Siemens Wants To Be Number One In Solar Thermal

June 30, 2010

Siemens continues to talk tough about solar thermal.

The German conglomerate with 18 billion Euros in sales so far this year says its goal is to be the world’s leading solar-thermal company, toping companies such as BrightSource, eSolar and SolarReserve.

It didn’t say by when. But it claims its decision in May to buy 45 percent of Archimede Solar Energy and its purchase of Solel last year give it a broader portfolio of products than competitors.

With recent acquistions, Siemens claims its has 70 percent of the components and systems the new generation of solar thermal plants need.

Archimede is a joint venture between Siemens and Angelantoni Industries and makes solar receivers for concentrating solar. Output is to 75,000 receivers by 2011. Siemens had 28 percent of the venture before increasing it to 45 percent.

The German giant bought Solel Solar of Israel in October, paying $418 million. Solel develops plants and manufactures equipment.

On a conference call this week, Rene Umlauft, head of the Siemens’ renewable energy division, said the acquisitions give Siemens 70 percent of the components and systems necessary for solar thermal plants.

“We have the power blocks,” says Umlauft.

The company is now promising lower costs – as a new generation of more efficient plants begins to take root in the American Southwest, northern Africa and Australia. The plants use mirrors to reflect sunlight and boil liquids, often in concentrators or receivers on the tops of tall towers. The super hot liquids turn turbines to create electricity.

The plants are expensive to build, which might give Siemens, with its financial resources, an advantage. In the United States, 2010 is a year to watch. Several large facilities from companies such as BrightSource and SolarReserve hope to win approval and construction is anticipated to begin.

Also among Siemens’ goals:

*Become the number three vendor in wind turbines by 2012;

Deliver a 6 MW wind turbine by 2012. A prototye of the massive product is to be installed for testing next year.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

EV Standards Advance Goal Of Consumer Simplicity

June 30, 2010

On the surface, the move to electrify the world’s transportation system seems a straightforward replacement.

Plug your vehicle into an electrical outlet instead of fill it with gas, and substitute one form of energy for another. Below the surface, the switch is anything but simple.

That’s why the evolution of smart-grid standards is so critical and why it needs to be followed closely. This is especially true of the deliberations at SAE International, where in May the first in a series of five communications standards for electric cars was published in draft form.

SAE International is developing five related communications standards for electric cars

The standard is among the first to help dictate how power will flow from the electric grid to EVs. Specifically, the proposed J2836/1 standard will govern network communications as cars plug into charging stations at home, work and during travel. The goal of the standard is to enable utilities to handle new demands for power, especially during peak-load periods, and to encourage consumers to charge off-peak when power is cheap and plentiful.

Rich Scholer, HEV E/E systems engineer at Ford Motor Company, said the draft standards incorporate basic techniques for load balancing and demand response, such as temporarily turning off an air conditioner to balance the draw of a quick, middle-of-the-day, peak-load charge at home.

It also will support the delivery of consumer pricing tables, so cost savings can motivate charging decisions.

Scholer, chair of the SAE International’s hybrid task force, says the committee’s goal is to keep behind-the-scenes complexities hidden from consumers. The interface at a home charging station might offer the choice of a fast or slow charge and leave the network to handle the details. “We’re trying to make things so they are relatively intuitive and simple,” says Scholer.

More than 200 companies are working with the hybrid task force, including carmakers General Motors, BMW and Honda, and the utilities PG&E, Southern California Edison and Progress Energy. The entire series of standards could take as long as three years to evolve. The first, the J2836/1, is targeted at utilities while future standards will address off-board charging, diagnostics, two-way energy flows and other topics.

Until then, vendors will need to develop workarounds for their products and incorporate agreed-upon technologies when they become available.

One challenge facing the task force is in coordinating with standards efforts taking place in Europe and Japan. Scholer says the task force is meeting with the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission for that purpose.

“We’re all trying to harmonize,” he said, adding that this goal of integration is “doable.”

A second thrust is to keep the finished product from becoming too complex, especially with the number of companies involved. It is an objective Scholer says he intends to achieve.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Shares Of Tesla Pop But Fisker’s Karma Is On Hold

June 29, 2010

Wall Street’s love affair with Tesla Motors got off to a romantic start on Tuesday. The company’s newly issued stock advanced 10 percent in a decidedly negative market that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average sink 270 points.

