GigaOM » Good Energies

Report: Konarka’s failure wasn’t a solar market problem

Katie Fehrenbacher — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 12:05:54 +0000

Solar startup Konarka’s bankruptcy, announced last week, wasn’t just the latest case of the solar industry being hit by the dropping cost of silicon, and cheap modules and panels from China. The company’s technology was just weak and “could not compete on cost, efficiency, or lifetime,” says Lux Research.

Lux Research says for at least three years it’s given Konarka a “strong caution” rating for its technology that was “ten times higher cost, and ten times lower efficiency and lifetime compared to alternative solar technologies.” More than technology development, Konarka’s skill was in fund raising, says Lux Research, and its “underlying technology was never market ready.” Lux writes:

Driven by the promise of cheap, printed solar modules that can be made colorful and transparent, technically unsavvy investors rushed to invest in Massachusetts organic photovoltaic developer Konarka to the tune of $170 million, with an additional $30 million coming from grant funding. Konarka took that investment and built what it claimed was a 1 GW manufacturing line, although the line would certainly never come close to that capacity.

We, too, have long been skeptical of Konarka. It’s amazing that Lux points out that Konarka finally went bankrupt “in the middle of yet another funding round.” Here’s a list of investors that Konarka managed to raise money from: Konica Minolta, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Good Energies, 3i, Mackenzie Financial Corp., Pegasus Capital, Asenqua Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Vanguard Ventures, Chevron Ventures, Massachusetts Green Energy Fund, NGEN Partners, Angeleno Group, Total, Good Energies, and 3i.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Smart window startup Sage sold off to French glass giant Saint-Gobain

Katie Fehrenbacher — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:59:12 +0000

A startup making smart windows that can tint and block light, Sage Electrochromics, has been acquired by French glass and construction giant Saint-Gobain. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Saint-Gobain had already made a sizable $80 million strategic investment for a substantial percentage of Sage at the end of 2010, so the two have been partners for awhile.

Sage at one point was also a recipient of a conditional commitment for a $72 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy (via the 1703 program), but that loan was never closed, Sage confirms with me. I think the loan probably wouldn’t be able to be finalized now, anyways, to a wholly-owned French company.

That loan guarantee was supposed to help Sage build out a $135 million, 250,000 square foot factory in Faribault, Minnesota, which Sage said back then would be “the world’s largest and most advanced electrochromic glass manufacturing facility.” Now the two companies say in a release this morning that the acquisition deal will enable the factory to finally be finished, with production of the smart windows supposed to start in January of 2013. Saint-Gobain says the factory will produce 3.2 million sq. ft. of smart glass annually, and will create 160 jobs.

Sage makes so-called electrochromic windows, which use low voltage to tint the windows and cut the light that can pass through them from more than 60 percent to less than 5 percent. That leads to both less light, but also less heat being drawn into the building. The DOE has noted that electrochromic windows can cut a commercial building’s air conditioning costs by up to 20 percent per year.

Sage’s windows are made using an all-ceramic stack of thin-film coatings over a glass substrate. The company was founded in 1989 and later received funding from venture investors including Good Energies, Applied Ventures (the VC arm of Applied Materials) and Bekaert.

The problem with smart window technology is that it’s always been too expensive — both to buy and to produce. Soladigm is another electrochromic window maker that raised a lot of money to build a factory in Mississippi, and was supposed to start shipping its windows in the first quarter of 2012.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Power Assure raises $13.5M for greener data centers

Katie Fehrenbacher — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:00:13 +0000

Data center energy efficiency startup Power Assure has raised another $13.5 million to scale up sales of its software that makes data centers more energy efficient. Electricity consumption of data centers has become a growing problem, and total electricity use by data centers in 2010 was 1.3 percent of all electricity use for the world, and 2 percent of all electricity use for the U.S. according to a study by Jonathan Koomey. Power Assure has now raised about $30 million from investors, including ABB, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Good Energies, and Judith Point Capital.

Think of Power Assure’s product as data center power like video-on-demand. So, say, in the middle of the night, when few web users are pinging websites, Power Assure’s service can dial down the energy consumption of the servers in the data center appropriately, and when there’s a sudden spike of traffic in the morning, the service can quickly ramp capacity back up. Most data centers are typically using just 10 percent of their capacity, yet running servers and the data center at full power. That’s highly inefficient, costly, and bad for the planet.

