News

Voltus Reportedly Going Public In SPAC Deal With $1.3 Billion Valuation

Voltus Inc., an electricity-market technology startup that helps manage small, decentralized electricity systems, is going public by combining with a special-purpose acquisition company in a merger that values the company at about $1.3 billion.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Voltus is merging with the SPAC Broadscale Acquisition Corp., one of numerous so-called ‘blank-check’ firms focused on environmental, social and governance -- or ESG -- efforts.

Voltus differs from other ESG-focused companies in that it partners with existing grid operators in the U.S. and Canada to connect what it calls distributed energy resources, or DERs, to larger markets – similar to how Airbnb connects homeowners looking to rent their properties with people looking for a short-term place to stay.

San Francisco-based Voltus also makes each DER a financial asset, allowing customers to sell their excess electricity back to the grid, according to the Journal. Voltus counts Coca Cola  (KO) - Get Coca-Cola Company ...

Legendary investor Ray Dalio is launching his biggest-ever China fund

Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Associates LP is set to launch its third investment fund in China and has already raised about $1.25 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

The move signals Dalio's continued China bullishness and lands his hedge fund among the largest foreign managers of private funds in China. 

The new fund allows investors to buy into a trust product overseen by state-owned China Resources Trust. Bridgewater's China branch serves as the investment advisor. Money from investors is then channeled into its "All Weather Plus" fund. 

Bridgewater, the world's largest hedge fund with $150 billion is assets under management, has surpassed most other private-fund managers in China with its 8 billion-yuan fund. 

Today, only one of the 35 wholly foreign-owned private funds in China manages over 5 billion yuan, according to records with the domestic asset-management association. Winton Investment Management is the largest firm in China, with total assets ranging between 5 billion ...

Lancium Closes $150 Million in Financing to Grow Clean Energy Business

Lancium Technologies Corp., a technology company focused on the energy transition, has closed $150 million in financing from leading energy companies and investors on Nov. 24.

Hanwha Solutions, one of the world's prominent providers of clean energy solutions and owner and operator of Q CELLS, leads this financing round. Lancium also received support from Novawulf and other strategic energy investors, as well as participation from SBI Holdings and other existing, early-stage investors.

"This financing allows us to embark on the next high-growth phase of our business, and we are encouraged by the support of a broad range of investors from the energy and cryptocurrency sectors," Michael McNamara, co-founder and CEO of Lancium, said. "We have an ambitious growth strategy with over 2,000 MW of capacity in development across our Clean Campuses, and significant capacity expected to come online in the year ahead."

Lancium Clean Campuses are built at critical points on the transmission ...

EU invests over €1 billion in innovative projects to decarbonise the economy

The European Union is investing over €1.1 billion into seven large-scale innovative projects under the Innovation Fund. The grants will support projects aiming to bring breakthrough technologies to the market in energy-intensive industries, hydrogen, carbon capture, use and storage, and renewable energy. The projects are located in Belgium, Italy, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.

The seven projects were selected for funding under the first Innovation Fund call for large-scale projects, i.e. projects with total capital costs above €7.5 million. They were evaluated by independent experts for their ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional technologies and to innovate beyond the state-of-the-art while being sufficiently mature to enable their quick deployment. Other selection criteria included the projects' potential for scalability and cost effectiveness.

The selected projects cover a wide range of relevant sectors to decarbonise different parts of Europe's industry and energy sectors, such as chemicals, steel, cement, ...

Germany's largest power producer RWE to spend $57 billion through 2030 in green power push

RWE plans to invest 50 billion euros ($57 billion) through 2030 to raise its renewable energy capacity to 50 gigawatts, Germany's largest power producer said on Monday in a strategy update ahead of its capital markets day.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in its core business, which excludes nuclear and coal, is expected to more than double as a result to 5 billion euros by 2030, the company said.

"Our comprehensive strategic transformation has been successfully completed. We are in a great position to actively shape the key decade of the energy transition,"  Markus Krebber, who took over as RWE CEO in May, said in a statement.

