Cleantech Update

"Silicon Valley Six" companies are ripe for M&A or IPO * Top four are Solyndra, LinkedIn, Silver Spring, Zynga * Companies have $100 million revenue, proven record By David Lawsky SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Investors, encouraged by a growing number of acquisitions and public floats in the past few months, are keeping a close eye on a coterie of promising startups in Silicon Valley. An informal poll of venture capitalists and others pointed to six privately held companies as the ripest for acquisition or readiness to go public, out of 34 cited in industries ranging from alternative energy to social networking. For now, the Silicon Valley Six say they intend to keep growing rather than agreeing to be acquired or go public during the recession. The top four are business social network LinkedIn, solar panel maker Solyndra, smart grid company Silver Spring, Zynga, a casual games company whose products run on social networks like Facebook. Two others ...

Enphase Energy Inc. Announces Executive Appointment 05/18/2009 Enphase Energy Inc. announced it has secured $22.5 million in new financing, led by Madrone Capital Partners . This round of funding also includes new investor Bay Partners as well as existing investors Third Point Ventures , RockPort Capital Partners and Applied Ventures , LLC. Jamie McJunkin, General Partner of Madrone Capital Partners will join Enphase Energy's Board of Directors. Akeena Solar Inc. and Enphase Energy Inc. Announce Strategic Partnership 02/2/2009 Akeena Solar Inc. and Enphase Energy Inc . have announced a strategic partnership to develop and market Andalay solar panel systems with ordinary AC house current output instead of high voltage DC output. Andalay AC panels are expected to cost less to install and provide higher performance than ordinary DC panels. Under the agreement Akeena will purchase a minimum of 5,000 microinverters in each of 2009 and 2010, and Enphase will supply up to 100,000 micro...

From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, June 2009 Business isn't so sunny these days for SolarCity, the country's largest installer of residential solar-power systems. But Lyndon Rive, chief executive of the Foster City, Cal., firm, says it's an absence of financing, rather than a lack of demand, that has caused the slowdown. "Once you address that bottleneck," he says, "solar power will boom." So, too, will the entire spectrum of renewable-energy stocks, which lately have generated as much sizzle as a solar panel in an eclipse. A year ago, alternative energy shone brightly. Then came the financial crisis, which starved the industry of its lifeblood: capital. Lack of it caused demand to tumble and inventories to grow. Says Gregory Wetstone, of the American Wind Energy Association : "Our astronomical growth came to a screeching halt in late 2008." As a result, alternative-energy stocks crumbled. The WilderHill Clean Energy Index, which ...

Green-tech venture capital funding soared last year, aided by megadeals in thin-film solar companies, according to preliminary figures released Tuesday by the Cleantech Group . During 2008, green-tech venture investments jumped to $8.4 billion, a 38 percent increase, according to the report. Solar investments helped drive the growth, capturing 40 percent of green-tech investments. Thin-film solar deals did particularly well, capturing the three largest investments in green technology last year. NanoSolar raised $300 million last year, followed by Solyndra with venture investments of $219 million and SoloPower with $200 million . Cleantech Group's senior research director, Brian Fan, said in a statement: 2008 saw solar take a 40 percent share of clean-technology venture investment dollars, led by mega investment rounds in thin-film solar, concentrated solar thermal, and solar-service provider companies. TRENDS Investors also continued to migrate from first-generation ethanol and ...

Solyndra, Inc. Soyndra designs and manufactures photovoltaic systems, comprised of panels and mounting hardware, for the commercial rooftop market. Solyndra employs high volume manufacturing based on proven technologies and processes to meet the needs of the global solar market. Using proprietary cylindrical modules and thin-film technology , Solyndra systems are designed to provide the lowest installed cost per system and the highest solar electrical energy output for typical low slope commercial rooftops. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Fremont, California, Solyndra operates a state-of-the-art 300,000 square foot fully-automated manufacturing complex. Solyndra currently sells its systems to leading photovoltaic system integrators in the US and Europe. We intend to serve a broad range of customer types. Solyndra is proud to have long-term commercial agreements announced with Phoenix Solar and Solar Power Inc. Solyndra has more than 10 active installations with customers in No...