The key to Power Assure’s technology is the smart algorithms it has created to monitor and control energy usage in the data center in real time. The company starts out by installing one or two appliances in a customer’s data centers which sit on Power Assure’s management network and gather information about the demand of the customer’s web sites, as well as the power usage of the servers, cooling system and networking gear. Power Assure’s system then uses its algorithms to, in essence, dynamically match the website demand in whatever metric is available (such as cost per click, number of users or number of sessions per minute) to an appropriate level of utilization for the servers, cooling and networking gear.

Power Assure’s service can save data center operators 50 to 60 percent in energy costs without having a negative impact on service.

Image courtesy of The Planet.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Ice Energy Raises Cash for Energy Storage

Katie Fehrenbacher — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:08:18 +0000

Ice is nice, but so is cash. The startup that builds an ice-based energy storage and air conditioning system for buildings — Ice Energy — announced this morning that it has raised a $24 million Series C round of funding.

Ice Energy’s so-called “Ice Bear” air conditioner units create ice during off-peak hours (like during the middle of the night), then during peak hours (like the middle of the day) the systems cool buildings by circulating chilled refrigerant to the coil of a standard air conditioning system. The devices are cost-effective and energy-efficient because they move the cost of cooling to off-peak hours when it’s less expensive. Ice Energy CEO Frank Ramirez once told me if was the only really efficient means of storing energy out there.

Investors in this round include Ice Energy’s existing backers Energy Capital Partners, Good Energies, Sail Ventures and Second Avenue Partners, as well as new investor, financial planning firm TIAA-CREF, which has a new green building investment partnership with Good Energies. Ice Energy raised a Series B round of $33 million in mid-2008.

Ice Energy says it will use the funds, quite simply, to deploy Ice Bears to its current customer list, including its largest, a 53-MW project for Southern California Public Power Authority, as well as a solar and ice combo project with SunPower for PG&E. Ice Energy commonly installs the systems on big box retailers like Staples, or an auto dealership, then works with the local utility for the demand response system and incentives for the building owner.

At a time when batteries for energy storage remain too expensive for wide-scale deployment, when compressed air energy storage has too many siting and regulatory problems, and when pumped hydro can only be built in certain regions, ice-based energy storage looks very promising. Because of its relatively low cost and quick deployment, it’s like the low hanging fruit of building-based energy storage. (See my energy storage FAQ).

Even beyond the startup world, the so-called ice battery might be finally getting its day in the sun. Earlier this year, Veolia Energy North America, a subsidiary of massive French energy and water company Veoli Environnement, announced it had bought a district cooling system that uses ice to lower the cost of cooling buildings from Comfort Link.

For more research on smart grid check out GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

Image courtesy of Stevendepolo.

Tendril Rakes In Another $30M for Energy Management

Josie Garthwaite — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:00:05 +0000

There are more than a dozen companies building and launching energy management tools this year, but not all are as well-funded as Boulder, Colo.-based startup Tendril. This morning the company said it has raised a third round of funding, of $30 million. The 5-year-old company sells a suite of energy management hardware and software designed to help utilities and consumers communicate, including a wireless in-home energy display, a smart thermostat, a web-based energy portal, smart outlets and cell phone apps.

Unlike some of the other companies working on smart energy tools, Tendril is already selling to utilities. And with this latest round of venture capital funding — led by VantagePoint Venture Partners and joined by Good Energies — Tendril hopes to scale up its current services to meet the sudden interest in its products. It also plans to invest in new partnerships with device makers, appliance manufacturers, meter vendors and app developers.

Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck said in a release about the funding today, which adds to the $12 million in Series B the company announced last year, “We are seeing an explosion of business and are excited to quickly move into this next stage of growth and customer adoption.”

Of course, scaling up will not be without its hurdles. Tendril has a pack of other hungry energy management startups breathing down its neck for utilities’ business, stimulus-backed project deals and key partnerships. So if the startup needs this $30 million to expand quickly, the investment couldn’t have come too soon.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Vudu Goes Box-free for Entone

Liz Gannes — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:00:38 +0000

“Over the top” video services carry the implication of going behind the backs of existing television operators. But two of the (admittedly smaller) players in IPTV and web-delivered video on demand are teaming up to give us a glance of what a united future could look like.

