Bringing together Boston's CleanTech news and events

deals, cleantech, startups Erin Kutz wrote:

OutSmart Power Systems, a Natick, MA-based startup developing a network of software and hardware for energy management and monitoring in commercial buildings, has added $1.8 million to a debt-based funding round that could total $4.5 million, according to an amended SEC filing. The company raised $805,000 toward a $1 million debt offering last October. OutSmart wrapped up a $2 million seed funding round in May 2009, from Bainco International Investors, the Clean Energy Venture Group, and Manifold Products, a Natick company it was spun out of in 2008.

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renewable energy, Solar, innovation Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

The French semiconductor manufacturer Soitec generated headlines in San Diego last month when it said it has been working with Tenaska Solar Ventures to develop a 150-megawatt solar plant in the desert east of San Diego—at an estimated cost of $500 million.

To support the project Soitec also revealed plans to build a factory somewhere in San Diego County to manufacture the proprietary solar panels that will be used to generate enough electricity for an estimated 55,000 households in the San Diego area.

Yesterday, Soitec Chairman and CEO André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé returned to San Diego with what he calls “a California story, but from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.” He briefed local reporters about the project, which needs a federal loan guarantee to secure financing, and later met with local officials to garner their support.

Soitec says its Concentrix Solar CPV (concentrating photovoltatic) technology converts sunlight into electric power at better than 37 percent efficiency for direct current, or at roughly 25 percent for alternating current. With some additional advances, Auberton-Hervé says the company’s technology should enable Soitec to increase the energy output of its solar modules to an unprecedented 50 percent DC efficiency in coming years.

As part of Soitec’s broader corporate strategy, Auberton-Hervé says the company’s Concentrix Solar division has worked with Chevron to complete construction of a 1-megawatt solar facility north of Taos, in Questa, NM. Auberton-Hervé says the facility, which has 173 Concentrix Solar panels that track the sun to maximize energy production, represents Soitec’s first “utility scale” project in the United States—and the first in a series of solar ventures the company aspires to develop. At least 30 states have established minimum requirements for renewable energy (California recently enacted a requirement for 33 percent renewable energy by 2020), making the U.S. an attractive market, especially in the sunbelt states, according to Auberton-Hervé.

André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé

Auberton-Hervé co-founded Soitec in 1992 with Jean-Michel Lamure to commercialize so-called “atomic scalpel” technology that is used to create multiple, ultra-thin layers in the silicon wafers used to make semiconductors. The technology led them to develop Silicon-On-Insulator (the “SOI” in Soitec) material, which has helped semiconductor makers create faster and more powerful processors by shrinking the distance between microcircuit patterns from 180 nanometers to less than 45 nanometers.

Soitec has grown from four employees in 1992 into a public company and global player in the semiconductor industry, with about 1,200 employees and a market valuation equivalent to roughly $1.4 billion, Auberton-Hervé says.

The CEO says Soitec’s solar strategy began to emerge in 2003, when …Next Page »

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Construction on the Cape Wind offshore wind power project could start as early as the fall, according to an announcement Tuesday by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

Joe Ristaino just did something that would have been unimaginable a year or two ago: He turned down a job offer.

NEW YORK — In its 73-year history, the Beetle has evolved from the hippie ride of choice to a cute chick car. Now Volkswagen is reinventing it again.

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. resumed car production at all of its plants in Japan yesterday for the first time since the March 11 earthquake. The factories will run at half capacity, due to parts shortages.

WASHINGTON — Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in yesterday’s auction, with rates on three-month bills rising to the highest point since late March.

WASHINGTON — Builders are more pessimistic about the housing market this month, a dismal sign at the start of the spring buying season.

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices yesterday considered making it easier to challenge some patents, reviewing a case that led to changes in Microsoft’s Word software and may force the company to pay a $300 million award.

NEW YORK — Oil slipped more than 2 percent yesterday after Standard & Poor’s lowered its long-term outlook for US debt, raising concerns about the economy and expectations of cuts in government spending.

NEW YORK — Citigroup , the third-largest US bank, reported a 32 percent drop in first-quarter earnings, a smaller decline than analysts estimated, as it cut reserves for future losses and consumer-banking profit rose.

DETROIT — General Motors Co. will raise car and truck prices by an average of $123 per vehicle because of higher oil and metal costs.

Amedisys Inc. , a provider of home health services, has agreed to buy the Boston-based hospice company Beacon Hospice for about $125 million.

NEW YORK — Synthes Inc. has confirmed it is in talks about a possible takeover by Johnson & Johnson. It is potentially the biggest deal in the 125-year history of J&J, which is trying to recover after pulling more than 50 products off the market since the start of 2010.

NEW YORK — The Greeks reject a debt restructuring out of hand. The European Central Bank fears that such a move would spread financial panic. And, meanwhile, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund insist that their recipe of bailouts combined with sharp spending cuts make restructurings unnecessary.

Stocks fell more than 1 percent yesterday after a major US bond rating agency took a dim view of the nation’s budget deficits and said the political path to addressing the problem was unclear.

The Community Bank in Brockton, one of a handful of local lenders that ran into trouble after the housing market sank, is taking additional steps to get back on solid financial ground.

Two robots made by iRobot Corp. of Bedford explored buildings inside Japan’s damaged nuclear reactor Sunday and sent back data that indicated radiation levels are still too high to allow human repair crews to go inside.

The hiring market is anything but slow for the fast-food king. McDonald’s is holding a national hiring event today to fill 50,000 positions, including 2,200 in Massachusetts — the biggest hiring initiative in company history — to keep up with an uptick in business and a growing number of 24-hour stores. But these jobs, for everything from cashiers to maintenance ...