The Hoover Dam of solar is now live in the desert of California. Here’s why it’s so important
The revolutionary solar farm in the Mojave desert is finally live. Here’s the story behind the tech, and an inside look at the launch.
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The revolutionary solar farm in the Mojave desert is finally live. Here’s the story behind the tech, and an inside look at the launch.
The federal government hopes to ease controversy with the development of a road map that identifies 285,000 acres of public land that will make the best locations for solar energy development in six western states.
Now that solar startup BrightSource Energy has ditched its IPO plans, some might think the company has dropped off the radar. But there’s actually some interesting things — some positive, some not so positive — going on with the company this week. Check out this latest news:
In Enphase Energy’s first earnings report as a public company, the solar micro inverter maker showed strong revenue growth, doubling its revenues between the first quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2011.
Three greentech IPO hopefuls pulled the plug on their public market plans this month. There’s a lot that these companies have in common, and it’s not that they’re green: it’s the lack of profits and even revenues.
Waste to fuel startup Enerkem has withdrawn its IPO plans citing — what else — poor market conditions. The move is the third greentech IPO hopeful to cancel public market plans this month.
Greentech investor Nancy Pfund — who I once called the most successful and positive greentech investor you haven’t heard of — can’t always be positive. Her fund’s portfolio company BrightSource pulled its IPO plans in the same week that Dunkin’ Donuts raised a secondary offering.
The second greentech startup that had planned an IPO this month has now withdrawn its plans citing market conditions. Luca Technologies, a startup which uses biotech to produce natural gas via microbes in coal beds, announced that it intends to withdraw its IPO plans.
Enphase Energy will become the first solar company to go public on the U.S. market since the fall of 2010, when its stock begins trading on the Nasdaq on Friday under the symbol ENPH.
Stuart Bernstein, the head of the clean energy group at Goldman Sachs, showed up at Cleantech Forum in San Francisco to talk about the IPO market, and his message to startups and investors was: hang in there.
BrightSource Energy, which builds solar power plants and plans to do an IPO, has completed about a quarter, or 25 percent, of its first project, Ivanpah, which is on schedule to come online next year, the company said in a government filing on Friday.
After a couple of years under development, Google has shut down its project to design its own solar mirrors for a centralized solar thermal farm. Now it’s the job of researchers and solar execs to see if there’s anything to use from Google’s solar research.
It was roughly a year ago when the California Energy Commission approved nine solar farms all within a few months in order to make sure those projects could qualify for a federal program that subsidizes 30 percent of their costs. Where are they now?
Solar thermal startup BrightSource recently finished building a solar-to-steam farm for oil giant Chevron, which will enable Chevron to use steam from the solar farm for enhanced oil recovery. But according to a filing from BrightSource, that project ended up costing significantly more than BrightSource expected.
Are there other Solyndras waiting in the wings that could one day lose over a billion in funds to failed green technologies? Well, there are a couple of other green startups that have raised similarly massive private funds and DOE support.
Green chemical developer Genomatica has filed for an initial public offering to seek up to $100 million, according to its government filing on Wednesday. The company engineers processes to create chemical from renewable sources for making a variety of products, from clothing to auto parts.
Curious about what a project that concentrates the sun’s rays and turns them into steam looks like? Here’s photos of Chevron’s solar to steam project, which uses tech from BrightSource, and with a plan to use the steam for enhanced oil recovery.
A year ago, California and federal regulators were busy reviewing and signing off on giant solar farms. Now, the pace has slowed considerably as fewer projects are up for review and uncertainty over federal subsidy programs loom.
As more solar farms arise in the sunny corners of the U.S., it’s inevitable that solar developers will have to play ball with environmentalists. First Solar and SunPower announced an agreement with the environmental groups to add thousands of acres near their projects for wildlife protection.
While the greentech IPOs that have happened in the past year have fared decently, they’re no comparison to many of the public debuts in the works by social media companies. Zynga’s reported potential $2 billion raise could deliver five times Tesla’s combined IPO and follow-on offering.
GE has made a strategic investment in solar thermal startup eSolar and has entered into a deal for an exclusive license to deploy eSolar’s technology in combination with natural gas power plants.
A large solar power panel farm is set to rise near Las Vegas, Nevada with the help of a federal loan guarantee program. The DOE on Thursday announced a $45.6M conditional loan guarantee offer to Fotowatio Renewable Ventures to build a 20 MW solar project.
