Fort Worth, TX – February 13, 2009 – Entech Solar (OTC BB: ENSL.OB), a leader in concentrating solar energy systems, announced today that The Quercus Trust, the Company's largest shareholder, has agreed to cancel Warrants to purchase thirty-eight million (38,000,000) shares of the Company's common stock in accordance with the terms of a Warrant Cancellation Agreement entered into with the Company.
The Quercus Trust has decided to cancel these warrants in consideration for the Company's agreement to increase the number of shares available under the Company's 1999 Stock Option Plan, as amended ("the Plan"), from fifty million (50,000,000) shares to seventy million (70,000,000) shares.The Warrants will be cancelled upon approval of the Company's stockholders of the increase in the number of shares available under the Plan.
David Gelbaum, trustee of the Quercus Trust and Chairman of Entech Solar's Board, said, "This increase to theoption poolwill have the benefit of increasing morale at the company and of helping us attract good people in the future.Quercus believes in sharing upside with the employees."
About Entech Solar
Entech Solar is a leading provider of concentrating solar energy systems.Entech designs, manufactures and installs systems that provide both electricity and thermal energy for commercial and industrial applications.Entech uses its proprietary concentrating photovoltaic and thermal (CPVT) technology to deliver the ThermaVolt™ system, which produces cost-competitive distributed energy.For more information, please visit www.entechsolar.com.
Fort Worth, TX – February 9, 2009 – Entech Solar (OTC BB: WWAT.OB), a leader in concentrating solar energy systems, today announced that it will participate in the Kaufman Brothers Green Investor Conference on February 18, 2009 at the Langham Hotel, Boston.Frank Smith, Chief Executive Officer, and Kent Van Houten, Chief Financial Officer, will review the company's technology and growth strategy at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
A live audio webcast of the presentation will be accessible via the Entech Solar website. To hear the presentation and view related materials, please visit the website atwww.entechsolar.com. A replay will be available for ninety days.Additional information about this conference can be found at www.kbro.com.
About Entech Solar
Entech Solar is a leading provider of concentrating solar energy systems.Entech designs, manufactures and installs systems that provide both electricity and thermal energy for commercial and industrial applications.Entech uses its proprietary concentrating photovoltaic and thermal (CPVT) technology to deliver the ThermaVolt™ system, which produces cost-competitive distributed energy.For more information, please visitwww.entechsolar.com.
Entech Solar Appoints Sean Rooney as Chief Operating Officer
FORT WORTH, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Entech Solar (OTCBB:ENSL.OB), a leader in concentrating solar energy systems, announced today that Sean Rooney has been named Chief Operating Officer for the Company.
Mr. Rooney joined Entech Solar in February 2008 as Vice President of the Company’s EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) Operations. Since then, he has implemented a new model for project management which has resulted in over five megawatts of solar projects being completed on schedule with high customer satisfaction. With the Company’s shift in strategy away from flat-plate projects to the production and installation of Entech’s proprietary concentrating solar systems, Mr. Rooney’s role has been expanded to include all manufacturing operations as well as its EPC business. His successful turnaround of the Company’s EPC installations made Mr. Rooney the ideal candidate to address the challenges facing Entech’s manufacturing operations.
“Although our engineering team has made progress in addressing the process and supply-chain issues discussed on the Company’s third quarter earnings conference call, the factory is not yet producing product suitable for certification,” stated Frank Smith, Entech Solar CEO. “Sean will bring the same sense of urgency, purpose, and discipline to our manufacturing challenges that he provided to our EPC projects at Fresno, Denver, Valley Center, and Ocean City. This appointment is part of the ongoing transformation of Entech from a research and development organization to a vertically integrated, product-driven, manufacturer and installer of advanced concentrating solar systems. Once we have established our manufacturing capability and achieved certification, we will have two channels to market – product sales to other integrators and management of our own EPC projects that incorporate Entech modules. Sean will have responsibility for the operations portion of our vertically integrated value chain.”
Mr. Rooney added, “I am very pleased to take on this critically important responsibility for the Company. Following my recent relocation from New Jersey to Texas, I am eager to provide leadership to our manufacturing operations.”
