Jeff Tester and Mert Flemings Join Ze-gen Advisory Board

Boston, MA – Ze-gen, Inc., a clean energy company providing advanced gasification technology to convert industrial and municipal waste streams into synthesis gas and low emissions electricity, announced today that it will welcome Dr. Jeff Tester and Dr. Mert Flemings to the company’s Scientific Advisory Board. The Scientific Advisory Board focuses on overseeing and driving the technical development of Ze-gen’s advanced gasification technology and offers scientific guidance on the company’s technical direction. Link.

Pacific Ethanol Closes $28.5 Million Financing

Sacramento, California, — Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (NASDAQ GM: PEIX) announced that it has completed a Registered Direct Offering, which was previously announced on May 23, 2008. This transaction raised $28.5 million in gross proceeds, before deducting placement agent’s fees and estimated offering expenses, through the sale of 6.0 million units, each unit consisting of one share of common stock and one warrant to purchase 0.50 shares of common stock, at a purchase price of $4.75 per unit. The warrants will first become exercisable after six months from the closing of the financing at a price of $7.10 per share. Link. Chart.

Active Power Appoints Martin Olsen Vice President of Business Development

AUSTIN, Texas – Critical backup power systems inventor and manufacturer Active Power, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACPW), announced the appointment of Martin Olsen as vice president of Business Development. Having previously served as director of Product Management and Development for the company, Olsen will structure and lead all global business development activities to help grow Active Power’s distribution channels. Link. Chart.

SunEdison Closes $161 Million in Financing

BELTSVILLE, MD – SunEdison, North America’s largest solar energy services provider, today announced that it has closed $131 million of private equity and $30 million of debt financing with new and existing investors over the last six months. Investors include Greylock Partners; HSH Nordbank AG; Applied Ventures, LLC; Black River Commodity Clean Energy Investment Fund, a fund managed by Black River Asset Management; MissionPoint Capital Partners; and Allco Renewable Energy Limited. These financings are designated to support the operational resources of SunEdison. Link.

Mechanical Technology, Inc. Elects New Chairman

Albany, N.Y., — The Board of Directors of Mechanical Technology, Incorporated ("MTI") (NASDAQ: MKTY) today announced the election of Chief Executive Officer Peng Lim to the position of Chairman of the Board, effective as of May 15, 2008. Mr. Lim replaces outgoing Chairman Steven N. Fischer. Link. Chart.

Credit Suisse Invests $20 Million in SmartSynch

JACKSON, Miss.--SmartSynch, a global leader in public wireless smart metering technology, announced today that it has raised $20 million dollars in expansion financing. New investor Credit Suisse, a leading international financial institution based in New York, invested in the financing through its Customized Fund Investment Group. This round also provided an opportunity for a new investor, Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company, to participate in SmartSynch’s success, along with a host of existing investors, such as: Battelle Ventures, Beacon Group, Endeavor Capital Management, GulfSouth Capital, Innovation Valley Partners, Kinetic Ventures, OPG Ventures and Siemens Venture Capital. To date, SmartSynch has raised a total of $80 million since its inception in 2000. It will use this latest round to fund working capital growth, expand market presence and accelerate the product roadmap for new Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and Smart Grid Intelligence solutions. Link.

BioFuel Appoints New CFO

DENVER, -- BIOFUEL ENERGY CORP. (Nasdaq: BIOF), a development stage ethanol production company, today announced that Kelly G. Maguire would become its Vice President-Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Maguire will replace David J. Kornder in that capacity. Mr. Kornder is resigning to pursue an opportunity to become the Chief Executive of an oil and gas company. Mr. Kornder will remain with the Company through June 30th and has agreed to make himself available thereafter to the extent required and practical. Link. Chart.

Dr. Randhir Thakur Joining Applied Materials as General Manager of Strategic Operations

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Applied Materials, Inc. today announced that Randhir Thakur, Ph.D. is re-joining the company as senior vice president and general manager of Strategic Operations, initially helping to lead operations for the company's Applied SunFab(TM) Thin Film Line for producing solar photovoltaic (PV) modules. Dr. Thakur was most recently executive vice president of technology and fab operations at SanDisk Corporation, the world's largest supplier of flash memory data storage products. Prior to SanDisk, he worked at Applied Materials for five years in executive roles within semiconductor product groups. Link. Chart.

