Posted by jumperhead on May 8th, 2008
Four companies are buying half of low carbon investment bank Climate Change Capital Group (or CCC if you’re feeling informal). Greenbang’s no financial advisor, but she’d recommend the quartet should ask for the 50 percent with the cash vault in, or failing that, the bit with the pens on chains in.
The four investors in CCC, which specialises in investing in carbon offsetting and cutting ventures, are Alliance Trust, The Universities Superannuation Scheme, SNS REAAL, a Dutch based banking and insurance business and Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co Ltd.
Between them, the four will pay £56 million and will share 50 percent of the bank between them - the cash will be used to help fund CCC’s growth plans. The foursome has also promised to contribute £20 million for a “new fund of funds”.
Yep, a “new fund of funds”. No, Greenbang neither.
Here’s a little bit about Climate Change Capital and what they do, to keep you going:
CCC operates three transactional teams:
• Carbon Finance: develops and manages funds that invest in Green House Gas (”GHG”) reduction projects and their underlying assets, primarily in the developing world. The funds also invest in companies that provide technologies or services facilitating GHG reductions. The Climate Change Capital Carbon Funds have over €800 million under management.
• Fund Management: Develops and manages funds that invest in companies, projects and technologies that provide products or services facilitating climate change mitigation or adaptation. Through the Ventus group of listed Venture Capital Trusts and The Climate Change Capital Private Equity Fund, CCC has in excess of €250 million under management for investing in clean technology, clean fuels and renewable energy.
• Advisory: provides financial, strategic and policy advice to energy-intensive industries, financial institutions, clean technology companies and governments.
Posted by jumperhead on May 8th, 2008
As anyone who’s watched all six Star Wars films can tell you, the start of a story is often better than the end. Especially when it comes to news stories, let Greenbang tell you.
However, Greenbang’s going to make an exception today and bring you the story of a green tech fund that’s just closed. It’s a story with a happy ending too - it’s closed with more funds than expected.
The hero of this story is Israel Cleantech Ventures, which dropped us a line today to tell us it’s closed its first fund with $75M - $15 million more than it had originally planned on.
The company’s a mere two years old, but it’s already invested in this little lot:
Aqwise (waste water treatment), CellEra (fuel cells), Citrine Renewable Energy (landfill biogas treatment), Emefcy (energy production from wastewater), Metrolight (energy efficient lighting), Project Better Place (electric vehicle infrastructure), and Pythagoras Solar (solar energy).
Posted by Triton on May 6th, 2008
Regular readers might recall that he asked you what your favourite oxymoron is. Greenbang rattled through a couple, finally deciding on ‘military intelligence’. However, foolish Greenbang missed another glaringly obvious one: ethical bank.
Hilarious, isn’t it? Banks, loan sharks dressed up in fancy suits, have long had the reputation of lending money - aka your savings - to dodgy types and then looking the other way when they use it to finance things that just aren’t cricket. Yet, there are now choices for the humble investor who wants to make money without a guilty conscience.
For example, Dutch bank Triodos has taken the wraps off its Renewable Energy Fund. Five and a half million shares in the fund will be be put up for grabs to the average Joe investors, with a view to raising £8.5 million - cash which it says will be invested in renewable energy projects and companies.
Triodos has apparently been a long time do-gooder, financing over 200 renewable energy projects in Europe since 1983. Its assets can now pump out 23.45MW of green energy.
James Vaccaro, MD of Triodos Renewables hasn’t gone into details about how exactly the money will be spent, but he has said this:
“This new share issue means we can continue to build our asset base and invest in a variety of exciting sustainable energy projects. These include acquiring existing and planned sites, working with industry to provide a sustainable energy supply from brown field sites and developing partnerships to build new projects.”
If you’ve got a hankering to know more about Triodos portfolio, Greenbang can reveal it includes such gems as Marine Current Turbines and Connective Energy, which is developing ways to capture and re-use waste heat from industry.
Posted by jumperhead on May 5th, 2008
There are some eye-watering sums of cash being flung around world of green tech at the moment but every time Greenbang thinks she’s heard the most number of zeroes she’s ever going to hear attached to the words ‘clean tech’ and ‘venture capital’ someone likes to roll out a couple more for good measure. Greenbang hasn’t seen this many zeroes since the opening rounds of X Factor.
Today’s ‘my investment is so big it looks like a freephone telephone number’ winner is Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, who’ve just taken the wraps off a new fund, the KPCB XIII, which will see them spanking $700 million over three months “backing entrepreneurs and innovation in greentech, information technology and life sciences ventures”.
And if that wasn’t enough, it’s also raided the piggybank for another $500 million for its Green Growth Fund, which will “help speed mass market adoption of solutions to the world’s climate crisis”.
