batteries for plug-in hybrid vehicles. Previous investments also include Scottish wave power company Ocean Power Delivery.

“Our goal is to invest as much as we can, provided that we can find opportunities at the right price,” said Kevin Walsh, Managing Director and leader of the renewable energy group at GE Energy Financial Services. Read More.

Cool companies at Cleantech 2007

May 23 - Inside GreenTech - Cleantech 2007, which kicked off today in the heart of Silicon Valley, took a markedly more scientific slant than your average cleantech event.

In the most dramatic illustration of its technical focus, instead of traditional vendor exhibits, at several points in the day attendees were invited to lose themselves in a veritable maze of more than a hundred modest, academic symposium-style tabletop displays. It was a refreshingly low tech, low-glitz opportunity to ask researchers and nascent startups about what they were doing.

While the majority of the exhibits were nanotech-focused, given that the show was co-hosted with a larger nanotech event, a little digging uncovered some potential cleantech jems.
So, herewith, we thought it would be fun to bring you three of the most interesting startup companies we talked to—three that we'll bet you've never heard of. Read More.

Weber Shandwick, Cleantech Venture Network Announce International Collaboration

May 22 - SocialFunds.com - Weber Shandwick, a leading global public relations firm, today announced an international collaboration with Cleantech Venture Network, the leading organization bringing capital together with cleantech innovation globally. The goal is to extend the reach and visibility of Cleantech Forums through events in Frankfurt, Toronto, San Francisco and Beijing.

Cleantech Venture Network and Weber Shandwick will work together to further advance the Network's position of authority in the booming cleantech economy. According to Cleantech Venture Network's most recent data, total 2006 venture capital investment in cleantech was $3.5billion in Europe and North America, representing a 45% increase over 2005. Read More.

Alternative energy: Q&A

May 21 - Financial Times - Robin Batchelor and Poppy Allonby have one of longest track records of managing funds investing in alternative energy. The BlackRock fund managers manage some $5bn of funds in this specialist sector. They answer your questions on where to invest in alternative energy and the prospects for the sector. Read Q&A.

Cleantech 2007 Announces Winners for Venture & Partnering Competition

May 22 - Business Wire - TechConnect.org, producer of Cleantech 2007, today announced its Venture & Partnering Conference Competition winners. Cleantech 2007 Venture & Partnering conference takes place May 23rd and 24th at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The three winning companies were selected to receive the awards by a review team comprised of members of the Cleantech 2007 Executive Committee and the Advisory Board.

Clean technologies are rapidly maturing from lab to marketplace. The Cleantech 2007 Venture & Partnering conference provides an ideal forum for "seed" and "early-stage" companies to showcase their technologies, market advantages, and to search for funding. Winning companies and runners-up will be given 10 minutes to present and will have on-site feedback from Cleantech Venture & Partnering Vetting Team. This year’s team includes representatives from such firms as: Cabot Corporation, IBM, P&G, Mohr, Davidow Ventures, DuPont Ventures, Goodrich, Motorola Investments, Wilmer Hale, UBS, Chevron, Eastman Kodak, BASF, DaimlerChrysler, Emerald Technology Ventures and Garage Ventures. Read More.

Pvt equity funds get active in clean energy sector

May 22 - Business Standard - The clean energy business is turning out to be the next big thing for private equity and venture capital investors in India.

Investors all over the world are ready to cash in on the clean technology business, thanks to tough postures adopted by the UN and global environment bodies in pushing companies to go environment-friendly. Following the trend, private equity and venture capital funds see big potential for investments in the clean energy sector in India, say industry experts. Read More.

Final Word: The Supreme Court weighs in on global warming

June 2007 - FastCompany.com - It was a stunning decision. Tearing into the Bush Administration's failure to act, the Supreme Court ruled in April that climate science was clear enough to mandate greenhouse-gas emission controls under the Clean Air Act.

For businesses, the lesson is indisputable: In a low-carbon future of EPA-mandated incentives and penalties, energy efficiency, alternative energy sources, and carbon capture become worth investing in. While Big Auto whines about (and sues over) the prospect of carbon-dioxide limits on cars in Vermont and California, the smart money is riding the "cleantech" tide. Venture capital will pour more than $30 billion into such startups this year, three times the total in 2005.

In Europe, of course, companies already must reduce their greenhouse emissions or buy "offsets"--often in the form of investments in clean energy. In the past year in China, offsets have made possible hundreds of new power plants and other projects. Emissions controls in the United States would also prompt new research and development and entrepreneurship. That's a good thing--and a huge opportunity for businesses that embrace it. Behind all the legalese and wrist slapping of the administration, that's what the Supreme Court decision is really all about.

