The Series B round brings Mission’s total to-date funding to $15.0 million. Proceeds from the financing will support the commercialization of Mission’s electric powertrain technologies and allow the company to expand its partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

“We are proud to have a firm as respected as Warburg Pincus leading our Series B round,” said Mission Motors CEO, Jit Bhattacharya. “With this funding, we plan to grow our powertrain technology business by becoming a reliable production supplier to our OEM customers. The financing adds to what has already been a big year for our company. With the backing of Warburg Pincus, we will be able to build on our recent accomplishments, taking the powertrain technology that we have developed and integrating it into high-volume production vehicles.”

For Warburg Pincus, the investment in Mission Motors continues a long-tradition of the growth of innovative portfolio companies and technologies.

“Mission Motors has developed innovative and flexible electric drive system technology, which can be applied to a range of vehicle types,” said Michael Graff, a managing director at Warburg Pincus. “We believe they are well positioned to take advantage of the strong growth in this segment, and we look forward to partnering with Jit and the Mission Motors leadership team.”

Mission currently provides vehicle manufacturers with optimized electric powertrain solutions based on the company’s core technology. Examples of Mission’s latest technology at work include the integration of Mission powertrain components in high-performance hybrid race cars and the record-breaking Mission R electric superbike.

Read more: Press Release

Steven Chu

The press release states, “U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced a $50 million investment over two years for the SUNPATH program, aimed to help the nation reclaim its competitive edge in solar manufacturing. SUNPATH, which stands for Scaling Up Nascent PV At Home, represents the second solar Photovoltaic Manufacturing Initiative (PVMI) supporting the Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative.

“This investment provides a necessary boost to domestic solar manufacturing businesses, encouraging them to keep jobs here and establish America’s leadership in the world’s growing clean energy economy,” said Secretary Chu. “In addition to invigorating clean energy manufacturing, this program will help achieve the SunShot goal of making unsubsidized utility-scale solar cost-competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade.”

As recently as 1995, the United States maintained a dominant global solar market share, manufacturing 43 percent of the world’s PV panels. In steady decline, U.S. market share shrank to 27 percent by 2000 and to 7 percent by 2010. SUNPATH will help return the United States to the forefront, driving innovation and assuring continued leadership in the 21st century clean energy economy.

PVMI Part II: SUNPATH seeks to increase domestic manufacturing through investments that have sustainable, competitive cost and performance advantages. SUNPATH will help companies with pilot-scale commercial production scale up their manufacturing capabilities, enabling them to overcome a funding gap that often curtails domestic business at a critical stage. By bridging this gap, SUNPATH will help ensure that innovative, low-cost solar technologies are manufactured in the United States.

The PV Manufacturing Initiative accelerates the cost reduction and commercialization of solar technologies by coordinating solutions across industry. The initiative will help create a robust, domestic PV manufacturing base and develop a workforce with the critical skills required to deliver reliable, affordable, clean energy.

PVMI Part I: Advanced Manufacturing Partnerships has resulted in the selection of $110 million in projects to three industry and academic consortia to enable substantial cost reductions in PV module production. To ensure that these technologies are manufactured domestically, PVMI Part II: SUNPATH will support an initial ramp up to high volume manufacturing. DOE’s national laboratories are stepping up their validation facilities to ensure that the technologies developed and manufactured in Parts I and II are tested at scale in multiple locations and climates in the United States.”

Read more: Press Release

CUE is headquartered in Chicago and plans to use this new capital to embark on a road show fueling strategic development in four new major U.S. cities, including: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Houston. CUE’s software as a service (SaaS) platform is an automated, scalable, energy-optimization system that exploits the thermal mass of commercial office buildings to make buildings more energy efficient. By aggregating and optimizing the thermal storage properties of multiple buildings, CUE unlocks valuable transmission and distribution capacity for utilities and grid operators in the most constrained environment: the urban city.

“Smart building technologies are quickly becoming a significant new category of investment in cleantech, where energy efficiency meets mainstream IT,” said Jason Matlof, Battery Ventures Partner. “CUE’s a perfect example of this trend. Their solution uniquely combines proven building physics, a robust hosted software analytics platform, and a SaaS business model to deliver dramatic energy spending savings to commercial office buildings. Rich Earley is a proven entrepreneur and leader and we’re excited to partner with him to help grow CUE into a category leading, sustainable business.”

CUE essentially turns a “building into a battery”™ capable of energy storage on a multi-MW scale. CUE technology helps large commercial office buildings reduce building HVAC energy use and expenses by 15 – 30 percent, improve electric generation efficiency and environmental performance, and at a macro level introduces demand elasticity into electric grid markets.

