Private equity firm closes $1 bln green fund

2009 Dec 3:

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Private equity firm Hudson Clean Energy Partners said on Thursday that it has closed its first fund, having raised more than $1 billion to invest primarily in the emerging green technology sector.

Private Capital

The fund's major investors include pension funds, both public and private, and financial institutions, the group told Reuters.

Investment areas that interest Hudson Clean Energy Partners are wind, solar, biomass, energy efficiency and energy storage.

The fund would look at grid-scale energy storage as well as automotive applications, said John Cavalier, managing partner.

The group, which is a late-stage expansion growth capital fund, invests about $50 million to $150 million on average in one transaction. It typically does not invest in early-stage technology.

The fund is looking to invest in about 10 to 12 green companies over the next couple of years,

Founded in 2007, Hudson Clean Energy Partners is led by Cavalier, a former vice chairman of Credit Suisse's investment banking department, and Neil Auerbach, who was previously with Goldman Sachs.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0312458520091203

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PG&E looks at compressed air to meet RPS target

2009 Nov 19

California utility is addressing backfire from smart meters, defending its relationship with BrightSource and exploring new forms of renewables.

San Francisco-based utility Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE:PCG) says new innovation, including technologies such as compressed air, could help it meet California's renewable portfolio standard (RPS) of 20 percent of its electric portfolio to come from renewables in 2010.

PG&E’s Fong Wan, senior vice president, energy procurement, said at this week's Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovations conference in Redwood City, Calif., that the company is at 14 percent, but still needs to add 16,000 gigawatts to meet the goal.

He also said California carries about a 15 to 20 percent reserve margin—to moderate the supply load throughout the day and ensure technology from renewables is intermittent rather than dispatchable.

RPSes exist in many U.S. states and the District of Columbia and require a specified amount of total power generation to be bought by utilities from renewable sources. The quantity of power that needs to be produced from renewable sources and the date by which that needs to occur varies from state to state (see Electric-bill increases go hand in hand with RPS targets).

The California utility has said before it expects to meet its RPS target, but some renewable sources may not come online by the 2010 deadline (see PG&E to meet renewable energy requirements - sort of). For example, Western Geopower, a geothermal plant operator, terminated its contract to sell 25.5 megawatts of geothermal power to the utility.

PG&E has been focused on building up its hydro facilities, pump storage, and clean gas burning plants, Wan said. With pump storage, water is pumped to an upper lake in the middle of the night, and then released to a lower lake in the middle of the day in a controlled manner.

The utility is also working to bring in new technologies to meet intermittencies of solar and wind.

“Storage is one of the most important changes that we are going to need in the next coming decade,” he said.

PG&E is exploring more than 2,000 MW of new storage, but what Wan is most excited about is compressed air. PG&E is currently exploring a U.S. Department of Energy grant to squeeze air underground. High pressure air could then be released to generate electricity during the middle of the day.

Companies working in the space include Boston-based General Compression, which is working to compress and store air to power generators when the wind is still (see General Compression aims to double wind farm profits).

Read more: http://cleantech.com/news/5328/pge-rps-target-compression-brightsource

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Utility energy storage no longer just giant batteries

2009 Nov 25

If you need more evidence that energy storage is much more than lithium ion batteries, take a look at the latest smart-grid utility storage projects.

The Department of Energy on Tuesday announced that $620 million in stimulus funding is going to 32 smart-grid programs, which will be coupled with another $1 billion in private money. A total of $770 million from government and industry sources in the next few years will go to energy storage, giving a number of storage technologies a dose of real-world experience. (See this PDF for details.)

Notable in the list is the prominence of compressed-air energy storage and flow batteries, two technologies rarely discussed just a few years ago. Also in the mix are flywheels and using batteries for distributed energy storage in communities.

It's unlikely that all the DOE-aided projects will immediately prove to be commercially viable. But storage has clearly emerged as a key component in the vision of the smart grid. A number of start-ups are developing technologies they hope can address a specific storage application or undercut pumped hydro, considered the cheapest form of utility storage, on price. With pumped hydro, water is pumped uphill and released at peak times to run a generator. But its use is limited by geography.

Many of the 16 Energy Department power storage grants were focused on storing wind power, which is a variable source of energy. In California, for example, utility Pacific Gas & Electric plans to store the power generated by wind turbines at night, when turbines are most productive in underground caverns. During the day, when grid demand is higher, the air is released and passed through a turbine to make electricity.

The advantage of underground compressed air storage is that it can be cheaper than batteries and can store many hours worth of energy. PG&E forecasts that its Kern County, Calif., project can deliver 300 megawatts of power for 10 hours, enough to supply tens of thousands of homes.

Another novel technique is using metal tanks to store compressed air, a technology being developed by a Dartmouth College spin-off SustainX. The compressed air is released to run a hydraulic motor that drives a generator to make electricity.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10405069-54.html

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