The return of solar mega-deals

It’s been amazing, as a long-time follower of energy policy and politics, to see just how central energy tech has been in the convention out in Denver.  If you weren’t watching C-Span, you likely didn’t get to see it (the cable news networks seem to prefer showing us their own hired analysts instead of the speeches they’re supposedly there to cover), but on Tuesday for example there were speeches by several governors specifically on energy policy issues, a “town hall” panel on the same topic, and even a speech from a cleantech VC, Nancy Floyd of Nth Power. Most Americans may not have gotten to see much of that thanks to the blathering bloviators in the studios, but it was clear that cleantech-related issues are very central right now in the political discourse.  We’ll see if the same emphasis is made at next week’s event, but even if not it’s still a bit of a watershed event for cleantech to be so front-and-center…

So yours truly needed to step away from work and extracurriculars like this blog for a while, and it looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.  There’s been a huge number of deal announcements, especially for a time of year that’s traditionally pretty slow.

Deals that came out this week include:

• Ho, hum…  Another week, another massive solar financing deal being announced or sought.  This week it’s $300mm into Nanosolar from back in March, with the financing provided by AES, EDF, Riverstone Partners, Lone Pine Capital, the Skoll Foundation, the Omidyar Network, GLG Partners, Beck Energy, Grazia Equity, and others.  Not a lot of VC firms in the round, pointing out once again how these types of financings may not be classically what we would consider venture capital.  Oh, and today came word of AVA Solar’s $104mm round of financing, led by DCM and also including Technology Partners, GLG Partners, Bohemian Companies and Invus.  This, of course, follows news from the last couple of weeks that Solyndra is also looking to raise a big round of financing…

• Drinking water treatment company MIOX has raised a $19mm Series C led by DCM.  Existing investors Sierra Ventures and Flywheel Ventures also participated in the round.

• Nexterra, a Canadian biomass gasification play, has raised a C$3.8mm fourth round investment, led by ARC Financial Corp.

• Advantage Capital Partners has put $1.9mm into green dry cleaning company Natural Cleaners Colorado.

• Algal biofuel effort Solazyme has raised a $45.4mm Series C including $6.4mm in convertible securities.  New backers Braemar and Lightspeed joined existing investors The Roda Group and Harris & Harris.

• PE Week Wire reported that Google has put $5mm into kite-power startup Makani, as part of an ongoing Series B.

And in the interest of completeness, here are other deals that came out before this week that I didn’t get a chance to post:

• Marrone Organic Innovations announced a $10mm Series B (note: link opens pdf), led by Stuart Mill Venture Partners, alongside Contrarian Group and existing investors One Earth Capital, Saffron Hill Ventures, Clean Pacific Ventures, Wavepoint Ventures and angels.  Another $1mm in the round is expected by the end of the month.  GTM had mentioned the ongoing round back in March.

• Solar installer Aquus Energy announced a “Series 1” round of financing.

• Amyris Biotechnologies has expanded its Series B to $90mm from $70mm, according to PE Week Wire.  So far, $51mm has been called down.  The raise has been going on for quite some time now, and we passed along word almost a year ago that the pre-money had reportedly been set at $300mm...  Hmm…

• Building energy efficiency-related sensors company EnOcean has raised an additional EUR 4.5mm.

• Here’s a nominee for best quote of the year:  “Five [million dollars] is not a round,” according to Segway CFO Brian Cohen, in discussing the company’s recent unannounced $5mm Series D investment from an unnamed strategic investor.  VentureWire had the details on Monday the 18th…

• Geothermal tech startup AltaRock has raised a $26.25mm Series B, led by existing investors Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures, alongside new investors ATV, Vulcan Ventures, and Google.org.  Google.org also put $4mm into Potter Drilling recently.

• Indian e-waste recycler Attero has raised a $6.3mm Series A from NEA-IndoUS Ventures and DFJ.

• Lithium producer Simbol Mining has raised a $6.7mm Series A led by MDV and Firelake Capital.

• Geothermal service provider ThermaSource has raised a $41.5mm round of financing from Riverstone Holdings, US Renewables Group, and Rustic Canyon Partners.

• Trilliant Incorporated, an AMR systems provider, raised $40mm from MissionPoint and zouk.

• Environmental Operating Solutions (EOS) has drawn down the first tranche of a $2.5mm round of financing led by Stuart Mill Venture Partners.

• Bank of America has made a strategic investment in ESCO Field Diagnostic Services.

• More in GTM’s Funding Roundups, here, here and here.

Some cleantech investor news:  VentureWire reported that CMEA is thinking about raising yet another big “growth stage” cleantech fund, this one at $400-500mm…  Here’s a nice profile of the CalCEF Clean Energy Angel Fund…  VC is down in Europe but cleantech had its biggest quarter ever.

Also, here’s Neal on “cleantech” vs “greentech”...  And finally, forget liquid fuels or electricity, maybe it’s time to bring back steam-powered transportation.