The Morning Feedstock

3i, Europe’s largest venture capital firm, has announced it will abandon its early stage venture operations. In 2000 3i’s venture portfolio covered 750 investments worth $4.8 billion. However, the tech crash later that year forced 3i to write down close to $2 billion. By September 2007 the company’s overall venture investment had fallen to roughly $1.4 billion, with new investments totaling $130 million during the first six months of 2007, or five percent of its total investments. A 3i spokeswoman said the company is “recognising the opportunity in growth capital and later stage investing.” 3i has previously invested in greentech companies like Konarka, EnOcean, PelamisWave, Nanostellar, and Smart Fuel Cell.

Suntech Power has locked in an eight year polysilicon supply from South Korea’s DC Chemical. The $631 million deal kicks off in 2009, with specified delivery amounts coming every year until 2016. Suntech has been fairly busy recently, taking a $100 million minority stake in Nitol Solar and an 11.7 percent stake in Hoku Scientific. These moves are largely a response to Suntech’s disappointing earnings and guidance report, which forced the company to take a major hit after it disclosed a failure to lock in long term poly supply in the face of rising feedstock costs. In a related deal, DC Chemical has signed a $200 million contract with GT Solar for polysilicon deposition reactors. The deal is GT Solar’s largest to date.

John Hutton, Britain’s business secretary, will make a speech today calling for an ambitious expansion of the UK’s nuclear capacity.Hutton will speak in front of the UK’s largest union on the economic benefits of this expansion, which will require a nearly $40 billion investment, create 100,000 new jobs, and include the replacement or upgrading of almost all of the UK’s nuclear reactors. The speech coincides with a state visit from French president Nicholas Sarkozy, who is expected to sign a nuclear cooperation agreement with British PM Gordon Brown.