Apr 29 2008

Week in Solar: Big Funds and Big Claims

Only two days into the week and we have a ton of movement in the solar industry.

As reported by Earth2Tech.com, solar thermal start-up SkyFuel announced that it is receiving $17 million in a series B round of funding from Leaf Clean Energy.  

According to Earth2Tech, SkyFuel's announcement follows nine digit funding announcements last week from Stirling and eSolar. Stirling raised $100 million and eSolar $130 million.

The Albuquerque-based SkyFuel uses a different type of technology from other solar thermal companies, like BrightSource, Ausra, and Solel.  SkyFuel claims to have created an inexpensive and light material called "ReflecTech."

In addition to the technological story, what I find interesting is that all of these companies are raising capital in a tough economy and in the face of uncertainty around federal tax credits that will greatly impact the returns on these investments. 

Another interesting movement in the solar industry this week was the announcement by Sunrgi.  As reported today in USA Today, the company claims that it can use lenses to concentrate sunlight by more than 1,600 times to produce electricity on photovoltaic panels in the five to seven cents per kWh range.  To put this in perspective, conventional generation is in the nine cents per kWh range.

According to Greentech Media, similar companies can concentrate in the 500-832 times range.   Is the Hollywood-based Sunrgi pulling a blockbuster hype blitz or is this the real deal?

Posted by: Keely Wachs | Comments (0) digg delicioussend to a friendprint entry

 

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