May 18 - M&C.com - Costs of wind projects are not very transparent, but the industry insists that prices and investments are increasing along with the size of the global market.

The average price of a turbine is calculated by kilowatt of electricity produced. A turbine costs about $1,000 per kilowatt, according to the Danish Wind Industry Association.

Big investors are looking to smaller projects or groups of small projects bundled together. Previously, it was only projects that had already been approved or were under construction that received funding from large investors, but over the last two years projects in earlier stages have been getting more attention. When a small developer is trying to get a project going, siting can cost $500,000 to $600,000, and investment at an earlier stage is important. Read More.

Pittsburgh Regional Business Leaders in Hi-Tech, Investment Industries Tout Governor's Energy Independence Strategy

May 18 - EarthTimes.org - Western Pennsylvania business leaders in the renewable energy and venture capital fields voiced their support today for Governor Edward G. Rendell's Energy Independence Strategy.

While Pennsylvania's investments in homegrown alternative energy solutions are a positive step for the state's economic and competitive future, Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty said even greater opportunities exist.

"Under Governor Rendell, Pennsylvania has become the 'destination location' for clean energy investors," she said. "By targeting our resources, we have helped to attract some of the world's leading renewable energy firms and create more than 2,500 jobs in the industry. This approach has improved our ability to meet growing energy demands with solutions that are produced within our borders, not overseas." Read More.

Alternative energy market lures controversy and venture capitalists

May 14 - Guardian Unlimited - A surprising splash of red ink from a leading US maker of ethanol fuel, along with a research report warning of a potential dotcom-type bubble, has rocked confidence in the burgeoning cleantech market.

The jolt comes at a time when venture capitalists are practically falling over themselves to invest in cleantech startups, no doubt reminiscing for the days when companies like Yahoo!, eBay and Amazon first floated their shares and gave them exit strategies they have been only able to dream about since the bubble burst. Read More.

Venture capitalists see profit in greener future

May 13 - CanWest News Service - Venture capitalists shovelled US$3.6 billion into green and clean ventures last year, almost doubling their investment over 2005 and helping drive “cleantech” to become one of the fastest-growing sectors in the North American venture-capital market.

“The opportunities in ‘cleantech’ or ‘greentech’ stem from a growing need in the world for improvement,” said Jim Charlton, senior vice-president of investments at Vancouver’s GrowthWorks. “There is a huge investment opportunity in this. Read More.

Green ventures rake in money, but their power can rise and fall

May 13 - SF Chronicle - It's difficult to find anyone these days that doesn't stake some claim to being green.

While our federal government is clearly a laggard -- some might say an eco-villain -- corporations and consumers alike are beginning to put their money where their mouths are.

From oil companies such as BP and Shell to staid Wall Streeters, everybody and their uncle claims to be for saving the planet from the gloom and potential doom of climate change. Indeed, Goldman Sachs -- never known for being a tree-hugger -- exceeded its own promise of investing $1 billion in new renewable energy ventures in 2006 by 50 percent. Bank of America has pledged $20 billion over the next decade to help its customers go green, too. Even Red State farmers are getting into the act, seeing ethanol and other bio-fuels as ways to harvest greenbacks from going green. Read More.

Wells Fargo, Citi Support Wind Power

May 11 - North American Wind Power - Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. recently committed funds for investment in wind power generation and clean technology.

Wells Fargo will make an equity investment in the Fenton Wind Energy Project, marking the company's fifth wind energy investment in less than one year. Working with several other leading financial institutions, Wells Fargo will provide approximately $160 million in equity capital to the five projects, which will have a total combined value of more than $1 billion and generating capacity of 591 MW. Read More.

Inside the Silicon Valley cleantech investor brain

May 9 - inside greentech - Entrepreneurs looking for money, self-proclaimed IT refugees looking for work, and even the odd recruiter and creative agency turned out yesterday in abundance to hear Silicon Valley investors talk about what's hot and what's not in cleantech.

Investor panelists speaking at a lunch event at a large law firm began by addressing their favorite sectors for investment. Read More.

Tesla Revs Up With $45 Million

May 11 - San Jose Mercury News - Tesla Motors, the Silicon Valley electric-car start-up, intends to announce today that it has raised an additional $45 million - from a venture capital firm as well as its chairman. The company will start producing its first vehicle, a zero-emissions, two-seat roadster, later this year.

Technology Partners, a Palo Alto VC firm that focuses on clean technology and life sciences, co-led the round with Elon Musk, Tesla's chairman. Musk, chief executive of Space Exploration Technologies, is a former PayPal and Zip2 executive. Read More.