Meanwhile Fisker Automotive’s Karma went negative. The company has acknolwedged a second delay in the release of its plug-in electric sports car.

Tesla’s IPO went out of the blocks at $17, above the expected $14 to $16 share price, an indication that demand was strong. And strong it was. The stock climbed to $19 before settling back to $18.73, up $1.73. The question, of course, is how long the good feelings last. Tesla will post losses for several years as it spends mightly to get its more affordable (and yet still $50,000) Model S sedan to market.

Fisker Automotive has a different job to do. Volume production of the sleek Karma is now expected to start in the first quarter of next year, not this summer as the Energy Department promised when it awarded a $529 million government loan to the company last year. Fisker is blaming financial, not technical, difficulties for the slip.

Despite the delay, the muscle-bound Karma casts a long shadow. We ran into a Karma prototype last weekend at a car show in Silicon Valley (seee pictures below). The four-door luxury has two, 201-hp electric motors and a top speed of 125 mph. After 50 miles, a gasoline-powered generator kicks in to recharge the lithium-ion battery pack. The car will sell for between $88,000 and $115,000.

Karma’s profile is sleek and curvy. It boasts a top speed of 125 mph and will accelerate from zero to 60 in 7 seconds. An optional solar panel built into its roof runs a fan.

For a sports car, the Karma’s interior is roomy and the dashboard uncluttered. The car’s center console includes a display screen The back seat, however, is tight.

The car is anything but boring to look at. A cutaway side panel stands out from behind. The trunk has room for two golf bags.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Tesla’s IPO, Slated For Tuesday, Looks Hot

June 28, 2010

Tesla Motors is gushing money like a Gulf of Mexico oil well, but its IPO looks like a big strike.

The upstart electric car company on Monday said it would launch its first public shares on Tuesday at between $14 and $16. It also raised to $211 million the amount of cash it hopes to make from the deal, the second time it has lifted the target.

Tesla Motors' IPO is said to be over subscribed, meaning there is more demand than shares. Tesla makes the electric Roadster.

The confidence suggests demand for the shares is high, despite losses at the company that will extend for several more years. The target was initially $100 million and was raised to $178 million two weeks ago.

According to a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla will now sell as many as 13.3 million shares to the public in the first offering of a car company since Ford went public in 1956.

Investment bankers told MarketWatch that the offering is broadly over subscribed, meaning that more people want to buy shares than there are shares available. Speculation is the stock will be priced closer to $16 than $14.

Once the shares begin trading, Tesla will sell $50 million of additional stock to Toyota as part of a deal that has Tesla buying Toyota’s Fremont, CA, manufacturing plant for $42 million. Toyota agreed to the investment in Tesla to secure a joint development arrangement.

Tesla’s first electric car, the $109,000 Roadster, has done only modestly well since it was launched in 2008. Just 1,063 of the cars have been sold in 22 countries. Another 110 orders remain unfilled.

Instead the bet on Tesla is on the success of its more affordable second car, the $49,900 Model S sedan. The price includes a $7,500 federal tax credit.

A third-generation electric car with an even lower price is expected after that. Here is an analysis of its per-car losses.

Tesla says its long-term aim is to build a business model that can be profitable on a low volume of cars. But it also cautions that it expects losses to increase significantly in coming years as it designs the Model S, equipments the Fremont factory and expands it sales force.

Investors seem to be looking beyond all that.

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Mergers Seen As Clean Tech’s Financial Lifeline

June 28, 2010

Earlier this month, Solar panel maker Solyndra cancelled its IPO citing current market uncertainties.

It was not alone. Six other companies cancelled theirs the same month, though they were not in the clean-tech business.

Tesla Motors will soldier on and sell stock to the public on thsi week. The shares may even get a warm reception, despite that the company’s $290 million of losses since its founding seven years ago.

Venture capitalists predict a wave of mergers and aquisitions in clean tech.

