Daniel Englander

The Morning Feedstock February 14, 2008 at 8:39 AM

• Stealthy hybrid engine startup Adura Systems received an injection of hot capital from wind developer New Frontier Renewable Energy. Adura, which has yet to announce the specifics of its Prius-killing series hybrid engine, has said only that the technology delivers “near zero emissions and extreme fuel efficiency.” This lack of specificity hasn’t stopped the China Automotive Technology and Research Center from forming a strategic alliance with the engine startup. As far as the actual technology behind the series hybrid engine, this release mentions a “microturbine serial plug-in electric drive bus,” which is VC-speak for HotWheels!
• David Kubiak’s ocean fertilization company Planktos has finally succumbed to its moldy business model. Deep breath. The company was trying to grow algal blooms in the ocean, which were supposed to absorb carbon dioxide and sink to the sea floor. Kubiak’s plan was to sell carbon credits from the absorbed carbon dioxide. Kubiak and Pico, the company’s dubious “coccolithophorid” mascot, were the subject of an insipid Treehugger profile about two years back - the kiss of death for any greentech company. Now the company claims they were the victims of a “highly effective disinformation campaign.” And if by “disinformation campaign” you mean an extensive international research project with results published in the Journal of Geophysical Research and certified by the International Maritime Organization, then yes. I blame the scientists. More on this later in the day…
• South Africa has run out of power. No, seriously. The country relies on a state-owned utility for nearly all of its electricity generation. None of this is funny. Eskom, the government monopoly, announced today it will cut more than 90 percent of the electricity going to mines and industrial customers between now and 2012 when their new coal plant comes online. Our favorite analyst tells us Eskom warned the government about this back in 1998, but the government called them silly and suggested they get busy seeding the ocean with iron dust or something…
• Solar stocks exploded yesterday. Boom. First Solar was up $52.90 on the day after beating earnings expectations, closing at $228.46 before overnight trading. Yingli followed suit, moving up $3.44 to $24.19, while JA Solar bounced $2.93 to $20.34. Canadian Solar rose $2.60 $22.80, while Evergreen edged up $1.23 to $11.34. Then everyone realized how lame they were compared to First Solar.
• And finally today… Breaking is up hard to do.

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