“This funding is an important and critical milestone for our business, and will enable us to accelerate product engineering and customer acquisition during this next phase of rapid growth,” said Rich Earley, CUE CEO. “The market knowledge and relationships that our new investors bring to the table will help us rapidly penetrate the property management and owner community to become a leading technology provider in the market.”

With this round, Jason Matlof from Battery Ventures and Joshua Ruch from Rho Ventures will assume seats on CUE’s board of directors.

“CUE represents a major milestone in the convergence of the cleantech and IT industries,” said Joshua Ruch, Rho Ventures managing partner. “With a compelling SaaS-based solution, CUE is delivering a new standard of electricity savings that uses a building’s thermal mass and delivers significant megawatt storage capacity to grid operators. We believe CUE is well positioned to take advantage of a significant market opportunity in building energy efficiency.””

Read more: Press Release

Steven Chu

According to the press release, “U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced offers of conditional commitments for loan guarantees, of approximately $4.5 billion, to support three alternating current Cadmium Telluride (Cd-Te) thin film photovoltaic (PV) solar generation facilities.  The Department is offering a conditional commitment for a $680 million loan guarantee to support the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch 1 project, conditional commitments for partial loan guarantees of $1.88 billion in loans to support the Desert Sunlight project, and conditional commitments for partial loan guarantees of $1.93 billion in loans to support the Topaz Solar project.  First Solar, Inc., with headquarters in Tempe, Arizona, is sponsoring all three projects and will provide Cd-Te thin film solar PV modules for the projects from a new manufacturing plant that has begun construction in Mesa, Arizona, as well as from its recently expanded manufacturing plant in Perrysburg, Ohio, which serves as its primary hub for engineering, research and development.  The company expects that the projects will create a combined 1,400 jobs in California during peak construction.

“These projects will bring immediate jobs to California in addition to hundreds more across the supply chain,” said Secretary Chu.  “Together the projects will power hundreds of thousands of homes with clean, renewable power and increase our global competitiveness in the clean energy economy.”

DOE is offering a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee to AV Solar Ranch 1, LLC to support the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch 1 project. The 230 megawatt (MW) project will be located in the Antelope Valley area of the Western Mojave Desert, approximately 80 miles north of Los Angeles, California.  The project is expected to generate 350 construction jobs and will feature a utility-scale deployment of innovative inverters with voltage regulation and monitoring technologies that are new to the U.S. market.  The inverters enable the project to provide more stable and continuous power, increasing the efficiency and reliability of large-scale solar power plants greater than 100 MW.  The facility is expected to generate over 622,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year, equivalent to powering over 54,000 homes, and will avoid over 350,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.  Power from the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch 1 project will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric Company.

DOE is offering conditional commitments for partial loan guarantees to Desert Sunlight 250, LLC and Desert Sunlight 300, LLC to support the Desert Sunlight project.  The 550 MW project is expected to generate 550 jobs during construction and will be located on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management in eastern Riverside County, California.  The Desert Sunlight project is expected to use 8.8 million Cd-Te thin film solar PV modules, which are commercially proven and have been deployed since 2001.  The facility is expected to generate enough electricity to power over 110,000 homes and will avoid over 735,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.  Project construction will take place in two phases; Phase I will generate 300MW of power, which will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric Company, while Phase II will generate 250 MW of power, which will be sold to Southern California Edison.  The $1.88 billion in loans that are partially guaranteed by DOE will be funded by a syndicate of institutional investors and commercial banks led by lead lender and lender-applicant, Goldman Sachs Lending Partners LLC, which submitted the project under the Financial Institution Partnership Program (FIPP), and Citibank N.A. as co-lead arranger.

DOE is offering conditional commitments for partial loan guarantees to Topaz Solar Farms, LLC to support the Topaz Solar project.  The 550 MW project is expected to generate 500 jobs during construction and will be located in eastern San Luis Obispo County, California.  The Topaz Solar project will use over 8.5 million Cd-Te thin film solar PV modules and is anticipated to generate enough electricity to power approximately 110,000 homes and avoid nearly 725,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.  The project’s power will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric Company.  The $1.93 billion in loans that are partially guaranteed by DOE will be funded by a syndicate of institutional investors and commercial banks led by lead lender and lender-applicant, The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, who submitted the project under the Financial Institution Partnership Program (FIPP).

