Eric Wesoff 12 29 08, 7:43 AM

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Top 21 Greentech Deals of 2008

It’s a journalistic cliché to pile on the top 10 lists at the end of the year and we’re not above year-end clichés.

But here’s the problem—if we were to list the top 10 greentech investments of the year for 2008 we’d end up with nine solar deals and a biofuels deal which is kind of repetitive and not at all representative of the greentech sector.

So we’ll indulge ourselves, enlarge the list, and make room to include a water deal, a lighting deal, an automotive deal and a smart grid investment.

And allow us to announce…

The Top 21 Greentech Deals of 2008

As in 2007, solar was the dominant investment driver in greentech with more than a dozen solar firms winning funding rounds greater than $100 million. These large funding rounds occurred in the first three quarters of the year and for obvious reasons—we are probably not going to see that kind of flurry for a while.

Enormous funding rounds are not the typical M.O. for VCs -– building proprietary semiconductor factories is not what VCs consider “capital efficient.� But this size investment is required to work out the not trivial technical risks as well as scale to the production capacity needed to compete in this market.

Large capital requirements loomed regardless of PV material system being funded whether it was CIGS (Nanoslar, Miasolé, SoloPower, Solyndra, etc.), CadTel (AVA Solar), or amorphous silicon (Optisolar). These terms applied for solar thermal as well (eSolar, Brightsource, Solar Reserve, Solel).

This same capital intensity and scale was seen in the liquid fuels investments of Range Fuels and Amyris.

VC investment in cleantech in 2009 won’t be as dramatic as 2008 but will remain a brightspot in the VC universe. We expect a drop in the dollar amount but the number of deals should hold steady with a focus on storage, smart grid and energy efficiency.

Click here to view the full list.

Michael Kanellos 12 24 08, 6:53 AM

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The Next Big Thing in Green Electronics

Is there a killer app on the horizon for electronics makers?

Maybe, says Stephen Baker: high-definition videoconferencing.

Baker, an analyst at NPD Group and one of the most accurate in the business when it comes to identifying TV trends, says that the prices are coming down rapidly on high-end videoconferencing systems. These aren’t the choppy, slow systems that make everyone look like they are calling from a space station. He’s talking about the ones that provide clear, crisp streams of video of people on the other side of the planet. I’ve seen demos of these types of systems at Accenture and NHK and they are pretty cool.

A few years ago, Hewlett-Packard released systems that cost $500,000. Now, companies can put together a high-definition, high-bandwidth system for $50,000 to $75,000 thanks to Moore’s Law and economies of scale. That price includes the large screen TV, the networking equipment and other stuff. Consumers already have big screen TVs: The prices on the rest of the equipment would have to come down of course bu the fact that they own a TV already helps adoption.

Cheaper systems that could spark first phase of mass market adoption might be ready by 2011, he speculated.

“It is the only thing I see out there” that seems like a next big opportunity, he said.

How is this green? Well, it means there’s less travel. Rather than spend two days out of the office (and several hours at the airport flipping through a lot of magazines you didn’t even know existed) you can just do that 90 minute meeting by videoconference. Granted, you won’t be able to make faces or flip off the phone receiver anymore like you do during conference calls today, but it beats taking another short business trip.

Baker himself racked up 200,000 miles in the air this year, he admitted.

“It would be nice to have a teleprescence in my office,” he said.

Michael Kanellos 12 23 08, 11:43 AM

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Sony’s Got a Solar Lamp—Will More Solar Annoucements Follow?

Sony is showing off a lamp with photovoltaic dyes that can harvest energy from interior light, a somewhat rare bit of solar technology from the electronics giant. But chances are more solar news could follow.

The lamp, shown off last week at an eco products convention in Tokyo, contains the dye-powered solar cells in transparent side panels, according to a report on TechOn. The solar cells harvest power, store it in a small battery and the battery then is used to illuminate a decorative pattern in the panels. (See pictures at TechOn here.)

The module containing the dye-powered solar cells are only 4 percent efficient. One minute of battery power takes 15 minutes of exposure to light. Right now, Sony has no plans for selling the lamp. Still, Sony has achieved cell efficiencies of over 10 percent and module efficiencies of 8.2 percent in the laboratory.

Although Sony remains one of the largest consumer electronics makers in the world, you don’t hear the name much in solar. In some ways, that puts Sony in the minority when it comes to large Asian electronics makers. Samsung, LG, Kyocera Sharp and Panasonic are already large players in solar or have announced wide-ranging solar plans. Rival Panasonic just bought Sanyo, the world’s seventh-largest solar maker, this week. Solar prices are supposed to dip by 20 percent or so in 2009 as more production lines go live. There’s also a global recession. But the solar business will be around a long time. The PC industry didn’t get killed in the economic downturn of 1981 and 1982. And Sony doesn’t like being left out of markets their close rivals are doing well in.

