Smart Energy News

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia – Seaforth Energy, a renewable energy systems integrator, specializing in wind and solar technologies, has raised $2 million from the venture capital firm Innovacorp.

Founded in 2008, Seaforth Energy currently employs around 20 people in Dartmouth, who are involved in design, manufacture and sales of wind turbines. Some of the company’s wind turbine blades are being manufactured by DSTN at the former TrentonWorks facility.

SeaForth has about 150 wind turbines installed in 13 countries, which are being used for institutional, commercial, industrial, agricultural and remote applications.

Last year, Seaforth initiated a $2.9 million research and development project to enhance and expand its product line.

Innovacorp, which focuses on investing in early-stage businesses in Nova Scotia, previously invested $550,000 in Seaforth.

Photo credit: Seaforth Energy

Seaforth Energy website

Innovacorp website

Point Reyes Station, Calif. — Wind Harvest International (WHI), a privately held developer of straight-bladed, vertical-axis wind turbines for near-ground winds, disclosed today it has raised $4.3 million in venture capital.

WHI’s turbines are designed to harvest high-energy, turbulent, near-ground winds.
The company says its system can achieve peak efficiencies near the theoretical limit for any type of wind turbine design.

WHI installed and tested its first turbine model in the late 1970s. Since then, the company has tested ten additional models and gained over 40,000 hours of operating experience in high-wind locations throughout the world.

Robert Thomas, the company’s co-founder, CTO and acting CEO, previously served as head of the Energy Conservation and Wind Energy Programs for the U.S. Navy in the 1970s, and the Wind Energy Program for the California Energy Commission in 1980 through 1982.

Investors in the company include Calvert Venture Fund, Morrison Knudsen Corp., and
Rosenkranz & Kraus, a German machine tool manufacturing company.

Photo credit: WHI

Wind Harvest International website

Salem, Mass. – Wing Power Energy, a developer of small wind turbines, has raised $600,000 in fresh venture capital.

Investors in Wing Power include individuals and institutional investors in five countries on three continents, according to a published statement by the company’s CEO, Harry Ruda, who previously served as CEO of Desktone, as well as Softricity.

Wing Power’s system is a vertical platform that rotates irrespective of wind direction. It stands under 35 feet and generates power even in low wind conditions. It also incorporates solar energy panels in its design.

The company claims that its newest blade design has shown a near doubling of performance and even lower wind start capability that will expand the geographic markets into which the systems can effectively be introduced.

By the first quarter of 2012, Wing Power says, it will have secured installations in six more states in the U.S., including in the Northwest, West, Southwest, South, Northeast and Midwest regions.

Image credit: Wing Power Energy

Wing Power Energy website

Wing Power’s new SEC filing

Charlottesville, Va. – Apex Wind Energy, a developer of commercial-scale wind energy facilities in North America, has raised $10 million in a round of venture capital, according to a new filing by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Apex was founded in 2009 by a group that previously founded Greenlight Energy, which was acquired by BP Alternative Energy in 2006. Apex has affiliated companies in the solar, biodiesel and wave power sectors.

Apex Offshore Wind recently established a partnership with Maersk Line to support the development, financing and construction of utility-scale offshore wind energy facilities in North America. Apex is developing land-based wind projects in several states and offshore wind projects in Lake Erie and in the Atlantic Ocean.

Last year, the company acquired the wind energy project assets in eastern Nevada from Nevada Wind, a regional wind development company based in Las Vegas and Sparks, Nevada. Fully built, the projects have the potential to support up to 810 megawatts of wind energy capacity, according to the company.

Apex Wind Energy website

Apex Wind Energy’s new SEC filing

Boston – First Wind, a Boston-based wind energy company, announced on Monday it has raised $210 million in financing for its wind project located in northern Whitman County, Wash.

As a result, First Wind said it will continue on schedule with construction of the project, which will be largest renewable energy facility in the county with the capacity to generate enough energy to power about 30,000 homes, equal to the total energy load of all of Whitman County, according to First Wind.

The project will feature 58 Vestas 1.8 MW wind turbines with a generating capacity of about 105 MW of electricity. Construction on the wind farm began in October.

KeyBank National Association served as the joint lead arranger and administrative agent, and Nordduetsche Landesbank Girozentrale, CoBank ACB, and Banco Santander served as joint lead arrangers.

First Wind has developed and operates 735 megawatts of generating capacity at 11 wind energy projects so far in New York, New England, Utah, Vermont and Hawaii.

Image credit: First Wind

First Wind website