ECORE International Attracts $29 Million Equity Investment

Lancaster, PA. -- ECORE International, a leader in manufacturing and marketing innovative, environmentally sustainable products and solutions for the global marketplace, has received $29 million in equity financing from Element Partners, a Philadelphia, Pa., based venture capital fund. Element Partners invests in high-growth companies with clean technology solutions to global resource and environmental constraints. Link.

Featured Company: VRB Power Systems, Inc.

We're introducing a new feature to our blog. From time to time we intend to write about companies that we feel are strategically well positioned, are near the point of capitalizing on their strong position and have recently added to their management teams. The first in this series of write-ups is VRB Power Systems, Inc., of Richmond, BC, Canada.

Recently, we interviewed Justin K. Lacey, VP of Sales and Marketing at VRB Power Systems. He joined the company in March of this year after more than 10 years at Bombardier, a company with 60,000 employees and $20 billion in sales. At Bombardier he served as VP for marketing and sales in the business jets division. His focus there was to build the company's brand and increase sales in international markets. At VRB, he looks forward to applying many of the lessons learned in his big company experience to creating success in a much smaller company on its way to becoming a large one.

The markets for VRB Power Systems product, VRB-ESS, an energy storage system featuring a flow battery using vanadium-based electrolyte, may be near a growth inflection point where a few large orders lead to higher volume manufacturing and reduced manufacturing costs, lower selling prices, which in turn lead to increased market share and additional new orders.

The overall market for energy storage in the USA is estimated to be about 10GW per annum until 2010 (Distributed Utility Resources, Wachovia Securities 2002 energy report, et al) and over 100GWh. This includes applications of energy arbitrage, power quality and load leveling (peak shaving). Using these figures and a projected sales price for the VRB-ESS of $450/kWh, the market potential is estimated at approximately $4.5 Billion/year. [DOE estimates of market benefits are $3.8 Billion/year and Pearl Street $11 Billion/year]

VRB Power Systems' proprietary technology (20 - 25 patents) has attracted selling agents around the globe. The company's own sales force has had good success booking orders from telecommunications companies using VRB-ESS to power remote transmission and receiving stations. The competing technology for the telecommunications market is lead acid batteries. The company has received an order from the US Department of Energy to build, together with Chevron Energy and others, a demonstration solar and wind power system in the Santa Rita Jail in Northern California. The competing technology for these large wind farm and solar projects is either zinc bromine or sodium sulfur batteries. The company's vanadium based system competes favorably with these alternatives because of its capacity for a high number of charge and discharge cycles and because it relies on relatively benign materials for its technology.

Longer term, the company has plans to establish VRB-ESS as the brand to turn to for energy storage systems worldwide. Also, the company has the intention and ability to enter the very large market for electric power load leveling and peak shaving systems. So, the market opportunities for VRB-ESS are varied and potentially enormous, but will require achieving the right cost/benefit relationship to fully exploit. On the other hand, wind and solar farms are large markets that already can use a VRB-ESS type solution in order to deliver on their potential as steady, reliable power sources.

Principle Power Closes $2.3M Seed Funding Convertible Note Round

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, - Principle Power, Inc. is pleased to announce that it has successfully closed its convertible note offering. The company had been seeking $1,500,000 in convertible debt to consolidate its position with key licensed renewable energy technologies and initiate development of projects. Link.

BrightSource Energy Exceeds $115 Million in Latest Round of Funding

Oakland, CA – BrightSource Energy, Inc., developer of utility-scale solar energy projects, has secured $115 million in additional corporate funding from its Series C round of financing, bringing the total the company has raised to date to over $160 million. These additional funds will enable the company to accelerate its plans to deliver utility-grade solar power at a time when many utilities are searching for reliable sources of renewable energy. Link.

Greenfuel Raises $13.9 Million

Cambridge, MA – GreenFuel Technologies Corporation, a privately held company developing algae farm technologies for recycling CO2 emissions, has closed a $13.9M venture capital round led by Access Private Equity, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Polaris Venture Partners. GreenFuel intends to use these funds to prepare for algae farm technology development and scaling projects during 2008. Link.