The KPCB XIII will focus its efforts on “early stage entrepreneurs” and the Green Growth Fund will look to companies that are already getting their swerve on and will give its company-building nous to those companies that it takes under its wing.
Posted by jumperhead on April 29th, 2008
Greenbang’s always been fond of the story about Kerry Packer, the now deceased Aussie multi-billionaire, media mogul, inventor of one day test cricket and renowned gambler.
Once while at a casino, the mega-rich Aussie offered to play heads or tails with a loud mouth Texan for his entire $100 million fortune. The Texan - presumably realising Packers’ were bigger than his own - declined.
For US company Broadwind Energy, however, raising $100 million has taken a little more effort than calling heads or tails.
Broadwind, the owners of a clutch of engineering and manufacturing companies that provide components for the wind energy industry, has raised the sum by selling 12.5 million shares to investment funds handled by Tontine Associates. It also hopes to raise additional funds by entering into a “non-binding letter of intent with a strategic partner”, but has yet to reveal who or for how much.
According to Broadwind’s COO Lars Moller, the money will help Broadwind speed up its expansion plans. Here’s what it will do with the cash:
• Invest in additional regional operations and maintenance centers in a “hub and spoke” strategy to service the growing wind energy market.
• Expand gear and tower production capacities at current locations and through
“greenfield” facilities strategically located throughout North America.
• Hire additional employees at the corporate and platform levels.
• Continue to acquire businesses that complement Broadwind’s growth strategy.
Posted by jumperhead on April 28th, 2008
If you spent your days pushing around £124 billion, it must be difficult to find a new career that would still get your pulse racing. Great white shark wrestler, professional russian roulette player, Naomi Campbell’s maid - the options must be somewhat limited.
None of the above, apparently - the answer is, of course, green tech.
Russell Read is the chief investment officer of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (Calpers) and is used to handing $244 billion’s worth of raw cash for the pension fund.
But, he told The Independent he’s had enough of that particular fund and he’s off to start his own VC firm with an eye on clean tech.
According to Read, not enough money is getting to companies quickly enough - which is where his VC venture will come in.
Read told the Indy:
“We could find new sources of energy without causing the same crises that we are seeing at the moment. What is missing is investment vehicles that can identify and develop and scale up the most compelling opportunities that are being developed by research institutions and other private sector initiatives.”
Among the sectors tickling his fancy are wood biofuels, the Independent says.
Posted by jumperhead on April 25th, 2008
The likes of the National Venture Capital association and PriceWaterhouseCoopers have released a nattily titled report. It bears the title The Money Tree. Greenbang fears this might be the only time she has access to a money tree, unless the genetic engineering experiments to create a cheeseplant that grows tenners instead of leaves come off.
So back to the Money Tree, and not the one in Greenbang’s lab. The report says venture capitalists spanked $7.1 billion in the first three months of the year, across 922 deals - a slight dip compared to the last quarter of 2007. Not to worry though,it’s still a crackerjack quarter, according to those in the know - fifth highest investment quarter since 2001.
So what does this mean for the clean tech lot? They notched up $625 million across 44 deals during the first quarter of this year. That’s down on the previous quarter by six percent and up 51 percent compared to the corresponding quarter in 2007.
And if clean tech needed some more bragging rights, it has them: apparently, the largest deal in the quarter was for a clean tech company with four out of the top ten big winners was a clean tech firm.
Posted by jumperhead on April 22nd, 2008
More on the IPO from Real Goods Solar. The company filed some docs with the Securities and Exchange Commission about its floatation and has revealed (drum roll please!) that it will be putting 5,000,000 shares up for grabs at a price of between $10 and $12 a share.
It’s also sticking with the ticker RSOL. Really. Yes, the company wants to be known as an RSOL for the rest of its days.
And what will it do with all the lovely cash? Greenbang would advocate rolling around naked in $100 bills shouting “I’m rich! Rich beyond my wildest dreams!” and then diving into a bath of champagne poured by tame killer whales into the tub in the back of one of a fleet of bath-equipped Jaguars. But that would be somewhat silly.
Instead, this is what Real Goods will do in its prospectus. By the look of the last point, it’s also planning a turn in the Miss America pageant:
Enhance and leverage the Real Goods brand name to increase our market presence. We intend to enhance and leverage the Real Goods brand name, which we believe is the strongest name in the residential solar energy market, and our reputation for outstanding customer service to continue to win business in existing markets and to expand into new markets in which our competitors have little or no brand recognition.
