Weekly Investor Round Up

There were loads of big stories this week.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM), which has been harshly criticized for refusing to pursue renewable energy development, announced Tuesday that it has agreed to invest upwards of $600 million in an algae-to-biofuels venture. The oil giant announced an alliance with biotech company, Synthetic Genomics Inc. (SGI), which was founded J. Craig Venter, who is renowned for his work in mapping the human genome. SGI is working with photosynthetic algae to develop biofuels that are compatible with today's gasoline and diesel fuels.

The Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury at the end of last week released the long-awaited guidelines for $3 billion in renewable energy grants created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The program will provide direct payments in lieu of 30% tax credits to support bio-mass, solar, wind, and other types of renewable energy projects. Now that lenders can determine which projects will receive government support, it is likely that financing of new projects will begin to pick back up.

GE (NYSE: GE) announced that it is developing a suite of projects that will allow homes to achieve net zero energy costs by 2015. The comopany plans to combine its most efficient appliances and lighting with new energy management systems and residential power generation and storage technologies for new home construction. GE said the initiative will include demand response systems to manage energy use within the home as well as residential solar and wind power products.

Four geothermal firms announced plans to merge into a single, publicly traded company. GTO Resources Inc. (NEX:GTR.H), Polaris Geothermal Inc. (TSX:GEO), Western GeoPower Corp. (TSX VENTURE:WGP) and Ram Power, Inc., a private Delaware corporation, are combining forces in an effort to attract more capital and share resources in developing a more diversified project portfolio. GTO plans to raise C$100 million for the new company through a private placement offering.

Japanese automaker Mazda Motor Corp (7261.T) intends to purchase hybrid vehicle components from rival Toyota Motor Corp (NYSE: TM), according to a report in the Nikkei business daily. Mazda had previously said it would continue focusing on more fuel efficient internal combustion engines until 2015. But according to the report, Mazda now plans to introduce a hybrid by 2013.

Mitsubishi Corporation (MBI.DE) and Spanish renewable energy developer Acciona S.A. (ACXIF.PK) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a comprehensive strategic alliance. The companies said they will invest about EUR 2 billion to develop and operate renewable energy projects together worldwide. To get the ball rolling, Mitsubishi bought a 34% share in Acciona's Amper Central Solar S.A., which owns and operates the largest photovoltaic power plant in the world, located in Portugal.

Daimler AG (NYSE: DAI) announced plans to sell 40% of its stake in U.S. electric car maker Tesla Motors to Aabar Investments PJSC of Abu Dhabi. Aabar is owned by Abu Dhabi's government-controlled oil revenue investment firm International Petroleum Investment Company. Aabar acquired a 9.1% share of Daimler in March. And in May, Daimler bought just less than 10% of Tesla for around $50 million. Daimler and Aabar said this will be the first of several joint projects involving electric vehicles.

German solar giant Q-Cells (QCE.DE) withdrew its full-year sales outlook and said it saw no signs of an upturn in the solar market, which has been hit hard by the current economic recession. Q-Cells said the seasonal market upturn which the industry had been anticipating to start in 2Q09 has not materialized for the company. According to the company's preliminary calculations, 2Q revenue fell to around EUR 142 million, down from EUR 225 million in 1Q09. Operating income (EBIT) fell to approximately EUR -62 million, compared with EUR 15 million in 1Q09.

Q-Cells' chinese rival Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP) announced that it has entered strategic agreements for the development of 1.8 gigawatts (GW) of photovoltaic solar power in China. The company signed separate agreements with four different provincial governments to build massive photovoltaic power plants ranging from 300 megawatts (MW) to 500 MW.

LDK Solar Co., Ltd. (NYSE:LDK), another chinese solar manufacturer, acquired a controlling interest in Solar Green Technology S.p.A. (SGT). Solar Green is a systems integrator in Italy and is expected to give LDK a foothold in that country's growing solar market.

Tessera Solar announced plans to develop up to 500MW of concentrating solar power on land owned by Riverside County in California. The solar projects will utilize the SunCatcherTM power system manufactured by Tessera Solar's sister company, Stirling Energy Systems. Real estate company Optiflex Properties & Development LLC is partnering with Tessera Solar to co-develop and finance the projects. Tessera is quickly becoming a major player in concentrating solar. Last month the company announced a power purchase agreement with CPS Energy for a 27-MW project in West Texas.

NatureWorks and Avantium, two leaders in the field of sustainable materials, announced a development partnership to explore a new generation of biopolymers made from renewable resources. The partnership is based on Avantium's work in deriving monomers and polymers from non food biomass and will add to NatureWorks' range of markets and products for its Ingeo brand. NatureWorks is a joint venture between U.S. company Cargill and Teijin of Japan.

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