The Company is also augmenting its manufacturing team with additional personnel and training. Entech Solar has retained experts and is training existing staff in Six Sigma methodology to address process and supply-chain issues in a systematic, data-driven approach, employing best-in-class practices. Both of these developments support Entech Solar’s dedication to commercializing its concentrating solar ThermaVolt™ system.
About Entech Solar
Entech Solar is a leading provider of concentrating solar energy systems. Entech designs, manufactures and installs systems that provide both electricity and thermal energy for commercial and industrial applications. Entech uses its proprietary concentrating photovoltaic and thermal (CPVT) technology to deliver the ThermaVolt™ system, which produces cost-competitive distributed energy. For more information, please visit www.entechsolar.com.
I have made a few changes with my contact details over the web in order to help people find me better. Please feel free to contact me any one of the following ways:
The pre-holiday Fourth Conference on Clean Energy at the Hynes Convention Center is long since over, but the event has traditionally proven to be a litmus test for the local clean energy industry.
Surprisingly, the event maintained at least a slight feeling of optimism for the long-term prospects of the local clean technology community, despite the plunging stock market, tightening financial environment and plummeting price of oil. If nothing else, its success bolstered the industry’s position among the region’s traditional industry heavyweights such as telecom, biotech and finance, and left attendees feeling that the industry has a future beyond next year’s event.
Some notes:
• Stealthy portable battery makerLilliputian Systems Inc.of Wilmington made an appearance at the conference, with new vice president of business development and marketingMouli Ramaniwalking the halls. Though the company had a small presence at the show, its big announcement came from its Wilmington facility, where Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick attended an event and helped the company announce the addition of 100 new “green collar” jobs through a planned expansion of its manufacturing plant.
The expansion comes as the company finally put a target date — 2009 — on the release of its portable fuel cell for wireless devices.
For the uninitiated, Lilliputian was founded out ofMITon research developed bySamuel SchaevitzandAleks Franz, Lilliputian’s co-founders. In 2003 they added CEOKen Lazarus, and despite raising more than $60 million in funding, the company has remained fairly quiet about its technology.
Over the past few months, a slow stream of information coming out of the company seems to indicate that it has solved the technology issues, and units could be forthcoming as soon as next year.
While such miniature, portable fuel cells have been researched both here and in Asia for years, they have always been “some time away.” If Lilliputian has indeed solved the technology issues, and has a device that can penetrate the $50 billion portable power market, it is no surprise the governor turned out for its expansion announcement.
When you consider the applicability of such power sources on everything from cell phones and music players to GPS units and laptops, 100 new jobs to get them out the door may be just the beginning.
• Two local companies used the conference to announce new funding. Cellulosic ethanol microbe developerSunEthanol Inc.announced its name change toQteros Inc.and brought in $25 million, while alternative engine technology makerReGen Power Systems LLCadded $5 million to its coffers.
What’s interesting about the two deals is that despite the Chicken Little syndrome that has many in the industry saying no “new money” is coming out of the VC community, both deals included new investors. Qteros’ new investors include Cambridge-basedVenrock, New York-basedSoros Fund Management LLCand energy giantBP PLC, joining previous investorsBattery Ventures,Long River VenturesandCamros Capital.
Despite being held during the heart of one of the worst financial weeks in recent history, the economic outlook of the clean energy sector was positive among attendees of the conference. The financial sections of the event, including the annual “investor pitch” sessions, where budding entrepreneurs pitch their company to potential investors, were among the most-attended sessions of the event.
• The atmosphere was likewise positive at the conference’s job fair, where a handful of companies still hiring people (rather than laying them off) fielded questions from a room packed with potential employees. According toMatthew Richards, the founder and managing director of renewable energy recruiting firmDanePartners, which sponsored the job fair, the abundance of job seekers wasn’t all that surprising, given the economy. The number of companies hiring, however, includingConservation Services Groupof Westborough,Satcon Technologies Corp.of Boston,Konarka Technologies Inc.of Lowell,Evergreen Solar Inc.of Marlborough andSecond Wind Inc.of Somerville, was encouraging.
