Nobao's geothermal heat pumps attract $25M from Tsing

China's Nobao Renewable Energy Holdings closed its first venture capital round, securing $25 million from Beijing-based investor Tsing Capital.

The equity from Tsing's China Environment Fund III is expected to fund projects using Nobao's ground-source heat pumps, also known as geothermal heat pumps.

The technology acts as a heat exchanger taking advantage of the constant temperature of the earth of 10 to 15 degrees Celsius (50 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit) at a depth of about 3 meters (10 feet). The geothermal pumps use a grid of tubes containing water and glycol to extract the heat energy, which can then be used to heat and cool water and air more efficiently than using electricity alone.

The technology is available worldwide but has found the highest levels of adoption in the Nordic region, especially in Sweden, which has the highest per-capita penetration and more than 300,000 installations that represent the country's largest source of heat for small houses (see Nordic Cleantech Fifty).

Nobao designs, constructs and installs projects in the residential and commercial sectors in China. The systems combine the company's proprietary technology with German equipment for ground-source heat pumps, resulting in energy savings of up to 70 percent.

"Ground source energy utilization has huge market potential in China and is gaining strong support from all levels of government," said Don Ye, managing partner of Tsing Capital, in a release about the financing.

Founded in 2001, Tsing is considered a pioneer in cleantech investment in China. It secured more than $300 million for its three funds focused on cleantech and environmental-related companies.

In July, Tsing Capital announced a $30 million investment from the China Environment Fund III in Hong Kong-based high-tech LED manufacturer Neo-Neon Holdings (see Neo-Neon lights up with $30M from Tsing Capital).

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