Boston VCs Hope for Sunnier Days Ahead

From Sunday's Globe: 'Releasing Capital for Rays of Energy.' It deals with two of the newest-vintage photovoltaic start-ups in the Boston area, 1366 Technologies and Wakonda Technologies.

To date, 1366, which traces its roots to MIT research, has raised $12 million from Polaris and North Bridge Venture Partners, another Waltham venture capital firm. Wakonda, which spun out from the Rochester Institute of Technology, has raised $9.5 million, much of it from Massachusetts-based venture firms Polaris, General Catalyst, and Advanced Technology Ventures. The two companies are located a few miles from one another, off Route 128 in Boston's northern suburbs.

Polaris's involvement with two start-ups working on new approaches to wringing electricity from the sun is a little out of the ordinary but not unique; General Catalyst has funded two solar companies, and Advanced Technology Ventures has funded three. Over the past four years a roaring torrent of cash has been funneled into companies developing photovoltaic materials. According to Cambridge-based Greentech Media, a research firm, roughly $4.5 billion has been invested in about 150 solar start-ups in that time frame.

In the video, MIT prof. and 1366 co-founder Ely Sachs gives you a PV primer.

A Sunny Day in Massachusetts

This expansion of Evergreen Solar's manufacturing facility in Harvard, Mass., doubling its size and adding 350 jobs, is really good news. From Sacha Pfeiffer's story:

For Evergreen, a public company founded in 1994, the state's commitment to solar power played a key role in its decision to expand in Massachusetts, Feldt said.

Before [Gov. Deval] Patrick took office, Evergreen was considering building its first US manufacturing facility in a state such as Oregon or New Mexico that offers hefty incentives to clean energy companies, Feldt said. But during his gubernatorial campaign, Patrick visited Evergreen's Marlborough headquarters to try to persuade it to construct its plant in Massachusetts, according to Feldt.

Ultimately, the $44 million financing package dangled by Massachusetts - including $23 million in grants and $17.5 million in low-interest loans - was not the most generous Evergreen was offered. But "what really tipped the scales was the Patrick administration's focus on alternative energy," Feldt said.

"Deval said he was going to create an environment that is solar-friendly, and that was really important to us, and he's really done that," Feldt added. "So while the financial incentive was attractive but not the best, it was the genuine interest - and then the follow-through - in making solar important in Massachusetts that had us stay here."

This is a solid step in making Massachusetts a magnet for cleantech innovation.

Sunday's Globe column: 'Green solutions start at grass roots'

Sunday's column offers an overview of some of the grassroots and entrepreneurial efforts around New England to make power generation more environmentally sensitive.

Here's the video, which includes an interview with David Marcus of General Compression and Rick Hess of Konarka Technologies.

Coming Up: Cool Events Around Boston

Some events that look good in the next week or so...

- PopTech starts Wednesday in Camden, Maine -- one of our region's great gatherings of brainiacs. There's a free, live Webcast, too.

- At Boston Start-Up Weekend, a group of people will try to build a Web business between Friday and Sunday (that's this Friday). It's free.

- On Sunday in Lexington (October 21st), Steve Strong, the guy who put solar panels on the White House and is now doing the same with the San Francisco Giants' baseball stadium, is giving a talk titled 'Sunlight is Life! The Path Toward a Sustainable Future: A visual presentation on solar- and wind-powered buildings.' Admission is free.

- There's one (maybe two) seats left at next Tuesday's free Tech Blogs event at Cambridge Innovation Center.

- PodCamp Boston happens October 26 - 28, and it's free.