If they started talking a bit more about solar at CES next month, it wouldn’t surprise me.

Michael Kanellos 12 23 08, 5:30 AM

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Coal-to-Methane Via Bacteria Company Gets $75.9M

Microbes, clean coal, underground digestion. How could you not like Luca Technologies.

The company—which has discovered a strain of microorganisms that can convert coal into methane—has raised $75.9 million in a third round of financing, according to VentureWire. (subscription required.). In a nutshell, the microorganisms eat coal and methane comes out the other end, which is really the same thing that occurs when cows eat grass. Burning methane is cleaner than burning coal. Thus, Luca’s bugs can cut down the fumes and pollution from what is probably the inevitable continued consumption of coal.

The microbes can also eat dirty shale oil. They are anaroebic too.

This sort of biogenic production of methane is already taking place underground naturally, the company has said in published papers. Luca’s goal is to commercialize and standardize it. Microbes are the central players in a number of clean tech companies: Amyris, Genomatica, Cambrios, ZeaChem, Mascoma.

Cleanliness, however, is dependent on two factors: Can Luca get its microbes to make coal inside underground coal seams so they can avoid mining and can Luca capture the other gases that come out of the microorganisms?

In a lot of ways, Luca resembles Laurus Energy, which recently got money from Mohr Davidow. Laurus digs holes into the earth and converts coal to synthetic gases underground. No mining and dangerous gases are captured. Laurus, however, uses industrial equipment and not microbes.

Ucilia Wang 12 22 08, 12:54 PM

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Report: Solar Panel Revenue Could Drop 20% in 2009

If you are convinced that next year will be a painful one for solar, then check out the latest figures from market research firm iSuppli: Revenue for the global solar panel market is expected to plummet nearly 20 percent in 2009.

That would be a drop from $15.9 billion in 2008 to $12.9 billion in 2009, coming after solar panel companies have experienced eight years of growth.

Blame it on the oversupply of panels. There will just be too many companies making them and not enough demand to erect them all. The problem already has occurred: The industry produced 7.7 gigawatts worth of panels in 2008 but installed only about half of them, said iSuppli’s solar analyst Henning Wicht.

Wicht expects the gap to widen in 2009, when 11.1 gigawatts worth of panels could be produced while only 4.2 gigawatts will likely be installed. The average selling price for panels could drop to $3.10 per watt next year from $4.20 per watt in 2008.

Needless to say, companies with the manufacturing might to keep the costs low will do better.

Solar companies and analysts have been predicting an oversupply of polysilicon in 2009. Polysilicon is the main ingredient to produce most of the solar panels on the market today.

With cheaper polysilicon on the horizon and a growing number of new players entering the solar market, solar panel makers such as SunPower and Suntech also are expecting the panel prices to drop between 20 percent and 30 percent next year.

Michael Kanellos 12 22 08, 6:18 AM

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News Roundup: Solar Crunch in Conneticut, Losses for Toyota, and Aussie Carbon Cuts

It’s another dismal day in the neighborhood.

Connecticut’s solar initiative—which had hoped to offer consumers subsidies for installing solar systems over the next two years, is out of cash six months into the project says the Green Inc. blog at the New York Times. The governor is trying to scrape a little cash together and the federal tax incentives passed in the week of the financial debacle could help, but installers are worried.

Spain went through a similar turmoil, which lead to an oversupply of panels. Connecticut is much smaller so the same won’t likely occur.

Meanwhile, Nikkei Net (subscription required) reports that Toyota may suffer a $1.67 billion (that’s U.S., not Yen) in fiscal 2008. It would be the company’s first since 1940.

Elsewhere, Green Car Congress says Australia wants to reduce carbon emissions to 5 percent to 15 percent below 2000 levels by 2020. That’s less ambitious than some plans—President elect Obama wants to cut them to 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050—but that also makes the Australian ones more realistic. It will also have a carbon market by 2010.

Meanwhile, News.com writes about Alex Cheimets, a homeowner in Massachusetts who is covering his house with two layers of foam board to insulate it. It’s to save energy, not to win style points. This one seems weird to me. There are actually great insulating materials—such as aerogels—you can use on the inside of your home. But he is saving a lot of power.

At TechOn, check out a Q&A on Honda’s battery initiative.

And finally, VentureBeat has an interview with creamy-skinned VC Steve Jurveston on why cleantech will do OK in the downturn.