Smells like fish in the fog

With summer fast approaching, the coldest winter I ever had was most certainly a summer in San Francisco. While it’s debatable if Mark Twain really said that, it most certainly popped to mind with today’s pea soup fog.

And what better way to spend a moist morning here in San Francisco than trolling the web for some juicy fun of finger-pointing, mouth-gapping and giggles?

I was actually hoping I’d come across more enjoyable (and warmer) musings.

Happy wherever-you-are-is-warmer-than-S.F. Friday, friends.

$5.8 meeellion dollars

Former biofuel darling Imperium Renewables has been served an amended lawsuit by its former director of trading and commodities, one Kenneth Orr.

As detailed in a phone call with Orr's attorney this foggy morning, the former exec alleges that Seattle-based Imperium unlawfully transferred trades so that he could not receive proper compensation. Orr says he was promised 10 per cent of the money he saved Imperium though his commodity trades, and he argues he saved the company more than $58 million.

Things are getting ever more challenging at the struggling biodiesel refining company. Its former CEO left in December (see Martin Tobias out at Imperium), and with the more recent news of its CFO leaving soon to head up finance at online jeweler Blue Nile, the last thing Imperium needs is more negative press—especially when they’re rumored to be close to finalizing another venture round.

After doing some further digging around to find out who this Mr. Ken might be, we found not only a whole slew of websites dedicated to men named Kenneth Orr, like this one, this one, this one. Oh, and don’t forget this one. Heck, there's even a website of Ken Orr websites!

(But if you're going to look at only one Kenny Orr website, consider making it this one.)

Is that a fish under your hat, or did you just forget to shower?

A few months back, there were suggestions of a naughty relationship between between solar PV maker Emcore (Nasdaq: EMKR), Green and Gold Energy and an analyst at Jefferies & Co.

Being Friday and all, your friendly Avenger decided to take a peek through Emcore’s laundry to see what else we might find.

While there’s an interesting story behind the threesome, there’s yet another story, this time specifically about Emcore's roller coaster solar business:

According to Citron, there may be a discrepancy in Emcore’s reporting. And bloggers and analysts like Andrew Left at Citron have been causing such a stir about it that Emcore issued this release.

Left suggests the numbers don’t seem to match with current technology standards ($28 million for a 70 MW installation?), leading one to wonder whether the fish under Emcore's hat could indeed be getting old.

Is Left right?

Rumor, shrumor

Earlier this week gossip took flight, whispering that German solar cell maker Q-Cells might sell its 17 per cent stake in Norway’s Renewable Energy Corporation (REC). Your mighty Avenger thought best to check in with Q-Cells to see what their take in the situation was, and as we guessed, they weren’t willing to comment.

With today’s news that the German tariff for solar-power would only lower 8 per cent per year, as opposed to the anticipated 25 per cent, perhaps some pressure will lift from this rumor.

I bet it’s warmer in Germany today.

Got cleantech gossip, rumors, or heat lamps? Drop the Avenger a line, or else an indoor fire pit, and maybe an air freshener.

Cleantech developments making news in the past 24 hours

• New year money goes to biofuels
• VeruTEK completes new green chemistry remediation project

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