Cleantech Investor

First published on the Cleantech Investor website, 2 May 2012

Ignis Biomass (www.ignis-biomass.com) has raised £3.1m from Ludgate Environmental Fund for to build a biomass energy plant in Wick, Scotland. The plant will replace oil-fired heat production for the district heating network of the Wick Highland Council. Ignis claims that wood biomass can provide 10% of the UK's renewable energy requirement. The company aims to develop, own and operate small scale energy plants which match local needs - replicating the co-generation (or combined heat and power/CHP) approach widely used in Germany, Austria and Scandinavia.Typical customers are local aurorities or businesses which require heat (as hot water or steam) and electricity. Excess energy will be sold to the national grid.
 

First published on the Cleantech Investor website, 2 May 2012

Ludgate Environmental Fund has led a £5.3m (€6.5m) growth capital funding round in Micropelt GmbH. Micropelt (www.micropelt.com), is based in Freiburg and Halle, Germany. The company has developed what it claims to be the world's smallest thermal energy harvesting chips. Its thermal energy harvesting technology uses waste heat as an energy source for a range of industrial and domestic applications. Micropelt has established partnerships with major international semiconductor and system integrator players.

First published on the Cleantech Investor website, 2 May 2012

Tamar Energy - www.tamarenergy.net - has raised £7m from the Ludgate Environment Fund. Tamar Energy, which produces energy from organic waste matter, was launched in February 2012. It is backed by an investor group led by RIT Capital Partners plc and Fajr Capital, alongside the Duchy of Cornwall, Lord Rothschild's Family Interests, Sustainable Technology Investments and Low Carbon Limited. The investors are contributing over £76.3m to establish the business, which will involve the development of a UK network of over 40 anaerobic digestion plants with the capacity to generate 100MW of green electricity over the next five years. Tamar Energy is headed by Alan Lovell, previously the Chief Executive of Infinis Limited, who holds the role of Executive Chairman.

First published on the Cleantech Investor website, 29 February 2012

Fuel cell company Intelligent Energy has announced the completion of a funding round, raising over US$35 million (£22 million). The latest funding round, at a price of £2.30 per share, values the company at US$0.5 billion. Investors, who included both existing and new institutional shareholders, were not disclosed. Intelligent Energy has developed proprietary power cores, designed to be integrated into high volume, mass market products. The funds are earmarked for the roll out of the company's products into the consumer electronics and stationary power markets.

Dr Henri Winand, CEO of Intelligent Energy, commented on the funding that:

“Partners and customers are ready to take advantage of our scalable power cores in these markets, worth around $410bn <consumer electronics> and $150bn <stationary power> respectively, so it’s an incredibly exciting time for us.”

In addition to consumer electronics and stationary power, motive is also a key market sector for the company. Intelligent Energy recently created SMILE FC System Corporation, a joint 50/50 venture with the Suzuki Motor Corporation, for the development and manufacture of air-cooled fuel cell technologies for various industry sectors.  SMILE FC is led by Mr. Osamu Honda, Executive Vice President and representative director at Suzuki.

Intelligent Energy's Corporate Finance Director, Dr. Mark Lawson-Statham, commented that:

“This funding round, and the recently announced Joint Venture with Suzuki, further underlines Intelligent Energy’s rapid transition from a world class developer of power technologies to a company that is, through its relationships with key global OEMs, taking products deep into high volume markets.”

Intelligent Energy will present at the EV Investor Club on 8 March 2012