Expand into markets in which legislation and government incentives are favorable for solar energy. We plan to expand the geographic scope of our business as jurisdictions adopt new or improve existing incentive programs that enhance the economics of solar energy systems for a broader customer base. In addition to the $3.4 billion CSI, 29 states, including Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey and New York, have adopted legislation and incentives favorable to solar energy, and other states are considering adopting such legislation and incentives.
Consolidate the fragmented U.S. solar energy system installer market. The U.S. solar energy system installer market remains highly fragmented, with over 300 independent installers or integrators in California alone. We intend to continue our consolidation activities in order to penetrate new markets, expand our business and further enhance our national brand and leverage our national marketing programs. We plan to create economies of scale through our consolidation activities in order to increase our operating efficiencies, with a goal of improving our margins and profitability.
Expand our “community of customers” to enhance revenue and lower our customer acquisition costs. We intend to leverage the reputation for authenticity associated with our Real Goods brand to expand our “community of customers.” We believe these customers care deeply about solar energy and a renewable energy lifestyle and view us as the premier provider of products, services and support to enable this lifestyle. In addition to our solar energy systems, we plan to cross-market our wide array of energy-saving and carbon footprint-reducing products and services, which we believe will enhance our revenue and create additional customer loyalty. We also intend to leverage our customer base to continue to provide us with new leads and referrals, which, in conjunction with our cross-marketing efforts, should allow us to continue to lower our customer acquisition costs.
Make a difference in the world. We intend to promote our solar energy systems and sustainable living resources as a way for individuals and communities to reduce their carbon footprint, eliminate U.S. dependence on foreign and fossil fuel-based energy sources and foster a culture of respect for the Earth and its natural resources for the benefit of future generations. We estimate the energy savings resulting from our products that were purchased in the 1990s will prevent the production of over one billion pounds of carbon dioxide over the life of those products, which is the equivalent of removing approximately 83,000 passenger vehicles from use for one year. We anticipate that products that we expect to sell through 2010 will prevent an additional one billion pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. We calculated this energy savings by estimating how many kilowatt-hours were saved over the life of these products by their use, and estimating that U.S. power plants generate an average of 1.5 pounds of carbon dioxide in producing 1 kilowatt of electricity. For example, a 15 watt compact fluorescent light bulb saves 45 watts per hour and lasts 10,000 hours and therefore saves 450 kilowatts and prevents the generation of 675 pounds of carbon dioxide over its product life.
Posted by jumperhead on April 21st, 2008
Irish renewables firm NTR is handing over $100 million to US solar company Stirling Energy Systems to help them deliver two massive plants.
This initially confused Greenbang. A quick scout around on the internet showed her you could get several massive plants delivered for a couple of hundred quid if you just went to Interflora and got silly with your credit card.
But no. To paraphrase Obi Wan Kenobi, these are not the massive plants you’re looking for.
The two massive plants in question are a pair of the world’s largest solar energy plants, located in the Imperial Valley and the Mojave Desert to provide energy to Southern California. The two will now be built by Stirling, thanks to the $100 million investment from NTR.
For its pains (read cash), NTR will get a controlling stake in Stirling. Stirling will get the two power plants, able to produce 800 MW of power when built, to be expanded to 1,750 MW in the future.
Posted by jumperhead on April 14th, 2008
Greenbang’s a bit, well, naive, which probably explains why she has always thought that the stock market works on the same principle as an airplane. In the same way that planes are kept aloft by their passengers’ belief in the miracle of flight, the stock market is kept aloft by the faith of traders in the value of the commodities. Or to put it another way: if people stop believing, both will crash.
Okay, so Greenbang’s understanding of the workings of economics and aerodynamics is a little on the superstitious side, but belief does go a long way in finance: it looks like belief in the value of green tech is helping to drive its growth.
Proof, if proof were needed: US cleantech investment gurus Cleantech Group has announced that in the first quarter of this year, cleantech investments are up 42 percent on last year’s first quarter total to $1.25 billion.
Cleantech Group recorded 79 transactions in the first four months of 2008, with each averaging $15.8 million, up 53 percent from last year’s average of $10.3 million.
That said, it’s not all plain sailing. While the overall cleantech sector is growing, successive quarterly declines in the first gen biofuels and second gen solar tech industries show that their heyday is coming to an end. Cleantech’s data reveals that two particular investments waves have peaked:
ETHANOL AND WIND (2005-2006): Powered by investments in ethanol and European wind energy companies, the wave peaked in 3Q06 at $1.52 billion and has steadily declined since.
THIN FILM SOLAR (2007): Driven by investments in US and European thin-film solar companies, this wave peaked in 3Q07 at $1.83 billion in 1Q08. Thin-film technologies accounted for approximately two-thirds of investments in solar, while crystalline technologies accounted for one-third.