Entone, an IPTV set-top box and service provider, is announcing today it has teamed with Vudu to offer the latter’s library of 14,000 movie and TV titles, including 1,500 HD films.

The offering marks Vudu’s first “embeddable” version of its software sans its own hardware. The company, which has been through multiple price reductions and layoffs, looks to be moving in that direction: “[W]e want consumers to get access to Vudu through the devices they already have in their home,” said Edward Lichty, the company’s EVP of strategy and content.

The joint Entone-Vudu offering, which is supposed to launch at the end of June, will behave just like Vudu — same delivery software, same selection, same prices — but without the proprietary Vudu remote control.

Entone is also looking to sign more deals for web-delivered content, said CEO Steve McKay. He thinks he can accelerate adoption of the services by making them more easy to access. “You’re asking the consumer to buy special-purpose devices,” he said of other solutions like Roku, Apple TV and ZillionTV.

Entone has about 200,000 customers of 70 U.S. phone companies using its IPTV devices today, and they are all expected to have access to the Vudu service. Vudu has not released sales numbers.

Further reading/watching: We posted a video interview with McKay last October.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Netflix and Facebook Link Movie Ratings

Liz Gannes — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:00:12 +0000

Netflix tonight is announcing integration with Facebook Connect, meaning users can link their accounts and relationships across the two services. Netflix members’ ratings for a movie will show up on their Facebook profiles, where friends can comment and click back to Netflix to add the movie to their own queue.

It doesn’t require any sort of advanced degree to theorize that entertainment and friends are a good pair. We love watching movies with friends, talking about movies with friends, gossiping about movie stars with friends. Many early Facebook Connect partners and many of the most popular Connect implementations have been video-related. The most recent notable video company convert to Facebook was the fast-growing Hulu (though apparently that’s using an old API rather than Connect). Prior to that, sites including Variety added Facebook chat for the Oscars.

As for Netflix, we think this integration could go much further, to include setting up movie dates between friends, distributing friends’ recommendations, enabling streaming movie chatrooms, and more. C’mon, these are two of the most popular and loved sites on the web, and they have so little in common (besides perhaps their userbases). There are a lot of places for collaboration. Netflix did say in a press release that it anticipates additional features with Facebook Connect and welcomes comments on its Facebook page and Twitter account.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Good Energies on the Hunt for Solar Investments

Josie Garthwaite — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:30:57 +0000

In the midst of a solar shakeout, lending for utility-scale solar projects could plunge by as much as 17 percent, to 10 billion euros (about $13.5 billion) this year, according to a recent note from Commerzbank AG cited in Bloomberg today. Sven Hansen, chief investment officer of the investment group Good Energies, sees nothing but opportunity, for Hansen is on the hunt to finance solar projects.

And as Hansen tells Bloomberg, Good Energies has a three-year budget of 1 billion euros through 2009. As we’ve noted before, the firm already holds a significant number of solar and wind investments (most recently leading a $163 million round for thin-film partner NorSun), in addition to stakes in the green building industry.

While this year and next look “difficult” for solar panel makers (that’s putting it mildly), Hansen reportedly thinks the photovoltaics industry is on track to grow about 30 percent annually. Solar projects are “excellent investments,” he was quoted as saying, adding that he expects them to provide much of the world’s power within a century.

Good Energies isn’t the only company looking to get in on utility-scale solar. California utility PG&E has also embarked on a hunt for solar investments, aiming to act as a “green knight” for solar projects with limited access to capital in today’s financial markets.

Good Energies and PG&E, of course, are not simply altruistic knights. Investing in and owning solar projects also gives PG&E a kind of insurance for the state’s renewable portfolio standard, which requires utilities in the state to get 10 percent of their energy from clean sources by next year. The utilities company has agreed to buy solar power produced by several projects being built by young startups, which are inherently risky, and now plans to take ownership of more photovoltaic projects. If PG&E backs away from riskier ventures, Good Energies may step in instead.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Smart Windows Open Up More Funding for SAGE

David Ehrlich — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:46:06 +0000

Updated: SAGE Electrochromics said today that it has raised $20 million in a third round of funding for its smart window tinting technology. The new cash comes from Good Energies, Applied Ventures — the venture capital arm of Applied Materials — and Bekaert.

