Guest Blogger Eric Wesoff Covers the Week in Cleantech

Rob Day, pioneering renewable energy VC investor, blogger and all-around good guy is on vacation in much sunnier climes this week and has given me the honor of filling in for him. My name is Eric Wesoff and I’m a senior analyst at Greentech Media and the author of the Venture Power Report.

Here’s this week’s Cleantech Investing blog, now with slightly higher snark.

Stealth Solar

Stealthy solar firm Solexel is listed on Technology Partner’s website and on KP’s website but information is scant.  They do have some job listings for epitaxial silicon engineers and MEMS engineers and the MEMS aspect is intriguing.  Their write-up claims that they develop, “disruptive, high efficiency, cost-reduced energy conversion products for the solar energy market.â€?  Which is much less than informative.  Apparently they already have a CFO, unusual for a company this small.  The Ira has not responded to inquiries.

There is No Such Thing as Clean Coal

The DOE is trying to resurrect and restructure the battered FutureGen project - issuing a quick-turnaround RFI [PDF link] for projects to equip clean coal commercial power plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. If you have some ideas on “less dirty coal� - the deadline is March 3.

Solar Umbrellas?

SKYshades (caution: crappy soundtrack), co-founded by the Great White Shark, has inked an MOU with VC-money-oxidizer,  Konarka, in order to issue press releases abut organic PV umbrellas.  Konarka supposedly builds flexible solar devices on plastic substrates and has raised at least five funding rounds (not really a good sign).  Konarka has been raising VC money, issuing dubious press releases, and switching CEOs since 2001.

Cellulosic Ethanol Funding with Political Connections

PE Week Wire breaks the news on Mascoma’s $50M C Round, a combination of debt and equity. The Cambridge, Mass.-based start-up is working on cellulosic biomass-to-ethanol development and production.  Funding came from General Catalyst Partners, Khosla Ventures, Atlas Venture, Flagship Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Pinnacle Ventures, and VantagePoint Venture Partners. Mascoma had previously raised ~$40M in VC funding.  Former senator Tom Daschle, an Obama supporter, is on the firm’s board.  Former president, and soon-to-be-failed first husband, Bill Clinton is involved with Cilion, another VC-funded ethanol start-up.

SoCalGas – An Enlightened Utility with a VC Investment Arm

I had a great conversation with the venture arm of Southern California Gas recently and will report in detail in the next Venture Power.  But here are some quick notes and observations – their venture arm is considered part of their research program and they are actively making venture investments in technologies and companies that “have a strategic fit with their charter or their customer’s needs.â€?  Their hot buttons include:

• Energy efficiency
• Smart grid technologies
• Solar thermal systems – In their opinion, “the technology to beat is horizontal trough systems.â€?  More on SoCalGas soon.

Exploding Windmill

The exploding Danish windmill video deserves repeating.  Windpower is a great thing and this type of braking failure is an exception to windpower’s safety and effectiveness as a renewable energy source.

Harnessing Big Wave Power at Half Moon Bay California’s Mavericks.

Rob Day returns next week unless he goes native.