The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office administers three separate programs:  the Title XVII Section 1703 and Section 1705 loan guarantee programs, and the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program.   The loan guarantee programs support the deployment of commercial technologies along with innovative technologies that avoid, reduce, or sequester greenhouse gas emissions, while the ATVM supports the development of advanced vehicle technologies.  Under all three programs, DOE has issued loans, loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees totaling over $38 billion to support 40 clean energy projects across the U.S.  The program’s 23 generation projects will produce over 32 million megawatt-hours annually, or enough to power over 2.5 million homes.  To date, the program has conditionally committed over $16 billion in loan guarantees to support 15 solar generation projects.  DOE has also conditionally committed financing to support numerous other projects, such as four of the world’s largest solar projects, two geothermal projects, the world’s largest wind farm and the nation’s first new nuclear power plant in three decades.”

Read more: First Solar

“Over the past several years, EnerNOC has built a significant portfolio of demand response capacity in Pennsylvania, and with this contract, our network of commercial, institutional, and industrial sites will deliver more value to Pennsylvanian ratepayers,” said Tim Healy, Chairman and CEO of EnerNOC. “We believe that leveraging demand response is the most reliable and cost-effective way to achieve Pennsylvania’s goal of reducing energy consumption and demand. With this partnership, EnerNOC will continue a long tradition of delivering proven, integrated demand-side resources to its utility customers, like PPL, and help their customers experience the bottom-line benefits of better energy management.””

Read more: Press Release

The Sun Simba, based on Morgan Solar’s unique, patented Light-guide Solar Optic, is an ultra-thin, lightweight module that is simple and inexpensive to manufacture. This revolutionary module forms the building block of Morgan Solar’s turnkey photovoltaic system, which offers significantly lower costs, and higher performance, than other photovoltaic systems on the market today.

The first tranche of funding represents the bulk of Morgan Solar’s Series B round. Participants in the Round include existing investors Inversiones Financieras Perseo, of the Iberdrola Group, and Nypro Inc. Iberdrola is Spain’s leading energy group and the world’s largest renewable energy company; Nypro Inc. is a USD $1.1 billion global contract manufacturer specializing in precision injection moulding. New investors include The Frost Group, LLC, a private investment firm based in Miami, Florida. The Frost Group is led by Dr. Phillip Frost, and since its formation in October 2006 has invested in various companies and technologies in the United States and abroad. Morgan Solar is in discussions with strategic investors to close the remainder of the Round.

“The Morgan Solar approach to CPV provides, for the first time, an opportunity to deliver grid-competitive LCOEs without subsidies, across global markets,” says Asif Ansari, CEO of Morgan Solar. “Now – not five years from now – the Sun Simba generates extremely compelling project rates of return.”

This year, Morgan Solar will complete a number of significant demonstration sites in Ontario and the United States. With this funding and the company’s USD $3.3 million loan from the California Energy Commission, Morgan Solar will establish a manufacturing facility in San Diego, California. The company will also ramp up its existing manufacturing and R&D footprint in Ontario to continue to develop and bring to market next generation, low cost solar technologies.”

Read more: Press Release

Under the terms of the agreement, Solazyme will leverage its algal fermentation technology in combination with Bunge’s oil processing and milling capabilities to cost-effectively produce targeted triglyceride oils. Development will take place at Bunge’s facility in Moema, Brazil, and at Solazyme’s laboratories in South San Francisco and Campinas, Brazil.

To further align the incentives of both parties, the two companies also entered into a Warrant Agreement. This agreement issues a warrant to Bunge for shares of Solazyme that vests upon the successful completion of key milestones, ultimately targeting the construction of a commercial facility with 100,000 metric tons of output oil coming online in 2013.”

Read more: Solazyme Press Release

Exelon Chairman and CEO John W. Rowe said, “This merger creates the number one competitive energy provider with one of the industry’s cleanest and lowest-cost power generation fleets and one of the largest commercial, industrial and residential customer bases in the United States. Both Exelon and Constellation have demonstrated their commitment to sustainability and competitive markets, helping drive innovation, efficiency, customer choice and better rates. Together, we will be an even stronger advocate for achieving these ideals.”

The new company will bring clean power and competitive prices to millions of customers. It will be:

The number one competitive energy products and services supplier by load (about 165 terawatt-hours) and customers (about 35,000 commercial and industrial and millions of households through retail and wholesale sales) across 38 states, the District of Columbia, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Ontario;
The number two residential electricity and gas distribution company, serving 6.6 million customers in Maryland, Illinois and Pennsylvania;
The number one competitive power generator (more than 34 gigawatts of power generation and 226 terawatt-hours of expected output), including the nation’s largest nuclear fleet (nearly 19,000 megawatts); and One of the nation’s cleanest power generation fleets (about 55% nuclear, 24% natural gas and 8% renewable/hydro) and a leadership position in commercial solar energy development, energy efficiency and demand response services.