That money will come in handy for the company, which has been waiting for approval of a reported $65 million loan from the Department of Energy for more than two years. The DOE loan is set to be used to build a high-speed manufacturing facility. ~~in Faribault, Minn., where SAGE is headquartered.~~ (update: the company hasn’t picked a location yet.)

This fresh infusion of venture capital for SAGE may not cover the cost of a new factory, but some of the cash will be used for production. SAGE said it will use the funding to expand its work in international markets, as well as in new product and business development, manufacturing, and sales and marketing.

SAGE’s windows are made with an all-ceramic stack of thin-film coatings on a glass substrate. A low voltage of DC power can switch the windows from letting in more than 60 percent of visible light, down to less than 5 percent. The DOE has said that electrochromic windows can cut air conditioning costs by up to 20 percent per year in commercial buildings. The company already has a small-scale manufacturing plant in Faribault, and said that since its last round of funding, it’s already sold and installed its smart windows in a number of commercial and residential projects. SAGE raised $16 million in July 2007 from the same group of investors — Good Energies, Applied Ventures and Bekaert.

SAGE isn’t the only company waiting for a DOE loan — a total of 16 firms were picked to submit full applications for the loans back in 2007, including Tesla Motors, which is waiting for $350 million from the DOE to build a factory for its new Model S sedan and for battery development. Last week, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced some changes at his agency to speed up those loans, with the cash potentially showing up by late April or early May. But the agency said that even if the loans are approved, companies could still be required to secure their own share of the financing or meet other conditions before the loans are closed.

Updated with more info: “This is a major expansion on current operations,” John Van Dine, president and CEO of SAGE, told Earth2Tech. He didn’t disclose how big the new factory will be, but said the entire project is expected to cost $120 million. The company has yet to pick a location for the new plant, but Van Dine said it will definitely be built in the U.S. “We just signed up a site selection firm,” he said. “They will be working with us to identify the most appropriate site for this investment.”

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Green Building is a Good Deal

David Ehrlich — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:30:59 +0000

Building green isn’t going to cost you an arm and a leg, according to a new study led by investment group Good Energies. Although it might not be the best economic time to put up a new building, the study points out that green buildings cost on average less than 2 percent more than traditional buildings.

That’s a big difference from the public perception. A 2007 survey from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development found that business leaders believed that green building practices would cost them an average 17 percent premium over conventional builds.

If even that smaller 2 percent premium still seems too much, Good Energies said the savings on water and energy more than outweigh the initial extra cost. The study said green buildings boast an average 33 percent reduction in energy use alone. The report looked at data on 150 recent green buildings across 33 U.S. states and 10 countries, and found that the initial “green premium” was paid back by energy and water savings within five years for about 50 percent of the buildings in the study.

But some experts are skeptical of the study, telling the New York Times that the cost differentials are hard to measure for green buildings. Peter Pfeiffer, a green architect based in Austin, Texas, told the Times that cleantech features for a home or building can add as little as 1 percent to as much as 5 percent to the bill.

Companies such as San Francisco-based green builder Project Frog, which just pulled in $8 million in funding, stand to benefit if businesses take a brighter view of building more environmentally friendly digs. Project Frog announced yesterday that it raised the Series B financing, led by RockPort Capital Partners.

Good Energies, which has a significant number of solar and wind investments, has its own stakes in the green building industry, with cash going to Ice Energy, Microstaq and SAGE Electrochromics. Microstaq makes fluid control solutions that have applications in HVAC systems, and SAGE Electrochromics makes electronically tinting glass. Just last month, Ice Energy, which makes an ice-based storage system for air conditioning units, grabbed $33 million in the first tranche of a Series B round, although Good Energies did not participate in the tranche.

Improvements in building efficiencies have the potential to take a huge load off of the national power grid, with buildings currently responsible for consuming 40 percent of the world’s energy, including two-thirds of its electricity, according to the report. A more efficient building envelope can keep that percentage down, reducing the size of heating and cooling systems, and fixtures including waterless urinals can reduce plumbing requirements. Smart building networks that control lighting and windows can also keep lighting costs down.

Good Energies said the final report, which is still being edited, will be published next summer.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.