Daniel Englander
The Morning Feedstock April 14, 2008 at 7:33 AM
Silver Spring Networks is the fourth smart grid company to pull significant funding within the last month, picking up $17.4 million in its Series C round. Edison Electric Institute and Foundation Capital backed the round. Silver Spring manufactures IP-based equipment for energy networking, widespread adoption of which may help build a broadband-over-powerline energy/information architecture. Three other smart grid companies - GridPoint, eMeter, and Ambient - have raised money within the last month.
Rising food prices tipped the scales against Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Eduoard Alexis, whose government collapsed this weekend amidst food riots in Port-au-Prince over the cost of rice and beans. While the U.N. World Food Program struggles to hit its increasingly high aid targets for the country, finance ministers are meeting in Washington this week to discuss a global crises that is already affecting 33 countries, according to World Bank President Robert Zoellick. Both the IMF and the World Bank place principal blame for the food crisis on U.S. subsidies supporting corn ethanol and other types of biofuels. The crisis has sparked a wave of trade protectionism, most notably in Southeast Asia. Filipino Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap argued, “free trade should be flowing,” in response to increasingly constrained domestic grain markets.
Iberdrola will announce tomorrow whether it plans to join the $22 billion bid over nuclear power company British Energy. Since first announcing it would consider the sale of its 35.2 percent, the British Government has taken up a critical portfolio review, deciding only this weekend it would clear the way for a sale. While France’s EdF and Germany’s RWE are widely believed to be front runners in the acquisition bidding, a late bid from Iberdrola may help bolster that company’s position in fending off a possible takeover of its own within the next few months. According to one Spanish analyst, “Iberdrola would not have difficulty finding the financing” to acquire British Energy.
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