/Source:ETEnergyworld.com/

Ford Offering $2.5B Green Bonds to Help Finance EV Effort

Get Ford Motor Company Report offered a $2.5 billion unsecured green bond to investors, days after the American car maker launched its sustainable-financing framework and said it would buy back higher-priced debt.

The move comes as President Joe Biden is set to sign the administration's $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which includes major funding for electric-vehicle and other clean-energy projects. 

Ford said that it would allocate proceeds from the bond offering to fund investment in its battery-powered electric vehicle portfolio. 

“We’re again putting our money where our mouth is, prioritizing and allocating capital to environmental and social initiatives that are good for people, good for the planet, and good for Ford,” said John Lawler, Ford's chief financial officer.

Corporate green bonds have become more popular in recent years, with the debt instruments in the U.S. having raised nearly $59 billion in proceeds in 90 offerings so far this year, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

That ...

Electric truck maker Rivian raises almost $12bn from share sale

Shares in electric vehicle firm Rivian are set to start trading in New York on Wednesday, after raising more than $11.9bn (£8.8bn) from investors.

That's as the shares were priced at $78 each, well above the company's target range.

That flotation ranks among the top 10 initial public offerings (IPOs) of all time in the US.

Yet Rivian only started delivering its first electric pick-up trucks to customers in September.

And the California-based start-up has made losses of over $2bn over the last two years.

But the van and truck maker has drawn significant investor interest, in part because it already has the backing of online giant Amazon.

And it is has beaten rivals include Ford and General Motors to a segment of the market - small trucks, pick-ups and SUVs - which is popular with American drivers.

The shares were priced at $78 each, which is above the target range of $72 to $74.

Rivian is already ...

Mezli, a Maker of Robot Restaurants, Wins the Smart Kitchen Summit 2021 Startup Showcase

Mezli, a maker of robotized container restaurants, has won the 2021 Smart Kitchen Summit Startup Showcase.

The company, which currently operates a prototype restaurant in San Mateo’s KitchenTown, was started after two of the company’s cofounders, Alex Kolchinski and Alex Gruebele, met while studying at Stanford. Like most college students, the two were always on the hunt for food to fuel their studies but usually found the options lacking.

“Both of us had this problem that we’re trying to solve that it was really expensive to eat good food out,” said Kolchinski from the Smart Kitchen Summit virtual mainstage. “We were pretty busy as Ph.D. students, we can cook all the time. But if we wanted to eat out, it was kind of a choice between going to McDonald’s, which didn’t make us feel great if we ate it every day, or going places like the Stanford dining halls.”

So alongside a third ...

RWE pledges to spend GBP 15bn for UK renewables

German energy major RWE AG (ETR:RWE) has committed to investing GBP 15 billion (USD 20.7bn/EUR 17.8bn) in renewable energy technologies and infrastructure in the UK by 2030 as it aims to beef up its wind business in the country.

The proposed investment includes committed investments in projects that are already under construction, RWE said on Tuesday. It explained that more than 90% of the capital spending will go towards sustainable technologies such as renewable energy and battery storage projects.

The German group has 2.1 GW of wind capacity in operation in the UK and currently most of its investments there are in the offshore wind sector. Together with partners, RWE is spending around GBP 5 billion for the 857-MW Triton Knoll and 1.4-GW Sofia offshore wind projects. Separately, four new offshore wind parks totalling 2.6 GW are under development, of which RWE’s pro rata share is 1.3 GW. The German firm was ...

NATO ministers endorse 1-bln-euro innovation fund

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will launch its new Innovation Fund with the aim of enabling investment worth one billion euros (1.65 billion U.S. dollars) "in dual-use technologies of potential application to defense and security," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday.

The new fund will "ensure that the allies do not miss out on the latest technologies and capabilities that will be critical to our security," Stoltenberg said at a press conference.

The agreement was signed by the defense ministers of Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom.

Stoltenberg also announced the creation of DIANA, the Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic.

"As part of DIANA, the Allies are committed to provide a network of technology test centers and accelerator sites across the Alliance to better harness civilian innovation for our security," he said.

These ...