Smart Energy News

San Francisco – Gen110, a provider of distributed energy to residential customers, announced it has received an investment from the big venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

Founded in 2009, Gen110 provides a way for “heavy energy users” to purchase residential power. Its initial efforts have involved solar systems, but the company reportedly plans to expand into other fields, including fuel cells, energy storage, energy efficiency, and possibly electric cars.

With Gen110, qualified homeowners pay for the energy they produce, saving on energy costs through a fixed-rate agreement. Maintenance and insurance of power generating equipment is covered by the company.

Gen110 says it has helped more than 2,000 homeowners in California avoid utility rate hikes by producing about 13 gigawatt hours of electricity annually at their own homes.

Photo credit: Gen110

Gen110 website

Minneapolis, Minn. — tenKsolar, a maker of rooftop solar systems for commercial applications, has raised $15.5 million in its second round of venture capital, which was led by Hanwha, a South Korea-based conglomerate.

ESB Novusmodus, a European cleantech fund backed by Irish state utility, ESB, also invested in the deal. The new strategic relationships with ESP and Hanwha will create “a global Footprint” for tenKsolar, the company said in an announcement.

Founded in 2008, tenKsolar has developed a solar cell optimizing technology that is says provides multiple levels of redundancy to ensure long-term reliability.

Hanwha, for its part, owns a controlling stake in Hanwha SolarOne, a provider of solar energy systems and a manufacturer of photovoltaic materials, cells and modules.

Image credit: tenKsolar

tenKsolar website

Pleasanton, Calif. – Rolith, a privately held developer of nanostructured coatings and devices, has raised $5 million in its first round of venture capital, which was led by DFJ VTB Capital Aurora and AGC America.

Founded in 2008 and based in Pleasanton, Rolith is developing coatings for renewable energy, green building and consumer electronics markets.

The company’s manufacturing technology uses a “massively parallel patterning scheme” to large areas of rigid substrate materials (plates and panels) and rolls of flexible films in “roll to roll” mode. Intended applications include photovoltaics, architectural glass, and solid state lighting.

“We believe that the company’s proprietary large-scale nanocoating method has great potential to become the new standard for a vast variety of industrial and consumer applications,” said Aidar Kaliev, global head of venture capital at VTB Capital, in an announcement.

Rolith said the $5 million investments will be used to step up business development, expand its engineering team and further research and development.

Rolith website

Fairless Hills, Penn. – AE Polysilicon, a developer of high-purity granular polysilicon for the solar photovoltaic energy industry, has raised $2 million in a deal that includes both venture capital and debt.

Founded in 2006, AE Polysilicon has developed a polysilicon production process uses fluidized bed reactors, which benefit from lower energy consumption, no production of volatile waste gasses, and produces polysilicon in granular form, which has substantial benefits when compared to the traditional Siemen’s method for producing polysilicon, according to the company.

AE Polysilicon’s granular products are uniform and non-abrasive, allowing customers to realize higher yields and higher throughput in their ingot production.

Investors in AE Polysilicon include Total, one of the world’s major oil and gas groups; Motech Industries, a solar cell producer; and Scheuten Solar, a manufacturer of glass and solar energy systems based in the Netherlands.

Photo credit: AE Polysilicon

http://www.aepolysilicon.com/

Petaluma, Calif. — Enphase Energy, a provider of technology for improving the performance of solar systems, priced its initial public offering of stock last week at $6 per share, which is half the price the company indicated it expected to demand in a filing with the SEC filing two weeks earlier.

The company sold about 9 million shares in the deal, for a total raise of $54 million.

Founded in 2006 and backed by a group of venture capital firms, Enphase offers systems that include microinverters, data collection and transmission equipment, and web-based analytics and management tools.

In its latest SEC filing, Enphase reported revenue of about $150 million in 2011 with a loss of about $28 million, compared to about $61 million in revenue and a $21 million loss in 2010.

Enphase’s venture capital investors include Third Point Management, RockPort Capital Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, PCG Asset Management, Applied Ventures, and Bay Partners.

Enphase Energy website