Archive for the ‘ Materials ’ Category

VC land a coup & A123 loses its CFO

Black Coral Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Stata Venture Partners landed a coup when they announced that A123 CFO Michael Rubino was going to join their venture backed firm Digital Lumens. A123 – The consequence This move may be a blow to A123 but a great opportunity for Digital Lumens. We wrote about ‘The Past, the [ READ MORE ]

Tresalia Capital makes Artega Investment: Fraunhofer’s EV platform/ Electromobility concept

What do BMW, Aston Martin and Artega have in common? Its designer: Klaus Dieter Frers. He was instrumental in designing BMW’s Z8 and Aston Martin’s Vantage. The Artega GT was his latest work. Now Artega has been sold to Mrs Maria Asunción Aramburuzabala. She heads Tresalia Capital. Tresalia Capital is probably most famous for its interest [ READ MORE ]

Collapse

Instead of Clean Technologies- let’s talk oil. Why? Because oil competes with clean technologies, affects government and consumer choices and in large part determines the success or lack thereof of much of what we discuss here. Consumers are much more willing to pay premiums for electric vehicles, biofuels or renewable energy if it does not [ READ MORE ]

The Great, Fake Lithium Supply Scare

“But there’s not enough lithium for all those batteries- and now you’ll switch dependency to a few lithium supplier countries!” That is the claim less informed journalists and hacks often make when they need a counter point to balance their first article on the emerging, electrified transportation sector. Why do we care? Because if true [ READ MORE ]

Path to Greener Flight – Part 1

An industry notorious for lacking the highly sought after “green badge”, commercial flight has been one of the guilty pleasures of the present required to rely on the questionable effectiveness of carbon credits to maintain face. The typical one-way transatlantic flight generates around 1.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide per passenger, the equivalent to 4,000 miles [ READ MORE ]

China the New OPEC for Rare Earth Elements?

If it is a daunting thought that the OPEC controls 40% of the world’s crude oil supply, think again. China has 95% of the world’s rare earth elements (REE) leading the late Deng Xiaoping to presciently remark that “the Middle East has oil, but China has rare earths.” While oil gets a lot of attention, [ READ MORE ]

Cereplast

Strategy: To replace oil based plastics with bio-degradable replacements for global packaging needs by development and licensing of innovative products for packaging companies. Lessening dependence upon oil and capitalizing on consumer and government preferences for clean, organic packaging. Product: At pricing that is 20-25% higher than comparable oil based products; Cereplast designs and manufactures proprietary [ READ MORE ]

Another replacement for oil

Think we need oil to make everything that is plastic? Nope. According to researchers at Utrecht University in The Netherlands, up to 90% of the total plastic demand in 2007 (270 Mt) can be replaced with bio-based plastics. What is possible and what will actually happen of course are two very different things- however technical [ READ MORE ]

Abengoa Solar signs large PPA with PG&E

In another monumental deal for the solar industry, one of the larger Power Purchase Agreements (”PPAs”) was signed between Spanish based Abengoa Solar and California Utility PG&E for a 250MW concentrated solar power plant 100 miles NorthEast of Los Angeles in the Mojave desert.   Previous deals in a nearby area of California have failed [ READ MORE ]

What does $1.5 billion buy?

How much would you value a developing technology company with a product you have never seen nor ever tested? $1.5 billion dollars?? That’s what an implied valuation of the company EEStor equates to using their minority shareholder Zenn Motors for the valuation.  Zenn Motors, a Toronto based EV firm, owns 10.7% of EEStor and after [ READ MORE ]

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 49 other followers