VantagePoint Venture Partners

Solazyme, Inc. (NASDAQ: SZYM), a biofuels company which also makes dietary supplements and skin care products, opened for trading today at $18 per share and jumped to more than $21 by mid-day. The company completed its initial public offering of 10,975,000 shares Thursday.

Shares of Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) (market cap $2.75 billion), a manufacturer of EV vehicles and powertrain components, are up about 1% at mid-day after increasing 8.5% Wednesday on the news the company plans to raise $217 million through a share offering at $26.35 per share. Some of the proceeds will fund development of Tesla’s Model X crossover vehicle.

Power technology company American Superconductor Corporation (Nasdaq: AMSC) said today it will acquire The Switch Engineering OY, based in Finland, for €190 million in cash and AMSC shares ($265.43 million at today’s 1.00 EUR = 1.40 USD). 

OTHER NEWS: Solazyme Files IPO, BP Boosts Brazilian Ethanol Production 

Ecomotors claims MPG efficiency superior to Toyota Prius from its opposed piston opoc™ engine architecture

While the big publicly traded wind power companies are chasing the “bigger” wind turbine strategy, a few small private companies are pursuing the “better” wind turbine technology that will be needed if the industry is to meet the U.S.

When sales projections are rosy and share prices of publicly traded companies are booming (EBOOM CAPITAL July 29), venture capitalists invested in private companies rub their hands together and think about strategies to convert their positions to ca

There are not many “sure things” in the transition away from fossil fuels, but here’s one: the fastest payback will come from saving energy, not from new ways to produce it. 

The US solar sector just got a big boost in California. BrightSource Energy and Pacific Gas and Electric Co.