These days Tesla is looking more like the exception rather than the rule. Other clean-tech companies have IPOs in the pipeline, Amyris and Zipcar, for example. Still others, such as Silver Spring Networks, will likely get favorable receptions if they decide to launch their own deals. (Speculation is Silver Spring could announce in July.)

But it appears more likely clean-tech start-ups and venture capitalists will make money and fund company expansion with mergers and acquisitions rather than new stock offerings. With the window for IPOs once again shutting, M&As could find themselves on the rise.

“I think we are likely to see a huge wave of M&A kicking in for clean tech,” says Alan Salzman, CEO of Vantage Point Venture Partners. The growing maturity of young companies will fuel it.

There are signs of a building wave already. In the first quarter, clean-tech companies logged 197 M&A transactions compared with just 13 IPOs, according to Cleantech Group. Despite a long list of companies registering for stock sales in the U.S., most of the IPOs – eight – took place in China.

And while the IPOs were off 28 percent from the fourth quarter, mergers and acquisitions seem on the rise. In 2009, 505 deals took place globally, or an average of 126 a quarter.

A noticeable share of the action so far involves solar technologies. Germany1 Acquisitions of Germany, for instance, paid $775 million to acquire AEG Power Solutions, a maker of inverters for solar panels, while late last year Siemens agreed to buy solar thermal company Solel of Israel and SunPower took out SunRay Renewable Energy, the Italian solar plant developer, in February.

In China, GCL-Poly Energy Holdings bought polysilicon wafer maker Jiangsu Zhongneng Polysilicon Technology Development.

But other deals looked beyond the segment. Solar City, for instance, announced in May it would buy the assets of energy remodeling contractor Building Solutions.

Erik Straser, a partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, says the coming wave of deals could bring higher prices than comparable deals in high tech. That’s because target companies will need to be more mature, and their businesses will need to present obvious benefits to acquirers, such as a General Electric.

A GE acquisitions manager will need to show clear business benefits before a deal is done, he says. That clarity of purpose comes at a price.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

California’s Carbon Cap And Former Secretary Of State George Shultz

June 25, 2010

The costs of California aggressive measures on climate change have been called devastating, catastrophic, job killers. A measure on November’s ballot would like to end them.

The emmission of carbon imposes a cost on society, says former Secretary of State George Shultz.

Opponents cite several studies, including a 2009 analysis by the California State University at Sacramento, which calculates implementation costs at $100 billion and expenses for each household at $3,857.

These dire predictions may be off the mark. Costs should be far less moderate, and despite all the yammering, state regulators appear ready to move ahead.

The California Air Resources Board still intends to begin working on a statewide cap and trade system later this year, says the board’s Assistant Executive Officer Kevin Kennedy. It also plans to impose responsibilities for anti-sprawl measures on local planning boards with the goal of reducing miles driven.

Giving cover to these efforts are several smarter studies of the state’s effort to promote renewable energy and cut greenhouse gases 15 percent by 2020. “It would be inaccurate to say, if these studies are right, that AB32 will kill the California economy,” says Lawrence Goulder, director of the environmental and energy policy analysis center at Stanford University.

Goulder said Friday at the Silicon Valley Energy Summit that three studies, including one by Charles River Associates, predict global warming regulations to:

*Reduce California’s gross state product by a modest .2 percent to 2.2 percent;

*Change incomes in the state in a range that will add $86 to salaries or cut them by $2,800;

*And increase jobs statewide by 10,000 or reduce them by as much as 485,000.

According to former secretary of state George Shultz, now a distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institute, greenhouse gases might be more intelligently viewed from the opposite angle.

“The emission of carbon imposes a cost on society,” he says. “That is a fact.” Regulations such as cap and trade or a carbon tax help level the playing field and assign a monetary value to innovation.

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Boston-Power Raises $60 Million, Seeks Stimulus Money In China

June 24, 2010

Boston-Power said Friday it raised another $60 million in venture funding as it closes in on stimulus money from China and its first Chinese factory.

The new capital brings financing for the lithium-ion battery maker to $185 million, making it one of the most richly financed start-ups in the industry. The high cost of battery factories makes large bank accounts a necessity.

The Westborough, MA, company said the money should help it win stimulus funding from the Chinese government. CEO Christina Lampe-Onnerud declined to predict how much or provide details on the negotiations. But she said talks with several authorities in the country are continuing and an arrangement is expected in three to four months.

