Green Tech

Fisker Automotive formally unveiled its upscale hybrid car today and said it has received an infusion of cash from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

The investment is believed to be the first direct investment by Kleiner Perkins into an alternative car company. (Rumors swirled that the company invested in Phoenix Motorcars, but it was never confirmed, and Phoenix subsequently had delays). Fisker did not officially release the amount of the investment but Kleiner partner Ray Lane told the Wall Street Journal that the investment exceeds $10 million.

The company is founded by noted automotive designer Henrik Fisker. He came up … Read more

Schott Solar said Monday it will invest $100 million in a factory in New Mexico to make equipment destined for solar power plants.

The southwestern United States desert is becoming a magnet for solar investment. Utilities need to comply with renewable energy mandates, and large-scale solar installations are considered reliable and relatively cost-effective.

The Schott plant will initially produce receivers for its concentrated solar thermal power plants and 64 megawatts of photovoltaic modules. The facility is expected to begin production in 2009.

Longer-term, the company expects to make a total investment of $500 million in the facility, which will be … Read more

Can these guys ever stay out of the news?

Tesla Motors is wrapping up a $40 million round of funding and will then seek another one on top of that in a few months, according to an interview with CEO Ze'ev Drori in VentureWire (subscription required).

Tesla has already raised more than $100 million. The money was largely used to develop the Tesla Roadster, an all-electric sports car coming out later this year, and build out the company's facilities. Car factories cost a lot. The onerous capital requirements, along with the long development time, are two of the … Read more

The recently passed energy act is a boon for ethanol. But other biofuels, including plant-derived fossil fuel look-alikes, are also poised to get a boost.

A handful of companies are using different approaches to designing synthetic versions of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. They include including LS9, Amyris Biotechnologies, Codexis, and J. Craig Venter-founded Synthetic Genomics.

These biofuels, which some refer to as "renewable petroleum," will be designed with the same properties of hydrocarbons that now fuel our vehicles, but be made from biomass, rather than petroleum.

Custom-designed synthetic fuels are very appealing to established fossil fuel providers … Read more

The trend among automakers to go green apparently has engulfed Ferrari, as it displayed an F430 affixed with Bio Fuel stickers on the hood and doors at the 2008 Detroit auto show. The company isn't saying anything about it until Monday, but we are willing to go out on a pretty thick limb and say Ferrari modified the F430's engine to run on some mix of ethanol. An engine set up on a stand next to the F430 had green spark plug caps and fuel rails, a color that clashed horribly with the red valve covers, but signals … Read more

At the Detroit auto show, attendees are going to be talking about the magic 100 mile per gallon mark.

EcoMotors will be at the show to talk about its diesel engine which it says will let cars go 100 miles a gallon by 2011. At that level, you could get across the country and only have to stop once for gas.

Khosla Ventures has invested in the company. The firm also has an interest in Transonic Combustion, which has developed a fuel injection system for getting diesels (as well as other types of engines) to go 100 miles per gallon. … Read more

A few weeks ago, we asked Tesla Motors whether a pending departure of one employee we had heard about was part of a wave of layoffs at the company.

No, said Daryl Siry, vice president of marketing. It was an issue involving a particular individual.

It turns out that that more terminations were going on behind the scenes. Ousted Tesla CEO Martin Eberhard writes in his blog that 26 employees, including some vice presidents, have recently been cut from the company. That's about 10 percent of the company. The cuts come after Tesla was forced to delay the release … Read more

Imperium Renewables has cut its workforce, only weeks after pulling plans for its public offering and replacing its CEO, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.

The Seattle-based biodiesel producer told the newspaper that the workforce reductions were done to "address short-term challenges and ensure the company's long-term growth."

It said that the changes will not affect the operation of its Grays Harbor, Wash., biodiesel plant which will produce 100 million gallons of biodiesel a year.

The news follows the company's announcement that it has delayed its planned initial public offering citing market conditions and the departure of former CEO Martin Tobias … Read more

Ze-gen, a company which has a process for converting municipal waste into electricity, has raised $2.5 million to fund construction of its first full-scale plant.

Pinnacle Ventures on Thursday said it will provide the debt financing, which will be used to develop a commercial plant. Ze-gen's pilot plant opened in the middle of last year in New Bedford, Mass.

Ze-gen developed a process to turn municipal solid waste into electricity, which you can sell onto the grid or to an on-site consumer.

Through gasification, it turns waste into syngas--a combination of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen--which is … Read more