Second Wind Secures $4 Million in Second Round of Financing from Good Energies
Second Wind Inc has secured $4 million in second round financing from Good Energies. The investment is complementing a previous round of equity funding from earlier this year.
“We are pleased to announce this major financing round with a premier investor like Good Energies. This is a tribute to the technology innovations created by our in-house hardware and software engineering talent,” said Second Wind president, Walter Sass. “This second round of financing will support us in continuing our launch and rollout of our Triton sonic wind profiler. The investment from Good Energies will help us accelerate our company’s growth in the years ahead and continue to develop groundbreaking products.”
Najafi Companies Commits $100 Million to its New Alternative Energy Start-Up Company
Najafi Companies , LLC will provide $100 million dollars to its new start-up portfolio company, Energy Capital Investments, LLC (ECI). ECI will deploy the funds as investment capital across a range of energy projects including solar, geothermal, biomass and other forms of alternative energy. The company will operate as an investor, originating and acquiring alternative and renewable energy projects with the goal of building substantial portfolios in each of its focus markets.
“This is a very exciting venture for us, and we’ve pulled together a first class management team to spearhead it,” said Mr. Jahm Najafi, CEO, Najafi Companies. “We spent a great deal of time evaluating the most effective way to enter this marketplace not only to take advantage of the explosive growth opportunities, but also to participate, in a direct and meaningful way, in providing solutions to an ever-increasing energy demand. ECI’s team possesses the combined business backgrounds, specific knowledge, and successful track records within the energy sector that are vital to accomplishing our goals,”
Ocean Wave Energy Company Offers Products for Research and Testing
Swell Fuel will begin marketing ocean wave energy converters to researchers, universities and technology companies early next year. The goal is to demonstrate Swell Fuel’s ability to produce clean and efficient energy from ocean waves and to initiate deployment of its products on a larger scale.
Many countries are interested in installing ocean energy converters but often won’t commit to products that are unproven. As a result, Swell Fuel will be selling units for testing for as low as $1,000. With patent-pending prototypes and four separate sizes to choose from, the company will offer units that produce 20, 100, 1,000 and 5,000 watts of electricity. Feedback will be requested from researchers to enhance and improve future product designs.
“This is a huge step forward for our company,” said Chris Olson, founder and president, Swell Fuel. “We want to bring our ocean energy converters to market and put them in the hands of researchers to demonstrate their potential.”
Using a lever operated pivoting float anchored to the lake or ocean floor, Swell Fuel’s converters are activated when wave action lifts a lever in an up-and-down motion, which in turn produces electricity. The company has already licensed its product in seven countries and many see it as a solution to providing energy and electricity for coastal area residents. Earlier this year, Swell Fuel successfully tested its prototypes in the waters of El Salvador and at a research facility at The University of Rhode Island.
Senate Energy Bill Increases Fuels from the Farm
The Senate has passed an energy bill that will allow America's farmers and ranchers to play a significant role in reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Most notably, the Senate energy bill expands the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) to 36 billion gallons by 2022.
"Fuels from the farm is a bright spot for rural America," said NFU president, Tom Buis. "Renewable fuels have revitalized once-struggling rural communities by creating economic opportunities for family farmers, ranchers and rural Americans.”
NFU has been a long-time advocate for creation and expansion of a national RFS. The original standard, passed in 2005 has been positive to rural communities; the establishment of an ethanol plant increases local economic activities, generates additional household income and creates as many as 650 new, permanent jobs per community. Additionally, because of public policies that encourage local ownership, ethanol production is the only sector in agriculture that has seen a reduced level of concentration.
"While I am disappointed an extension of renewable tax incentives such as the production tax credit (PTC) for wind and a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) were not part of the final energy bill, I remain hopeful that Congress will address these provisions in 2008," Buis said.
Evergreen Solar and Silpro Rerach Polysilicon Supply Agreement
Evergreen Solar, Inc. has signed a ten-year polysilicon supply agreement with Silicium de Provence S.A.S. (Silpro) with shipments beginning in mid 2010.
