Smart Energy News

Berkeley, Calif. – Scientific Conservation Inc. (SCI), a provider of energy efficiency technology for the commercial building market, announced that it has raised $4 million more in its first round of venture capital, bringing the total in the deal to $9 million.

SCI was founded in 2007 and earlier this year raised $5 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson in its first round. The company’s new investor, just announced, is The Westly Group, a firm that focuses on clean technology companies.

SCI develops software that predicts, detects, diagnoses, and prioritizes energy system faults and anomalies in commercial buildings. The company claims that its platform helps cut annual energy spending up to 25%, by comparing predicted energy and system efficiencies against real-time operation.

The company has a strategic marketing alliance with the consulting firm Natural Logic, which helps companies and governments implement sustainability programs.

SCI website

The Westly Group website

Palo Alto, Calif. – D.light, the developer of solar-powered lanterns intended to replace kerosene lamps used in much of the impoverished world, has raised $5.5 million in a round of venture capital, according to a new filing by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

D.Light was founded by Sam Goldman, a Stanford MBA grad and former Peace Corps volunteer. The company reportedly has sold 1 million of its solar lanterns in the past three years to villagers in India, east Africa and Latin America.

Currently, about 1.6 billion people worldwide are off the electricity grid, representing the company’s target market universe. The company’s initial product sold for around $30, but it recently introduced a lower-priced model in the $10 to $15 range.

Raj Kundra, director of the energy portfolio at the Acumen Fund, has invested $1 million in D.light. Other investors in the company include Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Garage Technology Ventures, as well as two social investor groups.

D.light Design website

SEC filing

Baltimore — In a decision considered a surprise to many, the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) has denied an $800 million plan by Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) to equip each of its 1.2 million customers with smart meters.

The meters, designed to let users more easily manage their energy usage and costs, are essential to what is considered to be one of the nation’s most ambitious smart grid projects. BGE already had received a $200 million grant toward the project under the federal stimulus, and had planned to pass most of the other costs along to customers in the form of a monthly surcharge.

The PSC, however, balked at the notion of rate-payers taking “significant financial and technological risks and adapt(ing) to categorical changes in rate design, all in exchange for savings that are largely indirect, highly contingent and a long way off.”

BGE officials were stunned at the turn of events. “BGE is deeply disappointed, frustrated, and frankly surprised, by the Maryland Public Service Commission’s decision,” the utility said in a statement. “We’re shocked that the PSC is jeopardizing the $200 million stimulus grant awarded by the Department of Energy to help pay for the initiative.”

The PSC said that it would reconsider the application if BGE agreed to take on more of the costs.

BGE statement

PSC decision announcement

Thornton, Colo. — Ascent Solar Technologies, a developer of flexible thin-film solar modules, has been selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for a multi-million dollar, four-and-a-half-year program to develop low-cost, lightweight photovoltaics that can stand up to battle conditions and environmental extremes while delivering a power conversion efficiency of 20% or greater.

The first phase of the contract is for is 18 months and has an approximate contract value of $3.8 million. Under the contract, Ascent Solar (Nasdaq: ASTI) is leading a team that includes ITN Energy Systems, Cambrios Technologies, Brewer Science, QinetiQ, and the Institute of Energy Conversion.

Ascent Solar was formed in 2005 from the spinout by ITN Energy of its advanced photovoltaic division, which started out manufacturing flexible thin-film modules using a steel substrate. Today, Ascent Solar produces thin-film photovoltaics on flexible plastic.

Currently, Ascent employs over 100 people and has a market value of about $80 million, with annual revenue of about $1.5 million. The company had a loss of about $21 million last year.

Ascent Solar website

DARPA website

Irvin, Calif. – GreenWave Reality, the startup developer of a home energy management communications platform, announced that it has raised $11 million in a venture capital round led by Craton Equity Partners and unveiled its first commercially available product.

GreenWave was founded by a group of individuals who previously worked in Cisco’s consumer business group, which includes the popular Linksys wireless router product line. The new company’s focus is to partner with utilities in providing consumers with easy-to-use systems for controlling energy use.

GreenWave’s platform creates a home area network comprised of a radio gateway, smart power nodes, in-home displays and controllers. The heart of the system is a gateway that automatically connects to the power nodes, making appliances “smart, energy conscious and controllable” from within the home or remotely over the Internet, or from a smartphone.

The company said that by the end of this year it will introduce an intelligent LED lighting product that extends its core energy management platform. The upcoming LED product can reduce energy consumption by up to 80% over incandescent bulbs, connecting to the HAN and controllable as part of GreenWave’s energy management system, the company said.

GreenWave website

Craton Equity Partners website