Among the areas that were most active, said Richards, were green-collar jobs, those that require hands-on knowledge of technologies, both new and traditional. Sectors most active on the recruitment side included energy efficiency and demand-response companies, as opposed to core technology research companies in the wind, solar or biomass sectors.
Light is emitted from many different sources. It comes from the sun, the moon, flashlights, light bulbs, and other things. It is essential to our everyday life. Without it we would stumble around and have no clue what is going on around it. The main source of light on Earth is the Sun. Without it their would be no life on Earth. Light travels at 186,282 miles per SECOND. Nothing can travel faster than this. According to Einstein this is the cosmic "Speed limit". Lights speed is invariant. This means that light get emitted at the same speed from a moving object that it does from a stationary object. Scientists do not know why. This is one of the main principles of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Light is emitted in to forms, particles and waves. The particles are called photons. Light comes in both forms. This is called the dual nature of light. Photons can be observed by atoms, while waves radiant energy. The frequency of visible light is very small it comes in 7 main wavelengths. Red ,orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. To the extremes of these are ultra- violet and inferred with we cannot see. Light Has many uses. We need it to live. Plants use it to make food and keep themselves alive. We and other animals use it to see. We use it for energy in solar cells for electricity or to heat water. It is an inexpensive source of energy witch we can use to to replace gasoline. Light is a small part of the energy spectrum. It is the middle range and beside it is ultra-violet and infa-red. The extremes of this range are gamma radiation and microwaves. Both of these are lethal to us, even though they have very useful for cooking and energy. If you where to put light to pass threw a prism it would divide into 7 colors. This is called a spectrum. These seven colors make up all the colors we can see. Color is just a particular wavelength of light. Color is just a wavelength of light that is not reflected by an atom of a substance. For example a red item will reflect red light and absorb all the other and a blue object will reflect blue light and absorb all other light. When you mix all the different light colors together you get white light. Other stars emit white light while the sun mostly emits yellow and red with some blue in it. Light will boucle off an object at the opposite angle in witch it hit the object. If it hits at 90 degrees it will bounce off at 90 degrees. Light does not loose speed or energy when it hits an object.
Another significant funding deal for the energy conservation crowd was announced this morning, with ReGen Power Systems taking $5 million for an engine that converts waste industrial heat into power. That may sound a bit boring, but the investment and technology are a harbinger of big changes to come.
Everyone has experienced waste heat from electricity-driven machines — take your common electrical oven for example. The oven exists to cook things, whether atop its burners or inside. Either way, the majority of the heat bypasses the food and escapes into the air and environment around the oven. Unless you need a warm kitchen, most of the electricity you just used was wasted.
Scale that up a few hundred times, and you’ve got a typical industrial process, along with its massive heat losses. Cooling towers exist just to get rid of all the excess. Of course, engineers have been aware for decades that they could turn that heat back into electricity if they liked, but the process never seemed to be worth it, at least in the United States. In Europe, with higher energy prices and a longer conservation tradition, some big plants have installed waste heat recyclers.
But with prices set to rise, and heightened worries over global warming, most industries are changing their minds — providing openings for startups. Recycled Energy Development (RED), one of the more mature companies, has worked on over $2 billion worth of projects according to its webpage, while just two days ago newcomer ElectraTherm reportedly raised $2.6 million in a first round of funding.
ReGen is also a newcomer; this funding is its first, and the company is still working on its designs. It has a prototype 10-kilowatt engine that it will use to test out the concept, with a larger 500kW engine yet to come. That’s about 10 times the size of ElectraTherm’s first production unit. But that’s one of the encouraging things about the influx of new ventures; the heat recyclers they’re building aren’t just for the largest, hottest smokestacks, but will instead address nearly all industries. Ultimately, that could save gigawatts of energy, and generate billions of dollars in revenue yearly.
The $5 million funding was led by 21Ventures and the Quercus Trust. ReGen is based in New Salem, Mass.
Hi, I am David Anthony. I am the Manager of 21Ventures (www.21venture.net) - I invest in 3 main areas, Physical Security, Mobile Computing and Clean Technology. I also have some interests in PIPE (private investment in public equity - check out on wikipedia)