Boston-Power says it expects to announce new electric vehicle deals this year. The company is already working to develop an EV patterned after the Saab 9-3.

A deal will require Boston-Power to build a factory in China, which reportedly will be near Shanghai. Such a deal would represent a major step for a company that was turned down for $100 million in federal stimulus money last August in a bid  to build a U.S. factory.

Separately on Friday, Boston-Power said it is close to announcing deals with additional vehicle manufacturers and utility customers. The announcements are expected later this year.

The company’s first contract, a deal with Saab, was unveiled in December. Lampe-Onnerud said in an interview that the development of an electric car patterned after the Saab 9-3 is on track. The first prototype is to be on the road this summer at Saab’s Trollhattan headquarters in Sweden. More will follow in 2011. The program has production models scheduled for release but has not disclosed the date, she said.

Despite the progress, Boston-Power has no shortage of well-funded competitors. Battery maker A123, which went public in a $378 million IPO in September, raised $266 million prior to the offering and added another $249 million last year with an Energy Department grant.

EnerDel received $118.5 million of government funds, and Warren Buffett put $230 million of his money in Chinese battery maker BYD.

Boston-Power said it would use its new money to expand manufacturing in Taiwan. The company’s plant, owned by GP Batteries, needs scale to supply laptop batteries to Hewlett-Packard and Asus, which Boston-Power added as a customer earlier this month.

The company also will add engineers and sales staff at its Westborough, MA, headquarters and elsewhere.

The five-year-old start-up differentiates itself from rivals by making a lithium-cobalt battery with the same chemistry commonly used in notebooks and by the Tesla Roadster. The technology is modular, meaning that numerous small cells are packed into a single casing, as with laptops. The Saab prototype now under development will have 2,000 small cells clustered together from Boston-Power’s new Swing battery line.

The advantage with lithium cobalt is power and long life – perhaps 1,000 charge cycles compared with 300 or so with more conventional lithium-ion technologies. The downside is the greater chance of a meltdown and short circuit. Alternative chemistries – lithium manganese and lithium phosphates – don’t catch fire, but also don’t have as much power.

Boston-Power says that despite the competition, revenue growth is “very fast.” It declines to offer figures, but says it employs 110 people in Massachusetts, 50 in China and 350 in Taiwan.

“I believe we have the chance to be one of the significant players” in the industry, says Lampe-Onerud. “I think (the funding) will be a very serious signal for big time growth.”

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Biomass Is Big In Sweden, Wind Falters In The US

June 24, 2010

Biomass now accounts for 32 percent of the energy consumed in Sweden, but the gale behind wind energy in the United States has faltered.

Biomass is now the largest source of power in the Scandinavian country, ahead of oil. The fuel is primarily used for heating , especially in multi-family dwellings, and the increase has been aided by taxes on carbon dioxide, sulfur and nitrogen oxide.

Wind farms, like this one in west Texas, can now generate 14 percent of the state's electricity

As a result, Sweden has become the world’s largest consumer of wood pellets, and wood pulp has gone up 20 percent in price since 2005.

On the other hand, the momentum behind the wind industry in the United States has calmed to a breeze. According to the American Wind Energy Association, the nation added new capacity in the first quarter at the slowest pace since 2007.

Only 539 MW of new generation went in during the three months. This suggests an annual pace of 2,156 MW in 2010, down from 10,000 MW in 2009 – a recession year.

The explanation may be simpler than some believe. Wind projects take a long time to plan, which explains why 2009 totals were up from 2008 despite the global downturn. (In 2008, 8,500 MW of generating capacity was added.) Wind projects take 18 months or so to plan. So 2009 installations were conceived during in the relatively good year of 2008 or before. This year’s projects were born in 2009, when credit was tight and investors were avoiding risk at every turn.

Unfortunately, the poor first-quarter performance reveals another stark reality. The Department of Energy’s $3 billion in wind technology investments apparently haven’t had the desired effect of stimulating deployment.

Texas, however, is bucking the national trend. The state now has the capacity to generate 14 percent of its electricity from wind farms with 6,721 MW of turbines installed.

