The Week in Cleantech – Apr. 8 – 14

The world of venture-backed clean technology rolled on last week with several big deals. Distributed solar financing company Clean Power Finance closed on a $37 million round of growth equity, with new investor Edison International and two other “major power sector companies” joining existing investors in the round. The investment follows two big VC rounds into OneRoof Energy and Sungevity, two similarly focused downstream solar financing companies, in the first quarter.

Other venture financings during the week included Ideol, a developer of a floating wind turbine platform capable of minimizing wake induced loses to other nearby turbines when the wind changes; Cooltech Applications, a developer of an energy-efficient magnetic refrigeration technology for industrial use; and Cymbet Corporation, a developer of thin-film batteries for semiconductors and electronic products. Demeter Partners was an investor in both Ideol’s and Cooltech Applications’ rounds.

First Solar‘s share price soared midweek on positive earnings projections and news that the company had acquired TetraSun, a developer of monocrystalline silicon solar cell technology that boosts the conversion efficiency of photons into electrons.

There was also a bit of IPO news during the week. BioAmber, a manufacturer of green chemicals from agricultural feedstocks with a focus on bio-based succinic acid, had filed back in 2011 to raise $128 million in an IPO on the NYSE Paris Euronext, and last week set its planned per-share price range at $15-17. And Waste2Tricity, a waste-to-energy company based in London, announced plans to take itself public in the fourth quarter of this year.

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