Green Career Central Blog

Follow the Clean Tech Green Money: DOE Makes $90 Million Loan Guarantee, Regen Energy Receives $5.5 Million, Getaround Raises $3.4 Million

The Department of Energy has finalized a loan guarantee of $90.6 million to Cogentrix of Alamosa, CO.  Cogentrix will build a 30 megawatt high concentration photo voltaic plant near the southern Colorado town.  When finished the plant will produce enough electricity to power 6,500 homes. 

Regen Energy, an innovative software company has raised $5.5 million from venture capitalists.  By using their software, companies can reduce their power costs of such items as lighting and air conditioning.  Based in Toronto, Regen will use some of the funding to expand into the U.S. with an office in San Diego, CA planned.

Getaround, a neighbor-to-neighbor car sharing agency has raised $3.4 million from venture capitalists.  Owners of cars rent their vehicle to members of the network by the minute or hour. Other network car rental agencies, such as Zipcar, own their fleet of vehicles from which members choose.

Follow the Clean Tech Money: DOE Makes Conditional Loan Guarantees of $139.9 Million and $197 Million, Mission Motors Receives $9 Million

The Department of Energy has made a conditional loan guarantee of $133.9 million to Abengoa Bioenergy to begin the construction of a commercial size cellulosic biofuel manufacturing plant. The plant is to be built in Hugoton, KS; the US corporate headquarters of Abengoa is St. Louis, MO.  The plant will convert corn stalks and leaves into cellulosic ethanol displacing nearly 15.5 million of gasoline annually. 

The DOE has also made a loan guarantee of $197 million to SoloPower for the construction of two thin film solar module manufacturing plants located in Portland, OR and San Jose, CA.  Using thin film to capture solar energy is less expensive than solar panels, but is usually not as efficient.  Solopower has career openings ranging from technicians to executives.

Mission Motors, a maker of electric vehicle technology, has received $9 million from venture capitalists.  Mission Motors will use the funding to continue to develop its family of products related to electric vehicles including lithium ion batteries and drive systems for competition vehicles and motorcycles. Here is a link to their career openings.

Follow the Clean Tech Money: DOE and USDA Award $12.2 for Biofuel Research, Clean Urban Energy Receives $7 Million, Nuventix Receives $10 Million

The Departments of Energy and Agriculture has made awards totaling $12.2 million to 10 projects to research ways to lower the cost of growing biofuel crops.  Here is a pdf list of the projects that received an award.  States where the awards were made include:  California, Colorado, Illinois, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia. Genomics will be used by researchers to improve crops such as switchgrass, Miscanthus, poplar and other plants.

Clean Urban Energy, an energy efficiency technology company designed for buildings, has received $7 million from venture capitalists.  Using the thermal mass of commercial buildings, CUE will develop software as a service to make the buildings more energy efficient.  CUE has chosen four cities, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston to roll out it's service.

Based on Austin, TX, Nuventix has received $10 million from venture capitalists.  Nuventix will use the funds to continue developing cooling technology for LED lighting. Nuventix is accepting resumes for electrical engineers.

Follow the Clean Tech Money: DOE to Invest $50 Million in Solar Manufacturing, Leyden Energy Receives $20 Million, eCullet Secures $38 Million

The Department of Energy has announced a $50 million investment in PV solar manufacturing in the U.S.  The program, titled SUNPATH, will assist smaller companies with funding assistance to overcome gaps as they grow their technology. The SUNPATH program will support the SunShot Initiative. The ultimate goal of SUNPATH is to produce efficient, world-wide cost competitive solar products in the U.S.

Leyden Energy, a manufacturer of advanced lithium-ion batteries, has received $20 million from venture capitalists.  Leyden plans to use the funding to increase sales world wide and increase manufacturing capacity. Among the uses for their lithium-ion batteries are electric vehicles including bikes and grid storage. 

Palo Alto, CA based eCullet has received $38 million from venture capitalists.  eCullet uses their own technology to scan and sort recycled glass, making it furnace ready for the glass container industry.  They also work with glass manufacturers to reduce their energy consumption and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Follow the Clean Tech Money: Sunlogics Receives $7.5 Million Investment from GM, Virgin Green Fund II Seeks $300 Million, Innovalight Purchased by DuPont

A maker of garage stalls topped with light weight amorphous solar panels, Sunlogics, has received a $7.5 million investment from General Motors. Twelve Green Zone garage stalls will generate 32,000 kWh per year, enough to fully charge 12 GM Chevy Volts everyday. 

Partially backed by Virgin Airways entrepreneur, Richard Branson, Virgin Green Fund II is seeking to raise $300 million by year's end.  Virgin Green Fund II seeks to invest in renewable energy and resource efficiency companies in Europe and North America that have proven technology. 

A nanomaterials company that manufacturers ink that improves the efficiency of solar panels, Innovalight, has been purchased by DuPont for an undisclosed amount.  The Sunnyvale, CA based company is working toward reducing the cost of solar panels.

