Solyndra, the secretive developer of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cells, is trying to raise $350 million in an effort to get into mass production, but the deal is causing some in Silicon Valley to shiver. The Fremont-based company, which raised $79 million in venture funds in 2007, wants the money to build a 420-megawatt solar plant, according to sources and documents reviewed by Greentech Media. Under the deal, Goldman Sachs, the lead bank on the deal, is trying to sell $120 million of convertible securities to existing investors and $230 million to newcomers. The convertible securities could be converted to Solyndra shares in the event of an IPO. Assuming an IPO...

Virtualization--the ability to use a single server for multiple tasks--has taken off like crazy in the data center world as a way to both cut hardware costs and electricity costs. And in the near future, utilities may start pushing virtualization to cut desktop computing costs. That's the word from Mark Bramfitt, Principal Program Manager, Customer Energy Efficiency, at Pacific Gas and Electric. Mark is the guy that sets up and monitors programs at PG&E to cut computing costs. In these programs, PG&E effectively gives companies rebates to adopt energy efficient devices. (We're on a panel later today at the Flash Memory Summit.) PG&E, he said, may initiate a desktop...

We read solar patents so you don’t have to…

While you were out carousing this past weekend, I was looking at some of Solyndra’s CIGS solar patents. Here’s what I found:

The patent for “Elongated PV Cells in Casings??? is authored by two former Solyndra employees, Ratson Morad, now with Daystar, and Benny Buller, now with CdTe thin-film leader First Solar (First Solar, incidentally, projects annual production of 1GW in 2009). The other listed inventors are Christian Gronet and Markus Beck, Chief Scientist at Solyndra. (And as I said yesterday: Why do patent holders and early employees leave a company like Solyndra?)

Here’s a link to a drawing of the cylindrical form...

British consumers may soon feel the pinch of higher water rates. Between 2010 and 2015, British water utilities claim they will need to make £27 billion in infrastructure investments to comply with the EU-wide Water Framework Directive, which requires water utilities to comply with new water conservation and pollution standards aimed at adapting to climate change-related water shortages. Ofwat, the UK's water regulator, received the proposals Monday amid criticism from British consumer groups who claim ratepayers are having trouble coping with similar rate increases for gas and electricity service. British Gas, for example, raised its service rate 44 percent this month. The rate...