VC
China's Nobao Renewable Energy Holdings, an energy efficiency company received a sizable investment from Silver Lake Partners. A person familiar with the matter said the deal was worth around $100 million according to the WSJ. Nobao builds and installs geothermal heat pumps for heating, cooling and hot water in buildings.
Microstaq of Austin, Texas, a designer and manufacturer of MEMS-based fluid control technology that reduces energy consumption in air conditioning systems won $10.16 million from Good Energies, Polygon Group and Yaletown Venture Partners.
SemiSouth Laboratories of Arkville, Miss, a maker of high-voltage silicon-carbide (SiC) semiconductor devices with applications in electric vehicles, inverters and power conversion received a $30 million investment from San Jose-based Power Integrations (NASDAQ:POWI).
Outland Renewable Energy of Canby Minnesota received $8 million from Allco Renewable Energy for Outlands' operating and maintenance of wind energy facilities throughout the United States.
Nanosys of Palo Alto, California announced a second and final close of its round E at $31 million from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, Arch Venture Partners, El Dorado Ventures, Polaris Venture Capital, and Venrock. The firm is scaling up production of devices for improving LED backlighting and the capacity of lithium-ion batteries.
dPoint of Vancouver, BC-based raised 2.6 million from GreenAngel Energy for fuel cell dehumidifiers and enerfy recovery ventilator cores. www.dpoint.ca
IPO
First Wind Holdings, a Newton, Mass.-based developer of wind power projects, pulled its IPO this week. It intended to raise $300M and originally filed for its IPO in 2008. Shareholders include D.E. Shaw and Madison Dearborn Partners. The firm's large debt load and the uncertain future of the wind sector contributed to first, the paring of the share price and then the cancellation of the offering.
The U.S. industry added just 395 megawatts (MW) of wind-powered electric generating capacity in the third quarter of 2010, making it the lowest quarter since 2007, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Year-to-date installations stood at 1,634 MW, down 72 percent versus 2009, and the lowest level since 2006. In 2010, wind projects in the U.S. are being installed at half the rate as in Europe, and a third of the rate as in China.
Other Financing Deals
Azure Power, a PE-backed solar power producer, is planning an investment of $40 million in Gujarat for developing a 15 megawatt solar PV power plant. The investment is led by Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), an agency of the United States Government. Other investors in the project include World Bank arm IFC, and venture capital firms Helion Advisors and Foundation Capital.
Flexible CIGS-solar vendor, Solarion of Leipzig, Germany received $84 million from Asian investor Walsin Lihwa to build an integrated cell and module factory with a capacity of 20 megawatts. Solarion’s technology is based on an ion-beam assisted deposition of the CIGS absorber in a roll-to-roll process.
SunRun, a San Francisco-based provider of residential solar systems and leases, secured a new tax equity commitment from an affiliate of U.S. Bancorp, to develop 1,900 residential solar installations. It previously announced a $90 million tax equity deal with U.S. Bancorp in 2009, and has raised over $85 million in VC funding from Accel Partners, Foundation Capital and Sequoia Capital.
NRG Solar signed a letter of intent to partner with BrightSource to construct, finance, own and operate the 392-megawatt Ivanpah plant. NRG will become the lead investor with a $300 million sum. Bechtel (the EPC firm) will also be an equity investor.
Executive Moves
Lunera, which makes LED light fixtures, appointed Karen Owyeung CEO. Owyeung has worked in LED for years at HP and Lumileds. Lunera has squeezed its fixtures into a number of buildings in the last 18 months.
At Calera, the CO2-to-Cement folks, Brent Constantz is no longer CEO. He was replaced by William Roach, who comes to greentech by way of the Canadian oil sands.