Geoffrey J. Brooks Joins the Solazyme Management Team

South San Francisco, CA – Solazyme, Inc., a biotechnology company unleashing the power of aquatic microbes to create clean and scalable solutions for biofuel, industrial chemical, and health and wellness markets, today announced that it has named Geoffrey J. Brooks as Vice President an General Manager Health and Wellness. Mr. Brooks will lead Solazyme’s development and commercialization of novel ingredients and consumer products emerging from its core algal technology platform with applications in personal care and beauty products, nutritional supplements, and functional foods. Link.

GreenTech Media Raises $2.75 Million

Cambridge, Mass. – Greentech Media, Inc., the industry leading online media company covering green technology news and analysis today announced that it has raised $2.75M in Series B financing. New investors EGORA Holding and The Massachusetts Green Energy Fund co-led the round. Existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Northport Private Equity also participated, along with King Hill Capital a new investor as part of the Series B round. Link.

New Directors for Maxwell Technologies

San Diego, CA — Maxwell Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: MXWL) announced today that Yon Yoon Jorden, who has served as chief financial officer of four publicly traded companies, and Roger L. Howsmon, a seasoned corporate executive with extensive international and transportation industry experience, have been appointed to Maxwell’s board of directors. Link. Chart.

Canadian Solar Appoints New Chief Financial Officer

JIANGSU, China, -- Canadian Solar Inc. (Nasdaq: CSIQ) announced today the board of directors has appointed Mr. Arthur Chien, the current Vice-President, Finance and Secretary of the Company to Chief Financial Officer and Director, effective June 7th, 2008. The appointment of Mr. Chien comes in response to Mr. Bing Zhu's decision to resign as a Director and Chief Financial Officer of the Company. Link. Chart.

Verenium Appoints John F. Dee to Board of Directors

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., - Verenium Corporation (Nasdaq: VRNM), a pioneer in the development of next-generation cellulosic ethanol and high-performance specialty enzymes, today announced the appointment of John F. Dee to its Board of Directors. The Company also announced that Geoffrey Hazlewood, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Research, has resigned for personal reasons effective May 31, 2008 and will be returning to his native England. Dr. Hazlewood will remain as an exclusive consultant to the Company and will also join its scientific advisory board, enabling him to play an ongoing role in bringing many of Verenium's important research projects to a successful conclusion. Link. Chart.

Keith Hartley Joins PureSense to Lead Sales & Marketing

OAKLAND, Calif.--PureSense, the leader in real-time irrigation and water management solutions for agriculture announced today a new executive member joining the PureSense team, Keith Hartley, as the company’s VP of Sales & Marketing. PureSense CEO Craig Buxton underscored the significance of Hartley’s position – "Keith’s background is perfect for expanding sales of our value-base services into this rapidly emerging market for water efficiency. His first stop," says Buxton, "is getting as many growers as possible to benefit from using our award-winning solution - PureSense Irrigation Manager – dramatically raising productivity, yields and quality through efficient water use." Link.

Basin Water Names Susan Hegarty Snow to Board of Directors

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif., -- Basin Water, Inc. (NASDAQ:BWTR) today announced the appointment of Susan Hegarty Snow to its Board of Directors effective May 6, 2008. Ms. Snow has been appointed as a Class I Director with an initial term expiring in 2010. Ms. Snow was also appointed to serve on the Company's Audit Committee and Nominating and Governance Committee. Link. Chart.

Kellogg L. Warner Joins Eka Systems Board of Directors

Germantown, MD -- Eka Systems, a global provider of Smart Grid solutions and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) for electric, gas and water utilities, today announced that Kellogg Warner has joined its Board of Directors. Link.

APX Appoints Gary Guzy as General Counsel

Santa Clara, CA --APX, Inc., the leading infrastructure provider for environmental and energy markets, today announced the appointment of Gary S. Guzy to the newly created position of General Counsel. He will be responsible for directing APX’s legal strategy and leading the Company’s worldwide regulatory and government affairs program. Link.

Sunova Completes $12 Million Mezzanine Round

SARASOTA, Fla. and BOLINGBROOK, Ill.-- Sunovia Energy Technologies, Inc. (NASD OTC Bulletin Board: SUNV) is pleased to announce that it has completed its mezzanine round of financing. The company has currently raised a total of $12 million, and continues to allocate proceeds to the development of the scalable CdTe-based solar cell manufacturing facility and sales of the EvoLucia™ LED-based solid-state lighting solutions. Link. Chart.