Constellation Chairman, President and CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III said, “The combination of these two companies will drive innovation and value for customers by combining Exelon’s abundant clean energy supply and Constellation’s leading customer-facing sales and marketing platform. This enterprise will have the scale and financial strength to drive expansion in competitive energy markets as well as new investment in the next wave of clean generation and sustainable products and services. It represents a unique and exciting opportunity for the customers and communities we serve nationwide and in Maryland.”

Exelon President and COO Christopher M. Crane said, “This transaction offers clear financial upside for both Exelon and Constellation shareholders. The combination will optimize the value of our respective generation and customer-facing businesses and enhance our platform for growth. The new company will be well-positioned to benefit from a changing industry environment while managing risk and positioning ourselves to benefit from power market recovery.”

Terms of the Transaction

The market capitalization of the combined company will be $34 billion with an enterprise value of $52 billion. Under the merger agreement, Constellation’s shareholders will receive 0.930 shares of Exelon common stock in exchange for each share of Constellation common stock. Based on Exelon’s closing share price on April 27, 2011, Constellation shareholders would receive a value of $38.59 per share, or $7.9 billion in total equity value.

The exchange ratio represents an 18.1% premium to the 30-day average closing stock prices of Exelon and Constellation as of April 27, 2011.

Following completion of the merger, Exelon shareholders will own approximately 78% of the combined company and Constellation shareholders approximately 22% on a fully diluted basis.

The combination is anticipated to be break-even to Exelon’s adjusted earnings in 2012; in 2013, it is expected to be accretive to earnings by more than 5%.

Based on Exelon’s current annual cash dividend rate of $2.10 per common share, Constellation shareholders would receive an approximate 103% dividend increase, or $0.99 per Constellation share over the current Constellation annual dividend.

Leadership, Board Structure and Headquarters

Shattuck will become executive chairman of the combined company. Crane will become president and CEO. Under the agreement, Rowe will retire upon closing of the transaction.

Both Crane and Shattuck will serve on the 16-member board of directors of the combined company, 12 members of which will be designated from Exelon’s board of directors and 4 from Constellation’s.

Following the merger, the resulting company will retain the Exelon name and be headquartered in Chicago. In addition to the corporate headquarters, Illinois will continue to be home to ComEd and Exelon Business Services Company (both in Chicago), as well as the Midwest regional headquarters for Exelon Nuclear (in Warrenville).

Pennsylvania will continue to be home to headquarters for PECO (in Philadelphia) and Exelon Power (in Kennett Square). Exelon Nuclear’s headquarters will also be located at Kennett Square.

Exelon’s and Constellation’s commercial retail and wholesale businesses will be consolidated under the Constellation brand and headquartered in Baltimore. BGE will retain its Baltimore headquarters.

BGE, ComEd and PECO will remain headquartered in Baltimore, Chicago and Philadelphia, respectively, focused on safety, customer service, reliability and consistent infrastructure investment within their jurisdictions. However, the merger is expected to benefit customers as all three utilities work together to share best practices to continually improve performance.

Benefits for BGE Customers, Investment in Maryland’s Economy and Energy Infrastructure, and a Platform for National Growth Headquartered in Baltimore

The transaction will benefit the State of Maryland, the City of Baltimore and BGE gas and electric customers specifically. The public interest is strongly served and the State of Maryland will be advantaged by the companies’ intention and commitment to proceed with the plan described below.

The growth engine of the combined corporation will be headquartered in Baltimore. Exelon’s Power Team will be combined with Constellation’s wholesale and retail business under the Constellation brand.

Both companies’ renewable energy businesses will also be headquartered in Baltimore, and build on their growing success with utility-scale renewable energy generation, solar and other renewable generation on-site at customer facilities, and a vibrant business providing customers with renewable energy credits, Green-e certificates, and other green electricity products.