"With the Silpro agreement, we now have contracts for 100 percent of the silicon that we need to meet our previously stated cumulative sales goal of over 1 gigawatt of solar panels from 2008 to 2012 including over 500 megawatts of sales in 2012," said Richard M. Feldt, chairman, president and CEO, Evergreen Solar. "At less than 5 grams per watt today, we believe we are the clear industry leader in efficient polysilicon usage. Our new Quad wafer technology should enable us to further reduce our silicon usage to approximately 2.5 grams per watt over the next few years."
Shell and HR Biopetroleum Build Facility to Grow Algae for Biofuel
Royal Dutch Shell plc and HR Biopetroleum have announced the construction of a pilot facility in Hawaii to grow marine algae and produce vegetable oil for conversion into biofuel. Algae hold great promise because they grow very rapidly, are rich in vegetable oil and can be cultivated in ponds of seawater, minimizing the use of fertile land and fresh water.
Shell and HR Biopetroleum have formed a joint venture company, called Cellana, to develop this project, with Shell taking the majority share. Construction of the demonstration facility on the Kona coast of Hawaii Island will begin immediately. The site, leased from the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA), is near existing commercial algae enterprises, primarily serving the pharmaceutical and nutrition industries.
The facility will grow only non-modified, marine microalgae species in open-air ponds using proprietary technology. Algae strains used will be indigenous to Hawaii or approved by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture. Protection of the local environment and marine ecosystem has been central to facility design. Once the algae are harvested, the vegetable oil will be extracted. The facility’s small production volumes will be used for testing.
An academic research program will support the project, screening natural microalgae species to determine which ones produce the highest yields and the most vegetable oil. The program will include scientists from the Universities of Hawaii, Southern Mississippi and Dalhousie, in Nova Scotia, Canada.
An advantage of algae is their rapid growth. They can double their mass several times a day and produce at least 15 times more oil per hectare than alternatives such as rape, palm soya or jatropha. Moreover, facilities can be built on coastal land unsuitable for conventional agriculture. Over the long term, algae cultivation facilities also have the potential to absorb or ‘capture’ waste CO2 directly from industrial facilities such as power plants. The Cellana demonstration will use bottled CO2 to explore this potential.
Linde Nippon Sanso to Supply Austria’s First Solar Cell Plant
Linde Nippon Sanso (LNS) is helping to promote solar power in Austria with a contract to supply the country’s first solar cell manufacturing plant. LNS has an exclusive contract to supply Blue Chip Energy GmbH in Guessing with all of the gases needed to make solar cells.
The Blue Chip plant, which will be fully operational in the second quarter of 2008, will manufacture 800,000 square metres of solar cells a year, enough to provide power to 16,000 households.
Under the long-term contract, Linde will provide Blue Chip with turnkey installation of the plant’s bulk and special gases supply systems and ongoing delivery of the gases essential to making the solar cells. These gases include large volumes of the inert nitrogen gas required in the manufacturing process, along with silane and ammonia, used to deposit the anti-reflective coating that give the cells their characteristic blue colour and traps light inside the cell for maximum energy conversion efficiency.
Blue Chip Energy will invest €50 million in the first phase of the plant. The plant, which will create some 140 new jobs, is sponsored by the Region of Burgenland, the Austrian government, and the EU. Some 25 percent of Blue Chip is held by the investment company I-Sol Ventures GmbH, and 75 percent by Sol Holding.
Panda Ethanol Receives Air Permit for Sherman County Refinery
Panda Ethanol Inc. has been granted an air permit by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for the company’s planned 115 million gallon-per-year ethanol refinery in Sherman County, Texas. The facility will be designed to annually refine an estimated 38 million bushels of feedstock-grade corn into a clean burning, renewable fuel for the nation’s transportation needs.
Unlike other ethanol facilities which burn natural gas to generate the steam used in the ethanol manufacturing process, the Sherman facility will be engineered to gasify up to 1 billion pounds of cattle manure per year. By using biogas to fuel the plant, Panda is both conserving the energy equivalent of 1,000 barrels of oil a day and helping to address a significant environmental problem for the Texas Panhandle.
“At present, we are principally focused on getting the Hereford facility on line in the first quarter of 2008,” said Darol Lindloff, CEO of Panda Ethanol, “but we are also carefully managing the development of our other ethanol projects during a period of market uncertainty. When the markets rebound, we intend to be ready. The granting of the Sherman air permit is a step forward in that direction.” |
