ZeaChem Inc. said it has been awarded part of a $6 million grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Energy for the development of advanced biofuels utilizing tropical grasses. ZeaChem is part of a consortium led by the University of Hawaii that includes Oregon State University, Washington State University, Hawaiian Commercial [...]

Solar Mosaic said it received a $2 million grant from the Department of Energy to build an online crowdfunding platform for Americans to fund solar projects. The company recently raised a $2.5 million Series A from venture capitalists. PRESS RELEASE Mosaic Awarded $2M from Department of Energy for Solar Finance Innovation Brings on Greg Rosen, [...]

General Motors Ventures and other VCs will lose about $16M invested in Bright Automotive. The failure follows the December demise of Aptera, another VC-backed vehicle maker.

(Reuters) – David Prend is one of the most respected investors in green technology — but even he picks some losers.

Like the Department of Energy, Prend thought Solyndra, an innovative solar company, was a good bet. His venture capital firm, RockPort Capital, began investing in the company three years before the federal government gave the startup a loan guarantee. RockPort eventually put more than $63.5 million into Solyndra.

As revealed in emails released by the White House, Prend, who sat on the company’s board, also touted the company to President Barack Obama’s staff as a stellar example of green job creation and urged the president to visit its California plant.

But the Solyndra bet went bad — for Prend, the DOE, and other investors such as Henry Kravis and Richard Branson. That’s not so unusual in the field of green tech. A closer look at Prend’s portfolio …

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) – The Obama administration said on Thursday its top energy loans official was stepping down, following a widening probe into the embarrassing collapse of a solar panel company that got $535 million in federal support. Jonathan Silver, a venture capitalist who had also worked for the Clinton administration, was leaving because [...]

The Department of Energy plans another big year of guaranteeing loans for renewable energy projects. In the past 14 months, the DOE’s largest loan guarantee program (called Section 1705) awarded almost $26 billion to 23 renewable energy projects being run by companies such as BrightSource Energy and Abound Solar. The program has the financial assets [...]

Jonathan Silver has been named executive director of the Department of Energy’s loan program. He had been a co-founding managing director of Core Capital Partners, before leaving in 2008.

Fisher Coachworks has raised $3.2 million from 10 undisclosed investors of a $4.25 million Series A to develop its hybrid-electric buses, according to a regulatory filing. The Troy, Mich.-based company will put $200,000 of its new-found cash toward salaries and fees and another $500,000 toward the purchase of machinery, according to the filing.Fisher’s first product [...]