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SunPower Builds 24% Cell As Solar Market Shifts Underfoot

June 23, 2010

In the Mexican standoff that is the long-standing U.S.-China currency debate, the outcome for the solar industry is difficult to predict.

But one thing is clear. The changing landscape could shift the axis of the solar market over the next year or two as price declines moderate and advanced technology plays a bigger role in buying decisions. With this change as a backdrop, SunPower said Wednesday it successfully built a solar cell with a 24.2 percent market-leading efficiency.

Sunpower says new cell sets record for large wafers. Meanwhile, a rising Chinese currency could change the solar landscape.

The Chinese blinked in the currency debate last Saturday and vowed to permit more market flexibility in the pricing of the renminbi. But after several days of very minor, carefully orchestrated increases, the promise seems to lack short-term monetary firepower.

The most optimistic of analysts predict gradual appreciation in the under-valued Chinese currency over the next several months. The most skeptical observers have begun calling for legislation to combat “currency manipulation” and the artificially low exchange rate.

The implication for clean-tech companies, particularly solar panel makers, is profound. A more expensive Chinese renminbi will raise the cost of what some in the industry consider subsidized, below-market solar panels coming from the country. (Besides being low priced, there are claims some of these panels are low quality as well, failing after a couple years of use.)

In a research note, Wall Street analyst Edwin Mok at Needham said a stronger Chinese currency will result in higher priced panels – or at least a slowing of price declines. This in turn could reduce worldwide demand.

But while Chinese companies might see lower profit margins (or higher losses), companies in the United States and Europe could see benefits. These firms, including SunPower and First Solar, would no longer have to compete with excessively cheap Chinese labor.

In this shifting market place, the race to higher efficiency cells could gain in importance. SunPower said its new cell set a record verified by the National Renewable Energy lab for large silicon wafers.

It did not say when it expects to see 24 percent efficient cells in the market. But the company does seem to be maintaining its lead over rivals, such as JA Solar, with laboratory cells now at 18.5 percent, and Suntech, which is struggling to get its new 19 percent efficient Pluto cells to the market.

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Recurve Raises $8 Million From Lowe’s, Others

June 23, 2010

If you need more proof that big-box home-improvement retailers are sold on the home-energy retrofit business, here it is.

Home-energy remodeler Recurve said Wednesday that it raised another $8 million. High on the list of investors is Lowe’s Companies, the North Carolina home-products chain with 1,700 stores in the United States and 14 million customers.

Latest investment show big-box home improvement retailers, like Lowe's, see gold in home energy retrofits

The retailer, which has been courting renewable energy companies in recent months, made a $4 million equity investment in the San Francisco start-up, joining existing investors RockPort Capital Partners and Shasta Ventures. The investment doubles to $16 million the money Recurve has raised since its founding six years ago.

CEO Pratap Mukherjee says the unusual investment is evidence of Lowe’s interest in its year-long partnership with Recurve. The two companies market a co-branded energy-audit and retrofit service in a handful of Lowe’s San Francisco Bay area stores. Lowe’s also sells solar panels from Akeena Solar.

The arrangement has been successful, says Mukherjee, who declined to offer sales figures or deal volume. It also isn’t likely to the last among energy contractors and home-products companies.

Apparently just about every big retailer and home products company is eying the retrofit business with increasing interest, including big names, such as The Home Depot, Masco and Johns Manville.

Already several have made stabs at the market. In March, Masco launched its WellHome energy audit and retrofit service in seven cities with plans to expand by the end of the year.

The Home Depot has a consumer Website where homeowners can self-diagnose home energy efficiency. It also struck a deal this year to have SolarCity install solar panels for its customers.

With 70 million homes in the U.S. in need of $10,000 energy retrofits, “I think everybody sees the tremendous potential,” says Mukherjee.

Recurve, formerly Sustainable Spaces, says it will use the new money to expand its suite of energy-retrofit software and to add to its sales and service staffs.

The company unveiled the first module of the software in April, a program to automate home energy audits. It has 10 contractors using the beta product and plans a commercial release in the third quarter.

The software should be a boon for business. Two hundred companies across the country have expressed interest in using it, says Mukherjee.

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