Amidst all of the champagne cork-popping, and bubble talk in the wake of the LinkedIn IPO Thursday morning (high-five to Reid Hoffman) I’ll offer up this downer of an article: the LinkedIn IPO is bad for cleantech.
Here is another lucky winner of a federal loan guarantee program: The U.S. Department of Energy is offering a conditional loan guarantee of $737 million to SolarReserve for building an 110MW power plant in Nevada, the DOE said Thursday.
Solar project developers typically distinguish themselves, among other things, by technology choices. Those who develop photovoltaic power plants tend to stick with PV. That trend is changing. Solar Trust of America is teaming up with a German company to develop PV power plants.
Cleantech investing: it’s no longer for the everyday general venture capital firm. Mass High Tech digs into data about 10 venture firms that made five or more new cleantech deals between 2003 and 2008, and then completely pulled back from new cleantech investments after 2008.
The rumor has become reality: BrightSource Energy, which is heavily backed by private and public money for its concentrating solar thermal technology, on Friday filed for an initial public offering to raise $250 million.
The solar investments from Google just keep on comin’, and this, time it’s a biggie. On Monday afternoon, the search engine giant announced its largest investment in renewable energy to date: $168 million into BrightSource Energy’s solar project in the Mojave Desert in California.
Big investment firm Blackstone Group has reportedly shuttered its planned $500 million green fund after raising only $90 million – a sign that, amidst new green funds being raised, the sector’s weaknesses are also scaring some investors away.
BrightSource Energy has upped its latest fundraising goal from $100 million last December to $125 million and plans to use the money for both the U.S. projects and international expansion, the company’s spokesman, Keely Wachs, told us Tuesday.
Turns out building massive solar farms in the desert takes a massive amount of funding. BrightSource, which builds solar projects that use the sun’s heat to produce electricity for utilities, is in the process of raising a $100 million round, according to a filing.
With 2010’s numbers rolling in, it’s becoming increasingly clear that greentech investors are shifting attention from the supply side of the clean energy equation to the demand side of reducing energy use.
Venture capital investors continue their big love for solar, and despite a collective vow to be less irrationally exuberant about the sector, investors still are willing to hand out hefty amounts for buzzy startups.
This year has turned out to be a boom year for the solar industry. What will 2011 bring? Here are key trends that can emerge next year, in terms of policies, financing, project development, new markets and technology.
California wants 33 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, but hitting that goal might be difficult. State regulators approved a 1 gigawatt program Thursday that they believe will help.
Did California regulators move too hastily to approve a series of solar power projects to put massive glass, steel and concrete on thousands of acres of desert land? That question hangs over one such project now that the California Energy Commission has withdrawn its approval.
Ivanpah is on! The massive 392-MW solar farm that is being built next to the Ivanpah Dry Lake, in San Bernardino County, Calif., is now officially under construction and will be the first of its kind to use BrightSource’s solar thermal concentrating gear.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has become a favorite in the solar business lately, approving six solar farms in this month alone, including a 1,000MW project (the world’s largest) in California. If it seems like he’s racing against the clock to OK these projects, well, he is.
American solar companies say China doesn’t play fair, and that makes it difficult to compete at home and abroad. Here is our 4-step attack plan for what companies can do to get ready for their own fight.
Heat has long been the enemy of solar cells — high temperatures can cook a cell and most cells aren’t set up to take advantage of the heat beating down from the sun. But not to a group of Stanford researchers.
Electric car maker Tesla officially delivered the biggest venture backed IPO of the quarter. What made the public debut different from some of the other venture-backed IPOs that happened this quarter? Well, among a variety of things, Tesla scored a $465 million loan from the government.
Greentech startups raising money in the second quarter of this year can thank a few things for the solid quarter of venture financing: corporations, the generally weak IPO market (Tesla was the exception), and the solar industry.
The Department of Energy this morning announced the tenth award for a clean energy project under the long delayed loan guaranteed program. Oregon-based U.S. Geothermal has won the latest award, on a conditional basis, for $102.2 million.
Expect this summer to be a busy one for Jonathan Silver, the former venture capitalist whom the Obama administration tapped to head up the Department of Energy’s highly competitive loan guarantee and green car loan program. Here’s our interview with Silver:
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