To house the expanded Baltimore commercial and renewable energy headquarters, the new company intends to build or substantially renovate a state-of-the-art Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) office center in Baltimore. Additionally:

$4 million will be provided to support the objectives of the EmPower Maryland Energy Efficiency Act;
$10 million will be provided to help spur development of electric vehicle infrastructure in Maryland; and
More than $50 million will be invested to develop 25 megawatts of renewable energy in Maryland.
BGE customers will receive the following direct benefits:

• A $100 credit will be given to each BGE residential customer within 90 days after closing;
• $5 million will be provided for the State of Maryland’s Electric Universal Service Program (EUSP);
• BGE’s electric and gas operations will continue to be managed from the BGE headquarters in Baltimore;
• BGE jobs will not be affected by the merger for at least two years after the transaction closes; and
• BGE customers will benefit from the sharing of best practices with Exelon’s utilities PECO and ComEd in the areas of safety, reliability, efficiency and customer service

In addition, the companies have agreed that charitable giving of about $10 million annually by the Baltimore-based businesses would be maintained for at least 10 years following the merger.

The total value of direct investment in Maryland will be more than $250 million.

Approvals and Timing

The transaction must be approved by the stockholders of both Exelon and Constellation. Completion of the merger is also conditioned upon approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Maryland Public Service Commission, the New York Public Service Commission, the Public Utility Commission of Texas, and other state and federal regulatory bodies. The companies are committed to mitigating any competitive issues including divesting three Constellation generating stations located in PJM, which is the only market where there is a material overlap of generation owned by both companies. These stations, Brandon Shores and H.A.Wagner in Anne Arundel County, Md., and C.P. Crane in Baltimore County, Md., include baseload coal-fired generation units plus associated gas/oil units located at the same sites, and total 2,648 MW of generation capacity. The transaction is also subject to the notification and reporting requirements under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act and other customary closing conditions.

The companies anticipate closing in early 2012.”

Read more: Press Release

“Solyndra has excellent marketplace momentum, with record installations of our product in the fourth quarter and annual revenues exceeding $140 million last year,” said Brian Harrison, Solyndra’s president and CEO. “With strong acceptance of our 200 Series product, we are seeing growth in the U.S. and markets throughout Europe. We have recently reached a number of significant milestones, including the shipment of nearly 100 megawatts of panels, the completion of more than 1,000 installations in 20 countries and the announcement of our PV greenhouse solution.”

The company’s construction of its new, world-class manufacturing and customer demonstration facility is complete. The 300,000 square foot project was completed ahead of schedule, employing approximately 3000 construction workers. Installation of the remaining production tools occurs in 2011 and will bring Solyndra’s annual production run rate to approximately 200 MW per year by year’s end. When fully ramped, the new facility’s annual production capacity will reach 300MW per year. The new facility will also enable Solyndra to manufacture products with an installed system cost-of-goods sold (COGS) of approximately $2 per watt in the first quarter of 2013, which is expected to be highly competitive with all other technologies.

“We are confident that with this round of funding and the continued support of our existing investors we are on track to be cash flow positive at the end of this year,” continued Harrison. “Solyndra’s fast and easy to install panels are a proven and scalable solar solution, ideal for rooftop applications. Today we are demonstrating competitive ’all in’ pricing, strong ROI and economics for rooftop owners, and many enthusiastic new and repeat customers.”

The new financing also included the restructuring of the Company’s outstanding indebtedness. Solyndra’s existing convertible notes have been exchanged for new notes and the U.S. Department of Energy which provided a loan guarantee agreed to certain loan modifications including an extension of the amortization period. Together with the existing indebtedness, the new credit facility is secured by all assets of the Company.”

Read more: Solyndra Press Release

The new investment will be used to complete demonstration-scale production and early commercialization plans for Genomatica’s first commercial product, Bio-BDO, a ‘green’ version of 1,4-butanediol (BDO) made from renewable feedstocks rather than oil or natural gas. BDO, an intermediate chemical with a $4 billion dollar market worldwide, is used to make spandex, automotive plastics, running shoes and more. Successful operation at demonstration scale during 2011 will validate organisms, processes and manufacturing economics, and allow development of the basic engineering package to be used in construction of Genomatica’s first commercial-scale plant, planned for operation in late 2013. The investment will also accelerate the development of additional major chemicals in Genomatica’s product pipeline. Large markets, leading technology and transformative economics

“Genomatica’s focus on major chemicals with large existing markets, its demonstrated technology platform, its cost-saving direct, one-step production, and its industry-relevant management team made it a compelling addition to our portfolio of transformative CleanTech companies,” said Alan Salzman, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner at VantagePoint Venture Partners.

“Genomatica’s technology, including the breadth of chemicals it can produce and feedstocks it can use, has value in both established and emerging economies, for chemical companies, feedstock suppliers and downstream materials producers,” said Mikhail Abyzov, Chairman of RU-COM. “We believe they can become the partner of choice for the chemical industry when it comes to renewable products and sustainability.””

Read more: Genomatica Press Release