Follow the Clean Tech Money: SynapSense Raises $16 Million, Aquion Energy Secures $20 Million, Tesla Motors to Build Electric Toyota RAV-4 for $100 Million

Using wireless environmental monitoring to give data centers information about energy efficiency, SynapSense has raised $16 million from venture capitalists.  Among the many companies investing in the Folsom, CA based company is GE.  There are some career openings for engineers and project mangers.

Developing a battery for grid storage, Aquion Energy has raised $20 million of a planned $30 million.  Aquion is working on a low cost battery that would store the energy of renewables such as wind and solar.  Based in Pittsburgh, PA, Aquion has a limited number of career openings.

Palo Alto, CA based Tesla Motors has an agreement with Toyota to produce the electric powertrain, including batteries and motors, for the RAV-4 that would earn Tesla $100 million.  Tesla will be discontinuing the production of the Roadster soon and is now ramping up production of the Model S, an all electric sedan.

Follow the Clean Tech Money: DOE Makes Conditional Loan Guarantee of $105 Million to POET, OPX Biotech Raising $45 Million, Aptera Raises $2.5 Million

The Department of Energy has made a conditional loan guarantee for $105 million to Project Liberty, sponsored by POET, LLC, for the development of a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant to be built in Iowa.  When completed the facility will produce up to 25 million gallons of ethanol per year that will be made from corn cobs, leaves and husks, rather than feed grains.  The cellulose will be supplied by local formers.

 OPX Biotechnologies is raising $45 million in equity to further develop biofuel and bio-acrylic production. OPX is working on creating bio-diesel from hydrogen and carbon dioxide using and engineered microorganism.  OPX is based in Boulder, CO.

Three wheel electric car maker Aptera has raised $2.5 million of a planned $3 million.  Aptera has been on shaky financial ground, even considered, at one time, moving the manufacturing function out of California to save costs. It also faces competition from the electric vehicles already released from Nissan and GM that are similar in price.  Investors in Aptera include Google.org and NRG Energy.

Follow the Clean Tech Money: DOE Awards Millions to Solar Projects, Wind Farms, Geothermal, Transphorm Secures $25 Million, SolarBridge Receives $19 Million

The Department of Energy has been busy assisting the clean energy industry with loan guarantees.  The DOE has provided partial loan guarantee for a $1.4 billion project to install solar panels on 750 roof tops called Project Amp.  In addition to this and other solar projects, the DOE has also provided a loan guarantee of $135.76 million for a wind farm in New Hampshire and $11 million to advance innovative geothermal energy technologies.  In addition to clean energy loan guarantees, $120 million will be going to develop manufacturing processes that will increase energy efficiency.

Energy efficient power conversion device maker Transphorm has secured $25 million from venture capitalists.  The funding will be used to scale up to meet increasing demand.  The Santa Barbara, CA based company has career openings for engineers and technicians.

Based in Austin, TX, SolarBridge has received $19 million from venture capitalists for continued development of microinverters for solar panels.  Microinverters convert the electricity collected by a single or a small number of solar panels into usable power.  Future plans for SolarBridge may include installing a microinverter into single solar panel at the time of manufacture. Enphase Energy also a maker of microinverters, is in the process of raising $51.5 million.

Follow the Clean Tech Money: DOE Awards Millions to Solar Companies, iControl Secures $50 Million, KiOR IPO Could Raise $240 Million

The Department of Energy has offered a conditional loan guarantee of $150 million to 1366 Technologies to develop more efficient solar cell production that will lower the cost of manufacturing.  The North Lexington, MA based company is accepting resumes.   The DOE also made loan guarantee offers to solar power plant developer Sempra, and solar manufacturer Calisolar among others.  Manufacturer of solar microinverters, SolarBridge Technologies, has raised $19 million.

Home energy software developer, iControl has secured $50 million from investors including Intel, Cisco and Comcast.  iControl will use the funds to develop solutions for home owners giving them the ability to remotely manage their energy usage and appliances as well as home security and other applications.  The Palo Alto, CA based company has a limited number of openings, some in CA, some in TX.

A developer of plant based crude oil, KiOR has filed for an initial public offering with hopes of raising around $240 million, depending upon the price of the stock.  KiOR will use the funds to construct factories that would use a proprietary formula to take wood chips and turn them into a crude oil that could be used by refiners. 

Follow the Clean Tech Money: Proterra Receives $30 Million, JouleX Secures $17 Million, Agile Energy Raises $24 Million

A manufacturer of electrical energy storage systems and drive components for electric and hybrid buses, Proterra has received $30 million from investors.  Proterra will use the funding to improve the efficiency of its factory and to test its buses. There are several openings for engineers in Greenville, South Carolina.

JouleX, a data center energy efficiency company, has secured $17 million from venture capitalists.  The need to reduce electrical consumption of data centers will grow as more and more of them go online.  Atlanta based JouleX was a past winner of the GE ecomagination challenge.

San Bruno, CA based Agile Energy has raised $24 million from venture capitalists to continue to develop utility scale solar projects.  Agile is currently developing a 50 megawatt photovoltaic solar farm in Ohio with utility American Electric Power that is projected to use more than 239,000 solar panels. The project will be constructed on 500 acres that was once used by the Central Ohio Coal Company for strip mining.