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Solar Roundup: HelioVolt, Hoku, Petra, Amonix, ECD

Funding, forecasting, and fulminating

According to the Austin Business Journal, HelioVolt, a once well-funded and well-regarded CIGS PV aspirant, has delayed its job creation commitments by two years in an attempt to preserve some local funding and save face. HelioVolt altered an agreement with state officials 18 months after it received $1 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund calling for the creation of 158 jobs. Now, an amended agreement extends the target date for creating… Read More ›

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Thin-Film Solar Investment Dries Up

Thin film 2010 is thin film 2.0: go small or go home.

VC investment in solar power is still going strong, despite a dismal 2009 and an only slightly more heartening first quarter of 2010.

But the sub-sector of thin-film solar is a different story.  In 2007 and 2008, almost every energy and greentech investor invested in a thin-film firm.  In fact, they did so in a big way -- with $100 million plus funding rounds going to Nanosolar, HelioVolt, AVA Solar, MiaSole, Sulfurcell, SoloPower, etc.

Here's a… Read More ›

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Q&A With David Gelbaum of Quercus: He Likes Solar

No new investments for Quercus right now, says Gelbaum.

It's scale up time for the Quercus Trust.

The somewhat secretive venture firm is not currently placing new investments, said founder David Gelbaum in an exclusive and somewhat rare interview. Instead, the firm will concentrate on putting more money in the existing companies already in the portfolio to build them up.

Considering the scope of the trust, that's still a mammoth job. The firm has around 40 to 45 companies in the portfolio, he… Read More ›

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David Gelbaum Takes a Job—As CEO of Entech

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

David Gelbaum, the super-secretive investor behind the Quercus Trust, just took a day job.

He will serve as CEO of Entech Solar, one of the Trust's investments. He takes over for Frank Smith, who became Entech's CEO in March 2008.

The product of a merger between struggling solar installer WorldWater and Solar Technologies, Entech has devised a solar unit that contains silicon photovoltaic cells, which can convert sunlight into electricity, as… Read More ›

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Ausra Gets Bought By Areva

The three-way bidding war is over.

Areva, the swarming energy conglomerate, has won the bidding war and purchased Ausra, the solar thermal specialist.

Two other conglomerates had been bidding on the company, according to sources. One of them, however, was likely not Siemens. Siemens bought rival Solel for $418 million last year.

Like many Silicon Valley-funded startups, Ausra came up with a novel idea for harnessing clean power, but has lacked the money, engineering and contracts… Read More ›

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Greentech IPO Scorecard: Tesla, Solyndra, Codexis

For better or for worse, 2010 looks to be the year of the greentech IPO.

According to a study by Ernst & Young, 53 companies filed paperwork to hold initial public offerings in Q4 2009 -- the highest number of new registrants in a single quarter since 2007. That means that there are more deals in the IPO pipeline than there have been for more than two years.  

And a number of those IPOs happen to be high-profile offerings in the greentech sector.

For several years I've been predicting that 2010 would be the year of… Read More ›

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Can U.S. Know-How and Arab Oil Money Make the Middle East a Tech Hub?

Masdar City has a growing university, a good plan to tackle energy markets, and money. But will they come?

Abu Dhabi--For grad students, it's easily one of the best deals on the map.

The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST)-- the graduate school for alternative energy created by the emirate of Abu Dhabi with help from MIT -- pays all of its students' expenses. That includes tuition, housing, food, travel, fees for taking the GRE, and more. Students even get a monthly stipend to help take the "starving" out of the student.

MIST, which… Read More ›

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The Prospects of Amorphous Silicon PV: Down, But Hardly Out

While amorphous silicon kept a low profile through 2009, competitors will ignore it in coming years at their own peril.

The year is 2007. Generous subsidy programs in Germany and Spain are driving demand for PV through the roof, and crystalline silicon module vendors are struggling to keep pace. Polysilicon is hard to find, and the little that is available is selling for well over $300/kg. Crystalline silicon modules, at $4 per watt, aren't cheap. Of the three available thin-film options, CdTe and CIGS require significant investment in R&D, are tricky to… Read More ›